Former two-time ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang isn’t treating his fourth match with Shinya Aoki as a ceremonial farewell between aging legends.
He’s coming to win.
The ex-lightweight kings will battle one final time at ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang on March 23 at Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Folayang believes he’s better equipped now to even their score, which Aoki leads 2-1.
“I can say the past losses that I’ve gone through since losing to Aoki have made me better,” Folayang said.
“At this point, I’m still learning, I’m still gaining new experiences and I believe I’ve got so much more to show to Aoki in this fight.”
The Lions Nation MMA fighter revealed he’s fixed issues from his previous losses to Aoki and plans to apply these improvements in their upcoming bout.
“There are a lot of things that I want to do in this fight. The things that I’ve learned that I wish I would have known in our previous fights, I want to make sure I get it all out in this fight this time around,” Folayang said.
Familiarity with Aoki’s style gives Folayang confidence, though he acknowledges avoiding the Japanese star’s takedowns and submissions remains challenging.
“While I expect him to try and pull off new things, I expect him to go back to his bread and butter. Shinya is Shinya and we all know what he wants to do. I have to be very careful not to show one bit of opening cause I know he’ll capitalize,” he said.
“At this point we know each other now. We know what the other fighter wants to do. It’s all about being careful.”
With all three previous fights ending in finishes — Folayang winning the first via TKO before Aoki secured back-to-back submission victories —” Landslide” expects another definitive outcome.
And if he’s going to even the score with his longtime rival, he plans to do it emphatically.
“The goal of course is to finish him. MMA is a very unpredictable sport so as for my part I just have to follow through with my preparations and be on my toes always,” he said.
“Given that we know each other so well now, it’s all a matter of who’s gonna execute and impose their gameplan in the fight.”
