Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
“Famed” doesn’t give Team Lakay enough justice to what it just did the competition in ONE Championship.
Of the 11 champions in ONE, five are Filipinos and four of those are from the gym in Benguet.
Eduard Folayang reclaimed his ONE world lightweight belt when he beat Singapore’s Amir Khan of Evolve MMA via unanimous decision Friday at Mall of Asia Arena in ONE’s Conquest of Champions card making him the fourth member of Team Lakay to get a gold in 2018.
And one of the people who was in awe of Folayang’s return to championship glory was ONE world heavyweight champion Brandon Vera, who defended his title against Italy’s Mauro Cerrili in a fight that lasted just 64 seconds.
Vera is the fifth Filipino World champion in the ONE roster and he gave absolute respect to what Team Lakay has done not only in the mixed martial arts organization but also for Philippine fighting in general.
“There are five world championship belts here in the Philippines and that’s a huge deal,” said Vera (16-7). “Team Lakay has four and the last one is mine.”
“Team Lakay’s been doing their own thing, and to be part of the five belts—own half in the world—I’m very proud of that fact.”
ONE world bantamweight champion Kevin Belingon, ONE world flyweight champion Geje Eustaquio, and ONE world strawweight champion Joshua Pacio are the other three titlists from Team Lakay and all three were in attendance during the card to show their support to Folayang (21-6), who just turned 35 on Thursday.
“When Eduard was fighting I saw that even in the first and second rounds that it was a good fight, and Amir’s an amazing athlete, then the third round came and Eduard picked it up,” said Vera. “By the fourth and fifth rounds we knew it was Eduard.”