Eduard Folayang. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Fighting in the country for the first time since December 2014, ONE Lightweight Champion Eduard Folayang is more than excited to hit the cage in front of his countrymen in ONE: Kings of Destiny on April 21 at Mall of Asia Arena.
The 32-year-old striker has a more personal motivation to emerge as the victor with the birth of his first child Yeshuareigns.
“I am twice motivated in this upcoming fight. I want my daughter to see in the future that I didn’t just win the title, but I defended it successfully,” Folayang said on Tuesday. “When I look at her, it’s like I have an antidote for all the fatigue from training.”
READ: Folayang to defend ONE title vs Ting in Manila
The Baguio-based Folayang won the lightweight title against Shinya Aoki last November in Singapore, and wants nothing but to show his compatriots that his conquest is not one-off as he makes his first defense against Kiwi-Malaysian Ev Ting.
“Winning the belt is one of the highlights of my career, and maintaining it is one of the bigger challenges. I treat this fight as a very important one,” he said.
However, Folayang knows that he’s up for a tough challenge against Ting, who has beaten his fellow Team Lakay stablemates Honorio Banario and Edward Kelly. And he has closely studied those previous fights as to not make the same mistakes.”
READ: Folayang: Fightingest
“Edward had a strong start when he fought Ev Ting. Honorio, meanwhile, changed his gameplan quickly. So for me, I want to stick to my gameplan and not make any rush decisions. Those are the mistakes I don’t want to commit. I also don’t want to feel overconfident because I know how hungry a fighter is if they want to be a champion,” he said.
“He has already beaten a lot of Filipinos before. But I know for myself, I’ll approach him differently and not make the same mistake the others did before.”