It would be hard to tell Eduard Folayang‘s nose, post-One Fighting Championship, from that of Brandon Vera’s, post-UFC 125. The telling difference, though, is that the former smells the sweet smell of success, while the other’s evokes that ambiguous scent of a no-contest (which he originally “lost”).
On last Saturday night’s One FC “Champion vs. Champion” main event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) Lightweight Champion Folayang (9-1-0) was his usual relentless self. Undeterred by a bleeding eyebrow and broken nose, he was unceasingly on attack mode against Heat Fighting Championship (HFC) Welterweight Champion, A Sol Kwon, (19-6-0) to eke out a unanimous decision victory.
Their fight also goes down One FC history as its first Fight of the Night awardee.
At the start of the bell, Folayang struck and hit Kwon with a left inside leg kick, which served him well. He repeatedly hit with that move throughout their three-round fight.
The first round saw Folayang landing more strikes with kicks and left-right punching combinations against Kwon, who gamely engaged in boxing exchanges. However, it was Kwon’s punches that caused the most damage, breaking and bleeding the Filipino’s nose.
Entering the last two minutes, Folayang took Kwon down to the canvas. But it was only for a moment, as the HFC champion immediately sprang back to his feet.
With less than 30 seconds remaining, Folayang threw Kwon down with a head throw at the fence for his second take-down. The Sanshou specialist pounded on the Korean with short punches, before he got back on his feet as the round expired.
Round two was a continuation of Folayang dictating the pace of the fight, with inside leg kicks finding their mark and jabs and left-right combos flying at Kwon with mixed success. Launching and hitting combinations of his own, Kwon landed a solid one that cut Folayang’s right eyebrow early in the round, causing it to bleed.
Into the second half of the round, Folayang landed a right straight and then a couple of knees from the clinch, which stunned and took the aggression from Kwon.
Despite Folayang’s broken nose and bleeding eyebrow, it became apparent that the still clear-faced Kwon was the one who was broken in spirit. He was cautioned by the referee for passivity, for continuously shuffling away from Folayang. The crowd booed in disapproval.
Near the end of the round, Folayang scored his third take-down. But again, Kwon got back to his feet immediately, avoiding Folayang’s much vaunted ground-and-pound game.
In the third round, Folayang sustained the energy and power behind his strikes against a withering Kwon, who still managed to unleash blows, albeit with less frequency. Kwon twice attempted to take down Folayang from the clinch, but he was the one who ended up getting thrown down instead.
By the second half of the final round, it was all Folayang, landing telling blows on his opponent, who by then was reduced to putting up a semblance of a fight.
At the sound of the bell, the vanquished Kwon slumped on the floor in his corner. Folayang, on the other hand, jogged and hopped around the ring as if just warming up.
In a pre-fight interview with Sherdog.com, Kwon boasted that “I’m so much better overall, and he will know that he has just been a big fish in a small pond when he fights me on September 3. I already see him returning back to the same small pond after he experiences the reality in the huge ocean of One FC. It’s too bad.”
Things turned out differently for Kwon, as he was denied of his seventh consecutive win. Just the same, credit is due to him for bravely filling in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Ole Laursen (Folayang’s original opponent).
Folayang, for his part, had this to say post-fight: “Well, I’m always blessed to win. I need to fight even though I’m hurt. I know I could win every round.”
Looks like the “big fish” is big enough for the “huge ocean of One FC,” and soon for the biggest of them all.
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