Championship ambitions don\u2019t fade after setbacks. Bokang Masunyane simply adjusts the approach.<\/p>\n
The South African striker returns to strawweight<\/a> seeking redemption when he faces Ryohei Kurosawa in strawweight MMA at ONE Fight Night 39<\/a> on Friday, January 24, inside Bangkok\u2019s Lumpinee Stadium. The 31-year-old dropped back down after his flyweight experiment against Sanzhar Zakirov ended with a decision loss.<\/p>\n Two consecutive defeats slowed his climb toward gold. Masunyane went the distance against Dagestani star Mansur Malachiev before moving up to flyweight for the Zakirov challenge. Both losses came via decision after competitive three-round battles that tested his resolve without breaking it.<\/p>\n The destination never changed despite the detours. His 37-second head-kick knockout of former title challenger Rene Catalan still resonates as proof of his finishing ability. Four wins in his first five ONE Championship appearances established him as a legitimate threat before the recent roadblock.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, ideally, I would like to fight Joshua Pacio even tomorrow if I had to. It\u2019s a very good opportunity to fight for the title. I\u2019ve been unlucky not to get that shot, but now I\u2019m building myself right back up to get that title shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, as a fighter, I\u2019d like to fight as much as I can. Whoever wants to fight me on my way to the title. They are standing in my way, and my goal is to get that title shot, so I\u2019m going through everyone in this division.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bokang Masunyane breaks down potential Joshua Pacio clash<\/p>\n Joshua Pacio stands atop the strawweight mountain as the division\u2019s most dominant champion. The Filipino king captured divisional gold a record seven times across a decade in the promotion, establishing himself as the standard all contenders must chase.<\/p>\n Bokang Masunyane sees explosive potential in their contrasting styles. Pacio\u2019s wushu background combined with the South African\u2019s deep wrestling prowess creates the recipe for fireworks. The stylistic matchup guarantees entertainment while determining who owns championship legitimacy.<\/p>\n Kurosawa represents the first obstacle in that championship path. The Japanese standout earned his shot by dominating Jayson Miralpez across three rounds at ONE Friday Fights 124 last September, riding a six-fight winning streak that includes four finishes into this title eliminator.<\/p>\n \u201cI like Pacio. He\u2019s got a very good personality, he\u2019s got a good heart, he\u2019s a fan\u2019s favorite in the division. Fights make styles, and between my style and Joshua Pacio\u2019s style clashing, I think it\u2019ll create a very explosive and very entertaining fight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, that\u2019s the fight to have. Fighting for the title, two explosive fighters with their best styles against each other, I think it would create something special. I\u2019ve always set my goals around fighting for the title. I\u2019ve fallen quite short a few times, but I think the fact that I haven\u2019t given up opens up that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship ambitions don\u2019t fade after setbacks. Bokang Masunyane simply adjusts the approach. The South African striker returns to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[166494,49,48,641,638,1865,152900,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-393285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-bokang-masunyane","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-one-championship","14":"tag-one-fight-night-39","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}