Honorio Banario determined to get back on winning track

MANILA, Philippines – The last time that Honorio Banario heard his name being announced as the winner of a bout was when he captured the inaugural ONE Championship featherweight title against compatriot Eric Kelly in February 2013.

Ever since his title-winning performance, it seemed to be a difficult task for the 26-year-old native of Mankayan, Benguet to get his hand raised in triumph as he dropped 5 straight outings inside the ONE Championship cage.

In Banario’s first defense of the ONE featherweight belt in May 2013, Koji Oishi needed only one punch as the Japanese veteran swallowed up the 5-foot-9 Team Lakay representative with a counter right hand in the second round.

When Banario made his bid to regain the gold-plated strap 7 months later, Oishi proved that he had staying power by shutting the lights off on the Filipino fighter once more.

Banario was given the opportunity to climb his way back to championship contention by facing Jadambaa Narantungalag in May 2014, but the Mongolian kickboxer easily cruised to a unanimous decision against him.

Banario went further into a downward spiral by bowing to Herbert Burns via first-round submission in December 2014 before suffering a 38-second submission loss at the hands of Ev Ting in October 2015.

Despite the string of disappointing setbacks, Banario remains motivated to continue his 6-year run that was once a promising career.

“Well, I’m always okay. You know even if I lost many times, I am always driven to get back up,” he told Rappler.

With his unstoppable drive to place himself on the winning track again, Banario is booked to compete on the undercard of ONE: Global Rivals, which takes place at the 20,000-capacity Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The man standing in his way is Dubai-based Filipino stalwart Vaughn Donayre, who is seeking his first win in ONE Championship after losing two straight matches under the promotion’s banner in 2014.

Like Banario, Donayre also used the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) as his platform to be noticed by international organizations such as Hard Knox Fight Night, Global Fighting Championship, Dessert Force, and ONE Championship.

Donayre, who racked up an impressive 6-fight winning streak in the URCC, had mixed results in fighting abroad as he went 2-4 in 6 overseas bouts.

Although the Filipino-versus-Filipino frenzy guarantees an action-packed encounter, Banario expects that Donayre will not go down easily as his fellow URCC alumnus aims to claim an elusive win at his expense.

“My match with Donayre will be the best fight on this coming fight card because you all know that Pinoy vs Pinoy is the best when it comes to fighting,” he said. “It won’t be an easy task to get my first win since 2013, but I will give my best.”

Regardless of the outcome of his cage meeting with Donayre, Banario revealed that he has no plans of hanging up his gloves for good.

“Win or lose, I will continue fighting. And for sure, I will win this fight,” he stated. – Rappler.com