Jhanlo Sangiao has his head held up high despite the first defeat of his mixed martial arts career at the hands of Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu on the undercard of ONE Fight Night 13 last Saturday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Sangiao was winning the stand up battle and had his foe bloodied in the opening minute. Halfway through the stanza, the Filipino dropped the Mongolian but was unable to get a finish.
In round two, Baatarkhuu took the fight to the mat and forced Sangiao to tap from a kimura.
“It is what it is. It has already happened and I cannot do anything about it but take it as a lesson,” Sangiao said in an interview on Sparring Sessions.
“I have to sharpen up in training. The game plan was I wanted to submit him, but he was tough. I also have this instinct to shoot which was why he scrambled. My biggest lesson is mental toughness.”
Sangiao’s father and Team Lakay head coach Mark, meanwhile, stressed that his son would have to train harder moving forward. Citing the level of competition in ONE Championship, Mark conceded that they probably underestimated Baatarkhuu.
“He (Jhanlo) has to train and work harder. This is a new generation, skill, and the level of ONE Championship has gotten higher. We need to train like champions. He has to focus on the game plan next time. Perhaps we underestimated the power of Enkh-Orgil,” Mark stated.
Sangiao, who is 21 years old, is now 6-1 in his MMA career.
He won all three of his previous appearances in ONE Championship, starting from a first-round submission win over Paulus Lumihi via rear-naked choke in his ONE debut back in 2021.
Sangiao earned himself $50,000 performance bonuses in his last two fights, a first-round rear-naked choke submission victory over Anacleto Lauron at ONE 164 in December 2022 and another first-round submission of Matias Farinelli via kneebar at ONE Fight Night 9 last April.
The 34-year-old Baatarkhuu, meanwhile, improved to 10-2 in MMA with a 3-0 record in ONE, which includes a win over Filipino Adonis Sevilleno.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
