It was not exactly the night that Jomary “The Zamboanginian Fighter” Torres have envisioned for herself. Needing a win to get back to her winning ways in ONE Championship, Torres was forced to wave the white flag by China's Lin Heqin at ONE: REIGN OF VALOR last Friday, 8 March. Lin displayed her stand-up skills in the opening minutes of the match before pushed by the Filipina to the ground with a takedown.
But as quick as the takedown was, Torres also quickly found herself in a dangerous position as the 25-year-old Hunan, China native locked up a triangle choke and compelled her Filipina foe to tap at the 4:12 mark of the opening round.
“The loss might be a bitter pill for me to take, but I am sure that I will learn many things from it," she said. “After this, I have no choice but to train hard so in the next bouts I’ll have a chance to win. Now, there’s a lot of things on my mind and that’s why I wasn’t really focused. But that’s not an excuse, I need to refocus.”
Though the result did not go her way, the match showed more things that the 23-year-old needs to work on, and that is exactly what she will be focusing on once she gets back inside the gym.
“I’m still gonna train hard. I know that I still have a lot of shortcomings in all of it, striking, grappling and jiu-jitsu. The loss once again showed me the things that I need to work on moving forward,” she stated.
“I trained almost every day to improve. I’ll take this loss as a big lesson. I'm confident that I’ll come back stronger after this.”
While her first submission loss was a tough one, especially given the circumstances, Torres promises a different athlete the next time she steps inside the ONE Championship stage."I know I still have a great career ahead of me," she stressed. "The loss will only make me a better competitor moving forward."