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Eduard “Landslide” Folayang came into the Singapore Indoor Stadium with high hopes of getting back to his winning ways but Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki had other plans for him.
The Filipino mixed martial arts icon was on the wrong side of another dominant submission loss to his old rival as their trilogy came to an auspicious end in the lead card of ONE on TNT IV on Thursday, April 29.
Aoki put on an armbar and forced a tapout in the 4:20 mark of the first round to win his fourth straight, as the Team Lakay star’s skid extended to three matches following another forgettable outing.
“Shinya deserved to win. He put the fight in his world and he dominated me,” Folayang admitted.
“We’re still positive. It’s just that we weren’t able to stop the takedown. We tried a lot of times [to keep it on the feet] but Shinya really doesn’t want the fight there so when he had the [opportunity] to put the game to the ground, he didn’t waste the chance to get it.”
Folayang opened the match looking to find his range but surprisingly, it was Aoki’s strikes which turned out to be effective as his head kicks pushed the Filipino back to the fence before finally deciding to shoot for a takedown.
The 36-year-old resisted the takedown initially, but Aoki wasn’t to be denied as he feigned a flying triangle to eventually get “Landslide” on the ground.
There, it was all Aoki as he mounted Folayang, landed beautiful elbows before transitioning to an arm bar and securing the win with 40 seconds left in the first round.
Folayang’s future was immediately put in question with another loss, but the Baguio City native believes he still has a lot of fight in him – to the point that he believes this is not the last time he’ll face the Japanese grappling legend.
“Retirement is just there but I’m still learning. I guess that’s life,” Folayang shared.
“I won’t allow my losses to dictate things on me, I know I haven’t performed well the past couple of matches but I know I was prepared for this match, it just so happened that Shinya imposed his will and forced the match to be fought on the ground.
“For as long as we’re here, I believe we’ll meet again. Don’t worry guys, stay calm and we’ll bounce back.”
Meanwhile, Filipina-American striker Jackie Buntan remained unbeaten in the ONE Super Series after outpointing Ekatarina “Barbie” Vanderyeva via majority decision in a three-round Muay Thai bout in the strawweight division.
In the main event, Reinier “The Dutch Knight” De Ridder continued his mastery over Aung La “The Burmese Python” N Sang as he scored a dominant unanimous decision win to take the ONE light heavyweight world title from the Burmese, and become a two-division world champion himself. – Rappler.com
Read more from ONE Championship:
3 Martial Arts Masters Who Influenced Future World Champions
‘ONE On TNT IV’ – Full Results For Aung La N Sang Vs. De Ridder II
Kirill Grishenko Stops ‘Reug Reug’ Hype Train At ‘ONE on TNT IV’
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