[RANK5=John Hyon Ko] On April 21 in Italy, Anthony Leone will be headlining his second event for the organization at ACB 85 against Russian prospect Magomed Ginazov.
The American, now living in Bali, has competed at the highest level throughout his career. Facing stiff opposition like Renan Barao, Zach Makovsky, Eduardo Dantas, and Dustin Pague has made him into the spectacular warrior that he is today.
He first stepped into the ACB cage as a flyweight in late 2016 and strangled Rasul Albaskhanov in the third round. This performance warranted him a title shot against the unblemished champ of the division, Askar Askarov.
Five months later at ACB 58 in Russia, he collided with Askarov in the main event and was unfortunately submitted in the third frame.
"I almost died making [flyweight]. I walk around at like 75 kilos. I wanted to give it a shot and I gave it three shots but I just never performed well. My body did some weird stuff, it held onto water a lot."
Due to serious complications during his weight cut, Leone decided to move back up to bantamweight and took a fight 8 months later against Dean Garrett in Australia at ACB 76. At his optimal weight class, he displayed his true colors by adding another submission victory to his record.
The Bali MMA representative is at a very good place in his career and climbing up the bantamweight ranks seems to be in the back of his mind but not the sole focus.
Anthony Leone spoke with John Hyon Ko about the creation of Bali MMA, Indonesian MMA growing exponentially, the success of Canggu Fight Night, preparing for ACB 85 alongside his brother Andrew who is headlining the night before in Manila, the challenges Magomed Ginazov poses, suffering from edema cutting weight for flyweight and more.
https://soundcloud.com/kumite-radio/interview-anthony-leone-acb-bantamweight
고현 jhkmma@gmail.com
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