Team Lakay may not have had its most triumphant year in 2020, but a few of the Filipino martial arts stable’s members had varying degrees of individual success in the ONE Championship Circle.
One of those members is former ONE Flyweight World Champion Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio, who built some momentum toward another World Title bid.
Eustaquio earned his second consecutive victory when he dominated South Korean MMA Champion “Running Man” Song Min Jong en route to a unanimous decision last November.
Now, two months removed from that extraordinary showing, the forward-thinking Baguio City native hopes to continue his evolution and extend his winning steak in 2021.
“My New Year’s resolution is to be more positive, to always look at the beauty of everything whether in good times or bad,” he shares.
"As an athlete, it’s the same – just to keep on working to be a better athlete. I look forward to competing more and, of course, to stretch my winning run further.”
Eustaquio’s Team Lakay stablemate, Lito “Thunder Kid” Adiwang, has similar aspirations for 2021.
Adiwang, who earned a contract through the ONE Warrior Series developmental league to compete on the promotion’s main roster in August 2019, started 2020 off strong with a first-round submission win over Pongsiri “The Smiling Assassin” Mitsatit in January.
In fact, his phenomenal kimura victory was so impressive, it landed at #3 on ONE Championship’s Top 5 Submissions Of 2020 year-end list and initially earned him the #5-ranked contender spot in the strawweight rankings.
However, a narrow split-decision loss to Japanese MMA Champion Hiroba Minowa bounced “Thunder Kid” from the rankings and put an end to his seven-bout winning streak.
Despite the setback, Adiwang is still focused on the prize, and his New Year’s resolution is to continue his improvement, both personally and professionally.
“It’s all simply about being a better person and, of course, I want to explore more things in life,” he says.
“Also, I look forward to achieving both my goals in my life and in my career. Such goals are winning and being at my best in my future fights so I can get closer to the strap. If I can challenge for it next year, then that’s the ultimate goal.”
But there is one more goal he would like to complete in 2021.
“My goal for my family is that I get to finish the house that I’m building for them,” Adiwang says. “I hope to finish it this year.”