Honorio Banario (right) with a fan (Photo from Banario's Facebook page)
BAGUIO CITY – Former ONE featherweight king Honorio Banario left with Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao on Monday for Singapore hoping to break his three-game losing skid.
“We will be there,” said Sangiao on Sunday, prior to their departure to Singapore for Banario’s fight against Shannon Wiratchai in the ONE: King of the Jungle on Friday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
“Hopefully we will be safe and come home victorious,” Sangiao said.
Banario expressed confidence in getting past the Thai, who is also on a three-game losing streak.
Wiratchai, who has nine wins and five losses, lost in succession to Shinya Aoki on July 27, 2018; to Amarsanaa Tsogookhu on Feb. 16 last year; and Luri Lapicus on May 17 also last year.
He has since then gone down a weight division lower.
Banario had a bad 2019 losing all his three fights starting with Lowen Tynanes on Jan. 25; to Dae Song Park on Aug. 2; and Aoki on Oct. 13.
“I’m getting back to the win column,” he said.
It will be the first time that ONE will hold a locked out competition for Asia’s top mixed martial arts promotions that rival that of the UFC.
“It is kind of weird that we will be fighting with no one to watch it live,” Banario said.
As a precautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), watching live games at the venue was closed and tickets refunded to ONE fans.
Singapore has 89 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Feb. 24 and the country has been declared DORSCON (Disease Outbreak Response System Condition) Orange, the third level and one short of Red, the highest level.
Due to the continuous threat of Covid-19, ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong closed the Feb. 28 live events to the public.
“In light of the coronavirus situation in Singapore, I have made the decision to convert ONE: King of the Jungle on February 28 into a closed event for broadcast only. The Singapore Indoor Stadium will not be open to the general public, but the event will proceed behind closed doors as scheduled on all TV and digital platforms across 150+ countries around the world,” Sityodtong wrote on his Facebook page.
The main event of the Feb. 28 offering is the ONE Atomweight Kickboxing World title fight of reigning ONE champion Stamp Fairtex against Janet Todd, a rematch of their epic fight last year.
The co-main event features ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao defending his crown against Aussie phenom Rocky Ogden.
Other matches include Amir Khan facing Kimihiro Eto in a lightweight match; welterweight Yoshihiro Akiyama facing Sherif Mohamed; Mei Yamaguchi and Meng Bo in a women’s atomweight fight; bantamweight Troy Worthen tangling with Mark Fairtex Abelardo; Tiffany Teo and Ayaka Miura in women’s strawweight; Ritu Phogat and Wu Chiao Chen in another women’s atomweight feature; Hiroki Akimoto and Azwan Che Wil in a ONE Super Series kickboxing – bantamweight; Adrian Mattheis and Hexigetu in men’s strawweight; and Radeem Rahman and Jeff Chan in a bantamweight showdown. (PNA)
