Filipino MMA vet Eduard Folayang is ONE FC Fighter of the Year
Filipino mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran and recently-crowned ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang was crowned as ONE Championship’s Fighter of the Year for 2016.
The Landslide. It was indeed a landslide year for Eduard Folayang, going unbeaten for 2016 that was capped with a win over Japan’s Shinya Aoki for the ONE FC Lightweight belt. Image grabbed from onefc.com
A member of Team Lakay and a native of Baguio City, Folayang (17-5) started 2016 with unanimous decision wins over Japan’s Tetsuya Yamada and Australia’s Adrian Pang in January and August respectively.
He capped off his year by knocking out Japanese MMA legend Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki in a stunning upset victory. Aoki was unbeaten in his last nine fights after he won the ONE FC lightweight belt, a title he took from Kotetsu Boku, until he ran into Folayang’s devastating flying knee.
Folayang, a 33-year-old former school teacher and three-time SEA Games gold medalist in Wushu, topped other ONE FC standouts such as ONE Women’s Atomweight Champion Angela “Unstoppable” Lee (6-0) and ONE Featherweight Champion Marat “Cobra” Gafurov (15-0).
For the full list of candidates for ONE FC’s Fighter of the Year, visit onefc.com.
Source: onefc.com, Inquirer.net
