Coach hopes to see Team Lakay sustain good start to 2018

Team Lakay coach Mark Sangiao. Photo by Randolph B. Leongson/ INQUIRER.net

Humbled by the string of defeats that haunted them late in 2017, Team Lakay coach Mark Sangiao is hopeful that the year 2018 will bring better things for his stable in ONE Championship.

“Like what I’ve said before, when we were winning, we took for granted a lot of things,” he said in Filipino. “That’s what’s bad in us, that when we’re getting the things we want, we forget about the little things.”

Following a largely successful showing in 2016, Team Lakay studs drew the short end of the stick late last year, with the toughest defeat seeing Eduard Folayang lose his ONE Lightweight Championship to Martin Nguyen in November here in Manila.

“Success will destroy success itself. When we’re getting the things we want, we take a lot of things for granted,” said Sangiao.

.@TeamLakay coach Mark Sangiao hopes that this victory won’t be the last for the year after that disastrous 2017. @ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/B262B1IXPi

— Randolph B. Leongson (@RLeongsonINQ) January 26, 2018

With those lessons learned, the Benguet stable buckled down to work and went back to basics as they seek to redeem themselves this year.

Those sacrifices have paid off this early.

Geje Eustaquio avenged his defeat to Kairat Akhmetov and became the interim ONE Flyweight Championship at ONE: Global Superheroes last Friday. Joshua Pacio and Edward Kelly were also victorious in their undercard bouts, fueling more optimism on the side of Team Lakay.

Sangiao, though, doesn’t want his side to feel complacent as his bets seek to reclaim their position as one of the bests in Asia.

“We still need to work on our weaknesses and hopefully, sustain that. We hope that 2018 will be good for our team and the whole nation,” he said.