Lito Adiwang on the massive change in mindset he has in his new camp: “I will train to hurt my opponent”

At ONE Friday Fights 34, Filipino MMA dynamo Lito Adiwang makes his return to action having been inactive since his last fight in March 2022. Against fellow Filipino standout Jeremy Miado at ONE X, 'Thunder Kid' suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for a lengthy period of time.

During his road to recovery, Adiwang went through a lot of physical and mental trials just to be able to train again and get back in shape. He also switched gyms from Team Lakay in the Philippines to HIIT Studio in Bali, Indonesia.

Ahead of his bout with Adrian Matheis at ONE Friday Fights 34, Lito Adiwang sat down for an interview with The MMA Superfan on YouTube. In the interview, 'Thunder Kid' said this about his new fight camp:

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"I really need to get that, to achieve that, because that’s the reason why I moved out. What I see is I’m slowly getting into these new things because it’s not that easy, to be honest. It’s not like you’ll ask for one thing and you’re gonna get it immediately."

Adiwang continued:

"Now, at least I think I’m at 70 percent where I need to be or want to be. My mindset right now is I’ll go into a fight where I won’t train to defend myself against my opponent. I will train to hurt my opponent, that’s my mindset right now."

Watch the full interview here:

Adversity can always breed greatness. A fighter rising from the ashes almost always comes back stronger a hundredfold. We are looking forward to the kind of monster Lito Adiwang will bring after taking more than a year to build himself back up.

ONE Friday Fights 34 is available on the ONE Super App, the official ONE Championship YouTube channel, and other digital platforms on September 22.

About the author

Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

Emelianenko finds himself right at the top of Duane’s Mt. Rushmore of MMA fighters, alongside other big names like Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

Duane’s love for the sport is reflected in his writings, where he believes in speculating but not insinuating. He uses his intensive knowledge and skills in MMA to provide unique insights to the readers, along with sourcing information only from reliable sources.

Outside of work, Duane enjoys martial arts training, visual arts, film criticism, video games, and creative writing.

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Edited by C. Naik