DAVAO CITY — Two martial artists here are eyeing future fights after winning two separate national competitions in Baguio and Pasig cities.
Mixed martial artist Ritchie “El Matador” Sapno III successfully retained his featherweight crown in the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) Baguio 4 held Saturday night at the Baguio Convention Center.
In a recently held press conference here, Sapno’s coach Bambi Posadas said the 25-year old player scored a smashing first round stoppage over Baguio-native Arnold Agapito of Team Kalinga Wushu via a rear naked choke.
The 5-foot-7-inch former judo player used his ground strokes in dominating the start of the title-match. In his first takedown, Sapno pounded Agapito with body and head shots. With only four minutes left, Sapno again took down his rival with another suplex. But this time Sapno finally choke Agapito on the neck for the submission, he said.
Posadas said although 21-year old Agapito, a Muay Thai and Wushu Sanshou specialist, had an advantage in height (5’8") and weight (165 lbs.), but the good-looking Sapno had more excellent grounding skills.
“Actually we really didn’t have any complete knowledge or background on my opponent’s strength and weaknesses,” said Sapno, who just prepared himself to be in good condition by practicing at the gym four times a week aside from jogging.
On the other hand, last Saturday night, Sapno’s stablemate Ale Cali also captured the Pacific X-treme Challenge (PXC) featherweight title at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
The 21-year old Cali knocked out Jesse Taitano of Guam in the third round to become the first full-grown Filipino PXC champion. He was coached by his stablemate and former URCC lightweight king Dr. Angelito “The Saint” Manguray.
Cali is tentatively set to make his first title-defense sometime in June, this year while Sapno is slated to next fight in April in the One Fight Championship (1FC) in Singapore, Posadas said.
Both players are scheduled to pay a courtesy call to Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Roa-Duterte this week, he said. (PNA)
RMA/Lolito T. delos Reyes/ldp
