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Rene Catalan eyes strawweight belt before retirement

Sports

Rene Catalan eyes strawweight belt before retirement

By Carlo Anolin

Filipino fighter Rene Catalan is in for the long haul.

Rene Catalan (ONE Championship)

Catalan, already a veteran in the mixed martial arts scene, has set sights on ONE Championship's world strawweight title before hanging his gloves for good.

"Yes, I am a veteran athlete and I know I'm about to face young fighters. I know that in combat sports, people will always look at the younger fighter as the one who holds the advantage," admitted the 42-year-old Catalan.

"But there's no question on my drive, my fire to be considered a contender again. Like I said, I'm motivated to challenge for the belt again and become the world champion before I retire."

After back-to-back losses, Catalan was booted out of the Top 5 strawweight rankings,

The founder of the Catalan Fighting System now faces a tall order to get back his winning ways when he faces former world champion Alex Silva in ONE: NEXTGEN III on Nov. 26.

Catalan yielded to reigning strawweight king Joshua Pacio of Team Lakay in November 2019 before suffering another devastating loss to now No. 2 contender Bokang Masunyane in December last year.

Interestingly, Pacio already scored a split decision win against Silva in January 2020 to keep the strawweight belt.

ICYMI: ‘Mahirap pa kami sa daga’: Catalan shares struggles amid COVID-19 pandemic

Looking back, Catalan admitted that his "heart wasn't there" when he clashed with his compatriot in Pacio.

"I guess it's always going to be there, that you feel half-hearted because we all want to bring glory to the country but we have to face each other," said Catalan, who holds a 6-4 MMA record. "I still aimed to win that match because it really was my dream to win a world championship before I retire."

Meanwhile, Silva is fresh from unanimouis decision victory against Chinese foe Miao Li Tao last August to improve at 10-6 card.

Related Tags

rene catalan Alex Silva ONE Championship

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