Onra:April10.08

For your information: Maria Dunn just spent a week on Guam catching up with friends and family to power up before a very rigorous training schedule before competing in the world’s largest sporting event; Jason Evangelista delivers another gold medal to Guam with his first-place finish in the masters featherweight purple belt division in last month’s Pan American Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships in California with Caesar Whitt bringing back a silver in the masters medium heavy; PXC Live is on for April 11; jiu jitsu practitioners are getting ready for the Pan Asian Jiu Jitsu Championships in the Philippines in May and the BJJ World Championships in June; Fokai Industries and Onra just finished sponsoring a very successful Fearless Fighting Championships in the Philippines on April 5; and Justin “The Shocker” Cruz just received an invitation to compete for the URCC bantamweight title on May 31 in the Philippines.

I’m here in Hiroshima with Melchor Manibusan and son Maximus, Godwyn Quitugua and Albert “Super Brut” Borja from Guam along with Enson Inoue and crew to support Patrick Ayuyu in last night’s K-1 World Max 16-Man World Tournament.

Fight preparation

Yesterday we watched Pat run laps around the hallways of the Rigah Royal Hotel. We spoke to his trainer, Sangtiennoi, about Ayuyu’s last six weeks of training at Purebred Thailand in preparation of the biggest fight of his career against Dago Drago in his first, and hopefully not last, match in pursuit of the championship belt.We watched Pat do interviews in front of numbers of cameras for media around the world, and watched his image and fight highlights in edit under the world’s best combat sports production crew.

Realizing a Dream

At the rules meeting, we saw Pat have to strip naked to qualify at 155 pounds a day before his fight against one of the world’s best, Dago Drago, as the first fight to kick off the start of this very prestigious world tournament — an outstanding weight loss from 225 pounds just three years ago when he virtually abandoned his goals of becoming a K-1 world champion.We’ve spoken with Pat about this dream of his years ago when we were negotiating his first fight in the Marianas in Jungle Rules 1, and today, only a few hours away, he’s only four wins away from what used to be a virtually unrealistic goal.

As we can see, times are changing and the islands are comfortably adjusting itself to modern strategies in training and nutrition. But it’s the same the world over.

It’s a pretty heavy scene here. Loads of fighter-athlete celebrities from around the world have been assembled in Hiroshima as fighters, cornermen, and fans too, gather around in support and celebration of the fighting spirit in a place that suffered one of the world’s worse end results of conflict.

We’ve come really far in such a short period of time in Marianas combatives. It’s always healthy to reflect from time to time on what we’re trying to support, promote and cultivate in combatives and every other thing in life. As the sport grows, so does our voice, and in effect we should understand that so should our collective purpose.

What kind of seeds are we planting and what kind of fruits are we hoping to harvest?

A growing industry

This industry is growing as fast as our fighter-athletes are improving, and we’ve come into a healthy situation in things that the spark that’s been set in local combatives evolution is receiving oxygen from thousands of miles overseas and from some of the biggest hats in world martial arts entertainment.By the time this article is published, Pat would have competed and we will already be putting together a report on how Patrick Ayuyu did in yesterday’s K-1 World Tournament. After looking at the event’s highlight reel and the event only a few hours away, we realize more than ever that Dago Drago will not be an easy opponent, but have confidence that neither will Pat. This is a very competitive sport. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the win, but at least for now we can celebrate the victory that our islands have once again secured a bigger place in the highest levels in world combatives. Good luck, Pat, we are here to support.

Hoping for some good news in Saturday’s paper.

Again, thanks for dropping by.

Roman Dela Cruz is a mixed martial arts super-fan, and a representative for Fury MMA.