Jean Claude Saclag’s second international fight may have been long overdue but this Friday, Sept. 6, the Team Lakay fighter will be a marked man once he enters the One Championship ring inside the historic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Saclag has been a regular fixture in the amateur scene winning a bronze medal in the men’s 56-kilogram sanda event in the Wushu World Championships in Kuala Lumpur in 2013 before clinching the gold medal in men’s 60-kg sanda event in Jakarta and silver medal in the 17th Asian Games in Incheon in 2014.
The Benguet and Kalinga native then shifted to kickboxing, bagging gold medals during the 2019, 2021 and 2023 edition of the Southeast Asian Games including a gold during the 2022 Asian Kickboxing Championship.
And on Friday, his experience will be put to test against Korea’s Jun Young Lee in a flyweight MMA clash in the opener of One Friday Fights 78 headlined by Pakorn PK Saenchai who will make his second appearance on ONE’s weekly proving grounds against Portuguese standout Fabio Reis in a bantamweight Muay Thai contest.
“Right now, I’m working on my ground game so I’m training double time to be prepared,” added Saclag, a former University of the Cordilleras student.
It will be Saclag’s second international MMA international bout after yielding to Ryo Okada in 2019 via a three round unanimous decision in the Shooto 30th anniversary tour.
And since that day on, Saclag said he has been a work in progress
“Skills wise, siguro mas nahasa na ako this time, in terms of experience, sa striking, lalo na sa conditioning,” said Saclag.
Saclag added there are still a lot to learn in his young MMA career but with Team Lakay on his side, he believes he has the slight advantage against his Korean opponent who has a 5-1 record with four of them coming by way of technical knock-out.
“Sa composure siguro dun din ako nagkaroon ng experience kasi noon gusto ko lang makipag striking,” Saclag quipped. Roderick Osis
