Folayang bounces back with decision win over Japanese foe

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (UPDATED) – After falling into a dreadful nightmare nearly 14 months ago, renowned Filipino fighter Eduard Folayang brought the shimmer back into his illustrious career by defeating Japanese lightweight Tetsuya Yamada in the co-headliner of ONE Championship’s “Clash of Heroes” card on Friday, January 29 at the 10,000-capacity Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Pummeling his opponent with his deadly striking arsenal and efficiently utilizing his takedown defense, the 32-year-old native of Baguio City, Benguet earned a hard-fought unanimous decision to reinsert his name into the winner’s column after suffering a painful knockout loss to Timofey Nastyukhin in December 2014. 

Folayang proved his doubters wrong once again as he showcased a rejuvenated version of himself, throwing looping right hands and smoothly landing 3 spinning back kicks in the first round.

Also in the opening salvo, the 5-foot-9 veteran intelligently avoided following Yamada on the canvas and being trapped in opponent’s grappling wheelhouse after sprawling his way out from the takedown attempts by the desperate Japanese. 

Despite his courageous efforts of evading every takedown stab from Yamada, the former Zst welterweight champion was able to bring down Folayang to the floor in the second stanza with a leg trip. 

Once he got the chance to get back to his feet, Folayang forced to have stand-up exchanges by clipping cracking leg kicks and consistently stuffed Yamada’s advances for a takedown.

Sensing the urgency as Folayang was clearly ahead in the bout, Yamada managed to flip his Filipino counterpart and laid him on the mat in the third and final round. 

Yamada had difficulties to rain down blows from Folayang’s close guard, prompting referee Joey Lepiten to stand them up and bring both men at the center of the cage. 

Folayang maintained a toe-to-toe trade with Yamada and relied on his takedown defense to receive the undivided nod from the cageside officials.

With the victory over Yamada, Folayang heads back to the winning territory and improves to a 15-5 record.

On the other hand, Yamada fell short in his ONE Championship debut with a downgraded standing of 15-4-2. – Rappler.com