The second assignment of Kim Hock‘s professional MMA career is going to be dramatically different from the first. At the Singapore Indoor Stadium he had the support of 8,000 fans but when he returns to action at ONE Fighting Championship: Destiny of Warriors next month he will be in for a much more hostile reception.
That is because Hock will be taking on a local favorite in Peter Davis, a Malaysian who lives and works in Kuala Lumpur where he is a familiar face because of his acting and modelling career. He also has significantly more experience than Hock having made his MMA debut in 2004…when the Singaporean was just 13 years old!
Davis’s record currently stands at 4-1 and, like Hock, he won his first fight for ONE FC earlier this year. In a recent conversation with Fighters.com, the younger man says he has no problem taking on an opponent with so much more experience and is predicting a stand-up war.
“I’ve seen his last fight . He’s pretty lengthy and runs around a lot but I’m hoping this time he will be brave enough to stand in the centre of the cage and bang with me. Certainly he’s the more experienced guy and has had more MMA fights than me but anything can happen when punches, kicks, knees and elbows are flying all over the place,” an excited Hock exclaimed.
Davis’ last two wins have both been by submission including the Triangle Choke which he pulled out with barely a minute to go against Ngabdi Mulyadi at ONE FC in Jakarta. Hock explained this is something he has been preparing himself for, saying, “I’ve watched his fights and I’ve been working very hard with my coach and training partners on my ground game. Hopefully all those times getting choked and tapped in training will prove to be worthwhile in this fight.”
Hock is coming off a submission win of his own, tapping out Japanese-American fighter Major Overall in the second round of their fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in March. The big difference between that occasion and this one is that this time it will be his opponent who has the hometown crowd behind him but, after competing in both boxing and wrestling, he has been there before.
“I’ve been through similar situations as well where the crowd was against me and I came out victorious anyways,” Hock stated. “I am just gonna go in and do my job. I don’t really care about the rivalries between the countries, to me its just two hardworking athletes giving their best regardless of race, language or religion.”
The growth of MMA in Singapore has been phenomenal, largely fueled by the presence of ONE FC, Asia’s largest promotion which is headquartered there. As the countries most prominent Mixed Martial Artist at present Hock has a lot of pressure on his young shoulders but he is training hard and is hoping a few fans will make the trip to Kuala Lumpur to see him fight.
“After my fight I took a three day break and I got back into training straight away so when I was offered this fight I was still in fighting mode. Since I fought for ONE FC more people in Singapore do seem to recognize me and of course I’m hoping that some of my fans in Singapore would be able to follow me to KL and watch me. After all one more person cheering for me simply means one more reason to not give up during hard times!”
ONE FC: Destiny of Warriors is scheduled for June 23 and features fights from Masakazu Imanari and Renato Sobral.
Check out video of Hock’s win over Overall below:
PHOTO CREDIT – ONE FC
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment