Sidelined Team Lakay Star Supporting Hiroba Minowa At ONE 159

The upcoming ONE 159 card is set to feature a matchup between ranked strawweights Hiroba Minowa and Bokang Masunyane, with the winner poised to be next in line for a title shot.

Team Lakay stalwart Lito Adiwang recently revealed that Minowa has his support, mainly out of his desire to get a rematch the Japanese dynamo.

“If given a chance in facing one of them, I want to face the winner of their match and I’m really hoping that Minowa will win this one so that we will dance one more time and I can clear my record especially since he got a controversial win over me,” Adiwang mentioned.

Adiwang was the Japanese grappler’s debut opponent in ONE Championship in November 2020.

“The Thunder Kid” was poised to take the win by surprise when he was able to attempt a vicious-looking Kimura lock on Minowa in the very first round, but the latter was able to get out of it eventually and won the fight by split decision.

Controversy did surround the Kimura lock sequence as Adiwang fully believes that Minowa did tap out.

As time marches forward to July 22, Adiwang broke down where each man’s strength lies and why he wants a second encounter

“I’m giving the edge to Bokang [Masunyane] for this one. He has better wrestling than Minowa and I see that as the key to victory here. He can defend the takedown and submission attacks of Minowa and use his wrestling skills to control Minowa in the clinch and on the ground,” he said.

“I am hoping that Minowa will win and build his name so that we’ll have a better build-up for a potential rematch in the coming years.”

Adiwang went on to have a two-fight win streak before eventually going on a back-to-back losing streak, with his last loss being a technical knockout due to him suffering an ACL tear against fellow Filipino Jeremy Miado at ONE X in March.

He has provided constant updates regarding his status via his social media and is looking at a timetable of six to eight months for recovery–the usual timeframe for a torn ACL to completely heal.

With the Filipino being on the sidelines for an extended period of time, it may be a while before his fans see him back in the cage.

ONE 159 will be headlined by Reinier de Ridder’s defense of the middleweight title against Vitaly Bigdash and the vacant interim atomweight Muay Thai clash between Janet Todd and Lara Fernandez on July 22 at 6:00 PM SGT (6:00AM ET).