Filipino Sangcha-an to compete at UFC Fight Night Manila

MANILA, Philippines – A homegrown Filipino talent has been included in the lineup of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first live event in the country as Roldan Sangcha-an is booked to face Jon delos Reyes.

The scheduled three-round flyweight bout was publicly revealed on Thursday, February 12 (Manila Time) along with the announcement of the card’s main-event clash between Urijah Faber and Frankie Edgar.

Sangcha-an (4-1) made his first Octagon appearance in June of last year when he served as a late replacement for Delos Reyes to square off with Richie Vaculik on the undercard of UFC Fight Night 43.

However, Vaculik spoiled Sangcha-an’s UFC introduction by dominating the Baguio City-based Wushu practitioner in three rounds.

Prior to his disappointing setback to Vaculik, Sangcha-an was riding high on a four-fight winning, scoring two knockouts and two submissions in his initial prizefighting run.

Sangcha-an also established himself as a top contender for the then-vacant Pacific Xtreme Combat (PXC) flyweight strap and was slated to vie for the belt at PXC 43 in March 2014, but his opponent Rambaa Somdet pulled out of the title tilt after suffering a herniated disc in training.

Like Sangcha-an, Delos Reyes (7-4) also made a name for himself in PXC before being noticed by the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization.

The 27-year-old Guamanian had two matches under the UFC banner last year, but both outings resulted into a losing effort.

Delos Reyes was submitted by Dustin Kimura with a first-round armbar in January 2014 before he yielded to Kyoji Horiguchi via technical knockout in round one eight months later.

UFC Fight Night 65 is set to take place at the 20,000-seater SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila on May 16. – Rappler.com