By JAN CARLO ANOLIN
Team Lakay went on rampage, winning four of five matches, highlighted by defending ONE strawweight king Joshua Pacio’s split decision against Brazilian challenger Alex Silva in ONE: Fire & Fury Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Pacio proved that he’s one versatile fighter and beat Silva, a blackbelter in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, at his own game. The two fighters took turns in grappling and striking all throughout five rounds, with most time spent on ground game.
The 37-year-old jiu-jitsu specialist took down Pacio in all rounds and eyed for submission but Pacio’s training came into fruition and found ways to escape the Brazilian challenger.
In the co-main event, Pieter Buist of the Netherlands handed Team Lakay its lone loss of the night after beating Eduard Folayang via split decision in the lightweight bout.
Coming off a loss from Demetrious Johnson last October in the flyweight grand prix final, Danny Kingad delivered this time and won via unanimous decision over Chinese opponent Xie Wei.
Lito Adiwang lived up to his moniker “Thunder Kid” and stunned the crowd after submitting Thai foe Pongsiri Mitsatit with a kimura lock at the 3:02 mark of the first round to win the strawweight bout.
In the atomweight division, Gina Iniong, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in kickboxing, showed prowess in ground game and prevailed over Asha Roka of India via unanimous decision.
Meanwhile, referees called the match between Jomary Torres of the Catalan Fighting System and Taipei’s Jenny Huang a ‘no contest’ as “The Zamboangenian Fighter” was unable to continue after enduring two illegal strikes on her groin.
