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Rene Catalan has been fighting in ONE Championship since 2013. It has always his dream to become a champion in the organization. At 42 years old, 'D'Challenger' feels he still has one big push for a title shot before calling it a career.
Catalan owns a 6-4 professional MMA record with the losses sandwiching his six-fight winning streak. With that amazing run from 2016-2019, the founder of Catalan Fighting System earned the right to compete for the world title.
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Standing in his way was Joshua Pacio of Team Lakay. Both fighters engaged in the ONE Championship: Masters of Fate fight card back in November 2019. Catalan lost that match via arm-triangle choke in the second round, allowing Pacio to retain the strawweight championship.
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He fought again in December 2020 but lost that bout to Bokang Masunyane with a head kick in the first round.
The Catalan has had difficulty fighting again in ONE Championship since the pandemic hit. He is now set to return during ONE: NextGen III to face Alex Silva from Brazil on November 26. He hopes to earn a good victory to help him up the strawweight rankings again to earn a title shot in the future:
"I am a veteran athlete and I know I'm about to face young fighters. I know that in combat sports, people will always look at the younger fighter as the one who holds the advantage. But there's no question on my drive, my fire to be considered a contender again," said Catalan. "Like I said, I'm motivated to challenge for the belt again and become the world champion before I retire."
Catalan on facing fellow Filipino fighters in ONE Championship
Catalan's title loss to Pacio was a quick fight and it seemed that Catalan was not on top of his game at the time:
"My heart wasn't there, especially that I'm facing a fellow Filipino," Catalan bared. "I guess it's always going to be there, that you feel half-hearted because we all want to bring glory to the country but we have to face each other."
The match against Pacio was the only time Catalan fought a fellow Filipino in his MMA career. His upcoming opponent is now ranked at No.4. A win over Alex Silva would push Catalan to enter the Top 5 but he will still have to barrel through the likes of Yosuke Saruta, Hiroba Minowa and his former conqueror Bokang Masunyane to get closer to a title shot.
Jamming up the tight strawweight division is another Filipino fighter in Lito Adiwang who takes on Jarred Brooks on the same fight card.
