Lito Adiwang on leaving Team Lakay and hitting his stride: “The keyword is sacrifice”

ONE Championship strawweight mixed martial arts sensation, Filipino superstar ‘Thunder Kid’ Lito Adiwang left longtime stable Team Lakay earlier this year to pursue other training setups overseas, and he says the experience has helped him grow immensely as a fighter.

Adiwang is coming off an impressive 23-second finish of dangerous Indonesian foe Adrian ‘The Papua Badboy’ Mattheis at ONE Friday Fights 34 last week, and was in good spirits after his incredible performance.

Noticeable was Adiwang’s explosive power, which was back on full display. ‘Thunder Kid’ credits his experience training overseas for his successful comeback.

In a post-fight interview with The MMA Superfan on YouTube, Adiwang talked about why his overseas training was crucial to his success last Friday night.

The Filipino firecracker said:

“It’s a very big refresher for me and yeah, I learned a lot from that and yeah the keyword is sacrifice. If you want improvement you need to sacrifice. Get out of your comfort zone and that’s what I did, and I think I showed the result tonight.”

Adiwang is one of the most exciting strawweights in the ONE Championship. Unfortunately, he was out for more than 18 months due to injury, after he tweaked his knee and tore his ACL in a fight against fellow Filipino Jeremy Miado in March of 2022.

A lengthy recovery and rehabilitation process followed. Adiwang tried to return in early 2023, but reinjured the said knee, causing even more delay to his return.

He finally returned at ONE Friday Fights 34, where he was victorious against Mattheis.

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action of ONE Friday Fights 34 live via replay on the ONE Super App and ONE Championship’s official YouTube channel.