FanPost

Rey Docyogen: The 10-0 Filipino who is Finding a Home in the Flyweight Division

Rey Docyogen is not the most famous MMA fighter in the Philippines, that honour goes to his Team Lakay team mate Eduard Folayang, but he might very well be the most likely to make it into the UFC. He is the URCC Strawweight (>119 lbs) champion and recently showed that can fight just as effectively at flyweight when he took out top boxer Rodel Orais.

It was Docyogen's 125 lbs debut and at 5"3' tall he is never going to be the biggest man in the flyweight division but he had no issues with his opponent's superior size. Before URCC Baguio 4 Orais was unbeaten in MMA and had fought the likes of Rey 'Boom Boom' Bautista in his boxing career but he found himself consistently outclassed in the stand up exchanges before before being submitted with a Kimura.

It was a very impressive performance from Docyogen and while Orais is relatively inexperienced as a mixed martial artist it was a good opportunity for the Team Lakay fighter to to demonstrate that he could compete effectively at 125 lbs and knows how to neutralize an opponent with a significant reach advantage.

Check out the video of that fight along with an interview with Docyogen after the jump.


URCC Baguio 4: Battleground - Rodel Orais vs Rey Docyogen (via URCCMMAtv).

Given the caliber of Docyogen's record and the fact that the UFC have just introduced a flyweight division it is not unrealistic to talk about him finding himself inside the octagon before too long. First he will probably need to win a few fights outside of the Philippines and the opportunity to do that should come around sooner rather than later because Team Lakay has very close connections with ONE FC.

Honorio Banario, Geje Eustaquio and Folayang have already featured for ONE FC and Kevin Belingon will have the opportunity to follow in Docyogen's footsteps and improve his record to 10-0 when he takes on Masakazu Imanari at ONE FC 3 this month.

Now that Docyogen has proven he can move up from 119 lbs, where even in Asia opponents are few and far between, he hopes to eventually make his way into the ONE FC flyweight division,

"It will be an honour to fight for them and to represent the Philippines but I don’t know yet when it will be because it depends on ONE FC and my coach. Right now I need to concentrate first with my review for my architectural board exam this coming June."

At 25 years old Docyogen still has plenty of time to pursue careers in both architecture and MMA but he cannot afford to lose his focus on the former. He has only averaged one fight per year since 2009 but says this is due to the lack of available competition at 119 lbs rather than his educational commitments,

"I don’t know why I haven't fought more often but the URCC said that they had to look hard to find opponents for me."

Now that he is competing at 125 lbs there should be no shortage of opponents with the likes of Andrew Leone, Kian Pham, Alex Silva, Allamurad Karayev and Akira Kibe all either signed to ONE FC or promotions within the ONE FC Network.

There has also been some speculation that Belingon, who holds a URCC belt at 129 lbs, will drop down to flyweight although first he has a tremendous opportunity to make a mark on the bantamweight division when he takes on Imanari. It is a fight which Docyogen believes firmly that his team mate can win,

"I think he can beat this guy. We all know Kevin is a hard working man and with the help of our other team mates he can do it. He was really very helpful to spar with during preparation for my last fight and if I am fighting someone with a similar style he is always my partner during our training."

The best mixed martial artists in the Philippines almost all come from Baguio and Docyogen was born and bred there. He trains under legendary coach Mark Sangiao and feels that fighting is in his blood,

"I think it’s natural for people from Baguio to be good fighters because going back to our history they had to fight just to defend their clan and their territory from others."

He is the same height as Demetrious Johnson although the American manages to fit a bit more muscle onto his frame. Docyogen feels that his long term future is as a flyweight but realizes he is going to need to bulk up a bit and cut more weight if he wants to ever compete in the UFC,

"At 125 lbs I don’t need to work hard to cut my weight and I think this division will fit for me. If the UFC want to give me that chance then why not? I know that first I would have to gain weight as a fighter but I can do that because I am willing to work hard and train until the bottom of my breath."

www.twitter.com/jamesgoyder

FanPosts are user-generated content that do not reflect the editorial opinions of MMAmania.com nor its staff.