ONE FC continues to attract Asia's top fighters.
A featherweight
fight between Long Sophy and Max Metino has been added to the ONE FC
card on Sept. 13 in Jakarta. The former will become the first-ever
Cambodian fighter to compete for Asia's biggest MMA organization in a
story which was broken by the Phnom Penh Post earlier this week and confirmed by promotion officials today.
Sophy is a veteran of over 100 Kun Khmer fights who has also won
numerous titles and tournaments and enjoys a stellar reputation inside
Cambodia. He is relatively unknown outside of his homeland, the sport
does not enjoy the same sort of international following as Muay Thai,
but has an opportunity to change all that after signing for ONE FC.
His opponent, Metino, is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) purple belt, but
Sophy is nothing if not supremely confident and says he has been
working tirelessly to ensure that the transition from the Kun Khmer ring
to the MMA cage goes smoothly.
"I train five days a week with A-Fighter Team and I am not scared at
all because I have grappled with BJJ black belts and Khmer wrestling
champions and I believe I can mix it up with him on the ground. I have
two top BJJ coaches helping me in Hun Chanreach and Barry Guerin, they
are both well trained in BJJ."
CTN, a major television network in Cambodia, is holding MMA fights
being held every single Sunday night but Sophy says that no one in the
country is prepared to take him on at present.
"Nobody wants to fight me. I can submit all those CTN guys!"
Kun Khmer is very similar to Muay Thai and the A-Fighter team in
Phnom Penh is home to numerous champions who are working on their
wrestling and submission skills because they feel that, financially
speaking, competing in MMA is a better option for them.
With some Cambodian mixed martial artists taking advantage of the
opportunity to compete every week inside the CTN cage and fighting three
to four times a month, it will not be long until fighters start to
emerge with very strong records.
Sophy might be struggling to find opponents locally, but at the age
of 23, he has plenty of time to adapt his striking style for MMA and is
definitely not lacking in confidence.
"I want to fight MMA regularly and I believe I could mix it up with any of the ONE FC fighters!"
1 comment:
Best of Luck Bro! It's the best sports to compete mixed martial arts.
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