Eduard Folayang joins list of rare Aoki conquerors

MANILA, Philippines – Shinya Aoki has long been considered as the most dominant lightweight mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter in the Asian region for the better part of the last decade. 

The 33-year-old Japanese veteran strutted his wares in various MMA promotions across the globe and captured different title belts in organizations such as ONE Championship, Shooto and DREAM. 

The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts also awarded its inaugural lightweight championship to Aoki in December 2008 when he submitted former UFC and Bellator titleholder Eddie Alvarez. 

Aoki, who famously turned down an offer from the UFC in 2013, has 47 professional MMA bouts and owns 25 wins by way of submission. 

Known as one of the most feared submission specialists in MMA history, Aoki has only lost on 7 occasions. 

With the formidability that Aoki has exhibited throughout his 13-year prizefighting stint, it was an intriguing sight for many that the Japanese MMA legend suffered his seventh career loss at the hands of renowned Filipino combatant Eduard Folayang. 

Aoki relinquished his possession of the ONE Championship lightweight belt to Folayang, tasting a third-round technical knockout loss in the headliner of the company’s “Defending Honor” event on Friday, November 11.

Folayang joins an exclusive list of competitors who have scored victories over Aoki, emulating the achievements of Alvarez, Gilbert Melendez, Hayato Sakurai, Joachim Hansen and Jutaro Nakao. 

According to the 32-year-old Baguio City native, having hand raised against Aoki is one huge accomplishment because it has seldom been done. 

“Shinya Aoki is a legend of the sport. He is a good MMA fighter with an outstanding submission skills. Nobody believed that I could do it. Aside from getting the belt, winning against him is a huge accomplishment. It’s a very rare feat,” Folayang told Rappler. 

Prior to Folayang’s triumph over Aoki, the last person to hand a painful setback to the Japanese was Alvarez when both men crossed paths in an April 2012 second encounter under the Bellator banner. 

Alvarez, who recently dropped the lightweight strap to Conor McGregor at UFC 205 on Sunday, November 13, avenged his loss to Aoki by notching a first-round stoppage win.

Meanwhile, Melendez cruised to a unanimous decision triumph in his 2010 Strikeforce lightweight title defense opposite Aoki by sustaining a tactical on-the-feet strategy to stay clear of danger from the Japanese’s impeccable ground game. 

Sakurai was the only fighter to beat Aoki twice in his career, outpointing the grappling prodigy in August 2005 before knocking him out with knees and punches in April 2008. 

Hansen shocked the world with his first-round drubbing of Aoki in July 2008, but he yielded in their October 2009 rematch via second-round armbar.

Recognized by the moniker “King of Triangle” due to his multiple victories using the triangle choke submission, Nakao shut the lights out on Aoki in October 2004. 

Although Folayang has reaped both the win over Aoki and the ONE Championship lightweight title, he anticipates that the true test is yet to come, believing the old saying “To whom much is given, much is required.” 

“It’s a start of a new phase in my career. Yes, I won the belt and defeated Shinya Aoki. But the work doesn’t end there. I believe everybody in my division wants a shot at the title because there’s a new champion. At the right place and on the right time, I am willing to defend my title,” he said. – Rappler.com