Pinoys Folayang, Eustaquio and Catalan win ONE FC bouts

Eduard “Landslide” Folayang arrested his two-fight losing streak with a unanimous decision victory of Vincent Latoel of The Netherlands.

After falling to Kamal Shalorus at ONE FC: Rise to Power, Folayang and the rest of Team Lakay rededicated themselves to wrestling training and it showed in his fight.

After three rounds, Folayang was announced as the winner via unanimous decision.

“I believe that there’s always hope,” Folayang said about the fight but it was clear he was talking about so much more. “

Folayang displayed his usual strikes in the first round but he also showed his newfound wrestling skill. In the second round, Latoel caught the popular Filipino with a guillotine attempt but Folayang was able to weather the storm. He spent most of the round on side control and even went for an arm triangle but he wasn’t able to sink it in against Latoel.

Landslide was rocked by a big right hand early in the third but he responded with a spinning back-fist. He tried to end the fight with a flurry as he went for a soccer kick.

The first Team Lakay member to step into ring was Geje Eustaquio and he didn’t disappoint with a unanimous decision victory over Eugene Toquero.

Eustaquio struggled early against his aggressive opponent. The fight turned when the Team Lakay flyweight completed consecutive takedowns that frustrated Toquero. The second and third rounds were fought mostly standing up but this time it was Eustaquio who landed the cleaner blows.

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After the fight, Eustaquio stood on top of the cage and motioned for a belt, perhaps asking ONE FC to crown a flyweight champion.

Earlier in the night, Ruel Catalan ended the Filipino’s losing streak on home soil as he avenged his brother’s beating at the hands of Khim Dima. Prior to the fight, Catalan said he was going to beat Dima up and that’s exactly what he did. The Filipino scored a takedown but he fell into a guillotine attempt from Dima but when he popped out his head, Catalan rained down punches on Dima prompting the referee to stop the fight at the 3:35 mark of the first round.

“After he sent my brother to the hospital, I really wanted to fight him,” Catalan said after the fight.

Rene Catalan, the victor’s brother, was ecstatic about the victory. “I told him this was his time. I told him not to have anger when he was fighting, to just concentrate on the fight,” the older Catalan said. “My loss was a stepping stone for us as we realized what areas we needed to improve on and the result was my brother’s victory.”

The Filipinos did not get a clean sweep in the undercard as Eduard Kelly lost to late replacement Herbert Burns 44 seconds into the very first round to start the proceedings for ONE FC: Moment of Truth. Burns quickly took down Kelly who wasn’t able to sprawl on time. Evolve’s Burns then took Kelly, back, landed some strikes and finished with a rear naked choke.

In other bouts, Japan’s Koetsu Okazaki defeated Guam’s Joshua Alvarez, Taiwan’s Paul Cheng TKO’d muscle-man Alain Ngalani of Hong Kong, Korea’s Dae Hwan Kim submitted Australia’s Thanh Vu, and Vuyisile Colossa defeated USA’s Caros Fodor.