Team Lakay Goes 5-0 in ONE Championship: Global Rivals
Filipino fight fans were in high spirits as Baguio-based Team Lakay, touted as the country’s most dominant MMA team, completed a successful campaign of five wins against local and international competition at the SM Mall of Asia Arena last night, April 15, for ONE Championship: Global Rivals.
Geje Eustaquio and Honorio Banario got the nod from the judges in three-round wars against Malaysian prospect Gianni Subba and fellow Filipino Vaughn Donayre, respectively; Joshua Pacio and Danny Kingad impress with referee stoppages; and April Osenio scores the lone technical submission of the evening with a deep armbar on Natalie Gonzales Hills.
Danny Kingad opened the night with with an easy ground-and-pound victory against Muhamad Haidar for his ONE Championship debut. The Lakay new breed handily picked up his Malaysian opponent for a slam, moving from the side to full mount before unleashing a barrage of strikes, prompting referee Olivier Coste to stop the bout at the 2:20 mark.

Danny Kingad defeats Muhamad Haidar in ONE Championship Global Rivals
April Osenio took home British-Filipina Natalie Gonzales Hill’s arm in their women’s atomweight bout. Osenio caught Hills’ arm as the latter took her down; the female Lakay hang on even as the Australian-based “Kilapino” was still on her feet. The stubborn attempts at extending Natalie’s arm finally paid off as both warriors ended up on the ground in somewhat of a North-South position, with April hyper-extending her opponent’s arm and Natalie verbally submitting at 3:23 of the very first round.
(more…)