Eduard Folayang has explained his decision to leave Team Lakay, although the explanation might leave fight fans with more questions than answers. GMA News carried some quotes from the Filipino legend who has no plans to leave Baguio.
In fact he is going to use a local gym that no longer belongs to Team Lakay by the sounds of it,
“We have an old gym that used to be under the name of Team Lakay that became my share for separating with the team. For now that would be my place to train at,” he explained.
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Area of weakness
It sounds like Folayang used to be a partner in Team Lakay. As part of a departure which seemed to be extremely amicable he has been given a gym to train at.
Shinya Aoki recently paid a visit to Team Lakay. There is some speculation that the Japanese veteran might have made Folayang and his teammates realize how limited their grappling is.
It certainly hasn’t stopped them from winning multiple titles with ONE Championship but Folayang described grappling as ‘my area of weakness’,
“Regarding my training program, I already know myself. I just need the right people to help sharpen my skills including my area of weakness like ground game.”
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Own decision
Within hours of Folayang announcing he had quit Team Lakay the likes of Honorio Banario, Kevin Belingon, Joshua Pacio and Jenelyn Olsim also posted similar notices. Meanwhile Jeremy Pacatiw shared footage of himself training at the new gym.
However the 39 year old denies encouraging his former training partners to leave,
“They made their own decisions. Perhaps they weighed what would be the consequences of their action. If we can help each other grow and still train together, then we can utilize our time together,” he said.
He sounds very keen for people to understand that they all made this decision of their own free will,
“They have their own careers and decisions to make. Whatever their decision, it was not me dictating to them. They are mature enough to make decisions for themselves. They would not be champions if they cannot decide for themselves.”
So to summarize; several fighters who trained together at Team Lakay will now be training together at a gym that used to be called Team Lakay but they won’t be representing Team Lakay anymore.
