Taiwanese bantamweight Sung Ming-yen is looking to continue his unbeaten run inside the ONE Championship cage as he girds for battle against Indonesia’s Sunoto in Changsha, China, tonight.
In Sunoto (3-1-0), who will also be fighting his third ONE fight, Sung (4-1-0) is fighting something of an unknown quantity, who likes to switch between southpaw and orthodox stance.
“I have heard a lot about him, but I can’t find many videos of him online,” Sung told the Taipei Times. “I know he is a versatile fighter who is not only good at striking, but also with ground control. He was a featherweight fighter before, but this time he dropped to fight in the bantamweight category, which means he might have a strength advantage over me, but I think we will be a good challenge for me.”
The event will be the first staged under ONE’s new weigh-in policy, implemented after Chinese fighter Yang Jianbing died from complications from severe dehydration and heat stroke after trying to make weight during their previous event last month. The new policy protects fighters by ensuring that they fight at close to their normal “walking weight,” with regular reports on weight during training camp and daily weigh-ins during fight week.
The policy suits Sung fine.
“I am a coach, so technically I practice every day. For me, I am ready any time. Just like in the movie Ip Man, the coach will have a fight with his student just after shopping,” Sung said. “I actually enjoy this kind of practice, because I think this is the real deal; you fight at your walking weight.”
“I am practicing a Chinese martial art known as neijia quan,” he said.
“Neijia quan includes taiji, bagua and xing yi quan... In the MMA world, Western martial arts is the mainstream discipline, but I never gave up on popularizing Chinese kung fu. This time I hope to showcase some Chinese kung fu in the ONE cage,” he said.
Sung had some words for his opponent.
“I know you are a versatile fighter and very skillful in the cage. I hope we both can do our best in the cage and reach our goals, but I am looking forward to emerge the victorious one,” he said.
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