Team Lakay’s Bid To Go 9-1 In All-Filipino Bouts Under ONE Rests On Lito Adiwang

Team Lakay has proven its dominance thus far in ONE Championship when it comes to Filipino-versus-Filipino matchups, and strawweight Lito Adiwang is next to defend his gym’s honor against Jeremy Miado at ONE X.

Within the promotion, they have won eight out of nine fights against their fellow countrymen.

The first occurrence of such an event was when current lightweight fighter Honorio Banario defeated Andrew Benibe by third-round TKO in August 2012.

Banario would again represent the group against Eric Kelly in February 2013 for the inaugural ONE featherweight championship, where the former captured after referee Yuji Shimada called a stop to the bout in the fourth round.

Later in the year, flyweight contender Geje Eustaquio faced Eugene Toquero at ONE FC: Moment of Truth, winning the fight by unanimous decision.

Three years would pass before another Filipino-versus-Filipino clash would be booked, with the next two happening at ONE: Global Rivals in April 2016.

Joshua Pacio, who made his debut at the event, was able to successfully pass Rabin Catalan’s guard and proceeded to land heavy shots from full mount leading to the second-round TKO.

Banario was the other Team Lakay fighter on the card who dominated Vaughn Donayre for the unanimous decision win.

Meanwhile, Danny Kingad next represented the La Trinidad, Philippines-based gym, finishing Eugene Toquero by way of a first-round armbar at ONE: Age of Domination in December 2016.

The next two all-Filipino bouts featured Pacio showcasing his stylish moveset against Roy Doliguez in 2017, knocking out the latter with a spinning backfist in the second round.

Pacio then submitted Rene Catalan with an arm-triangle choke in the first title defense of his second reign as the strawweight champion back in November 2019.

Team Lakay’s only loss thus far was in January 2018 when Jomary Torres knocked out April Osenio by slamming her hard onto the mat thirty seconds into their fight.

For Adiwang, his upcoming encounter against Miado carries a ton of weight personally and professionally.

“We'll look at it in a positive way. We're fighting in the biggest event of ONE. But we have to respect the sport and give it our best to show the talent of the Filipino fighters, said Adiwang.

"I am very motivated. I want to get back in the Top-Five [strawweight] rankings. I know that I belong in that top five, and I will do everything to return there."

Adiwang last fought in October 2021 against Jarred Brooks at ONE: NextGen III and was thoroughly outclassed by “The Monkey God” thanks to his wrestling,

The Filipino spitfire was subsequently caught by the American grappling specialist in an arm-triangle choke in the second round.

As for Miado, he will be gunning for his first three-fight win streak in the organization against “Thunder Kid” following his back-to-back highlight-reel knockouts over Miao Li Tao.

Team Lakay founder and head coach Mark Sangiao was cautious to talk about how they plan to defeat Miado, instead putting an emphasis on execution.

"We won't say the specifics because we are still preparing for the fight. But we'll talk about the game plan and how to execute it well,” the coach stated.

Adiwang and Miado will serve as part of the extremely-stacked undercard for the Singapore-based outfit's 10th-anniversary celebration, ONE X, on March 26.