Folayang goes down, yields title to Nguyen

With one sick punch, historymaking Martin Nguyen unseated ONE lightweight world title holder Eduard “Landslide” Folayang in front of his countrymen.

Having the Filipino martial arts star figured out, the Vietnamese Aussie patiently bided his time and quickly pounced on the opening to deliver a cracking overhand right that knocked Folayang out cold to the shock of the packed MOA Arena crowd Friday night.

By annexing Folayang’s belt, reigning featherweight world titlist Nguyen carved his name in the record books as the first two-division champion of ONE Championship.

“I’m here not just to win but to make history,” said Nguyen, who extended his win streak to six and scored his third consecutive onepunch victory.

Cheered on by a big home crowd, Folayang went to his trademark kicks but Nguyen took the strike well. And at 2:20 of the second, the 33-year-old Pinoy launched a back spin kick again, and Nguyen was ready and unleashed his lethal right that sealed the home fighter’s doom. It was the same punch that the Vietnamese-Aussie unloaded on undefeated Marat Gafurov to cop the featherweight belt last August.

“Throughout the whole six weeks, our thoughts were on his spinning kicks… I timed it perfect with that right hand. It was meant to be a takedown but I threw the right hand out of instinct and landed flush,” he said.

Folayang’s Team Lakay buddy Danny Kingad also suffered a disappointing defeat in his bid to wrest the ONE flyweight diadem from Brazilian holder Adriano Moraes in the co-main event. Kingad yielded to Moraes via rear-naked choke in the first round to taste his first professional loss after eight straight wins.

Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon dominated Korean Kevin Chung to pick up his fourth consecutive victory and 17-5 overall.

Gina “Conviction” Iniong and Joshua “the Passion” Pacio posted convincing triumphs in the preliminary bouts. –