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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Catalan stays positive despite bittersweet night for CFS

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Catalan Fighting System started ONE: MASTERS OF FATE with a promising start – but the show did not end the way they would have liked it to. 

Rene “The Challenger” Catalan failed to dethrone the ONE Strawweight World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio in the main event on Friday, 8 November at the Mall Of Asia Arena. 

The loss rained down on Robin “The Ilonggo” Catalan’s parade after he secured a well-timed head kick knockout win over Gustavo “El Gladiador” Balart earlier in the night. 

But the “The Ilonggo” looks at the bright side of things. 

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“We’re still happy even if kuya Rene did not get it. I know that he did everything, and he knows that as a team we did everything we could for this night,” Catalan said. 

“We both implemented our game plan, so we’ll go home happy.”

Talking about his performance, the 31-year-old was shocked to get his win so early in the bout. 

“I didn’t expect that to happen so quickly. But that was my target, to score a head kick. I was luring him low, his guard opened, and I got the head kick,” Catalan said. 

But if there is one thing the younger Catalan is proud of, it is with how he handled the Cuban Olympian’s wrestling just enough to set that kick up, which is easily a frontrunner for knockout of the year. 

“I’m really happy with my wrestling defense. That’s what we worked for. I know he’s an Olympian wrestler, but we really worked hard for that.”

With his confidence at an all-time high, “The Ilonggo” now looks forward to his next assignment – and he vows to stay hungry even with the impressive victory. 

“If they would give me another chance, I will accept and display the same fire that I showed in this match,” the Catalan Fighting System representative said. 

“There’s still a lot of things to add to my game. I know that there’s still things that I need to improve, particularly in jiu-jitsu because there are a lot of great athletes on the ground.” 

“I also need to sharpen my striking even more, and even in wrestling I almost lost steam just trying to defend the wrestling of Balart.”

ONE Championship heads to Beijing, China on 16 November for ONE: AGE OF DRAGONS.

Download the ONE Super App to catch all the action for free. 

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