Knockout king Caloy Baduria promises fireworks at URCC 27

MANILA, Philippines – Widely regarded as Universal Reality Combat Championship’s resident knockout artist, Caloy Baduria returns to action after nearly two years on the sidelines as he faces Filipino-Swiss stalwart Chris Hofmann at URCC’s “Rebellion” event on April 23.

Both men are slated to vie for the available URCC light heavyweight championship that was vacated by Philippine-based Australian fighter Nicholas Mann, who has not competed since August 2012.

Baduria (9-4-1) has been a URCC mainstay since his mixed martial arts debut in April 2003, when his bout against Mike Banayad ended in a draw.

But that disappointing first appearance awakened Baduria’s vicious instinct, and he went on to win 8 of his last 14 professional outings via first-round knockout.

Baduria started his knockout streak by settling his business with Banayad, and then blasted every opponent inside the URCC ring, including Dare Malecdan, Benjie Gloria, Philip Yeung, and Adolf Gannaban.

In addition, he holds a November 2007 knockout victory over Frank Camacho, who is currently a perennial contender in Pacific Xtreme Combat.

Even though the odds are always against Baduria due to his reckless fighting style, he still finds a way to smash what’s in front of him.

In Baduria’s last URCC fight in October 2014, Mark Palomar was able to rock and drop the 35-year-old slugger from Parañaque City with an overhand right to the temple.

However, Baduria managed to turn the tables and finished Palomar with a volley of solid punches in the first round.

“That’s how I entertain fans,” he told Rappler about his stand-and-bang attitude every time he steps into the cage.

As he seeks another silver-plated strap to put in his trophy room, URCC’s knockout king has no qualms about trading leathers with Hofmann, who draws shades of comparison with Baduria.

Hofmann (2-1) won his previous two fights by first-round knockout, scoring a 60-second demolition of Nickson Kola in October 2014 before thwarting Jeremias Tan in July 2015.

“I am here for a fight. I know that he is going to fight. It’s going to be exciting. Let the best man win and let the strongest man stand tall,” Baduria said of his match-up versus Hofmann.

Being on the ground is perhaps the weakest point of Baduria’s general MMA game as Eduard Folayang and Zhang Tiequan pacified his all-out attacks in the stand-up department by taking him down.

Folayang was able to carve out a first-round stoppage on the mat, while Zhang submitted Baduria in their two meetings.

Hofmann has an underrated grappling pedigree as he is known to be a proud member of Alvin Aguilar’s DEFTAC Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu.

Baduria asserted that he is not expecting Hofmann to resort his grappling leverage as he feels that the Fil-Swiss will opt to exchange strikes with him.

“The people paid to see some action. I know he will stand up and trade strikes with me. I am up for it. Let us give what the fans want,” he stated. – Rappler.com