Cris Cyborg believes Eduard Folayang, Joshua Pacio leaving Team Lakay was the right decision

Eduard Folayang and Joshua Pacio’s departure from Team Lakay certainly caused a massive shift in the landscape of Philippine mixed martial arts, but Cris Cyborg believes it was the right decision.

The former world champions left their old stable earlier this year and have been training in the United States for a couple of months now.

Cyborg has hosted Folayang and Pacio in her private gym in Huntington Beach where they’ve shared ideas during training.

In an interview with The MMA Superfan, Cyborg said:

“Yes, I believe it’s important that you get out of your comfort place. When I went to South Africa for training there for my fight for Bellator to defend my title, I believe it’s really important that you should get out of your comfort zone and have more people in your gym challenge you to improve your game.”

She added:

“For sure they really learned a lot outside and from a different place too, and you have to have a lot of courage to do this, you know. It’s a lot of challenges, but for sure, they’ve grown a lot and improved their games.”

Folayang was a true pioneer in ONE Championship after headlining the promotion’s first-ever card ONE: Champion vs. Champion against A-Sol Kwon in September 2011.

The Filipino star eventually had two separate reigns with the ONE lightweight world title from 2016 to 2017 and 2018 to 2019.

Pacio, meanwhile, is one of the greatest strawweights in the history of ONE Championship with two separate reigns atop the division. ‘The Passion’ first held the ONE strawweight world title from 2018 to 2019, then his second reign lasted from 2019 through 2022.