Former ONE lightweight world champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang welcomes his new challenge against Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki at “ONE on TNT IV,” which airs on One Sports on Thursday, April 29, live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Folayang was scheduled to face Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama in the massive event that airs live on US primetime through TNT, but the former Asian Games judo gold medalist pulled out due to injury.
As fate would have it, Aoki’s original opponent in “Super” Sage Northcutt also had to pull out because of COVID-19 precautions, giving him and Folayang the chance to finish their trilogy.
“I did expect a trilogy, but I didn’t expect it to happen this early,” Folayang said. “Aoki has been on a roll as of late, while I admit that I am in the middle of a skid. So, while I hoped for this to happen, I didn’t expect it to happen this early.”
“When they said Akiyama was out but it was Aoki who stepped in, of course I got excited,” he added. “This is a very important fight for my career. Knowing where Aoki is right now in the division, if I could beat him, not only will I win the trilogy, but it could catapult me to another run at the world title.”
Folayang believes there’s a lot of adjustments he has to make, especially since Aoki brings something different to the table than Akiyama would’ve.
Thankfully for “Landslide,” he’s already familiar with the Japanese grappler, as they have competed for the division’s biggest prize twice already.
The Team Lakay star emerged victorious in their first encounter in 2016, beating Aoki via third-round TKO to win the ONE lightweight world title for the first time.
Aoki got the belt back three years later, stopping Folayang in the first round to become a two-time ONE lightweight world champion himself.
Now, as long as he can avoid the mistakes he made against the Evolve MMA representative last time, he believes he’ll win this encounter.
“Before that [second] match I already saw that he won via arm triangle against Ev Ting, but I became too confident that I could defend that,” Folayang said.
“I overlooked just how good Shinya is when he gets the opportunity. The moment he gets his hands locked together, you’re done. That’s one thing I truly overlooked.
“I also got too casual with my kicks, and that’s what Shinya capitalized on to get me to the ground. Against him, you don’t want to be on the mat, but that’s what happened and that’s what we want to avoid.”
Knowing what a win here would mean not only for his legacy but also for his current goal of making it back to world title relevance, Folayang is going all in.
“This means a lot. Winning a trilogy against a legend of the sport, someone who’s adored by many people, will be a big thing for my legacy,” Folayang says.
“Aside from that, given that Shinya is still in the top five of the division, it will also silence the critics and hopefully push me toward another run at a world title.” – Rappler.com
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