"Things have to be muscle memory for me" - Lito Adiwang identifies key mental adjustment from recent outing

Following his recent defeat to Keito Yamakita, Lito Adiwang realized that he needed to return to the drawing board and work on grappling scrambles that would be embedded into his system.

Speaking with ONE Championship in a recent interview, Adiwang said that it was one thing that he should improve on so that he can dictate the tempo of a match, much like the Japanese did during their showdown last February at ONE Fight Night 28, which eventually resulted into a unanimous decision loss, as he stated:

"Things have to be muscle memory for me. It's difficult if you're in that position and you're also calculating and thinking at the same time. With Keito, you can really see that it's muscle memory for him, everything he's doing there and that's why that fight ended the way it did, he was always ahead."

It was the Filipino MMA star's only fourth defeat in 13 matches under the world's largest martial arts organization. Had Adiwang won that battle with the 'Pocket Monk,' he would have cracked a spot in the division's top five rankings.

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Lito Adiwang said that moving to the flyweight division will be better for him

The 'Thunder Kid' has been competing in the 125-pound weight class since his professional MMA debut, and now he's ready to move on and move up to the flyweight division because he thinks it will be better for him.

Adiwang claimed that once he officially moves up in weight, he will finally let go of the stress of cutting weight and divert his attention to more details in training, as he told ONE Championship:

"I'm excited to see what's in store for me. I'm excited to see the possibilities. I'm even up to moving at flyweight and I think it will actually be better for me. Since I won't be cutting too much weight, I can focus on a whole lot of other things."