TWO Team Lakay fighters will be tested anew as One Championship returns to Manila in its second blockbuster event for 2019.
Honorio Banario and Danny Kingad will clash against two highly mixed martial arts fighters as they kick off Team Lakay’s campaign in their home country that will be top billed by their teammate and current flyweight world champion Geje Eustaquio squaring off against former world champion Adriano Moraes in their third meeting.
Banario will be in the quarter-final of the One lightweight world grand prix and will face undefeated lightweight Lowen Tynanes of Hawaii, USA.
Banario, a former One Featherweight World Champion, has experienced a career resurgence ever since moving up to the lightweight division who has won six of his last seven bouts, and is considered one of the top competitors in the weight class.
Tynanes is a former KOTC Light Welterweight Champion and is a Hawaii state champion wrestler. He owns victories over some of the lightweight division’s best including Rasul Yakhyaev, Koji Ando, and even current One lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang.
Now, following a nearly three-year break, the American is ready to resume his career.
Another Team Lakay prodigy, Danny Kingad, will be taking on Japanese veteran Tatsumitsu Wada in a showdown between top flyweight contenders.
Since dropping a first-round submission to Moraes in November 2017, Kingad has stormed back into title contention. He went 3 - 0 in 2018 and looks to make a statement in the new year with another solid win.
Wada, on the other hand, made his One Championship debut last July, falling to Reece McLaren via split decision. He bounced back months later to defeat Eugene Toquero via first-round rear-naked choke.
It can be recalled Moraes first defeated Eustaquio in September 2014, winning by second-round guillotine choke.
Eustaquio then worked his way back up the ranks in order to secure a rematch with the Brazilian four years later and picked up the One interim flyweight world title with a victory over Kairat Akhmetov in January 2018, which set up the title unification bout with Moraes.
In the highly-anticipated rematch, Eustaquio and Moraes figured in a tremendous five-round battle, but it was Eustaquio who claimed a split decision victory and the undisputed championship. Now, they face off one more time in a rubber match to determine the rightful owner of the One flyweight world title.