By Rafael Bandayrel
Team Lakay suffered a double whammy as Geje Eustaquio and Honorio Banario lost their crowns Friday night in the ONE: Hero’s Ascent at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“Sorry Philippines if I didn’t make it tonight but in my mind I thought I’m winning the fight,” a dejected Eustaquio said in the post-fight presser.
“It hurts to smile but we are people of the mountains, there is no mountain that we cannot conquer,” the Baguio native added.
As if that pain was not enough, Banario lost to Hawaiian Lowen Tynanes via a first round technical knockout (TKO) loss in their lightweight tussle.
Last week, Joshua Pacio – also of Team Lakay – lost his title to a Japanese rival in Jakarta, Indonesia.
It was ironic that Eustaquio – who goes by the monicker “Gravity” – was the one who’s constantly being pulled to the ground by Brazil’s Adriano Moraes, who won the rubber match via unanimous decision to reclaim the flyweight title.
Despite being well-acquainted with one another, Eustaquio and Moraes spent the entire first round trying to figure out each other’s game plans.
It was in the second round where Moraes, a known Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist, made his move that saw him score his first takedown of the bout.
That drastically changed the complexion of the game as Moraes caught Eustaquio off-guard with an unorthodox kneebar from the back position. He stretched Eustaquio’s leg as high as he could but the hometown hero wouldn’t relent.
“In the training when I go to this position, everybody taps,” the new champ revealed after the fact. “And Geje didn’t tap. I didn’t believe it when he didn’t tap.”
The only silver lining for the famed Baguio City-based stable is Danny “The King” Kingad’s unanimous decision win over Japan’s Tatsumitsu Wada.
