Team Lakay’s Lito Adiwang during ONE Championship’s Media Day for its 10th anniversary event. ONE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Lito Adiwang, like many of his Team Lakay stablemates, is a premier striker but one area of the sport that he admitted to needing improvement is jiu-jitsu.
Of the four losses he accrued over his career, two of those were submissions and Adiwang plans to put a stop to his grappling shortcomings and turn the tables around on his opponents.
Adiwang said that he’s not only planning to defend submission attempts better, but be the one to twist his opponents in dangerous situations.
“Yes, I admit that the reason I lost before was due to submissions so I’ll make sure to improve on that area not just on defense but now we’re practicing our submission offense,” said Adiwang in Filipino Saturday at Novotel Manila.
“We’re now training to become a more well-rounded fighter. We’re practicing that we just don’t defend submissions but now we’ll be the ones to submit our opponents.”
Adiwang’s first loss of his career was in April 2013 when he tapped out to Roy Doliguez’s rear-naked choke.
His second submission loss came nearly a decade later when he lost to Jarred Brooks via arm triangle choke October 2021.
The loss to Brooks also knocked Adiwang off his spot in the top five of the strawweight division.
Adiwang has a chance to make a case for another top five inclusion if he defeats fellow Filipino Jeremy Miado in ONE:X at Singapore Indoor Stadium on March 26.
“I’m very motivated to get back to the top five rankings because I belong to that list,” said Adiwang.