Tag: ONE Championship News

By Dan Paulo Errazo

The Philippines’ Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado believes that respect is an important value for all mixed martial artists.

Miado will once more face Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke on 22 February at ONE: CALL TO GREATNESS in a highly-anticipated rematch.

Miado stopped Dejdamrong, a Muay Thai legend, with a single punch in the first round of their first encounter last March 2018. Miado seeks victory once again, with all efforts focused on defeating one of his idols.

“No matter which martial artist I go up against, whether he’s better than me or not, I should respect him as a martial artist,” Miado said.

The Filipino was still in college, pursuing a degree in Criminology, when he decided to take up Muay Thai. It was through his then coach that he learned a lesson more valuable than learning how to fight.

“My coach back in Bicol, Dante Madrideo [taught me the value of respect],” Miado said. “He was my first coach who really took me under his wing.”

“The Jaguar” embodies the value of respect in his daily life and with everyone he encounters in the gym, on the street, and in the cage.

“Not just as a martial artist, but as a regular person, respect is important. You won’t get respect if you don’t know how to give it,” Miado said.

“In the cage, if you don’t display this value, win or lose, people will not care. If you won, then good for you, but if you lost, then they would say that you had it coming.

“If you respect the people around you, win or lose, people will be proud of what you did in the cage. You can’t be respectful in the cage and be a different person in everyday life.”

Miado is happy performing with ONE Championship as the promotion drives the same values to all athletes and employees. He also gets a bigger audience as a steward of ONE promoting the organization’s core values.

“ONE Championship is a huge platform where millions of people are watching,” Miado said.

“If you display this value, people will respect you just the same.

“It is especially true against an opponent because you’re not really enemies outside the cage. Competing against each other is what we do, it is our sport, but outside of the cage, we’re all friends.”

Miado will be facing the former ONE Strawweight World Champion at the Singapore Indoor Stadium this Friday, and he is proud to have this rematch with one of the athletes he highly respects.

“I have great respect for him, because when I was starting, I was looking up to him,” he concluded.

“It is a huge honor for me to be able to be on the opposite side of the cage competing against him. That’s why I want to do my best in our match.”

The post Jeremy Miado Values Respect As A Martial Artist Above Everything Else appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

ONE Athlete and lightweight contender Ev “E.T” Ting has plenty of tools at his disposal inside the ring. But as it turns out, the New Zealander of Malaysian heritage has just as many outside it.

The 29-year-old had a passion for all things automotive and was once a promising mechanic with dreams of working with some of the globe’s most renowned manufacturers.

After earning his official qualification, Ting enjoyed stints with American car-makers Dodge and French powerhouse Peugeot before linking up with Porsche.

He had his sights set on a winning a highly-sought after apprenticeship with the famous German manufacturer until he had his hopes dashed by a classic case of nepotism.

“I went through two interviews and I was super close to getting it, and I’d already been working there for six months,” Ting recalls.

“Then I found out that they had given it to one of the bosses’ sons who didn’t even have an interview or any certifications.”

Ultimately, it became turning point in Ting’s life, one which steered him in the immediate direction of a lifelong commitment to martial arts.

“That was one of those moments where I thought – this isn’t for me. I’m going to do something where I can work and earn credit myself. At that time I was following MMA a bit, so it made sense,” Ting recalled.

That led to Ting heading along to Auckland MMA, where he first crossed paths with Hamish Robertson – his mentor and head trainer to this day.

“I showed up and told coach Hamish that I really wanted to give this a shot, I wanted to make this a career. He put me through a fundamental program then developed me through this journey. He’s definitely been a big guidance through my career,” said Ting.

Ten years later, the Kiwi has worked his way to the upper echelon of ONE Championship’s talent-laden lightweight roster and is one of eight athletes involved in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix tournament, all vying for supremacy in Japan this March.

Ting will get formalities underway with his bout against rising star, Dagestani Saygid “Dagi” Arslanaliev at ONE: Call to Greatness in Singapore on February 22.

Arslanaliev is fresh off an impressive win over the dangerous Timofey Nastyukhin, but Ting believes he has the edge in experience.

“I’ve been training hard and I feel like I have more ring time and cage time – hopefully I can drag him into the deep waters,” Ting concluded.

The post Ev Ting Trades in Automotive Career for Mixed Martial Arts appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

ONE athlete Ev “E.T” Ting has has experienced his fair share of highs and lows in his quest for a lightweight world title.

The New Zealander of Malaysian heritage has been on the brink of capturing the belt on two occasions in the past two years, most notably with his razor-close decision loss to then-champion Eduard Folayang in 2017.

Ting bounced back emphatically to record three consecutive wins and move immediately back into the title picture, only to succumb to grappling wizard Shinya Aoki via first-round submission in a title eliminator in Bangkok last October.

But the Kiwi was far from discouraged by the loss, preferring to remain philosophical as he eyes a shot at redemption.

“I was still dry. He got that first takedown and that was it,” Ting recalls. “One mistake – the second I stopped moving that was when he got me. It was a big lesson learned. He’s a legend and has done that to everybody so I’m not too setback from that, it’s just about getting back on the bike.

“It was a wake up call that there’s a another level to the ground and to the division. But in saying that I’m still fresh and I’m still ready to compete with any lightweights.”

Now the 29-year-old finds himself with a golden opportunity to stake another claim for championship glory in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix, which resumes at ONE: Call to Greatness in Singapore on February 22.

“I’ve been putting in the work. I missed out on all the Christmas and New Years celebrations but I’m glad we got through it and I’m healthy and ready to go.”

Ting now has his sights firmly set on the upcoming eight-man tournament, the winner of which will be crowned Grand Prix champion and earn the right to become the first challenger to the current lightweight titleholder.

“The Grand Prix has got me blinded to a lot of things. This would be my third bid for the title – my record is always three or four wins, one loss. Three or four wins, one loss etc. So this has my full focus now.

“There’s a new belt on the line for this – there’s nothing I’d like more than that and I feel like I’m in a good position to get it. If I unleash and show my skills on fight night then I should be alright.”

Victory over Dagestan’s Saygid “Dagi” Guseyn Arslanaliev would be the first step towards a rematch with either Folayang or Aoki, pending the outcome of their World Championship clash at ONE: A New Era in Japan next month.

However, Ting isn’t looking that far ahead just yet.

“‘Dagi’ and the Grand Prix have my complete focus, but if we ran it back I’d be more than excited.”

The post Ev Ting Focused On Winning Tough Bout Against Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

By Dan Paulo Errazo

Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson made headlines with his highly-publicized move to ONE Championship late last year. It was a development in the sport of mixed martial arts which shocked the entire industry.

Immediately, a myriad of questions arose as to what pushed the 12-time Flyweight World Champion to compete on the other side of the world, even after establishing a terrific career in the United States.

Johnson revealed some of the reasons why he chose to sign with ONE Championship.

“I’m very excited. It’s a fresh opportunity for me to go somewhere I’ve never been able to compete before,” Johnson said in an interview with Q13 FOX TV.

“I’ve spent most of my career in North America competing against the best, now I’m going over to Asia with ONE Championship and fight the best that they would offer.”

Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, even as he still actively competes. In many ways, he made the flyweight division in the UFC and dazzled with every performance.

Yet given his many accomplishments, Johnson still felt the need to explore outside his comfort zone and eventually discovered a promising opportunity he just could not say no to.

“Well after my last fight I thought I would go, obviously and I sat down and thought to myself ‘What do I want to do next?’ and there’s an opportunity for me to go there and compete in Asia for ONE Championship,” Johnson said.

“So, I talked to my management and said ‘Hey, this is what I want to happen. If I’m able to get out of my UFC contract, let’s see if we can make it happen because I got five years left and I will be doing my career a great disservice if I don’t try it.’ All the great mixed martial artists have done it Fedor, Crocop, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva… the list just goes on.

“For me, if I just settle competing in North America and I never got the chance to compete in Asia, then I would be like Oh man I wish I did it.’”

Aside from his bevy of accomplishments and accolades, “Mighty Mouse” has been known to be a man of principle and values. When he discovered that ONE Championship basically championed the same things he holds dear to his heart, he found it to be a breath of fresh air.

“The best change is that this company believes in a lot of values that I believe in you know? Honor, respect, integrity, and discipline, which goes a long way,” Johnson said.

“Through my whole career in mixed martial arts in UFC and in WEC, I always carried myself as a great athlete and I think in ONE Championship all their athletes do the same thing so it’s a perfect fit.

“You don’t see any type of bogus stuff outside of competition week or anything like that.”

Johnson is excited to take part in the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix, which kicks off on 31 March in Tokyo, Japan. He squares off against Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu in his promotional debut.

“It’s refreshing and ONE Championship is The Home of Martial Arts – The Home of True Martial Arts,” Johnson concluded.

The post Demetrious Johnson Bares His Thoughts on His New Career with ONE Championship appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

ONE lightweight athlete Ev “E.T” Ting knows a thing or two about how to use his legs and feet, just ask some of the opponents he’s left in his wake.

The stand-up specialist has done plenty of damage with his lethal kicks during his years atop the division’s elite, a strength borne of his previous life as a stand-out footballer growing up in his native New Zealand.

The 29-year-old was was a star at youth level and was named captain of both his high school and club teams.

“I grew up playing football,” said Ting. “But once I left school I moved suburbs a couple of times and I got a little bit isolated. But I still love a game of football or even rugby.”

Like many Brazilians before him, Ting leveraged his skills on the pitch into his abilities as a striker, particularly with his arsenal of kicks.

“The foot dexterity – being more well versed with your foot,” Ting says. “Football in some ways definitely helped me.

“But martial arts is limitless- there are so many movements to master, not that you’d ever master everything.”

Ting will be looking to put those skills to good use in Singapore next weekend at ONE: Call to Greatness when he takes on Dagestani Saygid “Dagi” Guseyn Arslanaliev in the quarter-finals of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old is one of the division’s rising stars – a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion with a decorated background in the art of wushu.

“Dagi” has recorded consecutive stoppage wins in his brief ONE tenure to date – including an upset knock-out in his most recent bout against hard-nosed Russian Timofey Nastyukhin.

Ting is well aware of the threat Arslanaliev poses but identifies one area where he believes he has a key advantage.

“Experience. I’ve been training hard and I feel like I have more ring time and cage time, hopefully I can drag him into the deep waters,” says Ting.

The Auckland MMA-product has 21 professional bouts to his name in a career dating back to 2011, while his opponent has taken to the cage on just seven occasions.

“He’s dangerous, well rounded, and explosive. He’s very tough, but that’s just like any opponent — they’re all tough.”

Grinding right through the Christmas period, Ting has been working on refining his ground game at renowned Bali MMA in preparation for Arslanaliev’s challenge, and has complete confidence that he’ll be able to hold his own wherever the contest may lead.

“I missed out on all Christmas and new years but I’m glad we got through it and I’m healthy and ready to go. Feel like I’ve put in all the work, so it’s just a matter of unleashing it now and showcasing it to the world.”

The post Ev Ting Unfazed With Monstrous Challenge Posed by Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev? appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.