RENE Catalan is well known in the Philippines for winning the Wushu World Championships twice and the Wushu World Cup twice between 2003 and 2006. But the 34 year-old fighter from Iloilo will be switching sports to make his MMA debut next month.
Catalan is appearing at ONE Fighting Championship: ‘Kings & Champions’ at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on April 5 against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion Alex Silva in a flyweight fight which can be viewed live in the Philippines on Star Sports.
Virtually all of the Filipinos who have enjoyed success with Asia’s biggest MMA promotion have come from a Wushu background but none of them are as decorated as Catalan who has also won gold medals at the SEA Games and Asian Games.
Catalan has had coaching spells in Canada and China but feels that the time has finally come for him to return to competition and is promising to put on a show for the fans on April 5th.
“I’m really thankful to ONE FC for giving me a chance to fight in their event and in return I will show my best fight in the cage. I’m glad that in my first MMA fight I’ll meet with a BJJ World Champion and I believe that it will be great fight between me and Alex Silva because it is World Wushu Champion against World BJJ champion,” he said.
While this will be Catalan’s first foray into the world of MMA, his opponent already has two fights under his belt and a 1-1 record. Silva has tasted defeat against a Filipino once before, losing a unanimous decision to Geje Eustaquio at ONE FC: ‘Battle of Heroes’ in Jakarta last year.
Also on the card at ONE FC: ‘Kings & Champions’ which is headlined by a lightweight world title fight between Kotetsu Boku and Shinya Aoki, will be Baguio-based Kevin Belingon. He will be looking to improve on his 10-2 record when he takes on Thanh Vu in the semi finals of the ONE FC Bantamweight Grand Prix.
For more information visit www.onefc.com. /Contributor James Goyder