Famed Filipino MMA stable Team Lakay had a strong showing at ONE X, ONE Championship's historic 10th-year anniversary show. The Wushu-based team had three fights in the stacked, action-packed card and every bout delivered.
Speaking on their YouTube channel, Team founder and head coach Mark Sangiao made an assessment of his warriors' performances on the night.
He recapped Stephen 'The Sniper' Loman against Japanese Shoko Sato. The surging bantamweight had an excellent sophomore showing and Sangiao sang his praises:
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
"So Stephen Loman vs. Shoto Sato, and we saw that most of them are counter punchers. That's the style of the two fighters, until Stephen started landing his counters. The confidence of the Japanese warrior was high until he got taken down by Stephen. So that's where we got a good lead in the scorecards. While on the ground, we intructed [Stephen] to go 'body-body-head.' We wanted him to set up his bombs. Those strong strikes like elbows or punches. That's what we were saying in the corner, if you heard."
Next, Sangiao talked about the all-Filipino barnburner at ONE X, Lito 'Thunder Kid' Adiwang vs. Jeremy 'The Jaguar' Miado. The absolute fireworks-of-a-bout ended abruptly due to an injury suffered by Adiwang.
Sangiao shed more light on the in-ring mishap:
"As for Lito - Lito Adiwang vs. Jeremy Miado - a fight against our own countryman. We were pulling ahead on points. They had good exchanges, but we lost due to injury. Lito landed wrongly of his foot when he was attempting a takedown in the second round. The second injury was near our corner, when his right knee completely gave out. But we're having him get an MRI this week, and see that problem. Hopefully it's not too serious so Lito can return to the cage soon."
Despite his teammember's loss, Sangiao credits the outcome as a win since it was a fellow Filipino who got the victory at ONE X.
"We witnessed how tough and durable John Wayne Parr is" - Mark Sangiao on Parr/Folayang bout at ONE X
Perhaps the biggest win of the night for Team Lakay was by Eduard 'The Landslide' Folayang. The former ONE lightweight champion fought Muay Thai legend John Wayne Parr in the Australian's retirement fight.
Folyang put on a striking clinic, landing almost everything he threw. The aging Parr, however, never backed down and went on a late-fight surge that almost turned the whole fight around.
On Folayang's striking prowess and Parr's gutsy comeback, Sangiao said:
"Legend vs. legend. Legend of Muay Thai vs. legend of MMA. The exchanges were great. Eduard [Folayang] was landing almost all of his strikes. Though we also witnessed how tough and durable John Wayne Parr is. With the amount of blows he's taking, he's still the one pushing forward. And in the end, that's also where he said his farewell, John Wayne Parr. That was his last fight."
Altogether, ONE X was a great event for the veteran fight team. It shows that their old dogs still have it while their young guns are to be taken seriously. We can't wait to see more from them this year.