A long journey led he and Soriano from the North Shore to the world’s stage. Ige was the first to make it to the Octagon back in 2018, and a couple years later, Soriano followed suit.
Training together in Las Vegas at Xtreme Couture for several years now, Ige and Soriano relished the opportunity to go through the exact same training camp schedule together. For Ige, the extra boost comes at a critical point in his career. After climbing the featherweight ladder to the tune of a six-fight winning streak from mid-2018 to mid-2020, he has fallen on hard times having lost four of his last five, including three straight decision losses.
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“The main focus was just going out there and sharpening my sword and getting better, and to be in camp together with Puna, it’s kind of nice because we’d feed off each other,” he said. “If maybe I didn’t feel like it that day or had a little lower energy, he’d come in high energy, it would boost me up and vice versa. If he was feeling low, I would go in there (and) be like, ‘Come on, we got to get through this together.’ It was nice to have a brother that’s going through this with you.”
Life hasn’t been all bad for Ige during this rough patch. His son, Bam, was born in 2021. Ige also provided perhaps the best highlight of his career against Gavin Tucker in March 2021, scoring a one-punch knockout just 22 seconds into their anticipated bout.
