It started when I asked Mark Striegl about his thoughts about the upcoming "ONE Championship: Kings of Destiny" fight between Eduard Folayang and Ev Ting. For Striegl, Ting is a strong fighter but Folayang is better so the latter will win the fight.
Days before the "ONE Championship: Kings of Destiny" fight, I asked Ting for his comment on Striegl's remarks. The Malaysian fighter told me, "Tell that clown I will fight him as warm up before Eduard for free."
Striegl won the fight against Ting at "Legend FC 7" in Macau, China, on Feb. 11, 2012, via rear-naked choke giving the latter his first MMA loss. They were supposed to have a rematch in 2013 in the Philippines but it was cancelled due to Ting's weight.
"Hilarious," was the first thing Striegl said in response to Ting's "warm up" comment. "This guy calls me a clown and a warm-up but he's the one who finished our fight sleeping and came in 7 pounds overweight for our rematch."
"ONE Championship: Kings of Destiny" marks Folayang's first time to defend his title in the lightweight division. The MMA event will take place on April 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila.
If Folayang wins the fight, he will become the fourth fighter to defeat Ting. After Striegl, Ting also lost to Young Gwang Choi at "Legend FC 11" in 2013 and to Marat Gafurov at "ONE FC 27: Warrior's Quest" in 2015.
But if Ting wins at "ONE Championship: Kings of Destiny," he will become the sixth fighter to defeat Folayang. The only five fighters who defeated Folayang are Jon Tuck, Ole Laursen, Felipe Enomoto, Lowen Tynanes, Kamal Shalorus and Timofey Nastyukhin.
On the other hand, Jang Yong Kim and Reece McLaren are the only fighters Striegl failed to defeat. Striegl's last MMA fight was on Dec. 2, 2016 when he defeated Sotir Kichukov at "ONE Championship: Age of Domination."
Watch a "ONE Championship: Age of Domination" video here:
