3 Team Lakay MMA Fighters Score Victories In ONE Championship: Heroes Of The World

Three homegrown mixed martial arts fighters under the Team Lakay banner - Eduard Folayang, Honorio Banario and Joshua Pacio - scored impressive victories at the ONE Championship: Heroes of the World event which was held last night (August 13) at the Cotai Arena in Macau, China. In thoroughly dismantling Adrian Pang of Papua New Guinea, Folayang sent the message that he should be considered as a serious threat to the promotion's lightweight division which has been ruled by Shinya Aoki of Japan for the last three years. For his part, Banario continues his dramatic resurgence by grinding out a win over Eddie Ng of Malaysia. And last but not the least, Pacio proved once again that ONE Championship made the right call in signing him up by notching a submission victory over Kritsada Kongsrichai of Thailand.

Eduard Folayang vs Adrian Pang
This was a match-up between a striker (Folayang) and a grappler (Pang). What's interesting about the resulting clash was the fact that for most of the fight, Folayang dominated both the striking and grappling exchanges. The Team Lakay fighter mixed up his offense with kicks, jabs, and spinning back elbows. He was even able to pull off a perfect judo throw. Folayang was able to take Pang to the mat a few times to unleash his own version of ground-and-pound. Not Tito Ortizque in delivery but enough to cause damage and score points. Pang had his moments but never in the duration of the fight did he push Folayang into dangerous waters. With the win, Folayang is a step closer towards the golden opportunity: the chance to challenge Shinya Aoki for the ONE Championship lightweight title.

Honorio Banario vs Eddie Ng
Banario's stint in ONE Championship is weird, for lack of a better word. He took home the ONE Championship featherweight belt when he defeated fellow Cordilleran Eric Kelly in 2013. He lost the belt a few months later to Koji Oishi of Japan. He then lost four fights in a row (five if you include the one when he lost the belt). Banario started his resurgence early this year with a hard-fought victory over Vaughn Donayre. With his win over Ng last night, Banario has shown that he isn't yet ready to be counted out. It was a gritty tussle with both combatants nearly gassing out in the second round. Going into the third round, the big question was which of the two fighters has more left in the tank. Banario did and he even scored a knockdown. However, Banario has a lot of miles to go if he's planning to make another run for the featherweight title. This is considering the fact that the featherweight division is stacked with talented murderers, a bunch of whom was responsible for Banario's losing streak in 2013 to 2015.

Joshua Pacio vs Kritsada Kongsrichai
Pacio had a rough start in this fight. Kongsrichai was able to tie him up and drag him to the mat quite a few times. Every time the two fighters get on a clinch, Pacio was always getting the losing end of the stick. The tide of the fight changed during the last minutes of the fight when Pacio scored a takedown, took a full mount, unleashed his ground-and-pound, took Kongsrichai's back, and went for a rear-naked choke. With the win, Pacio extends his undefeated record to eight wins.

ONE Championship

The main event of the evening was a flyweight showdown between Adriano Moraes of Brazil and Tilek Batyrov of Kyrgyztan. At stake was the ONE Championship interim flyweight belt. Moraes's took home the bacon via submission in the second round.