By Danny Jones, @ Tidy_MMA on X
The professional resumé of Filipino-American flyweight Mark Climaco is simply astounding.
Indeed, seven professional athletes have endured their first professional defeat at the hands of the 26-year-old. Of those seven athletes, six held a professional record of at least 3-0.
Factoring their record at the time of their respective matchup, the combined professional record of the ten athletes Mark Climaco defeated in a professional contest is a staggering 33-3. The four opponents he defeated at LFA – Pololu Nakanelua, Rodney Kealohi, Cody Davis, and Miguel Sanson – held a remarkable combined professional record of 18-1.
A deserved recipient of widespread reverence, the Californian is undoubtedly one of the top flyweight prospects competing on the regional circuit.
On September 13th 2024, Mark returns to competition in the main-event of LFA 192 – a tantalising matchup against Dana White’s Contender Series alumnus Victor Dias.
Although LFA 192 welcomes Mark’s sixth bout with the promotion, it will be his first LFA bout since LFA 150 on January 13th 2023. By his own admission, however, the athlete returning to LFA 192 is a significantly more evolved individual.
“I feel like I’ve grown so much just as a fighter, and as a person overall just from experiences with my fight career, and experiences with life in general” Mark reflects. “… I did a lot of training specifically in the arts by themself. It’s clear to see, everyone that’s watched me fight knows that I’m capable of fighting everywhere; they know that I am well rounded. So, I felt that it was good for me to spend some time in each area to refine certain things – with finishing mechanics on the ground, [and] finishing sequences that I feel like I had missed out on, on the feet. So, I just feel overall sharper everywhere in every area, just because I haven’t had a focus on trying to put it together for a fight, until this fight camp. I spent a couple months just kinda sharpening each area by itself, and because of that, now I feel like I’m very dangerous in every area, and going into this fight, I definitely plan on finishing Victor Dias wherever it goes”.
Following his victory over Miguel Sanson at LFA 150, Mark competed in the second season of Road to UFC, the single-elimination tournament contested between top Asian MMA prospects in pursuit of a coveted UFC contract.
Competing in the flyweight tournament, Mark made a statement with his quarter-final unanimous decision victory over South Korea’s Jung Hyun Lee, in which all three judges scored the contest 30-27 in the Filipino-American’s favour. Mark was the first athlete to defeat the young South Korean, who entered the bout holding a 3-0 professional record – a record that extended to 8-0 when factoring bouts contested under modified rules.
Despite a valiant effort that included dropping his Japanese opponent with a thunderous head-kick in the third round, Mark was subsequently eliminated from the tournament in the semi-finals following his unanimous decision loss to 7-0 Rei Tsuruya. Tsuruya would later win the flyweight tournament with a first-round stoppage of China’s Niushiyue Jiniushiyue, and defeat LFA alumnus Carlos Hernandez upon his UFC debut at UFC 303.
Mark’s Road to UFC semi-final loss to Tsuruya was only the second defeat of his professional career. However, the 26-year-old has only ever exhibited candid humility in defeat, focussing on the opportunity for personal and professional development.
“It’s all a growing experience you know” Mark explains. “Everyone’s career is different, and for me, I just have to accept the path that I’m on. I have faith that those fights – those experiences – are what I needed to get to where I’m at. Anything moving forward, I just have full faith that anything that happens is just something that I need. I think that last loss that I had, I definitely took a lot from that. It was different than the first loss, being that this fight I did feel like it was a lot closer, and it was a competitive fight… I feel like [there were] a few small adjustments I needed to make to win that fight both tactically and even mentally a bit too. I had more to take from that loss than the first loss that I had… I learned in that first loss that one mistake can end the fight, and in the recent loss that I had, that… it’s just about tactically making the right decisions at the right time”.
LFA 192 is the twentieth LFA event to be held in The Golden State, and the third LFA event to take place at Santa Cruz’s Kaiser Permanente Arena.
For Mark, it will be the first time competing in front of a home crowd for over six years.
Born in Hayward, California, competing out of Fremont, California, and training at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, Mark’s roots are firmly anchored in the San Francisco Bay Area. With Santa Cruz located just south of the Bay Area, LFA 192 offers Mark his third professional bout in Northern California.
“I’m super excited” Mark admits. “I’m really looking forward to being able to fight in front of my home crowd. A lot of people I’ve been waiting to watch me here locally, especially as the years have gone. It’s been six years – that was at the beginning of my career. It’ll be really good to be able to put on a good performance in what I feel like will probably be one of my last fights before going to the big show, if not my last fight. So, it’ll be really good to do that and perform well in front of my home crowd”.
In addition to making a homeward return, Mark will be competing on American soil for the first time in twenty months.
Following his Road to UFC quarter-final in Shanghai, China, his Road to UFC semi-final in Kallang, Singapore, and a bout against South Africa’s Tumelo Manyamala in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Mark’s matchup with Victor Dias at LFA 192 will be his first professional bout outside of Asia since LFA 150.
Moreover, with LFA 150 taking place in Prior Lake, Minnesota, Mark’s LFA 192 bout in Santa Cruz will be the first time he has competed in his own time zone for over two years – not since LFA 137 on July 29th 2022 in Commerce, California has Mark competed in the Pacific Time Zone.
“It’s a big relief to not have to travel across the world seven days-or-so before a fight” Mark admits. “It’ll be nice to have a good fight week here at home – normal sleep schedule, I can sleep in my bed. It’s good, I’m excited about that”.
“Granted, these are just things that are part of the game” Mark concedes. “I’m gonna end up having to do that again. But yeah, there’s definitely some obstacles that come with having to travel and fight overseas. I’ve experienced that the past three times I fought, so it’s a nice relief to not have to do that, especially considering I was fighting guys that were pretty much on those time zones. It’s different when both fighters are having to travel, but when you’re having to go across the world, and you have to change on the time zone when your opponent doesn’t, I do feel like they have a little bit of an advantage. Nonetheless, I learned from those experiences as well, and I feel like those experiences, and having to go through those challenges in fight week, those made me better from that as well”.
There is an interesting observation to be made when exploring Mark’s professional record.
The Californian holds victories over Cody Davis and Igor Siqueira – holders of the LFA Flyweight Championship and Interim LFA Flyweight Championship respectively.
Of course, the only other athlete to emulate this feat is current holder of the LFA Flyweight Championship; Eduardo Chapolin.
As LFA CEO Ed Soares proclaimed in the wake of LFA 161, “Outside the UFC, we have the best flyweight division in the world”.
Should Mark claim victory against Victor Dias at LFA 192, one could certainly be forgiven for entertaining the thought of a matchup against the reigning, undisputed LFA flyweight champion.
“I’m definitely not opposed to it” Mark admits. “I’m mostly focused on just performing at my absolute best in this fight. That’s my main focus, just putting on my absolute best performance – performing to what I believe. I believe I haven’t shown my full potential, even though I’ve had a successful career so far. I feel like I haven’t truly shown what I’m fully capable of. So, my main focus is going out there and taking this fight and showing what I am truly capable of and putting on my best performance yet. And then from there whether the UFC is the next move, or we have to go and fight for that title, I’m open to either option”.
The author extends his utmost gratitude to Mark Climaco and Jamie McClintock for making this article possible.
Photo credit to Brian Vega (@iamthebay on Instagram), kindly provided by Mark Climaco (@markclimaco on Instagram).
