Hurricane’s A-Comin’

Great news for boxing and MMA fans:  Luciana Bonifacio Julaton – better known by boxing fans as Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton – has just signed with ONE FC.

The thirty-three-year-old California-born boxer is the first Filipina-American to win the Women’s WBO Super Bantamweight and IBA Super Bantamweight titles.  She is 13-4-1 in her career and is the nineteenth highest ranked, female Super Bantamweight in the world.  She also has black belts in Taekwondo and Kenpo karate.

Though she plans to continue boxing, Julaton is eager to get her feet wet in MMA:

“I have the background in martial arts and I’ve always had an interest in the UFC. But I started training in Las Vegas and that gave me the chance to go out and watch the fights more regularly. Doing that, I saw how there were so many different options. In boxing, you’re limited to your left and right hands. In MMA, I understand kicks. I understand the ground game. It was so intriguing being able to fight with all these tools, not just my hands.”

Julaton is set to make her ONE FC debut at Rise of Heroes on May 2nd.  No word yet on who she will be fighting.

Chris Zahar is an American-born journalist. He has been covering Asian MMA since 2013, and his work has been featured in both Fight of the Night and Yahoo Sports. He has also interviewed such top Asian, ONE FC stars as Rob Lisita, Paul Cheng, and Sam "Sung Ming Yen." Chris also has the honor of training at TOUGH MMA, the only Taiwanese fight team to have exclusive partnership with ONE Fighting Championship. In his spare time, Chris not only enjoys mixed martial arts, but studies politics, philosophy, and Chinese. He is also happily married and a proud father to his son. Chris resides in Taiwan.