TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Sunoto looking to bounce back
Sunoto - JP/MusthofidHaving lost in his ONE Championship debut, Indonesian mixed martial arts fighter Sunoto will be looking for redemption when he gets back in the cage in Jakarta in a couple of weeks
Change Size
Sunoto - JP/Musthofid
Having lost in his ONE Championship debut, Indonesian mixed martial arts fighter Sunoto will be looking for redemption when he gets back in the cage in Jakarta in a couple of weeks.
'I had not prepared well for the fight,' Sunoto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, referring to his Manila outing in April.
In a featherweight bout against Wang Ya Wei, Sunoto was pounded so helplessly the referee had to intervene in the third round.
For the Sept. 27 contest at the Istora Senayan indoor arena, Sunoto will fight in his special bantamweight class against fellow countryman Mario Satya Wirawan and says he has prepared better this time.
'I have been preparing for two months and I'm ready in physicality and skills,' he said on the sidelines of a training workout at Kemang Fight Gym in South Jakarta.
Taking up taekwondo when he first subscribed to martial arts, he has now built his fighting craft in wushu, Muay Thai and jiu jitsu.
Asked about his next opponent, he said that Mario was good at striking.
'I once saw him fight in Jakarta. He seemed to prefer stand-up fighting,' he said. 'I may lure him for a ground fight, but it depends how the game unfolds. Basically, I'm ready for stand-up and ground fighting.'
Sunoto versus Mario will be one of eight bouts presented by ONE Championship, formerly ONE FC, which claims to be Asia's largest MMA organizer.
'Sunoto represents the new breed of Indonesian MMA athletes. He is a fantastic fighter,' ONE senior director and public relations officer Loren Mack said.
'He fought very well in Manila. He's also getting better at the ground game,' he said.
Debutant Mario, Mack said, would be a match for Sunoto.
'I can expect two fighters from Indonesia competing at a very high level in front of the audience live on RCTI. The whole world is gonna watch Sunoto and Wirawan [sic],' he said.
The main card of the night will be a title fight between defending champion Narantungalag Jadambaa of Mongolia and challenger Marat 'Cobra' Gafurov of Russia.
Mack said he was expecting another sell-out, as was the case with the previous four ONE contests.
MMA fighting shows have become regular viewing on a local TV channel, which airs repeats of old fights from the US-based Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Mack said the appealing feature of ONE Championship, distinguishing it from the others, was that 'It's an Asian brand. You have 90 percent Asian fighters. The majority of martial arts are from Asia. It makes the fighting in ONE Championship more exciting than the others.'
He expressed confidence that the championship partnership with MNC Group, the holding company of RCTI, would prove a step forward toward making the sport as popular as soccer.
'With MMA being live on TV, I think it's going to make the sport as popular as soccer. And people say, 'What are you talking about? Soccer has been around forever.' But I'm confident mixed martial arts are in the blood of every single Indonesian.
'You have awesome silat, wushu. ONE Championship has been here four times. We were sold out four times.
'There's new gyms opening up every weekend. So I'm not crazy to say that MMA will become as popular as soccer,' he said.
