MANILA, Philippines – ONE Championship’s “Global Rivals” card on April 15 continues to take shape as the company has prepared two bouts that will pit Filipino fighters against their compatriots.
Former ONE featherweight champion Honorio Banario takes on Dubai-based Pinoy stalwart Vaughn Donayre, while Team Lakay’s April Osenio meets Filipino-Australian Natalie Gonzales-Hills in a 3-round atomweight contest.
Banario (8-6) has not won a single bout since capturing the inaugural ONE featherweight championship against Eric Kelly in February 2013.
The 26-year-old native of Mankayan, Benguet has dropped 5-straight matches and was last seen in action when he yielded to Malaysian-Kiwi sensation Ev Ting in October 2015.
At the expense of Banario, Donayre (8-4) aims to claim his first win inside the ONE Championship cage after losing two-straight outings under the promotion’s banner in 2014.
In the other match-up, both Osenio and Gonzales-Hills are coming off disappointing defeats last year.
Osenio (0-1) bowed down to Kirstie Gannaway via second round submission in March 2015, while Gonzales-Hills (2-3) had the same fate against highly-touted prospect Angela Lee 8 months later when she was submitted with a first-round twister.
Aside from the aforementioned bouts, two up-and-coming Filipino combatants have been booked for ONE: Global Rivals, which takes place at the 20,000-seater SM Mall of Asian Arena in Pasay City.
Danny Kingad (1-0) faces Malaysia’s Muhamad Haidar (3-2), while Bernard Soriano (1-1) squares off with Indonesia Su Noto (3-2).
ONE: Global Rivals is headlined by a welterweight championship clash between current titleholder Ben Askren and Nikolay Aleksakhin.
Geje Eustaquio battles Malaysia’s Gianni Subba in the event’s co-headliner, while Eric Kelly locks horns with Russian featherweight Timofey Nastyukhin. – Rappler.com