MMA: Keanu Subba eyes bout with Bruno Pucci

Malaysia’s Keanu Subba has his eyes set on one mixed martial artist as he continues to climb up the featherweight ranks, and that mixed martial artist is Brazil’s Bruno Pucci.

The 28-year-old Evolve representative is on a two-bout win streak, and Subba believes he presents the best possible match-up at this point in time.

“I feel like Bruno Pucci will be a great challenge,” the 24-year-old Kuala Lumpur native admitted.

“He’s on a two-fight win streak and I’m on a two-fight win streak, so why not? He’s also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu [No-Gi] World Champion, so it’s definitely a fight I’m looking forward to.”

Subba’s last ONE Championship appearance was back in October in Yangon, Myanmar.

At ONE: PURSUIT OF GREATNESS, he handed local hero Phoe “Bushido” Thaw his first career defeat with a deep guillotine choke at 2:47 of round one. That allowed Subba to maintain his 100 percent finishing rate.

Three months earlier, the Malaysian submitted China’s “White Dragon” Xie Chao via first-round armbar at ONE: PURSUIT OF POWER in Kuala Lumpur.

Subba wants to build on his momentum, and he hopes to make his ONE return before the end of the first quarter of 2019.

“I’m hoping to get back to competing by March or April. I’m excited to show a newly improved Keanu Subba,” he said.

“My aim this year is to fight three to four times and win all of them, and hopefully challenge for the title next year.”

It will be a tough road to the ONE Featherweight World Championship, which is currently held by Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen.

The promotion’s featherweight division is stacked with elite talents like Li Kai Wen, Christian Lee, Emilio Urrutia, Koyomi Matsushima, and former titleholder Marat Gafurov.

Those big names, however, do not scare Subba.

“The featherweight division is stacked with great athletes, and ONE has signed newer talents as well,” the Malaysian said.

"I’m looking forward to challenging them and making my way up to the top.”