by Rafael Bandayrel
Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, the face of Team Lakay for so long, finally gets the opportunity to reclaim the ONE Championship lightweight title as he sees action in the promotion’s “Conquest of Champions” card on Nov. 23, at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay.
ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong made the announcement on social media Monday afternoon:
“I am excited to announce that Eduard Landslide Folayang and Amir Khan will face each other for the ONE Lightweight World Championship on November 23 in Manila!,” Sityodtong wrote on his Facebook.
“The stakes could not be any higher for both warriors in what will be the biggest fight of their careers. Eduard wants to reclaim his title and go down as the greatest Filipino martial artist in history. Amir wants to become Singapore’s first homegrown World Champion in history, and stamp his legacy as the greatest Singaporean martial artist the world has ever seen,” he added.
Khan, 23, is a known knockout artist from the famed EVOLVE MMA stable in Singapore.
The announcement came two days after former two-division champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen was forced to vacate his lightweight throne due to a serious knee injury.
Since losing the lightweight strap last November, Folayang bounced back from his knockout (KO) loss to Nguyen by scoring back-to-back unanimous decisions over previously-unbeaten Russian fighters Kharun Atlangeriev and Aziz Pahrudinov.
Sityodtong also revealed that ONE brass gave thought to upgrading the Shinya Aoki-Ev Ting showdown into a championship tilt, but they ultimately “decided against it.” Instead, the winner of Aoki vs. Ting on Oct. 6 will be next-in-line for a title shot at ONE’s promotional debut in Japan next year.
