SEA Games: Team Lakay’s Mark Sangiao brings One Championship MMA stars and his magic touch to Philippines
- ‘Coach Mark’ has a knack for honing home-grown talent and has been tapped to coach the Philippines’ national kick-boxing team
- ‘Our athletes will compete with all their heart. We carry the entire country on our shoulders,’ Sangiao says
“Coach Mark”, as he is affectionately known, has a knack for honing home-grown talent and has never failed to produce a world champion in whichever sport he dips his toes into.
Sangiao has been tapped to coach the national kick-boxing team at the Games in the Philippines. The kick-boxing event will run from December 7 to 10 at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
“The nation can expect our athletes will compete with all their heart. We carry the entire country on our shoulders, so we've been working hard since day one of our training,” Sangiao told the Post in Manila.
Alongside former boxer Glenn Mondol and Olympian Donald Geisler, he will be mentoring eight athletes, with three of them from Filipino MMA stable Team Lakay in Gina Iniong, Jerry Olsim and Jean Claude Saclag.
Iniong is set to compete in the women’s 55-kilogram category, while Olsim and Saclag will compete in the men’s 69-kilogram and 63-kilogram brackets respectively.
“I've separated their training from MMA. It wasn't difficult to do since my first art is boxing even before I got into wushu. I've created a programme for the team. What we need to do now is find out the level of competition in the SEA Games,” Sangiao said.
Known by the nickname “Conviction” for her hard-hitting style inside the cage, Iniong is recognised as one of the pioneers of women’s MMA in the Philippines, having fought in Pacific Xtreme Combat and One Championship.
Olsim is one of the top prospects in One’s developmental league, Rich Franklin’s One Warrior Series. Saclag is an Asian Games silver medallist, who made his professional MMA debut in May, losing to Japan’s Ryo Okada under the Shooto banner.
“I see potential gold medallists, but I just can't predict how many. We have to consider that our athletes like Jean Claude Saclag came from wushu where he is a world champion,” Sangiao said.
“Saclag has a huge chance of bagging gold. I also see others capable of winning but it is just hard to predict.”
The main problem for Sangiao is scouting – he has only just received the list of his fighters’ opponents, but is squeezing in all the time he can to review their styles.
“We don't know for sure how good they are, so we're doing our research. So far what we know is Vietnam is quite good while this is pretty much basic for Thailand,” he said.
Joining Team Lakay’s Iniong, Olsim and Saclag are Pinoy MMA veterans Rex De Lara and Ruel Catalan. Rene Catalan, Mark Striegl, Jerry “Uno” Legaspi and Patrick Dos Santos will be representing the Philippines in sambo, a Russian combat sport that will make its SEA Games debut on December 5 at the Angeles University Foundation gymnasium in Pampanga.
Sangiao will also be sending out up-and-coming talents Islay Erika Bomogao and Alexis Badol Mayagas to represent the Philippines in Muay Thai.
