In his first bout back since dropping the ONE Flyweight World Championship, Geje Eustaquio was put to the test.
Eustaquio needed to dig deep to outlast the much-taller Kim Kyu Sung, taking a unanimous decision victory, Friday evening during ONE: Enter the Dragon in Singapore.
The standout out of Team Lakay raised his record to 12-7 with the win.
Moreover, he is now set to enter the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix as a replacement. He will either replace teammate Danny Kingad; former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson; ex-ONE champion Kairat Akhmetov; or Tatsumitsu Wada, in the case any of the four falls to injury.
But in order to enter the tournament, Eustaquio had to gut it out.
“Yung kay Geje naman, yung game plan dito ay controlin sa baba kung maari. Pero nung first and second medyo nag-hesitate siya nung ‘di niya nakukuha yung paa,” said Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao.
Despite a six-inch height disadvantage, Eustaquio kept charging at the South Korean, who fell to 9-3.
At one point in the third round, Kim screamed at the top of his lungs, which set the crowd abuzz as he advanced forward with a flurry of strikes and caused some damage above Eustaquio’s left eye.
“I’m not a hundred percent satisfied with my performance. I’m looking forward to get better and I’m willing to go back to the drawing board and be a better athlete,” said Eustaquio.
To close out the bout and leave no doubt to the three judges, Eustaquio scored an emphatic takedown to seal the win.
Earlier in the night, the elusive wins continued to evade from Riki Corminal (MMA: 4-5, ONE: 0-4) as he lost via first-round submission by way of a rear naked choke to Rahul Raju (6-4).
Corminal was like a house on fire early. He scored a knockdown via a Superman punch, and then hit another knockdown with a right hook.
However, Raju took him down to stop the flurry, before slapping a choke that resulted in a tapout with 17 seconds to spare in the round.
