THE youngsters of Team Lakay are ready to take over.
Joshua Pacio’s hard earned split decision against BJJ blackbelt and former world champion Alex Silva to retain the One Championship strawweight world title Friday evening, Team Lakay’s second generation are now ready to take center stage.
Following a tremendous five-round battle against a world class grappler in Silva, Pacio became the first fighter to defend the ONE strawweight world title twice by winning against every other fighter who has held the title.
The Team Lakay stand out is also by far the youngest of the weight class’ elite giving him the edge in the championship rounds against Silva.
“I did not get the finish that I wanted. I feel like I could have done more so I think I need to work more on my ground game and timing of my striking,” Pacio said in a post - fight interview.
Silva brought his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills to the contest as soon as the bell rang, closing the distance and tried to pull guard to get his Filipino foe to the ground, but Pacio was wise to the threat and retreated.
“He was waiting for me to make a mistake. I played safe. Kung mag scramble ka, mag eexplode ka nandun yung submission. So dahan dahan yung escape ko para hindi masubmit,” Pacio added.
Meanwhile, Danny Kingad showed why he is still one of the best flyweights in ONE as he bested Chinese heavy-hitter Xie Wei over three rounds to score the unanimous decision.
It was a close bout all throughout, with Xie putting the pressure on Kingad, who opted to lay back and counter.
Although both men showed their best offense as they met each other at the center of the ONE Circle, it was Kingad who exhibited more poise and control to capture the judges’ scorecards for the unanimous decision verdict.
Newcomer Lito Adiwang almost scored a knockout finish in the opening seconds of his strawweight match when he charged forward with a furious exchange of hands and dropped Pongsiri Mitsatit with a left hook to the chin.
The Tiger Muay Thai fighter defended well and struggled free after Adiwang jumped on the Thai and rained down punches and elbows, but he was soon on his back again and scrambling to escape an armlock attempt.
Mitsatit recovered and even took back control, but Adiwang managed to turn and end up in half guard. From there, he stepped over his opponent’s head and locked on a kimura to force a tap after three minutes and two seconds of breathless action.
Gina Iniong meanwhile used her powerful grappling to dominate Asha Roka in their women’s atomweight mixed martial arts battle.
The Team Lakay star signaled her intent from the opening bell as she dipped under her rival’s right cross, pushed her to the fence, and dragged her to the mat. From there, she never gave Roka room to breathe thanks to her smothering top control and a barrage of ground strikes.
Iniong looked like she was close to a finish with a guillotine choke against the fence at the end of round two, but the durable Indian survived. However, Roka was dominated again in the final frame as Iniong cruised to a unanimous decision victory to extend her record to 9-4.
Former ONE lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang however was unlucky after getting shocked by Peter Buist with a split decision.
Buist’s length proved problematic early for Folayang, as the Filipino found difficulty in gauging his opponent’s range.