Geje Eustaquio: The Latest in a Long Line of Top Class Fighters to Emerge from Team Lakay

Up until last weekend Geje Eustaquio was not one of the better known fighters in the Philippines and did not enjoy the same sort of reputation or recognition as his Team Lakay teammates Eduard Folayang, Honorio Banario, Kevin Belingon, or Roy Docyogen.

However he opened a lot of people’s eyes to the sort of depth of talent coach Mark Sangiao has at his disposal in Baguio by putting on a virtuoso performance to defeat BJJ world champion Alex Silva by Unanimous Decision at ONE FC 2 in Jakarta. Eustaquio survived multiple submission attempts by the slick submission specialist and, after Silva took his back at the end of round one, appeared close to tapping. However, in an interview with Fighters.com he claims that he was always comfortable.

Complete ONE FC 2 Results

“Honestly no, I was not going to tap.” said Eustaquio. “I defended that position in training for much longer periods of time, that was just two minutes and we are doing ten minutes during training. I did relax when I heard the ten seconds signal because I believed I would survive ten seconds and that’s a lesson learned on my part. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

The first round probably went Silva’s way but Eustaquio started to showcase his superior stand up in the second stanza. It was still close at this stage but the Filipino fighter picked up the pace in the last five minutes and even feels he could have finished the fight, explaining, “God gave me the chance to finish the fight earlier without ending in decision but I didn’t take it I missed the chance. Alex is really a tough guy, the game plan was to keep the fight standing until he had no choice but to stay on the ground. My camp and my coach prepared my takedown defence and ground skills and ground and pound was a big part of my training.”

Eustaquio might have surprised a few spectators by electing to try and do damage on the ground rather than beckoning the BJJ specialist back up but Team Lakay fighters are nothing if not well rounded and he is no exception.

He trains alongside some of the top fighters in Asia at the lighter weights including Docyogen and Belingon who are both 9-0. Docyogen currently competes at 119 pounds, whereas Belingon tends to fight at around 130 pounds, but both could conceivably fight as flyweights.

With the UFC recently implementing a 125-pound division these two are both likely to be of considerable interest and Eustaquio, the latest Filipino to add his name to the list of flyweight prospects, is convinced that his team mates have what it takes.

“They are Team Lakay, they are trained by the best coach and guided by the best coach which means they also perform best. They are both world class performers and if God permits I hope we can all fight for the UFC one day,” said the proud Filipino.

Team Lakay is an important part of the ONE FC Network and Belingon and Docyogen are both signed up to that promotion. Belingon has a huge fight on the horizon when he takes on Japanese leg lock specialist Masakazu Imanari at ONE FC 3 in Singapore while Docyogen will be defending his pinweight belt against former boxer Roder Orais at URCC Baguio in the Philippines.

While the Octagon remains a distant dream right now Eustaquio, whose only career loss was a controversial Split Decision, is fully focused on fighting for ONE FC. He is ready to face off with anyone in the flyweight division and says he can’t wait to fight again, stating, “The whole experience was amazing, I think there were 50 photographers at the weigh in and I want to thank Sir Victor Cui, I’m so proud that I met a guy who can make impossible things happen. I enjoyed fighting with your promotion and was so happy also with the support from the crowd, it’s an honor to fight at ONE FC.”

PHOTO CREDIT – ONE FC