For Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang, his comeback story to The Home of Martial Arts has already seen him vanquish one of his toughest foes even before he stepped back inside the ONE Circle.
“Mental talaga ang pinaka-naging kalaban natin after ng injury ko,” he admitted ahead of his return fight versus Adrian “Papua Badboy” Matheis at ONE Friday Fights 34 on September 22.
Truly, the path back from an injury as devastating as that Adiwang suffered wasn’t easy.
Tearing his ACL 18 months back during his fight against Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado at ONE X, the injury derailed his path to the top as the Hiit Studio bet was already seen as one of the promotion’s top rising stars and a potential challenger to the ONE Strawweight World Championship.
Fate though had other plans and took him on a detour.
Adiwang would profess that there were times where he doubted if he could still get back to his old form given how hard it is to recover from such knee injury.
“Parating iniisip ko na baka mahirapan na akong makabalik sa laro. I tried my best to recover as fast as I can pero may mga naging setbacks at na-pushback lang ng husto yung recovery ko kasi ‘di pa kaya ng knee ko,” he admitted.
But once he got over that hump, Thunder Kid was back in his element. “I needed to train a little bit smarter and wiser. Dinahan-dahan ko, chineck ko ‘yung exercises na kailangan kong i-undergo para mas maging smooth at maganda yung maging recovery sa knee ko,” he said.
And as he heads to battle at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand this Friday, Adiwang is just excited to showcase his explosiveness once again all the more as he will be featured in the first fight of the night.
“Target ko talaga na ako ‘yung unang magpakita sa kung anong kaya ko. I have to give my best and put on a good show kasi ako ‘yung pambukas ng fight night,” he said.
Adiwang will be looking to set the tone for the loaded fight card which will see the much awaited showdown between Rodtang “The Iron Man” Jitmuangnon and top-ranked contender ”The Kicking Machine” Superlek Kiatmoo9 for the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Championship in the main event.