Photo from Ana Julaton.com
MANILA, Philippines — Fil-American world champion Ana Julaton isn’t turning her back from boxing even amid her decision to join the ONE Fighting Championship, Asia’s premiere mixed martial arts company.
In fact, barely a month after she steps into the cage for her May 2 debut at ONE FC: The Rise of Heroes, Julaton is scheduled to fight in the ring anew with a potential world-title fight.
The 33-year-old Julaton said that her boxing promoter Allan Tremblay of Orion Sports Management was “very supportive” of her move to MMA.
“It’s unheard of for a top notch MMA organization and Boxing Organization to work together in order to have a fighter do both at the highest level. I am so fortunate to have people who respect me and my wishes,” Julaton told INQUIRER.net in an e-mail.
This jump from boxing to MMA, though, didn’t just spring out of nowhere, admitted Julaton. The sport had always intrigued her, she said, and was fully convinced by ONE FC head Victor Cui.
“He and I have been speaking for 2 years now and the amount of respect he has for Martial Arts and Passion for Combat sports drew me closer to ONE FC,” the California-born boxer said.
Julaton has always been acquainted with martial arts, winning medals in taekwondo to kenpo karate before becoming a two-time world champion in boxing.
“My Dad used to show me Wing Chun as a child and we would go from watching Sleeping Beauty then afterwards we would watch Bruce Lee in the same night,” Julaton shared. “As you can see fighting is in my blood.”
But even with her broad experience as a fighter, Julaton is going to face a whole new challenge next month: fighting in front of her hometown crowd in Manila at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“I have always wanted to fight in the Philippines and it hasn’t materialized yet in boxing. I found myself always fighting in Canada, Mexico, USA and other countries,” Julaton said.
Julaton couldn’t forget how it felt when at least 40,000 people cheered against her when she fought in Argentina in a title fight.
“I thought it sure would be nice to have that at least once in my career…and now I get to fight in front of 20,000 of my kababayans,” she said.
“I will fight with the Pride and Hearts of Filipinos all over the world, I carry you all close to my heart and bring all of you to battle with me every time I fight.”
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