Team Lakay head coach Mark Sangiao marvelled at the development of Carlos “Limitless” Alvarez, who’s currently wreaking havoc in ONE Friday Fights with three impressive performances to his name. 

And he doesn’t expect Alvarez to stop anytime soon. 

The soft-spoken founder of Team Lakay talked about how Alvarez never stops working as he transitioned from a young kickboxer to one of the most complete MMA fighters in his stable. 

“He’s a complete MMA athlete. He started in kickboxing. He was part of the national team in kickboxing, and his background in Team Lakay is still striking. But because of how he works, he changed (the stigma) of Team Lakay as a team who are only pure strikers,” he said. 

“He’s a hard worker. His workrate in training is unbelievable. That’s why he’s been getting the results.”

All of Alvarez’s three wins have come from submissions, including a very impressive anaconda choke submission of Title Chai in the first round of their featherweight MMA clash. 

For Sangiao, Alvarez’s development is also a byproduct of the team’s efforts to improve their ground game through various tournaments in the region and bring different grappling coaches to the mountainside. 

“Now we’re seeing the result of what the team was trying to develop back then. If you notice, we are also bringing the training to the grassroots level, creating tournaments and competitions on this level like Team Lakay Grapplers Cup so they can improve and compete,” he said. 

“We’ve seen it, three wins by submissions. I’m proud. I’m happy to see that the team is improving.” 

For Sangiao, he’s hopeful that in 2024, Alvarez will finally graduate from ONE Friday Fights and move on to ONE’s main roster.  

“Hopefully he keeps on winning and he gets a call-up in the main roster. I think if he keeps on winning, he’ll get there,” he said.