FOR Igorot warrior Geje Eustaquio, the night was the best opportunity for the world to know and appreciate his native tribe’s rich heritage in warfare.
Entering the arena amidst a native war dance performed by fellow Igorot fighters in Team Lakay, the rising MMA star was out to show what the Igorot fighters are made of.
He didn’t disappoint the hometown crowd and millions on live television as he out-punched, outmaneuvered and out-hustled an equally tough opponent in Malaysian top prospect Gianni Subba in the co-main event of the ONE Championship: Global Rivals at the MOA Arena on Friday night.
“We, at Team Lakay, want to show the world who we really are—great warriors,” said the Eustaquio, who fought for the first time in his MMA career, at a higher division.
“We are humans like you guys. We don’t look like monkey. We don’t have tails. And we’re pretty sure that we are handsome and sexy,” Eustaquio said jokingly, eliciting laughter from the media during the post-fight interview.
Eustaquio, who piled up a fight record of 7 wins and 4 losses in the flyweight division prior to this bantamweight victory, also revealed that the fight almost did not happen following a couple of injuries during his training.
“Three weeks before the fight, I injured my left shoulder, then the next week, I injured the right (shoulder). I told my coach about it, but he prodded me on to continue training,” said Eustaquio, whose victory later in the night, completed a clean sweep of the vaunted Team Lakay.
Earlier, teammate Honorio Banario defeated Vaughn Donayre by Unanimous Decision in their lightweight tussle; Joshua Pacio stopped compatriot Rabin Catalan via strikes in Round 2 of their 57.4 catchweight bout; flyweight Danny Kingad scored a similar TKO win over Malaysian Muhamad Haidar in Round 1 and April Osenio registered the only submission (arm bar) win of the night at the expense of Fil-Briton Natalie Gonzales Hills.
Filipino-Australian fighter Reece “Lightning” McLaren showed the world that he is an absolute force to be reckoned with by dominating former combat sambo world champion Muin “Tajik” Gafurov over three rounds.
McLaren completely shut down Gafurov with his impeccable cage control, displaying a high-level grappling game that his foe failed to match up with.
The only Filipino casualty in the night was Burn Soriano of Hitman Training Camp after he got knocked out by Indonesia’s Sunoto.
Sunoto overcame an ill-advised kimura attempt by Soriano to win by technical knockout. After Sunoto found himself in mount position, the Indonesian fighter unloaded a volley of strikes to force the stoppage just minutes into the first round.
Another Igorot fighter, Eric Kelly, had his fight cancelled when his opponent failed to make the weight and a catchweight fight failed to materialize.
A ONE Championship official said they will book a fight for Kelly soon.
In other bouts, Martin Nguyen trounced Li Kai Wen by TKO by strikes at 4:44 minutes of Round 1 in their flyweight bout.
In the main event of the evening, the United States’ Ben “Funky” Askren overcame an equally tough opponent in Nikolay Aleksakhin of Seltso, Russia to win by unanimous decision in a five-round Super Fight for the world welterweight title.
Askren put on an amazing display of high-level wrestling to score on multiple takedowns, maintaining control of Aleksakhin on the ground while doing damage from the mounted crucifix position. Aleksakhin connected on a few solid strikes, but it wasn’t enough to trump Askren’s overall solid performance.
Askren, who was facing a solidly built foe, immediately relied on his solid ground game, scoring take downs after take downs and kept himself busy with punches, elbows, and knees while taking control on sidemount.
The first two rounds were simply an Askren show. Aleksakhin, obviously the stronger puncher between the two, began to connect with his punches, hitting Askren and stalling him in most of the third canto.
But he could not sustain the momentum as Askren relied again on his world-class wrestling and mowed down the Russian with multiple takedowns and punches on the ground as the American cruised to the win to keep his title.
Lightweight standout Lowen Tynanes of Ewa Beach, Hawaii defeated highly regarded Japanese veteran Koji “The Commander” Ando by unanimous decision in a grueling contest.
Tynanes used his superior wrestling skills to control the action in the cage, while also getting the better of Ando in the stand-up with his powerful leg kicks and straight right hand. After three rounds, Ando couldn’t amount to much as Tynanes ran away with the judges’ nod.