Gianni Subba Fighting in his home town at ONE FC: ‘Return of Warriors’

Gianni Subba was virtually unknown before stepping in as a late replacement to face Bruce Loh at ONE FC: ‘Rise of Kings’ in October but the Malaysian teenager definitely made a name for himself that night.

Subba, who only recently turned 20, knocked the Singaporean out cold with a vicious right hand followed up by a soccer kick to stun the crowd and instantly establish himself as one of the top flyweight prospects in the region.

His reward for that stellar performance is a spot on the card at ONE FC: ‘Return of Warriors’ which is taking place in his hometown of Kuala Lumpur where he lives and trains,

“I am so pumped that I get to fight in Malaysia, I already have all my friends and family ready to come support me. It will definitely be an awesome time,” he said.

He will be up against compatriot Saiful Merican in a battle for Malaysian flyweight supremacy. His opponent is a decorated Muay Thai fighter and a veteran of over 100 bouts and Subba does not think for a minute that he is in for an easy night,

“Saiful is high ranked Muay Thai fighter with dangerous kicks and elbows and from what I have seen he also has good combinations. Right now I am a little bit worried, but I know that by the end of my training camp I will be ready for everything Saiful can bring.”

All mixed martial artists experience nerves at some stage of their careers but it is rare for a fighter to be quite so up front about it. Perhaps Subba does not need to talk the talk because he has already shown he is capable of walking the walk inside the ONE FC cage and his knockout of Loh was one of the most dramatic moments in the promotion’s history.

Subba showcased the sort of punching power more commonly associated with much bigger men, ONE FC middleweight Melvin Manhoef for instance, and says that even he was surprised to see Loh drop like a stone after eating a perfectly timed right hook,

“I knew I hit him clean, but wasn’t expecting him to drop. I think it’s the gloves, anyone at anytime can get knocked out if a shot lands clean.”

Subba comes from a wrestling and grappling background and, given that he is taking on a Muay Thai veteran with over 100 fights under his belt and numerous titles to his name, you might expect him to be relying on his ground game at the 16,000 capacity Stadium Putra on February 2nd.

He says he will not be feeling any sort of an inferiority complex in terms of his striking prowess even standing opposite such a decorated stand up fighter and believes he is capable of scoring the second successive knock out of his ONE FC career,

“I believe in myself and my abilities and, yes, I believe that I can knock Saiful out. I am planning to showcase both my striking and grappling in this fight.”

Subba’s brother Keanu is also an MMA fighter who actually made his debut against ONE FC fighter AJ Mansour in March, 2011. He feels that his younger sibling could perhaps consider himself unlucky to find himself on the wrong end of a decision loss that night,

“My brother Keanu wants to get signed by ONE FC but no rush. I think he will be fighting in the Malaysian Amateur Tournament next year, that will showcase what he can bring and I’m confident that he will tear through that tournament. Keanu fought AJ when he was 16 and I remember seeing post fight pictures of AJ’s eye closed and nose bleeding so that should say something.”

The amateur competition will be sponsored by TUNE and the mobile phone operator has also signed on as an official partner for ONE FC. For a Malaysian fighter such as Subba it is exciting to see the sport developing to the point where multi million dollar corporations want to get on board,

“If one of the biggest mobile phone companies in Malaysia really believes in the sport I think that is a very good sign and shows that ONE FC is becoming as big as football or Formula One here. Two years ago no-one here really knew what MMA was and I would never have believed the biggest organization in Asia would come to Kuala Lumpur and put me on the card.”

Japanese flyweight veteran Shinichi Kojima is rumoured to have signed with ONE FC, Filipino Rey Docyogen is already on the roster and Radeem Rahman and Geje Eustaquio has both registered wins while BJJ world champion Alex Silva’s name is also in the mix in what is fixing up to be an extremely competitive 125 lbs division.

Subba is only at the start of his MMA career and time is very much on his side but if he keeps finishing opponents in the sort of devastating fashion with which he dispensed with Loh it won’t be long before he finds himself being put forward as a contender for the ONE FC flyweight belt.

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