Eduard Folayang suffered a fifth consecutive loss at ONE on Prime Video 5 and must be coming to the end of his glittering career. The Filipino, who did win a Muay Thai fight earlier this year, was stopped in the second round by Edson Marquez.
The fans were unhappy with the stoppage as Folayang immediately got back to his feet and wanted to continue. But he had faceplanted into the canvass after eating a right hand and the referee decided he had seen enough.
Folayang had made a bright start and looked to be back at something approaching his best. He pressurized the Brazilian, using his footwork to get in and out while throwing fast kicks and spinning back fists and looking to land overhand rights.
But while Folayang’s feet were moving his head was not which made the Filipino a static target. He landed with more frequency in the first round but Marquez hurt him with a straight right in the dying seconds and was able to score with jabs.
Edson Marques 🇧🇷 PLANTS former ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard Folayang for a second-round TKO! 👊
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of #ONEonPrimeVideo5!
🇺🇸🇨🇦 👉 https://t.co/D7gGSMLPtU
🌍 👉 https://t.co/eBUfsODAFL pic.twitter.com/OZJRNrn2GA— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 3, 2022
End of the road
Folayang hasn’t finished a fight since 2016 so he must have known he would need a decision win here. But at this stage of his career he has well and truly lost the element of surprise and the longer a bout continues the more chance there is of an opponent timing him and landing something.
That proved to be the case here with Marquez looking increasingly confident in the second round and narrowly missing with a high kick. Folayang decided to take am more aggressive approach and it proved to be his undoing.
He looked to swarm all over Marquez with punches but a right hand landed flush and dropped Folayang. He hit the canvass face first and even though the Filipino was ready to continue the referee called it off.
In truth the protests came mainly from the crowd. Inside the cage Folayang looked like he had no idea what was going on which suggested that Olivier Coste had made the correct call.
With the loss he falls to 22-13 and, despite a moral boosting Muay Thai win over John Wayne Parr earlier in the year, this could be curtains for Folayang’s MMA career. Marquez improves to 11-2 and has won back to back ONE Championship fights, he received a $50,000 USD bonus for his efforts here.
