By Jun Ray Navarres
Fans will need to wait again for their much-anticipated Danny Kingad and Kairat Akhmetov face-off.
ONE Championship confirmed the delay of Kingad-Akhmetov showdown after a cornerman from Team Lakay tested positive for COVID-19.
The top flyweight contenders are supposed to meet in ONE: BIG BANG scheduled on night of December 4. However, after the incident, Team Lakay was prompted to drop out of the fight card in order to ensure the safety of the other participants.
Akhmetov is Kingad’s doorway in order to be back in title contention and fight the winner between No. 1 Demetrious Johnson and reigning ONE Flyweight World Champion Adriano Moraes.
In a past interview, “The King” expressed his eagerness to face-off “The Kazakh” but now he has to wait for another time for their match-up.
Aside from Kingad, there is no one more disheartened than Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao, yet he promised that the fight will still push through and just need to wait a little longer.
“We are also very eager to have this match and taking the turn out positively, “at the right time.” Danny will be facing Kairat for sure in the very near future and we are preparing for that moment. It will be worth the wait sa ating mga supporters,” Sangiao told BurnSports.Ph.
Back at home, Team Lakay has to tighten the health and safety protocols to limit the physical contact and possible spread of the virus.
“With regards sa protocols, we have our logbook, temperature check, disinfectant mat then bawas tao sa training. If before iisang schedule lang ang training but now, hinati sa 3 brackets, para distributed ang number. We always tell our athletes and students too not to come kahit simpleng ubo lang yan,” shared Sangiao.
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