7 Filipinos, 13 foreigners battle it out in ONE FC: Moment of Truth Dec. 6 at MOA Arena

Seven Filipinos and 13 foreigners will battle it out at this Friday’s ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) event, titled ONE FC: Moment of Truth, starting at 7 p.m. at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.

            Filipino Team Lakay striker Honorio “The Rock” Banario will attempt to get back his ONE FC Featherweight World Championship as he squares off against Japanese tormentor Koji Oishi in the main event of an evening that features 10 gripping bouts.

            “This is the moment I have been waiting for. After my defeat in May by Oishi, nothing has occupied my mind except to reclaim my belt,” Banario said.

            Oishi is a tough veteran that will pose a stern test for Banario He had been vanquished only once in his previous 14 fights, including the win over Banario in May, which shocked many MMA fans.

            The featured co-main event will be the fight between Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon, another Team Lakay fighter, and undefeated Spaniard David Aranda Santacana in the bantamweight division.

            Belingon, who was also trounced last May in the ONE FC event, is expected to have his hands full as Santacana is no ordinary adversary.

            Besides being undefeated in nine fights, Santacana, who has competed primarily in Europe, has impressive grappling skills, having won eight of his fights by submission.

But what is going in favor of Belingon, with a 11-3 record with seven finishes, is his overwhelming self-confidence, not to mention his back-to-back technical knockout (TKO) victories over Thank Vu and Yusup Saadulaev before that unfortunate May outing. 

Team Lakay member and former Southeast Asia wushu gold medallist Eduard Folayang will also skirmish with Dutch-Indonesian shooto veteran Vincent Latoel.

Folayang has to prove he still has it after suffering two successive defeats and will require all his skills, especially since Latoel is no easy rival having fought in six different countries in three continents with a record of 14 wins. He has a kickboxing background and trains out of the famed Golden Glory Gym in the Netherlands.

The fourth bout is in the bantamweight division and pits former Japanese Shooto Featherweight Champion Koetsu Okazaki and jiu jitsu expert Joshua Alvarez, who was born in Guam but whose parents are both Filipinos.

Okazaki has showed he has defensive prowess, although he was beaten by unanimous decision by the dreaded Brazilian Bibiano Fernandes in his ONE FC debut for the interim bantamweight championship in May this year.

Although a late replacement, the Guam-based Alvarez said he has never skipped the gym and trains almost everyday and does strength and conditioning drills. He has five straight wins and nine of his 12 victories were by way of submission.

The fifth bout is between former American Marines Caros Fodor and South African muay Thai practitioner Vuyisile Collosa, whose matchup will be closely watched as both are contenders for MMA legend Shinya Aoki’s ONE FC lightweight belt.

Fodor and Colossa separately won in thrilling matches during ONE FC 10 “Kings and Champions” event in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September this year.

Fodor, a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce before joining the ONE FC fold, thrashed the previously undefeated Seung Ho Yang of Korea for three rounds in his debut match, while Colossa put up an impressive unanimous victory against veteran Japanese Kotetsu Boku, the former One FC lightweight champion, in the main event.

The sixth bout pits Kamma Bantamweight Champion Dae Hwan Kim of South Korea and cage fighting specialist Thanh Vu of Australia. Vu will try to bounce back from a loss at the hands of Belingon while Kim will be looking to extend his eight fight undefeated streak and prove that he is in fact the real deal.

The seventh matchup is between two Filipinos, Team Lakay striker Geje Eustaquio and tough Eugene Toquero of Submission Sports Philippines.

Eustaquio has won four of his last six fights, with three of those wins coming by stoppage. Although he was trounced last May in ONE FC: Rise to Power by decision, his confidence is at all-time high because of the rigid training program, including coaching from an Iranian wrestling coach, at Team Lakay gym. 

But Toquero, who has a kickboxing and muay Thai background and is very effective with knee strikes and kicks, is someone who should not be taken for granted being undefeated in his professional career with four straight wins by TKO.

The eighth contest will see Filipino World Wushu Champion Ruel Catalan, who will try to avenge his brother’s defeat in the hands of the fighter he is facing now, Kun Khmer Champion Cambodian Khim Dima.

Catalan felt bitter that Dima dealt his brother Rene illegal and dangerous strikes in their last outing in October which resulted in his (Dima’s) being stripped of his win after the bout because of the illegal blows to the back of Rene’s head.

Dima is also motivated to get back the win, but this time he said he will do it cleanly against Ruel.

The ninth bout will be a thrilling battle between two heavyweights, Canadian top-ranked Heavyweight Champion Paul Cheng and Cameroonian muay Thai and Kickboxing Champion Alain Ngalani.

Ngalani is out to duplicate his first round knockout victory at ONE FC: Champions and Warriors in September against Mahmoud Hassan.

Although Cheng came from football, he has already proven he can make it in the world of MMA. His record included knocking out Ryan Hunter last November at AFC 12: Domination in Calgary and stopping Eric Barrak in May 2012 at Ringside MMA 13: The St. Patrick’s Day Beatdown in Montreal.

The 10^th bout will see top Filipino prospect Edward Kelly, who has an impressive record of five wins without a loss, and Brazilian jiu jitsu purple belt holder Major Overall, an American of Japanese descent.

Kelly, the brother of popular Eric Kelly, is an aggressive striker, while Overall, with a record of 4-1, has finished all his opponents by submission, including recent ONE FC Malaysian national featherweight champion AJ Lias Mansor.

FODOR, COLOSSA EYE JAPANESE LEGEND AOKI BELT AFTER MANILA MATCHUP

Who will have a chance to challenge Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) legend Shinya Aoki, the current ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) lightweight titleholder?

This will be finally answered during ONE FC: Moment of Truth on Dec. 6 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena when former American Marines Caros Fodor and South African muay Thai practitioner Vuyisile Colossa battle in one of 10 electrifying bouts.

“I’m not taking any chances although I’m the better striker than him,” Fodor said in an interview after the open workout organized by ONE FC for the media and MMA fans at the Resorts World Manila in Pasay City.

Fodor and Colossa separately won in thrilling matches during ONE FC 10 “Kings and Champions” event in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September this year.

Fodor, a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce before joining the ONE FC fold, thrashed the previously undefeated Seung Ho Yang of Korea for three rounds in his debut match.

His compelling win sent notice he is a potential contender for Aoki’s lightweight title, who has a career record of 24 stoppage wins.

The same was said of Colossa who saw action in the main event after he put up an impressive unanimous victory against veteran Japanese Kotetsu Boku, the former One FC lightweight champion.

“Since the beginning of One FC, my campaign [has been] for the belt, to fight for the title. That’s what I want, and Aoki is holding the title,” Colossa has said after his win.

ONE FC said the Manila fight on Dec. 6 will finally determine who is worthy to face the Japanese champion.

The two warriors will face off in the Manila card headlined by the much-awaited rematch between Filipino Honorio “The Rock” Banario and current ONE FC Featherweight champion Japanese Koji Oishi, who dethroned him in May this year at the same venue.

Another exciting matchup is between Filipino combatant Kevin Belingon and undefeated Spaniard David Aranda Santacana, who is known for his wrestling skills and has beaten eight of his opponents by way of submission.

Although Belingon, one of the fighters under Team Lakay, lost in his last fight in May by points against former Shooto champion Masakatsu Ueda, his two earlier wins were impressive to still mark him a dangerous adversary.

Prior to that loss in the hands of the Japanese, the Team Lakay fighter scored consecutive knockouts against Yusup Saadulaev last year and Thanh Vu at One FC 8.

“I don’t care about his (Santacana’s) record. I will just focus on my game plan,” Belingon declared during the open workout.

MUMBAI LOVE: Will True Love Prevail over Tradition?

It is often said true love, like gold, must pass the “test of fire”.

This story is not just another love story. This is the love story of two people from two different sides of the world, separated by culture and tradition yet strongly bound by pure and true love for each other.

Here is Nandi, a self-made Indian-Filipino, who believes in his heart that somewhere in this world he will find his soulmate through destiny. His parents, however, still cling to the revered Indian tradition of choosing the right partner for their son. Ella, on the other hand, is a young Filipina businesswoman who sources accessories for a jewelry shop in Makati. Her work brings her to Mumbai, India where she didn’t expect to meet the man of her dreams.

By some magic of fate, the two meet in the majestic city of Mumbai where Nandi and Ella start up a friendship and romance. Nandi takes Ella to the most interesting and colorful places in Mumbai such as the center of arts and culture, the sacred temples and museums and historical sites of Mumbai where Ella begins to fall in love with the people, culture and landscape. Nandi, the young man from India who showed her the magnificent beauty of India has quickly captivated her heart.

However, an emergency in Ella’s home office suddenly happens forcing her to leave for home without even letting Nandi know, not even give him her cellphone number or any contact info, to the latter’s frustration. Not giving up that easily on his quest for his love, Nandi seeks the help of his cousin Romni and both fly to Manila to look for Ella. This time lady luck smiles on Nandi who is able to find Ella in Manila and they start from where they left off in Mumbai.

But their sweet love must face more conflicts such as deeply respected age-old traditions of their different cultures. Will this interracial love prevail in the end or will love give way to tradition?

Mumbai Love is directed by multi-awarded director Benito Bautista and is distributed by Solar Entertainment Corporation.

For more details visit our website : mumbailovethemovie.com or

Twitter@mumbailovemovie Facebook@mumbailovemovie

FILIPINO ONE FC FIGHTERS DEDICATE DEC. 6 BOUTS TO YOLANDA VICTIMS

Baguio City-based Team Lakay mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, whose rigorous training has entered the final two weeks, are extra motivated and dedicating their fight to the victims of typhoon Yolanda.

“We are dedicating our fight to the victims of Yolanda. Gusto namin sila mapasaya sa aming laban kaya doble ang aming ensayo ngayon (We want them to be happy with our fight that’s why we are training double time),” declared Honorio “The Rock” Banario, who will be fighting Japanese Koji Oishi in a much-awaited rematch on Dec. 6 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.

The card, presented by ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC), Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization, also features four other Team Lakay fighters, who are out to redeem glory for the country after suffering defeats early this year in the same venue.

Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, the country’s top Lightweight mixed martial artist and former URCC welterweight champion, will battle seasoned Dutch-Indonesian striker Vincent Latoel; Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon will face undefeated Spaniard David Aranda Santacana; and Geje Eustaquio will square off with tough Filipino Eugene Toquero.

The fighters said while they would want to help out in whatever way they could for the typhoon victims, they could not do it now because of the forthcoming fight.

Focus na kami sa laban. Matitindi na ang ensayo at conditioning namin (We are already focused. Our training and conditioning is getting intense),” the soft-spoken Banario said.

Banario, who has an aggressive, all-action style, is bent on getting back his title from Oishi, who shocked the hometown crowd with a knockout win over the Filipino last May at the MOA Arena.

“Wala na ako ibang inisip noon kundi kung kailan kami ulit lalaban (Nothing has occupied my mind after my defeat except to think about when we will fight again),” he added.

Folayang, who already suffered two successive defeats, said he won’t allow to be beaten this time.

“Mas maganda ang training ko ngayon. Nag focus kami sa area na kung saan mahina kami (I have a good training program this time. We focused on an area where we are weak),” said Folayang, the former South East Asian Games gold medalist in wushu. He also won the silver medal in the 2006 Doha Asian Games and bronze medals in both the World Wushu Championship and Busan Asian Games.

Current Malaysian MMA National Featherweight Champion AJ Mansor has said Folayang’s defeats have been caused by his extended international exposure, which enabled opponents to scout and be familiar with his fighting style.

Folayang said he has added more fighting techniques and is being coached on wrestling and grappling. “We are becoming more familiar about wrestling because of our Iranian wrestling coach.”

“My opponent is also good on striking but I can beat him,” he said. Belingon said the fans should expect a good fight from him. “I’m a complete fighter now.”

He said he is aware that his opponent is tough and an undefeated combatant but he is preparing for it.

“Double ang ensayo ko ngayon. Nag dagdag ako ng fight techniques at mayron ako endurance training. Pinag-eensayuhan ko sya ng husto para talunin ko sya (I doubled my training this time. I added on my fight techniques and I have an endurance training. I am training hard to beat),” Belingon stressed.

He said he wants to be the number one bamtamweight contender in order to fight for a title in the future.

Eustaquio said he is a more rounded fighter than Toquero but he is not taking chances.

“I am dedicating my fight to the victims of the typhoon. I will give a good fight,” Eustaquio said.

Keanu Reeves in Tokyo to promote film '47 Ronin,' based on true Japanese story By Yuriko Nagano.

TOKYO (AP) -- The director of the Keanu Reeves 3-D film "47 Ronin" says he hopes his adaptation of a true Japanese story becomes a Hollywood blockbuster.

Film director Carl Rinsch, Reeves and co-stars appeared together in front of a Tokyo audience on Monday.

The film is based on an actual historical event during the Edo Period known as "Chushingura." It involved a lord who was wrongfully put to death and his followers — ronin — who sought revenge.

Rinsch said he took on the film subject and sat down with Keanu Reeves about two years ago. They wondered how they were going to take on a popular Japanese tale and do it justice. Rinsch said they decided to make the story their own, making "it a Hollywood blockbuster and see it through that lens."

"These themes of revenge, loyalty, perseverance, were things we knew from the very beginning were universal," said Rinsch, who is making his directorial feature debut with the film.

Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada stars as the main supporting character, Kuranosuke Oishi, a leader of the men. Sanada said that during the filming Reeves became more and more of a samurai, while the character he played became more "wild" in style.

Sanada said Reeves and himself hoped to depict the friendship of two characters, which transcended borders and social positions, in the film.

Reeves said "47 Ronin" is a story where people "share this journey to reclaim their land, their honor, their way. It was very special to me to be part of it."

Reeves, who grew up attracted to martial arts movies, makes his directorial debut this year with the martial arts action movie "Man of Tai Chi."

Released and distributed by United International Pictures

through Solar Entertainment Corp,

The film "47 Ronin" premiers in Japan on Dec. 6 and opens in Philippine theatres on January 2014.

Jake Gyllenhaal injures hand punching mirror on ‘Night crawler’

The actor, who co-starred in 2005′s Oscar-winning “Brokeback Mountain,” was treated in a hospital emergency room after the accident on the set of “Nightcrawler.”
“While Jake was filming an intense scene .. his character purposefully banged his hand into the mirror. Unfortunately the mirror accidentally broke, and Jake?s hand was badly cut up,” his spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum told AFP.

“He received numerous stitches at the ER and was released a couple hours later. He already returned to set for work,” she added.

In the movie, 32-year-old Gyllenhaal plays a freelance reporter investigating Los Angeles’ tought crime underworld. He has lost a lot of weight to prepare for the role, with some photos showing him looking alarmingly gaunt.

The incident happened on set Wednesday morning, according to a source cited by People magazine, adding that he was in character, at the end of an 18-hour day.

“Jake flipped out,” the source told the celebrity bible. “His character was looking into a mirror during the scene and punched the mirror in anger and broke it, cutting himself so bad he had to be taken to a hospital.”

“The scene was emotionally charged and his character was talking into a mirror and he got so into it, he banged his hands against the mirror and it broke and cut him.”

The unidentified source added: “It was all the scene and not because he was mad about anything else.”

‘Nightcrawler’ is released and distributed by Captive Cinema. Showing 2014!

Director Neil Jordan on Byzantium and Vampire Movies

Neil Jordan Director of Byzantium

Neil Jordan’s body of work is an odd, fascinating beast. On one level, the Irish director’s fablelike films — with their often mystical elements, their vivid photography, and their tormented, passionate characters — are remarkably consistent in tone, style, and themes. On another level, though, the films are a diverse lot, ranging from moody dramas like Mona Lisa and The End of the Affair, to thrillers like The Crying Game and The Good Thief, to big-budget, star-studded epics like Interview With a Vampire and Michael Collins, to fairy tales like The Company of Wolves. He’s even made a couple of exuberant comedies along the way (including High Spirits, which is better than you remember). Now, with his latest, Byzantium, a tale of mother-and-daughter vampires (played by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan) hiding out in a British seaside town, Jordan has returned to the vampire genre, and the result is one of his strongest, most ambitious and romantic works in years. Jordan talked to us about his new movie, fairy tales, and vampires.

Were you wary of returning to a story of vampires so many years after Interview With a Vampire?
It was really the script that Moira Buffini had written. I hadn’t seen the play, and I was not involved in the development of the script, or the writing of it. But it was strange, because when it was sent to me, I saw that there were so many elements in it that felt familiar to me from other movies that I’d made: It was set in an abandoned seaside town, it was about a mother and daughter, it was about storytelling, and, yes, it was about vampires. Actually, the least attractive thing was that it was about vampires. It’s quite difficult to put a vampire movie out there nowadays.

Neil Jordan Director of Byzantium with Soirse Gemma

But they seem like very different vampires this time around.
I did try to reinvent the rules a little bit. I got rid of the teeth, so now they use their nails. Ultimately, I think vampires — we call them “sucreants” in the film — are really like people who have entered a spell: They endure eternity in some way because of a choice, or something that’s happened to them. That’s why they’re so popular; they come out of the repository of fairy tales. I really did think of these creatures in Byzantium as dark shadows out of some fairy tale.

If I hadn’t seen the writing credit, I could have sworn that you’d written this film as well.
That’s interesting. I felt the dialogue was very specific. Some of it could even be called “clunky,” but I deliberately didn’t want to put my fingers on it. I felt it was important to preserve Moira’s voice, as a woman and as a writer: She had ways of approaching things that I wouldn’t have taken. What I liked about the script was its multifaceted quality — it turns into different things. It’s like a lantern that lets you see different aspects of the story.

There have been so many films in recent years that have attempted to “update” fairy tales: the Snow White films, the Hansel & Gretel film. But in a way, you were already doing that sort of thing 30 years ago, and doing it a lot more artfully, long before it became a fad among filmmakers.
Yeah. I guess I’ve always been obsessed with fairy tales. But it’s easy to see their appeal: They’re so simple and so efficient. As a storyteller and writer, that just appeals to me. There are a lot of archetypes and symbols there, and these are stories that have very deep roots. I think that’s something I always find myself drawn to.

There’s something else I’ve noticed about your films: They’re all about devotion, on some level. That’s very much true of Byzantium as well. And it’s a kind of devotion that can be romantic, or maternal, or spiritual. End of the Affair, it seems to me, matches one character’s romantic devotion with another’s devotion to God. And Byzantium, too, twins one character’s maternal devotion with another’s romantic devotion.
It’s all because I grew up as an Irish Catholic. [Laughs.] It’s a very specific kind of mind-set. It’s like you’re in this strange movie theater showing the same thing all the time. That was the reason I wanted to do Interview With a Vampire: It seemed to me to be about guilt. It was the most wonderful parable about wallowing in guilt that I’d ever come across. But these things are unconscious: I don’t have an agenda. I’m neither a bad Irish Catholic nor a good one. What is weird, though, is to watch a movie I made years ago and see how revealing it is about me. Films are essentially attempts to disguise one’s intentions, or state of mind. It’s amazing, because there have been films I made that felt like they were opportunities to not be personal. But then, years later, it shocks me how revealing it is.

Neil Jordan Director of Byzantium with Soirse Gemma

Can you give me an example of such a film?
Mona Lisa. It turned out to be a film about how men are misunderstood. It shocked me how emotionally revealing it was. Of course, that is what they should be. They should just be full of emotion. Stanley Kubrick once said, “The problem isn’t having a message. The problem is disguising the message.”

Over and over, your films are replete with career-high performances from actors — be they accomplished, established ones like Bob Hoskins in Mona Lisa or Julianne Moore in End of the Affair, or people we don’t ordinarily expect to give standout performances, like Gemma Arterton in Byzantium. Do you work closely with actors? Are you hands-on?
I just like actors. It’s really as simple as that. I like the fact that they don’t have to be themselves. They can live in a world of fantasy. I don’t know how it works. As for how I work with them, I try to make sure the actors understand what the part is. I look for people who have emotional reality to them. Beyond that, I don’t know what I do. To be fair, if you cast a film correctly, you’ve almost nothing to do. If you cast the film slightly off kilter, then you have to work your butt off.

‘BYZANTIUM’ is released and distributed by Captive Cinema.