How Lowen Tynanes Recovered From Serious Injury To Return To ONE
After almost three years since his last ONE Championship appearance, Lowen Tynanes is finally set to return to the cage.
The undefeated lightweight contender will make his comeback this Friday, 25 January at ONE: HERO’S ASCENT where he will help kick off the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix.
In his first bout back, Tynanes will face former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio “The Rock” Banario, who comes into the quarter-final match-up with wins in six of his past seven contests.
While his ultimate goal is to become the ONE Lightweight World Champion, Tynanes will start his journey on Friday with the co-main event slot against the Filipino from Team Lakay.
Before he gets there, discover a little bit more about how Tynanes became a martial artist, and where he has been for the past three years.
Fractured Family
When Tynanes was still just a toddler in Hawaii, USA, his parents split apart.
The family was fractured, and he and his siblings were forced to live with their mother. What made matters worse was that she was battling some demons at the time.
Tynanes wanted nothing more than to return home to his father.
“The hardest thing for me growing up was when I was younger, and my mom and my dad split up. I had two brothers – one older and one younger. I was the middle child, and my mom kind of took us away. We always wanted to be with our dad,” Tynanes explains.
“I’d say it was when I was in kindergarten or first grade. I don’t know exactly what age, but I was super young, and my youngest brother was maybe 2 years old. We didn’t understand what was going on.”
Eventually, Tynanes and his brothers returned home to live with their father.
As he got older, he understood why his family had broken apart. Through time and maturity, Tynanes was also able to reconnect with his mother.
“In about first or second grade, my dad got full custody of us,” Tynanes says.
“When you learn about relationships, you get to see what adults actually do, but back then I think my mom wasn’t in the best place, so for us, it was miserable.
“What really saved us was my dad and God. She’s a totally different person now. She found God, and she has two little kids. I got another brother and a little sister.”
Born To Be A Martial Artist
Tynanes did not just wander into mixed martial arts by accident.
His father, Myles, was a professional mixed martial artist in his own right, and he passed along his knowledge to his sons at an early age.
“The first martial art we learned was boxing,” Tynanes explains.
“We’ve got pictures of me and my older brother in diapers with red Mike Tyson boxing gloves. I started off boxing, and then when dad started fighting, he got into jiu-jitsu, so we started jiu-jitsu in elementary school.
“In middle school, I wrestled. Someone told my dad, ‘If your son wants to fight, he’s got to wrestle. The wrestling is the new thing everybody’s doing.’ So, dad got us into wrestling.”
Tynanes continued wrestling through high school before deciding to turn professional for his own mixed martial arts career.
He was even able to live out a dream when he shared a spot on the same card as his father when he had the final bout of his career.
“It was in Japan, and I was the first fighter of the night, and he was the last. I was more nervous for him than I was for myself,” Tynanes says.
“I was very excited, went out and dominated, and came out with the victory. Walking out with my dad, I had what we call chicken skin – I think mainland people would call it goosebumps. I started crying walking my dad out.
“When he fought, I was so nervous I kept telling him, ‘Put your hands up!’ My dad ended up knocking his guy out, and I went into the ring, and I was bawling. I told him, ‘Dad, please stop fighting. I’m gonna fight now so you don’t need to.’”
Back To Life
Considered one of the top lightweight prospects in the world, Tynanes may have been closing in on a title shot following a win over Koji “The Commander” Ando in 2016 when disaster struck.
The Hawaiian suffered a debilitating back injury that not only put him on the sidelines, it nearly ended his career.
“I had a really bad reoccurring back injury,” Tynanes says.
“I actually herniated my disk, my i4, and my i5, and it was primarily sciatica that was stabbing down my butt going down into my leg.”
Tynanes experienced something similar when he was younger. Back then, proper training and preparation helped him to work through it. Unfortunately, this particular injury continued to plague him to the point where he could not compete.
It took a lot of time and perseverance to recover, but now he has worked his way back into competition shape. During that time, he also found happiness outside the cage.
“That’s what kept me out for a couple of years. There was a lot of wear and tear,” Tynanes explains.
“I took a few steps back, and I kind of re-evaluated my life, and I figured out what was important.
“Mixed martial arts is my first love, and it’s always been my number one desire. I really got to see things from different angles. I went back to school, I worked on myself, my relationship with my mom, my family and traveled a bunch.
“I helped my brother through high school – he’s a two-time state champion in wrestling. I did a lot of yoga to strengthen my core and loosen my back muscles, and then I did a lot of recovery.”
The Goal Never Changes
During his previous run in the ONE lightweight division, Tynanes had put together a perfect 5-0 record to rise to 9-0 overall in his career.
The time off was definitely a setback, but he is now fired up to make up for lost time.
That is why Tynanes was so motivated when he received the call inviting him to join the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix. If he can triumph over the other elite competitors in the tournament bracket, he will be on track to reach his ultimate ambition.
“The World Title has always been a goal,” Tynanes says.
“If you don’t want the World Title then you’re in the wrong sport. I’m here to challenge the best, meet the best and conquer at the top for sure.”
His mission starts on Friday, 25 January in his showdown against Banario at ONE: HERO’S ASCENT.
