Banario not taking Pang lightly
DESPITE his impressive four fight winning streak, former One Championship featherweight champion Team Lakay’s Honorio Banario feels the need to hurdle his next assignment.
Although slightly favored ahead of their match up, Banario said he is not taking Australian Adrian Pang lightly where both fighters are expected to bring fight fans on their toes on April 20 at the Mall of Asia Arena in the main card of One: Heroes of Honor.
Banario returns to the cage after a year of absence due to injury and thinks there are a lot more stake in his next bout against a hungrier and more experienced Pang.
From a five fight skid, Banario was able to turn things around coming up with four straight wins since April 2016 when he edged fellow Filipino Vaugh Donayre with a three round unanimous decision.
The former world champion then followed it up with another win against Eddie Ng via unanimous decision before submitting Rajinder Singh Meena and knocking out Jaroslav Jartim.
Banario is considered as one of the Philippines’ most respected martial arts veterans. His tremendous cage experience has brought him all over Asia in many memorable battles against top divisional talent.
Among his many skills, Banario’s strength lies in striking, although he has recently exhibited a vastly-improved grappling game.
Pang on the other hand is on a must win situation coming off a three fight losing skid that includes defeat from Banario’s team mate and former world lightweight champion Eduard Folayang, Roger Huerta and Amir Khan.
A martial arts veteran from Queensland, Australia, Pang has amassed an impressive 22-112 professional record.
Pang has decimated opponents with his incredible power and no-frills approach to striking in nearly two decades as a professional and is known for his astounding durability and overwhelming strength, with the ability to walk through opponents with little to no resistance.
'Heroes of Honor' will be headlined by Kevin Belingon, also of Team Lakay as he takes on Andrew Leone.
With a professional record of 17-5, the Filipino champion and former world title challenger is known as a fierce competitor with the ability to finish opponents in a variety of methods.
Belingon owns seven huge knockouts on his resume, and is one of the most feared strikers in ONE Championship’s deep bantamweight division.
Leone of Cortland, New York, is a 28year-old top contender in ONE Championship’s deep bantamweight division who trains alongside some of the most talented martial artists in Asia at the renowned Bali MMA gym in Bali, Indonesia. A winner of three of his last five bouts, Leone faced ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano Fernandes in his most recent bout but was unable to dethrone the defending champion. Roderick Osis