“I really needed to balance things out” - Lito Adiwang admits he made mistakes in his recovery

Lito Adiwang could’ve made his return from injury earlier, that was until he made a crucial mistake.

The Filipino standout recently had an interview with The MMA Superfan, and it was in that conversation that he admitted that he rushed into things after suffering an ACL tear in March 2022.

Adiwang said he was mentally prepared to get back to the Circle without knowing his knee was still recovering from surgery. That overexcitement to get back into the cage exacerbated the injury, which consequently pushed his return a few months further.

He said in the interview:

“I really needed to balance things out, psychologically and physically because I made a mistake in what would’ve been my return last January. What I did was I was super positive psychologically, but physically my knee wasn’t able to keep at it.”

Adiwang was put on the sidelines after suffering a nasty knee injury in his match against fellow Filipino fighter Jeremy Miado at ONE X in March 2022.

Almost 10 months after the incident, Adiwang was chalked up for a spot at ONE Fight Night 6 against the debuting Mansur Malachiev. That bout, however, was canceled after ‘Thunder Kid’ wasn’t medically cleared.

Malachiev, instead, made his debut at ONE Fight Night 11 where he submitted Miado in the opening round.

Nevertheless, Adiwang is in perfect fighting shape and he’ll take on the equally aggressive Adrian Mattheis at ONE Friday Fights 34: Rodtang vs. Superlek on Friday at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Adiwang was once in the top five of the strawweight MMA rankings, and a win over Mattheis, who’s won six of his last eight matches, could see him return to the top tier of the division.