By:  | October 10, 2023 8:07 am

After coming up short at ONE Fight Night 15 last month it seems Stephen Loman has gone in search of a change of scenery. The Team Lakay representative is currently in Pattaya training at the Fairtex Gym.

Loman still represents Team Lakay when he fights. He’s one of the few big name fighters to remain at the gym after the exodus of stars earlier this year.

Loman’s title dreams are in tatters after the loss to John Lineker. He remains one of the top ranked bantamweights but will have to work his way through a few contenders before securing a shot at the champion.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Stephen Loman (@caliber_sniper)

Spreading wings

We have seen a few of the fighters from Baguio spread their wings and travel to gyms in other countries. Eduard Folayang and Joshua Pacio trained at places like Jackson Wink and King’s MMA during their trip to the US earlier this year.

Lito Adiwang was based in Bali ahead of his successful ONE Championship comeback. The former Team Lakay representative was representing the Hiit Studio in his recent fight.

The timing of Loman’s trip is interesting. His loss to Lineker came at ONE Fight Night 14 on September 29th. Normally fighters would take at least a few weeks off after competing.

But Loman is clearly a man in a hurry. He wants to get his title ambitions back on track and feels that travelling to Pattaya to train at the Fairtex Gym will help him do it.

Bad night

While Loman had a bad night at ONE Fight Night 14, which took place in Singapore, the fighters from the Fairtex Gym were triumphant. Stamp Fairtex became only the second fighter to win the atomweight title after stopping Seo Hee Ham with strikes in their MMA fight.

Meanwhile Smilla Sundell made short work of the undersized Allycia Rodriguez to successfully defend her strawweight title in a Muay Thai fight. Loman would surely have been watching and must have been impressed.

Losing for the first time in his ONE Championship career would have been a major setback for Loman. But things could have been much worse, the Filipino made weight with less than ten seconds to spare.

Had Loman been a pound heavier he would have lost 20% of his purse. But the Filipino will surely come away with some regrets, particularly as his plan to take Lineker down clearly did not work.

It could be a while before we see him back on a ONE Championship card as Loman has lost all the momentum which propelled him to the cusp of a bantamweight title shot. But the 28 year old is clearly looking to evolve and improve and will be looking to pick up some new skills at one of Thailand’s top gyms.