Danny “The King” Kingad knows he is coming in as the underdog in his showdown with 12-time Flyweight World Champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Championship Final.
Their co-main event clash happens at the historic ONE: Century Part I on October 13 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
The 24-year-old understands well that he is up for the biggest test of his young career. Still, he remains unfazed and vows to put the pressure on the American great.
“I think his defense can be attacked. He’s a very technical fighter with incredible stamina, and he usually gets his way in matches, which leads to unanimous decisions favoring him,” Kingad said.
“Even if he has never been stopped, he lost matches when he wasn’t able to assert his dominance.”
For the Sadanga, Mountain Province native, what separates him from all of Johnson’s past opponents is that he can match the level of conditioning of the AMC Pankration standout.
The Madisonville, Kentucky native is known for non-stop activity inside the Circle. His cardio lets him push the pace from start to finish.
“The King,” who goes through high-altitude training in the mountainous terrains of Baguio, is confident that he can hang with the pace of “Mighty Mouse” in this clash.
“I’m always ready no matter how many rounds we go. Our training isn’t just for three or five rounds — it’s for 10. We always train for more rounds than we’re scheduled for,” Kingad said.
“I will be able to show the result of training at high altitude, the unconventional training that we do, and our routine runs where we improve our cardio. I hope to show everyone that Baguio is a world-class destination to train.”
With all eyes on him as he battles the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, the Team Lakay standout claims Asia as his territory.
“I’m ready to show the world just how good we Filipinos are in this sport, and I’m going to do that by pulling off an upset against one of the favorites in the tournament.”
Catch ONE: Century, the biggest World Championship martial arts event in history. No organization has ever promoted two full-scale World Championship events in one day, with 28 World Champions competing in multiple World Title bouts.
PART I airs live on Cignal TV at 11:00am Philippine Standard Time (PHT) on Sunday, 13 October. TV5 will cut-in to live broadcast 10:30 am.
PART II, on the other hand, airs on ABS-CBN S+A or Cignal TV at 6:30pm Philippine Standard Time (PHT). TV5 will show the special delay live at 9:30pm PHT.
All preliminary matches will be aired on ONE’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.
