ONE Strawweight World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio and teammate Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang will be looking to win over the hearts of Filipino martial arts fans, but Roel Rosauro wants to wow his compatriots as well.
Rosauro looks for another win when he takes on James Yang in the curtain raiser of ONE: REVOLUTION this Friday, September 24, building from the momentum he started after defeating Yohan “The Ice Man” Mulia Legowo.
“The motivation is to prove to people that I belong here, that I deserve my spot, and that I can represent the Philippines well,” Rosauro said.
There’s no better way for him to prove that than by defeating Yang, who fans are expecting a lot from in his debut.
The American trains out of highly-regarded AMC Pankration in Washington state, home to GOAT Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and longtime ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes, who are both ensuring that Yang comes into the organization well equipped.
Such facts aren’t lost on Rosauro – in fact, they’re motivating him even more to win.
“I expect him to be , someone who’s very good at grappling but also has good striking. Striking is his bread and butter, but I can’t be too sure given that he’s training with some really good grapplers,” Rosauro said.
“We all know that he comes from a very strong gym. His teammates are World Champions, so he has a very good support group behind him.”
When the Circle door closes and the opening bell rings this Friday, Rosauro is banking on his indomitable will to lift him past Yang and get him his second straight win in the organization.
“I can’t really say which part of my game is stronger than his, but probably, it’s my fighting spirit. I’m sure he’s trained well, so it all boils down to my fighting spirit,” he said.
“If I were to be given the choice, I’d like to keep this fight standing. I want a knockout win so there’d be no discussions left.”
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