After One FC loss, wrestling clinics mulled

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Mark Muñoz, a middleweight contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, once offered to teach Filipino fighters some wrestling.

And after Friday night’s annihilation of Filipino fighters in the ONE Fighting Championship: Rise to Power at the MOA Arena in Pasay City exposed the country’s pedestrian ground game, it’s now high time to heed Muñoz’s advice.

“If you want to succeed in mixed martial arts, you have to be good in not just one or two martial arts, but all of them as much as you can,” Muñoz said during his last visit to the country last March when he held clinics and conducted a live training exhibition at the MOA Activity Center.

“That’s why I’m telling everybody now that I’m willing to teach my countrymen about the martial art that I know best, which is wrestling because it really helps if you want to progress in the  MMA world,” added the fighter nicknamed “The Filipino Wrecking Machine.”

Muñoz’s advice was remembered again after all five of the Filipino fighters including former featherweight titlist Honorio Banario fell one after the other, most of them undone by their opponent’s well-rounded game and vast knowledge of the  ground-and-pound.

Banario showed spectacular striking game but, ironically, got knocked out by Japanese Koji Oishi on his first title defense after snaring it with a win over countryman Eric Kelly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last Feb. 2.

Both Kevin Belingon and Eduard Folayang likewise fell by the wayside with stinging defeats at the hands of grappling specialists, Japanese Masakatsu Ueda and former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Kamal Shalorus of Iran via unanimous decisions.

Rey Docyogen lost a close split decision to Japan’s Yasuhiro Urushitani while Geje Eustaquio  bowed to a well-rounded Andrew Leone.