Folayang to defend ONE lightweight title vs Aoki in Tokyo

MANILA, Philippines – Reigning ONE Championship lightweight champion Eduard Folayang will make his first title defense against former Japanese title-holder Shinya Aoki in their much-awaited re-match in ONE’s A New Era set March 31 next year in Tokyo, Japan.

Folayang climbed his way back to the top of the stacked lightweight division by carving out a masterful unanimous decision win over Singaporean Amir Khan in ONE’s Conquest of Champions last month at the MOA Arena in Pasay City and will try to retain it against the legendary Aoki.

The Team Lakay standout will also try to relive his memorable third round TKO of Aoki in ONE’s Defending Honor in Singapore two years ago that snared the Filipino the belt and mixed martial arts world stardom.

Aoki, however, has clawed his way back to a crack at regaining the crown he once wore after winning his last three fights over Rasul Yakhyaev and Ev Ting via submission and Shannon Wiratchai via TKO.

The Folayang-Aoki showdown will be one of the three title bouts that will headline the Japan card with the other two being Xiong Jing Nan’s defense of her women’s strawweight crown against reigning atomweight champion Angela Lee and Aung N La Sang’ middleweight duel with Ken Hasegawa.

Xiong and Lee have lorded over their respective divisions but their dream showdown was forged after the latter decided to move up in weight to challenge with the winner becoming the fight outfit’s first women’s two-division winner.

Aung, inarguably the most decorated fighter that came out of Myanmar, and Hasegawa will also rekindle their epic fight in June this year when the Burmese eked out a close win that was considered as the greatest bout in ONE’s history and received the “Bout of the Year” honors in the 218 Global Martial Arts Awards.

Making the card more interesting in the much-awaited ONE debut by Ultimate Fighting Championship legends Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Eddie Alvarez against Yuya Wakamatsu of Japan and Timofey Nastyukhin of Russia, respectively.

The 32-year-old Johnson has a record of 27-3-1 (win-loss-draw) and owns the record of most consecutive title defense in UFC history with 11 after a five-year flyweight title reign before finally losing it to Henry Cejudo in UFC 227 last August in Los Angeles, California.

The 34-year-old Alvarez, for his part, has a 29-6 slate is a former lightweight titlist in both the UFC and Bellator.