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Eduard Folayang Fortifying Takedown Defense Against Submission Specialist Shinya Aoki

By Dan Paulo Errazo Reigning ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang will headline ONE: A NEW ERA on 31 March as he defends his ONE Lightweight World Title against Japanese legend, Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki in a highly-anticipated rematch. The heavily stacked card at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan will house the rematch […]

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By Dan Paulo Errazo

Reigning ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang will headline ONE: A NEW ERA on 31 March as he defends his ONE Lightweight World Title against Japanese legend, Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki in a highly-anticipated rematch.

The heavily stacked card at the Ry?goku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan will house the rematch between the Filipino striker and the Japanese submission artist. After relinquishing his golden strap to Folayang, Aoki made a statement by winning his last three matches in the first round where two of those were by submission, and one impressively by knockout.

The wins earned Aoki another shot at the ONE Lightweight World Title, setting up an epic showdown in Japan.

“I knew at one point or another, I would be facing Shinya [Aoki] again. It was inevitable,” Folayang said.

“He was quickly coming back up and I had just won the title again. Plus, the huge Japan event was announced. I anticipated defending the lightweight belt against him there. “

Folayang was happy with the news that he would be facing Aoki once more. He feels that this is another opportunity to see how much he has improved against the hungry Japanese veteran.

“Nevertheless, I am grateful for the opportunity to once again face this legend,” Folayang said.

“He’s the greatest submission artist in mixed martial arts history. I couldn’t be happier to headline this event against him. It is an honor.”

Coming into this bout, Folayang’s game plan involves heavy focus on takedown defense.

Knowing that Aoki is known for his vaunted ground game, Folayang has been working closely with coach Mark Sangiao in developing techniques to counter and escape each and every position on the ground.

A successful title defense would mean a lot to Folayang and Team Lakay as they slowly rise back to the top of the sport. Takedown defense, and avoiding the mat with Aoki at all costs, it seems, is the primary focus.

“As much as possible, I will not give him the opportunity to bring me down to the mat,” Folayang concluded.

“It all boils down to how well I defend myself from his takedowns, knowing how expertly he moves with this sole purpose in mind. Takedown defense is a very important part of my training right now, and I am constantly improving in this area.”

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ONE: Reign Of Valor Results Recap

At today’s ONE: Reign Of Valor in Yangon, Myanmar, ONE Welterweight Champion Zebaztian Kadestam successfully retained his title. The Swede defeated Kazakhstan’s Georgiy Kichigin via second-round TKO to record his first title defense. A crashing elbow to the head of Kichigin in the final seconds of the second frame rocked the challenger, who up until […]

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A crashing elbow to the head of Kichigin in the final seconds of the second frame rocked the challenger, who up until that point was looking impressive. However, despite walking back to his corner and talking with his trainers when the bell for the third sounded, the Kazakh showed no desire to leave his stool.

It will be interesting to find out if there was some unseen injury that made Kichigin decide to throw in the towel. The shot that caused the stoppage was heavy but it did not appear to have caused enough damage to stop the contest.

Not that Kadestam will particularly care. In the post-fight interview, the 28-year-old was open about the troubles he had in camp during the build-up for this bout. The champion did look out of sorts in the opening exchanges. Up until that elbow, Kichigin appeared to be rising.

Kichigin’s submission skills lived up the hype, and he seemed to be wearing Kadestam down with his suffocating ground game. The 30-year-old was also having success on his feet, sending a number of clean straight shots to the head of Kadestam.

In the end, the champion showed heart and did what he needed to do to get the win. Kadestam will now sit back, survey the welterweight landscape and wait for his next challenger to put their hand up.

Sage Northcutt will be making his debut on May 18. The Americian seems a lock in for a title challenge if he can record a couple of victories.

Catalan Makes Case For Shot At Strawweight Title

Rene Catalan’s first-round demolition of former strawweight champion Yoshitaka Naito has put him pole position for a shot at the strawweight title

The Filipino became the first person since 2012 to stop time the Japanese grappling dynamo. Coming into this bout, the thinking was that Catalan needed to avoid being taken to the ground to have any chance of winning.Yet it was Naito’s myopic search for a submission at all costs, that ended up working in the Filipino’s favor.

The former champion got the early takedown he wanted after locking in a firm hold around the legs of Catalan. He then went to work looking for submission. However, the Wushu world champion was given free use of his hands. which he immediately turned to his advantage. The 40-year-old consistently created pockets of space which allowed him to deliver a steady diet of headshots to Naito.

Natio’s attempt to grit these attacks out proved unwise. With 30 seconds left in the round Catalan’s shots become too much for the Japanese fighter who wilted under the drumbeat of punches.

The victory extends Catalan’s winning streak to six. It would seem only fair for the veteran’s next fight to be for the title.

Hometown Heroes Deliver

The home crowd went home happy today after all three local Myanmar fighters recorded wins.

In the co-main event, Phoe Thaw demonstrated a vastly improved ground game against Yohan Mulia Legowo. The Indonesian was able to take the fight to the ground early on but was unable to put Phoe Thaw in any serious danger.

There were moments where it looked like Phoe Thaw was about to be dragged into deep waters, but the former Lethwei fighter escaped these situations without too much difficulty.

At the tail end of the first round, he managed to get back to standing position before throwing a barrage of punches at the grounded Legowo.

The referee stepped in once it became clear Legowo could no safely longer defend himself.

Phoe Thaw will still need time to upskill his grappling if he wants to hang with the elite of the division, but he appears to be on the right path.

Earlier in the night, Bozhena Antoniyar returned to the winner’s circle with a stoppage win over Audreylaura Boniface while Tial Thang record a unanimous decision on debut.

ONE: Reign Of Valor Full Results:

Zebaztian Kadestam defeats Georgiy Kichigin via TKO

Phoe Thaw defeated Yohan Mulia Legowo via round-one TKO

Mauro Cerilli defeated Alain Ngalani via round-one TKO

Rene Catalan defeated Yoshitaka Naito by first-round TKO

Gurdarshan Mangat defeated Toni Tauru via third-round knockout

Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy defeated Kenta Yamada via unanimous decision

Tial Thang defeated Rin Saroth via unanimous decision

Enriko Kehl defeats Liam Nolan via second-round knockout

Prelims:

Tarik Khbabez defeated Andrei Stoica via
unanimous decision

Lin Heqin submits Jomary Torres first-round submission

Chen Rui defeated Roman Alvarez via second-round TKO

Bozhena Antoniyar defeated Audreylaura Boniface via second-round TKO

Rui Botelho defeated Yuta Watanabe via unanimous decision

Kohei Kodera defeated Kenny Tse via unanimous decision

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Vitor Belfort Says Roy Jones Jr. Has Agreed To ONE Championship Fight

Vitor Belfort says in a recent post on social media that 50-year-old boxing champion Roy Jones Jr. has agreed to a fight in ONE Championship. Thus, it appears that Belfort has a comeback fight. It should be noted that the promotion has yet to confirm the bout but is expected to do so. This news […]

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Vitor Belfort says in a recent post on social media that 50-year-old boxing champion Roy Jones Jr. has agreed to a fight in ONE Championship.

Thus, it appears that Belfort has a comeback fight. It should be noted that the promotion has yet to confirm the bout but is expected to do so.

This news comes after earlier this week Belfort revealed that he had signed with ONE Championship now that he’s out of retirement. As of this writing, there’s no word yet on the date of his next fight.

Belfort took to his official Instagram account where he thanked Jones for accepting the fight:

“I was in the middle of filming for an upcoming project (which I’m excited to share with you all soon) when I got the official response from @RoyJonesJr so I thought I would share that little moment with you all,” Belfort posted. “I am very excited for what’s to come with @OneChampionship and this upcoming fight, I’m even more excited to be the first to bring you this new way of competition, it allows for the 1st time different worlds to collide in a way that’s fair and exciting! Thank you accepting Roy and I am looking forward to this fight!”

Belfort’s last MMA fight came against former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida where he lost by KO at the UFC 224 pay-per-view event.

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ONE: Reign Of Valor Preview, Breakdown & Analysis

ONE: Reign Of Valor goes down this Friday, March 8, 2019, at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar. A welterweight title clash between reigning champ Zebaztian Kadestam and newcomer Georgiy Kichigin will headline the 14-bout card. The event may lack the star power of the upcoming Tokyo event, but it contains a number of […]

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ONE: Reign Of Valor goes down this Friday, March 8, 2019, at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon, Myanmar.

A welterweight title clash between reigning champ Zebaztian Kadestam and newcomer Georgiy Kichigin will headline the 14-bout card.

The event may lack the star power of the upcoming Tokyo event, but it contains a number of fun bouts and should not lack for action. When you have names like Alain Ngalani, Tarik Khbabez and Phoe Thaw in the mix, it would be fair to say that bombs will be thrown.

The Myanmar fans will also create a cauldron-like atmosphere for the local athletes. This should help the set the scene for a lively night of fights.

Return Of The Bandit

ONE welterweight champion Zebaztian” The Bandit” Kadestam makes the first defense of his title this Friday, against Kazakhstan’s Georgiy Kichigin. The hard-hitting Swede claimed the vacant belt after knocking out undefeated American Tyler McGuire last November.

In Kichigin, Kadestam will be facing a fighter unbeaten since 2014, riding a 14-bout win streak.

Kichigin has 16 submission wins to his name and against a powerful striker like Kadestam, will look to take the fight to the ground as soon as possible. However, that is easier said than done. Kadestam showed impressive takedown defense in his last outing against McGuire, also a submission specialist.

Kadestam currently has nine KO wins next to his name, and the odds are after this weekend that number rises to ten. The Swede’s striking has continued to improve and it is also a tough ask for a newcomer to ONE, to defeat the champion in their first bout.

A Strawweight Top Contender Bout

Former strawweight Champion Yoshitaka Naito returns to the cage for the first time since losing his belt to Joshua Pacio. The 35-year-old Japanese fighter will take on surging strawweight contender Rene Catalan in a bout that will put the winner into title contention.

Catalan, a Wushu World Champion, comes into this contest on a five-fight winning streak. A striking specialist the 40-year-old put on an impressive showing in his last outing when he stifled the much-vaunted ground game of Stefer Rahardian

He will need to produce a similar performance against Natio, who is regarded as one of the top grapplers in the division. Natio has also only fought the best of the best since arriving in ONE while the same cannot be said of Catalan.

The Filipino, cannot afford to put a foot wrong on Friday night. He will be aware that at his age this is likely his last chance at a title run. While for Natio two losses in a row will see him pushed to the back of the strawweight title queue.

A lot is a lot riding on the outcome of this bout for both men.

A Spotlight On The Local Fighters

The last five Myanmar cards have been headlined by ONE Lightweight and Middleweight Champion Aung La N Sang. The 33-year-old is a rockstar in his homeland with a huge following.

However, the “ Burmese Python” will not compete this Friday. He is set to defend his middleweight belt against Ken Hasegawa on March 31

Aung La’s absence gives his compatriots an opportunity to carve out a name of their own.

The fighters flying the home flag are featherweight Phoe Thaw, female atomweight Bozhena Antoniyar and Tial Thang who will be fighting a 149 lbs catchweight bout.

Phoe Thaw will be the one to keep an eye on. He will compete in the co-main event.

The 34-year-old has wicked kicking game and is the most high profile athlete of the home based fighters.

The country of 52 million has few stars, either sporting or otherwise, appearing on the international stage. So expect the intensely passionate local crowd to throw their full support behind all three fighters.

ONE: Reign of Valor Lineup

Main Card:

Phoe Thaw VS Yohan Mulia Legowo

Alain Ngalani VS Mauro Cerilli

Yoshitaka Naito VS Rene Catalan

Toni Tauru VS Gurdarshan Mangat

Kenta Yamada VS Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy

Tial Thang VS Rin Saroth

Liam Nolan VS Enriko Kehl

Prelims:

Andrei Stoica VS Tarik Khbabez

Lin Heqin VS Jomary Torres

Chen Rui VS Roman Alvarez

Bozhena Antoniyar VS Audreylaura Boniface

Yuta Watanabe VS Rui Botelho

Kohei Kodera VS Kenny Tse

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Breaking: Vitor Belfort Signs With ONE Championship

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort has signed with Asian based MMA promotion ONE Championship, according to sources. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani was the first to break the news via Twitter. Vitor Belfort has officially signed with ONE, according to sources. — Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 1, 2019 The news doesn’t come as much of […]

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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort has signed with Asian based MMA promotion ONE Championship, according to sources.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani was the first to break the news via Twitter.

Vitor Belfort has officially signed with ONE, according to sources.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 1, 2019

The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

Belfort fought out his UFC contract and had all but said he would not be re-signing with world MMA leader. Many fans and MMA personalities speculated that Belfort would end up in Bellator with many other former UFC greats. However, in the end, ONE Championship has landed “The Phenom”.

The 41-year-old Belfort has won just two of his last six fights. He most recently suffered a brutal front kick knock out at the hands of Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 last May.

He does still own the UFC record for knockouts with 12. ONE appears to think there is still life in the “Phenom.” Do you?

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Sage Northcutt Has ONE Championship Debut Booked

Sage Northcutt has his first bout booked under the ONE Championship banner which will mark his promotional debut. The rising prospect decided during his time as a free agent that it was best for him to sign with ONE instead of staying with the UFC. Northcut made an appearance back in 2015 on the debut […]

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Sage Northcutt has his first bout booked under the ONE Championship banner which will mark his promotional debut.

The rising prospect decided during his time as a free agent that it was best for him to sign with ONE instead of staying with the UFC. Northcut made an appearance back in 2015 on the debut episode of Dana White’s Lookin’ for a Fight web series. He would later go 6-2 in the UFC.

Northcutt announced on Tuesday at a media event in Los Angeles that he’s set to fight Cosmo Alexandre in a welterweight bout but under ONE rules, it will be a 185 lbs bout. This fight goes down on May 17 in Singapore.

In his latest fight, which was the co-headliner of UFC Boise at CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, the rising prospect picked up a win. He was able to secure a TKO win over the always-tough Zak Ottow. This fight didn’t go as originally planned for Northcutt as he had a tough first round. He got floored with a punch early in the fight and absorbed shots from top position. However, he was able to rebound and get his hand raised.

Northcutt bulked up for this fight as it was contested at welterweight. This is not his normal weight class even though he’s fought at 170 pounds a few times. After the fight, he made it known that he would entertain the idea of fighting at middleweight.

On the flip side, Alexandre (7-1) hasn’t competed in MMA since September 2016. He lost his professional debut with Bellator in 2011. He turned that around with winning seven straight.

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