{"id":216590,"date":"2015-12-14T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=216590"},"modified":"2015-12-14T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T20:00:28","slug":"top-fc-champ-kwak-takes-a-break-on-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/top-fc-champ-kwak-takes-a-break-on-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Top FC champ Kwak takes \u2018a break\u2019 on Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Current Top FC bantamweight champion Kwan Ho Kwak, fourth left, joins Trench Tech fight promoter Cuki Alvarez, third left, and Trench Tech Gym members, from left, Joel Subang, Renz Benghit, Mike Muna, and Rey Kim after their training sessions last Friday at the Trench Tech Gym in Garapan. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reigning Top Fighting Championship bantamweight king Kwan Ho \u201cHandsome\u201d Kwak was on Saipan last week to accompany his girlfriend Kuseul Oh, who hasn\u2019t been to the island.<\/p>\n

The two were also on Saipan and to experience the warmer weather. Temperatures in South Korea, particularly in the capital Seoul, currently hover from 35\u00baF to 45\u00baF (1\u00baC to 7\u00baC),<\/p>\n

The Korean couple arrived in Monday last week, Dec. 7, and left Saipan last Friday. Kwak took a much-needed break from his preparation and training camp for his upcoming match against Guam\u2019s Kyle Aguon in next month\u2019s Pacific Xtreme Combat 51.<\/p>\n

The Namyangju City-born Kwak, undefeated after seven fights with six by way of knockout, will take on PXC bantamweight champion Aguon (9-4) on Jan. 16, Saturday, at the Solaire Resort and Casino\u2019s Grand Ballroom in Para\u00f1aque City in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

This will be Kwak\u2019s second fight in the PXC, which will also feature Filipino bets Crisanto Pitpitunge (8-3, with 3 knockouts) and Jinel Lanusa facing off for the PXC flyweight belt.<\/p>\n

It was not just purely vacation for the 27-year-old Kwak, who also likes to run uphill for conditioning, as he also sparred and trained with Trench Tech fighters every night at the Trench Tech Gym in Garapan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to bring my girlfriend here for a short vacation on Saipan and while here, I decided to also spar with some of the Trench Tech fighters so I remained in shape,\u201d said Kwak through translator Rey Kim, a Trench Tech Gym member and one of his friends on Saipan.<\/p>\n

Kwak, given the nickname \u201cHandsome\u201d by his coach and Korean Top Team co-founder Dongjin Ha, made his mixed martial arts debut on Saipan with a technical knockout win over Derrick Rangamar in Trench Warz 17: Night of Champions on Dec. 13, 2013.<\/p>\n

The KTT fighter, ranked third among 94 active bantamweights in Korea, said he has been continuously training even after winning the vacant Top FC 135-lb belt by way of TKO against Han Bin Park last Aug. 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been preparing hard for my fight next year. Although I love striking, where I like to go at it with my opponents, I\u2019m also working on my take down and submission,\u201d added Kwak, who has a third degree black belt in taekwondo and a second dan black belt in judo.<\/p>\n

He said that aside from watching videos of his opponents\u2019 past fights, he also likes to watch videos of his previous bouts to review his moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like in my previous fight against Trevin Jones, I know that I did not did well against him. I wasn\u2019t satisfied with the way I fought,\u201d said Kwak, who won by split decision against Jones in PXC 47 in March of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I also watch videos of my past fights to correct my mistakes and study how to make adjustments if I faced certain situations while fighting,\u201d added Kwak.<\/p>\n

Kwak, after warming up and honing his submission skills, sparred with Trench Tech promoter Cuki Alvarez and Trench Tech fighters Mike Muna and Renz Benghit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning Top Fighting Championship bantamweight king Kwan Ho \u201cHandsome\u201d Kwak was on Saipan last week…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5186,1289,8678,2842],"class_list":["post-216590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-mike-muna","tag-pxc","tag-renz-benghit","tag-trench-tech-gym"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}