By Jun Ray Navarres
Former ONE Flyweight World Champion Geje “Gravity” Eustaquio suffered a disappointing defeat in his homecoming fight on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The 33-year-old fighter absorbed a KO loss against “Wolf Warrior” Hu Yong with 17sec left in the first round of their lightweight clash at ONE 164: Pacio vs Brooks.
Hu was aggressive early on, rushing Eustaquio with a flying knee to push the latter to the cage.
Hu clipped Eustaquio with a right hook causing Geje’s knees to soften. Yet, the veteran flyweight fighter knew exactly how to deal with the Chinese, quickly turning the fight into a wrestling match.
Eustaquio regained momentum at the ground tussle, taking down Hu before positioning himself on top. After a short struggle, the Filipino slugger outmaneuvered the Chinese fighter to secure a better spot on his back.
Hu escaped from Eustaquio’s grip to reset the match.
The Chinese’s strikes on the stand-up always found it target, slowly dealing damage to the former kingpin.
Hu did not let go of his advantage and followed every right hook that landed on Eustaquio’s chin with a ground and pound.
A cut was already visible on the right eyebrow of Eustaquio from the continuous assault of Hu.
Eustaquio dropped his guard early at the reset giving Hu a chance to throw a right straight that touched the chin of the former division kingpin, knocking him out cold.
The young Chinese fighter improved his stat sheet to 10-4 after the win.
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