Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado put on a masterful striking performance, stopping Miao Li Tao once again to punctuate their strawweight rivalry in a highly anticipated rematch on Friday night at the ONE Championship’s ONE: NEXTGEN at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Miado came out with all guns blazing in the first round, pummeling Miao with cracking right hands while maintaining distance with his jab.
Actions continued in the second, but a fierce barrage of punches ended matters abruptly, earning Miado a spectacular technical knockout victory.
Miado’s impressive stoppage proved that his first win over his Chinese foe was not a fluke. He stopped Miao in November 2019 with a flying knee.
He has a professional MMA record of 10 wins against 4 losses. He has split his eight outings in the ONE Championship, one of the noted victories was when he knocked out legendary Muay Thai World Champion and former ONE Strawweight World Champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in 2018.
Dejdamrong came back strong in their return bout in February 2019 by scoring a TKO win of his own.
A third meeting between the two would settle the score once and for all.
Miado is one of the few Filipino martial arts athletes from the Philippines that doesn’t belong to the revered and dreaded Team Lakay. He joined different MMA teams before being part just recently of the Marok Force MMA.
Who is Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado? And will he be the next MMA star to come out of the Philippines?
Late start, learn fast
Miado, the Blaze FC Strawweight champion, is from Albay, a city in the southwestern part of Luzon island.
The son of farmers, he began training in Muay Thai at age 19, seeing it as a way to bring his family out of poverty.
Since then, his plan was always to become a professional martial artist, and he soon found success in both Muay Thai and boxing, putting together an impressive combat sports record of 76-7.
Upon debuting in the cage, Miado won four consecutive bouts to start his career, earning him a shot at Filipino promotion Blaze FC’s strawweight title. After winning the belt, he was back in the cage less than a month later, securing another unanimous decision victory to earn a place on the ONE Championship roster.
Miado made his promotional debut on the global stage in 2017 and quickly established himself as a talent to watch after putting on some truly thrilling performances.
In 2018, he scored his most noted win in the ONE cage thus far when he knocked out Dejdamrong in Thailand.
Match made in the cage
They say behind every man’s success is a woman. Unlike team Team Lakay fighters who enjoy tremendous support from a huge team of co-fighters, Miado has a unique yet effective backup from his wife Chesla.
At the beginning of 2018, right when Miado was about to start gaining traction in his ONE Championship career, he met Chesla Nuval at the UGB MMA facility in Marikina City.
The Filipina, who is also a mixed martial artist, originally stepped into the gym to prepare for a scheduled bout in South Korea. But instead, she found a match made in heaven with “The Jaguar.”
Since that encounter, the two have become nearly inseparable.
For Miado, it is especially important to have a partner who can understand the lifestyle of a mixed martial artist, as well as the struggles and triumphs he continues to experience in his career.
“She is a martial artist and a fighter. It’s a big thing for me, and it’s a very good feeling because it makes things easier for us. Since she is a fighter, she understands the situation that I am in and the things that I am going through,” he continues.
“We’re always together in the gym, training in the fields, or cross-training [in general]. Wherever I train, she goes with me. That’s one of the ways that we bond, from our travels to the gym up to when we train.”
Chesla’s impact on his career does not end with her involvement in the physical training sessions.
In fact, the Filipina has been active in reviewing tape of Miado’s upcoming opponents, helping to map out possible winning strategies, and even scouting future adversaries.
That has been happening since his initial encounter with Dejdamrong in 2018, which he won via knockout in an astonishing 89 seconds.
“She has been with me since my first fight against Dejdamrong until now. She still works with me in preparing for future fights,” he says.
Now, they are husband and wife, and parents to a beautiful baby boy named Tobiko. The couple could not be any happier.
“Wherever I go, she is with me, alongside our baby,” he says, proudly.
