Joshua Pacio celebrates after successfully defending his ONE strawweight world title against Alex Silva in the main event of ONE: Fire & Fury on Friday, January 31, 2020, at Mall of Asia Arena. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Team Lakay continues to be benchmark in Philippine mixed martial arts.
Reaffirming its status, five Team Lakay fighters, led by ONE strawweight world champion Joshua Pacio, made the Top 25 MMA rankings by Weight Class, as per sports-ratings.com.
“Who would imagine that a small humble gym from the Cordillera mountains would prove to the world that Philippines too can make a remarkable spot in international MMA scene,” Team Lakay headmaster Mark Sangiao posted on Facebook Tuesday.
“We have multitude of reasons to keep going, to keep fighting.”
Pacio is ranked No. 5 on the 125-pound limit list—that has fellow ONE Championship star Demetrious Johnson on top—followed by Danny Kingad at No. 6 while rising flyweight Lito Adiwang is at No. 16.
In the bantamweight class, former ONE champion Kevin Belingon is at No. 14 while Stephen Loman, who rules the division in the Bahrain-based Brave Combat Federation, is at No. 15.