By Adrian Stewart Co

Filipino mixed martial artist Eduard Folayang is set to headline a ONE Championship event tonight, when he faces Eddie Alvarez in “ONE: Dawn of Heroes” at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The former ONE lightweight champion hopes to rebound from his title defense loss to Japanese fighter Shinya Aoki earlier this year.
“I lost my belt [and] that chapter of my career has closed,” he said. “It’s time to write another chapter of my journey.”
The Baguio City native also discussed his excitement for the upcoming bout.
“I was very excited when I heard the news that Eddie was next to me, he’s one of the most well-known martial artists in the world,” Folayang added. “It’s a huge honor for me to be able to test my skills against him.”
Meanwhile, Alvarez is also looking to make a comeback after he was knocked out by Russian fighter Timofey Nastyukhin during the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix quarterfinals.
He offered his observations on Folayang’s technique.
“Eduard throws a lot of surprise attacks,” Alvarez noted. “Ideally, you take him down and none of that works—take him to the ground and nothing he’s done for his whole life works.”
“We’ve seen what happened with Aoki, he was lost on the ground,” he added.
The winner advances to face Turkish fighter Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev in the ONE lightweight world grand prix finals./ASC, WDJ