Eduard Folayang’s skid in ONE Championship continued, suffering a unanimous decision loss to the debuting Zhang Lipeng, Friday evening during Battleground II at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The former ONE Lightweight World Champion was dealt his fourth straight defeat. His last win was back in Masters of Fate back in November of 2019 — a technical decision win against Tsogookhuu Amarsanaa.
Folayang’s record fell to 22-12, as well.
But unlike his loss to Shinya Aoki last April, the 36-year-old Baguio native was not stopped in the contest.
Photo from ONEFC.com
Overpowering was Zhang to start of the 15-minute affair as he quickly took down the Filipino icon early on and ended the opening stanza with a rear-naked choke attempt.
Photo from ONEFC.com
In the next two rounds, the 36-year-old native of Baguio City had fair success on the standup but was quickly taken down by the double hooks of the 31-year-old Beijing native.
“Well, of course, there are some areas where I was not able to cope up especially in the first round. At least there’s an improvement,” said Folayang as he tried to look at the silver-linings of this loss.
“I think the first round. I was able to cope up in the second and third but it was the first that he was able to control the bout,” he continued.
Zhang, the winner of The Ultimate Fighter: China, went up to 31-11-2.
Honored was Zhang to have faced a legend in Folayang. Moreover, he is just grateful to be fighting again as his last fight was back in September of 2019 when he was still with Kunlun Fight.
“I’m happy and also a bit tired. I haven’t had a match for the last two years. Grateful to ONE Championship for giving the Folayang fight,” he said.
Zhang quickly called out one of Folayang’s rivals in Aoki after the bout.
