PASAY--Eduard Folayang successfully defended the One Championship lightweight championship after securing a unanimous decision
victory over Ev Ting at One: Kings of Destiny at the MOA Arena on
Friday.
Folayang thwarted any attempt by his Malaysian opponent
to slug it out on the middle of the octagon by clinching Ting while delivering
knees to the challenger’s side. Although “ET” had moments where he occasionally
tagged the champion, the Baguio native fought from a distance with kicks to the
thighs, once scoring with a spinning elbow at the fifth round to the delight of
the crowd.
This is Folayang’s first defense of his One belt, as well
as his fourth straight victory after incurring a loss to Timofey Nastyukhin in
the same venue in 2014. “Landslide” improves his MMA record to 18 wins and five
losses.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Team Lakay camp emerged
victorious on that night as Kevin Belingon won via stoppage over a bloodied
Toni Tauru of Finland at the first round, while Honorio Banario knocked out
Jaroslav Jartim with a combination to the body and then to the head at the second
round.
“Things happen,” Banario said after he was asked about
his grappling, which he was supposed to showcase in that contest but it was his
bread-and-butter striking that delivered him his 12th win in 18 bouts.
Also, Danny Kingad had a similar
unanimous decision conquest over Muhammad Aiman of Malaysia, completing a 5-0 sweep by the renowned MMA stable.
[Related Story: Iniong successful in One debut, beats Hills]
The rest of the main card had Christian Lee of Singapore forcing
the referee to stop his fight against Wan Jianping of China at the first round
due to strikes, Stefer Rahadrian of Indonesia outclassing Eugene Toquero of the
Philippines with his octagon control for a UD victory, and Xie Bin of China choking
out Chan Rothana of Cambodia at the second round.
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