Bacolod-born fighter muay world champ
By Cedelf P. Tupas
Visayas Bureau
First Posted 21:26:00 12/31/2007
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—People who know him are not surprised that a quick Internet search of his name yields articles depicting his immense stature in a sport deeply entrenched in a foreign land.
In all but 10 years of his life, 43-year-old Filipino Vince Soberano has worked his way into the pinnacle of the indigenous martial art of muay thai.
“I’m not the best fighter out there, I’m just probably the most determined,” Soberano, who won the lightweight and welterweight World Professional Muay Thai Federation championship before a combined crowd of 110,000 this year, told the Inquirer.
Determined is an apt word for someone who got hooked on the sport 33 years ago and turned a short vacation in Bangkok into an immersion trip that lasted three months.
The turning point came one night in the Thai capital when the young Vince was brought by his father Joe, a lawyer, to the immense Lumpini Stadium to watch a muay thai card.
“I haven’t seen anything like it before,” the Bacolod-born athlete recalled. “I was shocked when the fighter knocked his opponent cold with a kick. But I really loved the sport the first time I saw it.”
Soberano got so hooked he was able to persuade his father to enroll him at a muay thai school the next day. The following years saw him spending summers in Bangkok to sharpen his skills.
Although he has spent most of the past 25 years abroad, Soberano said he represents the Philippines each time he steps into the ring.
In a professional muay thai career spanning three decades, he has a record of 28 wins and 2 losses, with 20 knockouts and 6 TKOs. Soberano also dabbles in mixed martial arts, where he logs a professional record of 8 wins and 2 losses.
“When I turned pro in 1990 in Las Vegas, I was asked what country I would represent and I told them I’m from the Philippines,” said Soberano, who is now based in Beijing where he runs a martial arts school.
His latest conquest is the WPMTF welterweight title, which he won by knockout over a Thai opponent in the prestigious King’s Cup before 60,000 fans at the Suanlaam Park in front of the Royal Palace in Bangkok in early December.
In August, Soberano sent Thai veteran Sompchak to the canvas for good with a wicked right hand to the kisser to win the lightweight title before a crowd of 50,000.
Muay thai may be dwarfed by boxing and mixed martial arts in terms of commercial appeal but Soberano said it’s not the economic benefits that lure people into fighting professionally.
“We fight for prestige, not money,” he said, adding that the purse for a regular fight is between $1,000 and $5,000.
There is a sense of fulfillment in fighting the best, said Soberano, whose biggest purse was $25,000 during a fight in Japan.
Apart from his muay thai exploits, Soberano is also known for steering China’s first professional MMA delegation to the Universal Reality Combat Championships in Manila two years ago, when the Chinese whipped their Filipino foes at the Araneta Coliseum.
A film and telecommunications graduate from San Diego State University, Soberano actually “retired” from his lucrative US job as a software engineer last year to focus on his fighting career.
The durable Soberano is also pursuing a career in K-1, a combat sport that combines stand-up techniques from muay thai, karate, taekwondo, savate, san shou, kickboxing and boxing.
In fact, he said he is scheduled for a 155-kg division qualifying fight in Japan on Jan. 18, 2008. He is also seeing action in Europe’s version of K-1 in Belgium and the Netherlands later this year.
“I believe I train harder than any other fighter,” he said. “I fight without pressure.”
|
