It’s an all-Filipino showdown some fans do not want to see.
Top Filipino strawweights Lito Adiwang and Jeremy Miado are set to collide at ONE X on March 26 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
ONE X is a highly anticipated 10-year anniversary event of Asia’s biggest sports media property, celebrating more than a decade of world-class martial arts action.
Adiwang and Miado are in similar junctures in their young careers.
The 28-year-old Adiwang found himself twice in the top five at strawweight, only to be met with resistance, as he suffered heartbreaking losses to Hiroba Minowa, and most recently, Jarred Brooks. He has, however, won four of his last six fights and remains one of the most dangerous and explosive fighters in the division.
Miado, on the other hand, is coming off two scintillating knockout victories over China’s Miao Li Tao. He has showcased his much-improved striking and overall game in his most recent outing, which he owes to having moved his training camp to Marrok Force in Bangkok, Thailand.
Adiwang has 13 wins and four losses with seven knockouts and four submissions to his name while Miado is 10-4 with five knockouts and one submission.
The much-anticipated all-Filipino showdown is not the first in this regard. There have been other epic all-Filipino fights under the ONE Championship banner, most notably between Joshua Pacio and Rene Catalan for the strawweight world belt in 2019, and 2013’s Honorio Banario versus Eric Kelly featherweight world title bout.
ONE Championship is stacking its ONE X card from top to bottom, so much so that it decided to split it up into two major events happening on the same day.
Among the confirmed bouts include the highly anticipated rematch between second-ranked atomweight Denice Zamboanga of the Philippines and third-ranked Ham Seo Hee of South Korea.
Zamboanga and Ham battled to a controversial split decision at ONE: Empower in September 2021 with the dangerous South Korean just edging out the Filipino female fighter on the scorecards, despite many fans and experts believing Zamboanga had done enough to win.
Also, at ONE X is the much-talked-about special rules super-fight between mixed martial arts legend Demetrious Johnson and reigning ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuang-non. – Harley F. Palangchao
April 19, 2024
