Mark Striegl Trained with Brandon Vera Ahead of ONE: Age of Domination | MMAWeekly.com

Mark Striegl signed for ONE Championship with an outstanding record and an excellent reputation. He’s been one of the biggest names in Asian MMA for several years and is a fan favorite in the Philippines.

After years of competing for smaller promotions all around the region, the 28-year-old decided to put pen to paper on a long term ONE Championship contract toward the tail end of 2014 in order to pursue his ambition of becoming a world champion in MMA.

Striegl suffered a setback when he was stopped by Reece McLaren last year, but the Fil-Am fighter is determined to get his career back on track. He’s up against Sotir Kichukov at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday night and knows he needs to win to keep those title dreams alive.

“My goal when I entered this sport was and is to win a world championship title for the Philippines and bring it back here to Manila. That’s what I think about and it’s been my goal since I was young.”

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Striegl is a member of the fight team at Evolve MMA in Singapore and normally conducts his fight camps there. However, ahead of his third ONE Championship bout, the bantamweight has decided to stay closer to home.

“I’m part of the Evolve fight team in Singapore, but right now I’m splitting my time between Manila and Baguio. In Manila, I’ve been fortunate enough to train with Brandon Vera and AJ Matthews. Mark Munoz also came through one time, so I got to pick his brain a bit.”

Vera is the reigning heavyweight champion and will be defending his title for the first time in the main event of ONE: Age of Domination. He seems an unlikely training partner given the 100-pound size difference, but Striegl says the two of them go back a long way.

“Brandon is someone who I looked up to for the longest time. A lot of people don’t know this, but we actually trained together in San Diego when I was there for university. I was in the States for four years for college. That’s when I started training with Brandon. He’s a super nice guy. To now fight on the same card as him, it’s a dream come true. It feels like everything’s gone full circle. I can’t wait.”

Striegl and Vera both have Filipino heritage, but have taken very different routes to ONE Championship. The bantamweight established himself with local promotions in Asia like Pro FC, the URCC, and PXC, while the heavyweight was on the UFC roster for nearly a decade.

Striegl has been based primarily in the Philippines for the majority of his competitive career, but he comes from a diverse cultural and geographical background.

“I grew up in Japan. My mom is from Kalapan in Lanao del Sur and she’s a full Filipina. My dad is an American from New York. They are international school teachers who met overseas and then based themselves in Tokyo.” 

The co-main event at ONE: Age of Domination pits one of Striegl’s previous opponents against reigning bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes. It was almost exactly a year ago that Reece McLaren took the first step towards securing this title shot by handing him only the second loss of his professional career.

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Striegl has had plenty of time to dwell on the defeat and says he learned some valuable lessons.

“It was a tough pill to swallow, of course. No one wants to lose in any sport, but there are definitely a lot of lessons I took from that fight. I can’t wait to show everybody one year later what I’ve done better and how I’ve improved since then.”

The defeat doesn’t seem to have dented Striegl’s popularity. He’s a star in the Philippines and has become accustomed to getting attention when out in public.

“In Manila, people stop me in the malls and ask for pictures and that’s nice. I’ll never turn down a fan for a picture. There are some people that get annoyed or won’t give the time, but its five to ten seconds and you can really make that person happy.”

This will be Striegl’s third time fighting at the 20,000-capacity Mall of Asia Arena in Manila. It’s a venue he is becoming increasingly familiar with and the fan favorite is excited to be fighting in the biggest indoor venue in the Philippines again.

“There’s definitely a different kind of energy that you get in Manila. Fighting in front of my fellow Filipinos and feeling that home-town crowd and energy, there’s nothing like it. I can’t wait for it.”