It has almost been a year since Robin “The Ilonggo” Catalan last fought inside the ONE Championship circle.
The 33-year-old strawweight found himself tapping out to a rear-naked choke in the first round of his match against Ryuto “Dragon Boy” Sawada at ONE: UNBREAKABLE 3 in February.
However, all that is now a memory and he prefers to forget the situation that he was in heading into that bout.
“In that last fight, I can say that it was bad timing because I injured my right hip a week before the fight,” he said.
Eleven months later, Catalan believes that he’s in a better position as he has taken his sweet time to recover and improve his game, remarking that he’s changed his game 100%.
“I’ve kept on training and waiting for more than a year before I got the call for this next fight. And now that I know what’s next, I’m so eager to bounce back stronger,” he said.
Catalan is set for his return in The Home Of Martial Arts this Jan. 14 at ONE: HEAVY HITTERS in Singapore where he is set to clash against Elipitua “The Magician” Siregar of Indonesia.
Although there’s no question that the Filipino is heading into this match as a heavy underdog, all the more with Siregar winning four of his last five fights, Catalan holds no fear as he’s determined to show how motivated he is to get his hands raised.
“I am hungry like a lion. I know that this time, it will be different and I want to get the win,” he said.
That’s not to say that Catalan is taking Siregar lightly, wary of the excellence that the Indonesian wrestler has on the ground. “We’re focused on his wrestling and his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because I know that’s the forte of his team. It’s those things that I have to be very careful of,” he said.
Still, this presents Catalan his best chance to show that he has what it takes to be considered as one of the legitimate threats in the strawweight division.
“My goal this year is to be no. 1 [in the ONE Athlete Rankings] to have a chance to fight for the title belt. It starts in this match and I can say that this will be like a war of lions,” he stated. [ONE Championship] – bny
