Team Lakay champs eager to prove they can also hold on to ONE belts

ONE champions from Team Lakay. Photo from Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

JAKARTA, Indonesia–The new year has been strenuous for Team Lakay with two of its champions in Joshua Pacio and Geje Eustaquio defending their titles just six days apart.

But Pacio wouldn’t have it any other way.

“For us, we’re more motivated when we’re training together because one of us is fighting after the other,” Pacio told Filipino reporters Friday.

“We’re also more motivated because we want to prove that we deserve winning the belts.”

Team Lakay’s bid to keep the belts begins on Saturday when Pacio puts his strawweight strap on the line against Yosuke Saruta of Japan in the headliner of ONE: Eternal Glory here.

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Win or lose, Pacio and the rest of Team Lakay in Jakarta will then, head back home early Monday morning with Eustaquio scheduled for his third fight against Adriano Moraes Friday at Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.

Pacio added 2019 will be full of challenges for Team Lakay after the Baguio City-based stable racked up a total of four world championships with Kevin Belingon also earning the bantamweight belt and Eduard Folayang becoming a two-time lightweight champion last year.

“We need to prove that we cannot only win the belt but to also hold the belt for as long as we can.”