Eduard Folayang receives the championship belt from One FC CEO Victor Cui after defeating Shinya Aoki for the men's lightweight world championship bout during 'One Championship: Defending Honor' on Nov. 11, 2016 in Singapore. (Photo : Getty Images/Suhaimi Abdullah)
Eduard Folayang, 32, is set to defend his lightweight title at "ONE Championship 54: Kings of Destiny" against Ev Ting, 27, on April 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Recently, MMA fighter Mark Striegl, 28, shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight.
"Ev is a strong fighter but I think everything that he does well, Eduard does better," Striegl told me. "I'm confident Eduard will win."
It has been five years since Striegl defeated Ting via rear-naked choke. The two were both undefeated before they battled it out at "Legend FC7" on Feb. 11, 2012 in Macau, China.
"Legend FC7" only had one round, which lasted 3 minutes and 51 seconds. It was Striegl's seventh MMA fight and seventh win and Ting's fourth MMA fight and first loss.
Before losing to Striegl, Ting defeated Julian Gemmell, Shane Wescombe and William Chope. After Striegl, there are only two MMA fighters who defeated Ting, namely Yeong Gwang Choi and Marat Gafurov.
Since his MMA debut in 2010, Ting has fought 15 fights. Aside from Gemmell, Wescombe and Chope, the other fighters defeated by Ting are Dustin Terill, Rolando Gabriel Dy Navarette, Yohan Legowo, Edward Kelly, Cary Bullos, Honorio Banario, Eric Kelly, Robert Lisita-Cocheci and Kamal Shalorus.
Ting is from Malaysia but now based in New Zealand while both Folayang and Striegl are from the Philippines. Currently residing in Baguio City, Striegl is of Filipino and American descent.
Aside from Ting, Striegl also defeated Andy Jewett, Bae Young Kwon, Crisanto Pitpitunge, Giovanni Sablan, Yusuke Kawanago, Pan Wen Shi, Mohd Al Hafiz, Marko Huusansaari, Alcer Lozada, Robert Wusstig, Harris Sarmiento, Kaiwhare Kara-France, Casey Suire and Sotir Kichukov. The only fighters who defeated Striegl are Jang Yong Kim and Reece McLaren.
On the other hand, Folayang won 17 out of 22 fights since he made his MMA debut in 2007. Before his first loss in 2009, he defeated Allan Co, Caloy Baduria, Jerry Legaspi, Jerome Norita and A.J. Aguon.
Jon Truck was the first fighter to defeat Folayang. In 2012, Folayang had his second MMA loss when Ole Laursen won over him via a split decision at "One Fighting Championship: War of the Lions" in Kallang, Singapore.
Aside from Truck and Laursen, Folayang also defeated Shalorus, Lowen Tynanes and Timofey Nastyukhin. The other 12 fighters defeated by Folayang are Doo Jae Jung, Egon Racz, Bao She Ri Gu Leng, Vuyisile, A Sol Kwon, Wadson Teixeira, Felipe Enomoto, Vincent Latoel, Kotetsu Boku, Tetsuya Yamada, Adrian Pang and Shinya Aoki.
Meanwhile, watch a trailer of my upcoming documentary with a working title "BAGUIO CITY, FEBRUARY 2017: Three Handsome Men in a City" featuring Striegl, actor Vernon Hanwell and two-time Berlin Film Festival awardee Kidlat Tahimik here:
