Ilonggo Robin Catalan falls to Japanese foe in ONE: Unbreakable III

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Robin “The Ilonggo” Catalan lost to Japanese Ryuto “Dragon Boy” Sawada through a first-round submission in ONE: Unbreakable III.

The Ilonggo mixed martial artist couldn’t contain the aggressive Japanese who took him down several times. Eventually, he let his guard down and got submitted by a rear-naked choke.

In the first minute of the match, Catalan even controlled the stand-up game and hit Sawada with clean jabs and inside kicks.

However, after Sawada got his grip on Catalan’s positioning, it did not stop him from pressuring the Ilonggo.

Soon as the Japanese was in control of the ground game, there was nothing that Catalan can do. He was locked in defense for almost a minute.

Catalan tried to escape from the ground position to prevent a climb-from-behind submission setup but this was too late.

With the huge win over the veteran Catalan, Sawada is likely to be one of the favorite candidates to challenge Filipino Joshua Pacio for the championship.