Eduard “Landslide” Folayang is gearing up for a performance of a lifetime.
With his upcoming superbout with Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez now moved to the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix semi-finals, the Filipino martial arts hero now has more reasons to be fired up.
“This will be an explosive fight,” Folayang said.
“What I can promise is that this will be a great fight because we’ve worked hard for it during training,” he added.
The pair of dynamos will go at it on one of the featured bouts of ONE: DAWN OF HEROES when The Home Of Martial Arts returns to the Mall of Asia Arena on 2 August.
The match got bumped from an alternate bout to a semi-final contest after a knee injury sidelined Timofey Nastyukhin, scratching his bout with Honorio “The Rock” Banario.
With the ante being raised for this match, Folayang cannot hide his excitement.
“First of all, I’m wishing Timofey a fast recovery,” Folayang said. “That’s our life as athletes. You don’t expect to get injured.”
“I’m excited because now we’re officially part of the Grand Prix, but of course I have to win. All of that won’t mean anything if I don’t win,” he added.
While Folayang has encountered a lot of big bouts in the past, he will be the first to admit that this is certainly his biggest.
After all, Alvarez has seemingly done it all – winning World Titles in the UFC and Bellator before his quest to greatness brought him to the largest martial arts organization in the world.
Facing a big name like Alvarez, and with a path to another World Title run in his sights, Folayang is hellbent on making the most out of this opportunity.
“The mindset is to get in there, win, and beat a big name. That’s the aim, that’s the goal,” Folayang said. “I wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, and I’m happy for this opportunity. Now it’s all about making the most of it.”
