Manila gears up for UFC Fight Night

The Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC’s maiden live event in the capital of Southeast Asia may still be a couple of days away but things are heating up among the fighters. Judging from the media day, it will be more action-packed in the octagon.

Jane Bracher files this video blog: 

Two days before the first ever UFC fight night in Manila, the fighters are calm. Trash talking is rare, but confidence is high.

Headlining the event are two of the best fighters from the lower weight classes Frankie Edgar and Urijah Faber. Both expect a dogfight come Saturday.

“I consider myself a pretty aggressive guy. He’s aggressive as well but maybe different intentions,” says Faber.

“[We’re] matched up evenly across the board. We do everything similar, you know. We’re gonna stand up and throw. We’re gonna look for takedowns. We’re gonna look for submissions,’ says Edgar. 

One other highlight of UFC Fight Night Manila is the last fight of retiring Filipino-American Mark Muñoz. He is going up against a taller Luke Barnatt. 

Muñoz expects an emotional exit before his home crowd. 

“Don’t worry about what you can’t control. Concentrate on what you can control which is the pace of the fight, your game plan, your attitude, your behavior, your emotions. You can control all of those things.

All eyes are also on Team Lakay’s Mark Eddiva, the lone homegrown talent in attendance at the media day.

The anticipation is bubbling just beneath the surface as UFC makes its live Philippine debut. It may be calm for now, but come Saturday, there will be no more niceties and the heat is on.

Jane Bracher, Rappler, Manila. – Rappler.com