Eko Roni Saputra might have already competed eight times under the ONE Championship banner, but he believes that there are a lot of things people haven’t seen from him yet.
He’ll be banking on that element of surprise when he takes on his toughest challenge in Danny “The King” Kingad at ONE Fight Night 7: Lineker vs. Andrade II on Feb. 25 inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
In his seven-fight winning streak, no opponent has gone past the first round with Saputra. In fact, he believes the quicker the finish, the less he shows his opponents.
“There is something quite unique about this. Siyar always told me, ‘Eko, you must play fast. Why? To hide your game from people.’ He even prayed about that on my head,” he said.
“So, I think Danny won’t know much about my game, as he might only think that I am strong on the ground. That is why I will give Danny a big surprise.”
One of the things that he plans to surprise Kingad with is his striking, particularly his boxing, something that he’s been working on since moving to Evolve MMA in Singapore.
The Filipino flyweight isn’t too worried about the striking of Saputra, but the Indonesian wrestling machine plans to make him pay if he underestimates him on the feet.
“There are still lots of weapons in my arsenal. In short, I will make the stadium roar with my surprises. Moreover, I also want to prove that my striking is on par with Danny’s,” he said.
Saputra, however, won’t be forcing things just to prove a point. The 31-year-old plans to follow the flow of the fight and get a feel of where he’s at an advantage.
“If I am overconfident beat Kingad, it means I would be going too far ahead. I will only our game plan, and I do want to some striking. However, I’ll see there are any chances to execute a good takedown,” he said.
“We don’t know what will happen in the Circle if we can get an easy takedown. Would we finish ? Why we need to take a longer road?” he added. “If it is hard for us to take him down, we will go with the striking.”
But should the fight remain on the feet, Saputra promises only one thing.
“I will stop Kingad’s game,” he said.
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