Lito Adiwang ready for highly-anticipated ring return in ONE

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Lito Adiwang is back.

After 18 months of absence in the ONE Championship ring due to a series of unfortunate events brought by injuries, the hard-hitting Filipino mixed martial artist (MMA) will finally make his return on September 22, 2023.

ONE confirmed that Adiwang will be taking on Adrian Mattheis of Indonesia as a part of the undercard bout of the ONE Friday Fights 34 event to be held at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

A year ago, the former Team Lakay superstar tore his ACL during his fight against co-Pinoy Jeremy Miado last March 2022 when he suddenly felt a pop in his right knee after backpedaling.

After limping in pain, Miado immediately rushed to Adiwang and threw some quick hammer fists but the referee was wise to call the fight off and waived his hands to make it official.

Adiwang then received medical clearance and was supposed to fight last January against Mansur Malachiev of Russia but further findings stated that his knee wasn’t 100 %, forcing him to withdraw from the fight card.

Now, Adiwang said that he is ready to go back and confirmed that his knee already reached optimum status after months of rehabilitation and strength training.

“I can already say that I am 100 percent ready. I tested myself here, pushed myself to see if my knee can handle hard training,” Adiwang added.

Adiwang is currently on a two-fight losing streak since falling at the hands of Jarred Brooks last October 2021 via an arm-triangle submission choke.

With the added strength training the strawweight fighter put into his preparation against the Indonesian challenger, Adiwang is seeking to put his name back into the conversation of the championship-contending fighters in his division.

Adiwang will also have the chance to flaunt his new skill set following his departure from the widely renowned Team Lakay MMA stable.

Adiwang joined his former Team Lakay seniors Eduard Folayang, Kevin Belingon, and Joshua Pacio who are no longer affiliated with coach Mark Sangiao.