It was a tough night for Filipino MMA fans after one of their champions lost his crown on Friday night.
Eduard Folayang was knocked out cold when he was tagged with a huge overhand right by his challenger, Martin Nguyen, in the main event of ONE: Legends of the World at Mall of Asia Arena.
"Landslide" was actually winning the bout in the opening round with his variety of kicks and punches.
But Nguyen, whom Folayang considers a friend, was able to sneak in the winning shot while evading Folayang's spinning back fist.
"I know he's coming with spinning back fist and it's up to me to adjust," said Nguyen. "Actually I was trying to go for a takedown by my instinct took over and it turned into an overhand right."
Right after impact, Folayang fell unconscious to the ground.
After the fight was called to a halt, Nguyen immediately went to Folayang and checked his friend out of concern.
"Honestly, it really hurt. Because I never ever wanted to see someone I know and like going through that. Unfortunately, it's martial artist versus martial artist and I couldn't help to have a little bit of hurt feeling for Eduard when got knocked out," he said.
Kevin Belingon, meanwhile, set himself for a title rematch against ONE bantam king Bibiano Fernandes by putting Kevin "Old Boy" Chung away via unanimous decision.
Belingon punished Chung with some of the heaviest shots of the night, but the South Korean grappler was able to threaten the "Silencer" with an arm lock in the second round.
The Team Lakay fighter, however, was able to escape Chung's grip and engaged the South Korean on stand-up for the remainder of the fight.
Gina "Conviction" Iniong continued her winning ways in the ONE Championship atomweight division by dominating her Indonesian foe.
Iniong secured a sidemount against Priscilla Hertati Lumban Gaol then trapped the Indonesian with a crucifix.
From there, she peppered the defenseless Priscilla with repeated strikes until the referee called a halt and awarded the victory to Iniong in the 2nd round.
Joshua Pacio made a successful comeback 3 months after his defeat to Hayato Suzuki by knocking out Roy Doliguez in their strawweight fight.
While mixing it up against Doliguez, Pacio spun around and connected a back fist to Doliguez's temple rendering the latter nearly unconscious in the 2nd round.
In the co-main event, Danny Kingad suffered his first career defeat when he got submitted by reigning flyweight champion Adriano Moraes.
Kingad initially had success warding off Moraes from scoring a takedown, but the Brazilian eventually found an opening and pinned the younger fighter to the ground.
Once on the mat, Moraes patiently worked his way to secure Kingad's back until he trapped the Filipino with a rear naked choke.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
