MANILA – Ilonggo mixed martial arts fighter Robin Catalan aims to pull off an upset when he battles Pongsiri Mitsatit of Thailand in ONE: Warrior of Light tonight at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Iloilo City native is determined to clinch an impressive win against the hometown bet to become one of the contenders in ONE Championship’s strawweight division.
“There’s a bit of pressure competing in front of a partisan crowd, but I need to win,” Catalan said. “Our game plan will focus on exploiting his weaknesses. My wrestling and ground game will definitely be a problem for him.”
“The first thing that was running in my head was that I needed to win for my team and for my family,” he added. “When you’re inside the cage, all that pressure really is drowned out by my competitive spirit, and I’m going all out.”
The 22-year-old Mitsatit has proved he is one of the most dangerous athletes in his division by clinching all but one of his nine victories by stoppage, including Robin’s brother Rabin.
“Avenging my brother’s loss is also one of my main motivations for wanting to win this match so badly,” Robin said. “(Rabin) is actually helping us with formulating our game plans because he has first-hand experience against him.”
“I saw that [Mitsatit] is pretty adept at striking, so that’s probably one of the things I need to watch out for. However, I can go toe-to-toe with him with strikes,” added the Ilonggo MMAer./PN
