IF you happen to watch Mario Sismundo fight inside the cage, you would have thought Manny Pacquiao is in the wrong arena.
Like his boxing idol Pacquiao, Sismundo packs a wallop in his left fist. He sports the same hairstyle, beard and mustache, body built and height.
He was a former boxer, but was not as fortunate as the eight-division champion.
And Sismundo has found his turf on the MMA cage.
In his three professional MMA fights registered by Sherdog, he won two by knockouts and his only loss came by submission via armbar, inflicted by Miguel Alo in April 2012 at the URCC 21 Warpath.
Sismundo has won all his three MMA fights by knockout, two of them however, were fought in amateur promotions. His most impressive was the one-punch, 19-second KO win over Rolando Gabriel at the UGB MMA 13 Foreign Invasion last January.
“Alam ko na malakas talaga ang kaliwa ko parang kay Manny. But now, nag-aaral na din ako ng right stance para mahasa ‘ung kanan ko. Malakas na din ako sumipa,” revealed Sismundo, who wants to be nicknamed “The Monster” on the cage.
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His excellent showing on the cage is entirely different from his early years in the boxing ring.
His boxing matches were far in between. Although he possesses the power that can make him a feared pro boxer, he was young and untested when he had his first pro ring fight as a superfeatherweight in 1999, losing to a veteran Jun Paiman in Pampanga.
A year later, he lost again via a similar unanimous decision. What ultimately convinced him to leave boxing was his return to the ring in 2003, when he was knocked out by Victor Manon in Binangonan, Rizal.
“Naisip ko na noon na hindi yata ako pang boxing kaya tumigil na ako,” he said.
As he noticed the growth of mixed martial arts in the Philippines, the urge to fight again bugged him no end. Then, he began joining amateur MMA fights and has not lost any of them.
Now, the former ring patsy is a monster on the cage. He is ranked 27th by Tapology among 87 active MMA lightweights in Southeast Asia.
On Saturday night, he again put his skills to the test by fighting a younger, bigger opponent in kickboxing. For the first two rounds, he was trying to use his kicks and experimented in using the right hand stance to put down Nino Mondejar.
But this kid out of Guerrero Muay Thai Gym was tougher than expected. When he finally used his left-right combo, Mondejar retired and the referee waved the fight off.
Sismundo said he needs more tune-up fights and he’ll be ready for the big time.