Team Lakay’s head coach Mark Sangiao had nothing but praise for Kim Kyu Sung following the latter’s outing against former ONE Flyweight World Champion Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio.
Eustaquio showcased a striking clinic, landing a wide array of shots with his jabs, kicks, spinning back-fists, and straight rights to cut his Korean foe down to size.
The team wanted a finish from Eustaquio, but ultimately the Korean proved to be too tough – earning him the respect of the whole team.
“We did not expect that the kid would be that tough. Kim was really tough. He kept on moving forward, he kept on pressuring,” Sangiao said.
“Even when we were tagging him, he just won’t back down. We wanted a finish but he was tough and he was long, Geje’s follow-ups weren’t going through.”
It was a dominant performance by “Gravity”, but Sangiao revealed that they actually had a different game plan in mind heading into the contest.
“Our game plan was to control him in the ground. But in the first and second round, Geje was kind of hesitant because he couldn’t really get the foot of Kim,” he admitted.
“But in the third round we were finally able to get him down. I wish it would have been earlier, but it’s all trivial now ’cause we won via unanimous decision.”
Eustaquio was never really troubled throughout the entire contest, although Kim was successful in bringing the heat to his Filipino counterpart in the third and final round.
Sangiao admitted he’d felt worried when he saw the six-foot-tall South Korean come to life in the dying minutes of the bout, but his confidence in Eustaquio was unwavering.
“In the last round, Geje kind of slowed down, I noticed he was slowing down. I was kind of nervous at that time, but the nice thing about Geje is he knows what he’s doing there,” shared Sangiao.
“For all the things that he was doing – the heavy blows, the spinning kicks, and fist – that takes a lot out of you. That’s why he got tired. In the end, he slowed down a bit and that’s why Kim was able to hit him.”
With this, Sangiao is delighted to see his ward learn from their early mishaps, as Eustaquio looked a lot better than he did against Moraes.
‘”I wanted him to control the bout more. I wanted him to work to finish,” said Sangiao.
“They definitely learned their lesson. I hope this goes all the way.”
