KONVOY 03: RISE TOGETHER – Event Recap, Fight Highlights, and Heartfelt Thanks to Our Partners

Two hundred and fifty tickets. Every one of them gone before the doors opened. And two of the three headline bouts finished inside a single round.

On Saturday, August 1, 2026, KONVOY 03: RISE TOGETHER sold out the Arctic Room at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino, filling the venue to capacity for the third KONVOY event staged in Cebu in nine months.

For a promotion that arrived in the Philippines less than a year ago, that is a fast climb. And when the night was done, all three headline bouts had gone the way of the fighters the local crowd came to see.

A ROOM AT CAPACITY

Doors opened at 5:00 PM. By the time the first bout began, the Arctic Room was full – fighters’ families down near the front, gym teammates in matching shirts, longtime followers of the Cebu scene, and a noticeable number of people watching live MMA for the first time.

That last group is the one that matters most for a young promotion. Selling tickets to people who already follow the sport is the straightforward part. Pulling in an audience that came because the event itself felt worth attending is the harder climb, and it is what a genuine sellout in Cebu actually represents.

The ring sat at the centre of the room under full production lighting, close enough on every side that the crowd could hear corners calling instructions between rounds. It is an intimate setup and it works in the sport’s favour. Nobody was watching from a distance, and on a night with two first-round finishes, nobody needed to.

MAIN EVENT

RHYLE LUGO def. GLIAN JOHN MANLUNAS – TKO, ROUND 1

The main event did not reach the second round.

Rhyle Lugo of Studio32 Martial Arts / Pitbull MMA finished Glian John Manlunas of Latonio Striking Academy by TKO in the opening round.

On paper this was the cleanest stylistic clash on the card. Lugo, 29, came in as the grappler at 7-2. Manlunas, 24, brought the busier record at 10-5 and a striking base out of Latonio, giving up six centimetres in height but arriving with more fights and five years of youth. It was the kind of matchup that gets argued over in the comments for weeks – and it did, right up until Saturday.

The argument lasted longer than the fight.

Lugo took control late in the first round, and the finish followed quickly, bringing the room up with it. A grappler settling a stylistic debate inside one round is about as emphatic a statement as a main event can make, and Lugo made it in front of a home crowd that had come specifically to see him work.

CO-MAIN EVENT

NORMAN JOHN YRASTORZA def. MARCUS CONGMON – TKO, ROUND 1

The other first-round finish of the night ended an undefeated run.

Norman John Yrastorza of BMVL stopped Marcus Congmon of Vagabond MMA by TKO in round one, putting Congmon down with a knockdown and handing him the first loss of his career.

Congmon arrived at 3-0 with seven centimetres of reach on his opponent and a reputation that had been building fast. Yrastorza arrived at 6-3 – more fights, and more difficult ones. Experience against an unbeaten record is one of the oldest questions in matchmaking, and it usually takes three rounds to answer.

This one took less than one.

The knockdown did the work, and the referee stepped in shortly after. For Yrastorza it is the most significant win of a run that has taken him from 2-3 at the time of KONVOY’s first Cebu card to a headline finish over an unbeaten opponent less than a year later. For Congmon, a first loss at 3-1 is a setback rather than a verdict – and at 28, with the frame and the reach, he will get the chance to answer it.

CO-MAIN EVENT

LOURENCE PENDEJITO def. CHRISTIAN REY TADLAS SIGOD – SPLIT DECISION

The one fight that went the distance earned every minute of it.

Lourence Pendejito of JB Dream Fitness Gym took a split decision over Christian Rey Tadlas Sigod of Outcast Fight Camp after three closely fought rounds.

MMA against Muay Thai at strawweight, with three centimetres separating them and neither man holding an obvious advantage. Pendejito entered at 7-4, Sigod at 5-2. Both semi-pro, both on solid runs, and neither with a route to an easy night.

They did not get one. Three rounds and a split card that could have gone either way. Split decisions are the fights people keep talking about on the way out of the venue, and this was that fight on Saturday’s card.

For Pendejito the win extends a record he has been building across the KONVOY series since the promotion’s Philippine debut.

Beyond the three headline bouts, fighters from gyms across Cebu and beyond competed through the full card in front of a capacity crowd.

A CIRCUIT TAKING SHAPE

When KONVOY staged its Philippine debut in November 2025, the promotion was clear about the ambition: not a single show, but a sustainable circuit connecting fighters, gyms, and fans, with Cebu as the starting point.

KONVOY 03 is what that looks like nine months in.

Lugo, Pendejito, and Yrastorza all competed on that first card. All three returned to KONVOY 03 with more fights behind them and better records. All three won on Saturday. That is not a coincidence of booking – it is what happens when local fighters get somewhere consistent to compete, against opponents matched to where they actually are.

Look at the gyms represented across the headline bouts alone: Studio32 Martial Arts, Pitbull MMA, Latonio Striking Academy, JB Dream Fitness, Outcast Fight Camp, Vagabond MMA, BMVL. That is not a one-off assembly of names pulled together for a single event. It is a scene – coaches who know each other, fighters who train across the same city, gyms building rosters with somewhere to send them.

Cebu has always had the martial arts roots. What it lacked was a regular stage. Three events in nine months, ending in a sellout, suggests that stage now exists.

WHY IT MATTERS FOR CEBU

There is a version of regional MMA that never gets past the first few shows. Cards get assembled, tickets get sold to friends and family, and the promotion quietly stops. The sport is full of them.

What separates the ones that last is repetition – fighters who know the next opportunity is coming, gyms that can plan a season around it, and an audience that turns up without needing convincing each time.

Saturday pointed that way on every measure. Two hundred and fifty tickets is a deliberate room size, not an accident; it is a capacity a promotion can fill honestly and grow from. A full house, two first-round finishes, and a split decision on the headline bouts is about as good a night as a young promotion gets.

The fighters have noticed. Records that read 2-3 and 5-4 nine months ago now read 7-3 and 8-4. Those are careers being built in real time, in front of a crowd that watched the earlier chapters and turned up for this one.

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

None of this happens without the businesses that backed it. KONVOY 03: RISE TOGETHER was made possible by thirteen partners.

OFFICIAL PARTNER

Casino Filipino – Mactan · Cebu · Fuente

PARTNERS

BLACKBRIAR · Cebu Grand Realty · Commonly & Co. · Heather Medical Aesthetic Clinic · Cebu GraphicStar · Spine & Orthopaedics Cebu · Radius One Architecture + Construction · Studio 32 Martial Arts · MAXCUT · Blue Sapphire Group · The SSEDA · MJB Training Camp

Studio 32 Martial Arts deserves particular mention. Not only a partner of the event, but the home gym of Rhyle Lugo – who headlined the card and finished it inside a round. That is exactly what a local circuit looks like when it works properly: the businesses backing the sport and the gyms producing the fighters are part of the same community, and on Saturday that overlap stood in the middle of the ring with its hand raised.

The rest of the list tells a similar story in miniature. Local construction and design firms, medical and clinical practices, print and creative studios, martial arts gyms, and international brands with a footprint here – a cross-section of businesses that decided combat sports in Cebu was worth backing before it was an obvious bet.

To every partner: thank you for believing in Cebu MMA when it needed the backing. Follow them, and support the brands that support our fighters.

WHAT’S NEXT: KONVOY 04

KONVOY 04 comes to Cebu in November 2026.

That will make four events in roughly twelve months, and it arrives with a different problem than the first three had. KONVOY 01 needed to prove the concept. KONVOY 02 needed to prove it was not a one-off. KONVOY 03 needed to fill the room – and did, with the kind of card that sends people home talking.

KONVOY 04 arrives with an audience that already knows what it is getting. That raises the bar rather than lowering it.

If Saturday is any indication, tickets will not last long. Follow @konvoyfest on Instagram and Konvoy on Facebook for card announcements, fighter news, and ticket release dates – and this time, do not wait for the reminder.

Thank you, Cebu. You filled the room.

See you in November.