By Jun Ray Navarres
Former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio Banario continues to work on his power and explosiveness despite his win last February.
The 31-year old veteran scraped past Thailand’s Shannon “OneShin” Wiratchai via split decision to return to his winning capacity.
Banario wants to improve his current skillset in order to gain momentum and propel himself in the rankings.
“I’m working on a few things, adding a few skills and techniques, and working on my power. I want to end fights quicker. I want to bring back my fire. Fans can expect a more explosive and exciting Honorio Banario next year,” shared Banario.
Despite claiming the peak before, Banario is still hungry and locks his goal to wearing the golden plated strap again.
“Next year, I want to be more productive, continue winning, and stay strong. There are a lot of tough challenges waiting for me in my career, a lot of strong opponents. I want to be ready to face them and keep coming out on the winning end,” said Banario.
“For me, I don’t have any expected opponent to face next year. I’ll be ready for who is in front of me. My goal is to get the belt so I’ll be ready for anyone.”
However the pandemic caused the world to halt, locking everyone at home. The positive Banario took the opportunity to spend the time with his family especially with his growing son, Stone.
“My biggest accomplishment this year is returning to the winning track in my career, also, watching my son grow. Just seeing him crawl and seeing him start to walk and speak, it’s a great feeling and it makes me happy,” said “The Rock”.
“I think the biggest lesson I learned, especially in this pandemic, is to stay healthy — physically, mentally, and spiritually. Watching out for your family’s health and staying positive in times of crisis.”
With the easement of lockdown and slow return of ONE, Banario hopes that everything will return to normal the soonest. ONE Championship was able to hold fights this past months but Team Lakay suffered setbacks.
Banario reminded the fans of their stable’s resilience.
“We’re going to bounce back in a big way next year,” Banario assured the fans.
Follow the writer on Twitter: @burnsports
