ONE Lightweight Champion Eduard Folayang. Photo by Randolph B. Leongson
JAKARTA — ONE Lightweight Champion Eduard Folayang has no doubt that Team Lakay stablemate Geje Eustaquio is more than ready for his moment in the spotlight.
Eustaquio headlines ONE: Total Victory at Jakarta Convention Center here as he faces Kairat Akhmetov on Saturday.
“I believe Geje has prepared hard for this. He already said that he’s 101-percent ready and he’s confident that he will win, so for us, we believe in him,” he said.
Folayang flew to this bustling capital city on Friday to be in Eustaquio’s corner when he takes on Kazakh contender.
Seeing first hand how Eustaquio prepared for this bout in the Team Lakay gym in Benguet, Folayang believes that his teammate has made every right move to get himself back in contention in the flyweight division.
“He sacrificed a lot. Though he failed before, I think he picked up lessons from those experiences,” the top lightweight in the promotion said, referring to Eustaquio’s submission loss to reigning ONE Flyweight Champion Adriano Moraes back in 2014.
But times have changed and Folayang thinks that Eustaquio is once again ready to seize glory.
“We believe he can make it and he’s ready to contend. He’s got a huge opportunity to challenge the champion, and I think he made the necessary adjustments to become the number one title contender again,” said Folayang.
“We want him to headline one of the fights in the Philippines in the future. So for him to do that, he has to win here and give his best. This will make a huge impact in his career.”