Team Lakay bros Kevin Belingon, Eduard Folayang determined to get out of Japan victorious

FILE – Team Lakay holding their ONE belts. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—If going into a rematch with Shinya Aoki wasn’t enough to motivate Eduard Folayang, having stablemate and best friend Kevin Belingon just added to his desire to defend his ONE World lightweight title.

Folayang (21-6) will headline ONE Championship’s first Japan card in ONE: A New Era against Aoki whom he beat to a pulp to begin his first championship reign back in November of 2016.

Also in the card is Belingon defending his ONE World bantamweight title against Bibiano Fernandes, and this fight is what gave Folayang that extra determination to hold on to his prized belt.

“I am very happy to be the main event at ONE: A New Era, any athlete would want to headline this card so I am grateful to ONE Championship for giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills in the main event,” said Folayang.

“Kevin’s addition to the card gave me an added motivation. We can share thoughts with each other on how we can successfully defend our belts in Japan. It will be a night full of fireworks.”

The Filipino fighting icon will headline a stacked card that would feature a champion vs. champion bout between Angela Lee and Xiong Jing Nan for the latter’s ONE Women’s World strawweight title.

Myanmar’s Aung La N Sang, the reigning ONE World middleweight and light heavyweight champion, will defend his 205-lb belt against Japan’s Ken Hasegawa in a rematch of their 2018 Match of the Year.

Former UFC World champions Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson would also make their ONE Championship debut in the card that will take place on March 31 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

Team Lakay also hasn’t had the best of starts in 2019 after Joshua Pacio and Geje Eustaquio lost the strawweight and flyweight belts to Yosuke Saruta and Adriano Moraes, respectively.

These bitter losses have lit a fire in Folayang and he vowed that he and Belingon would do their stable good and bring back the glory to Team Lakay.

“The goal is to successfully defend both our titles on March 31, it’s so easy to think and say that but it will be very hard to do,” said Folayang. “We shall do our best to bring back the World titles back home to the Philippines.”