Eduard Folayang faces Shinya Aoki in title duel

MANILA, Philippines — Reigning ONE Championship lightweight champion Eduard Folayang will make his first title defense against former title-holder Shinya Aoki of Japan in a much-awaited rematch in ONE’s A New Era card on March 31 in Tokyo.

Folayang climbed his way back to the top of the stacked lightweight division with a unanimous decision over Singaporean Amir Khan in ONE’s Conquest of Champions last month at the MOA Arena in Pasay.

The Team Lakay standout scored a third-round TKO of the legendary Aoki to wrest the crown in ONE’s Defending Honor card in Singapore two years ago.

Aoki, however, earned the chance to regain the crown 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 on  the Japan card. The other two pit defefending women’s strawweight crown holder Xiong Jing Nan against against reigning atomweight champion Angela Lee and Aung N La Sang against Ken Hasegawa in a middleweight duel.

Xiong and Lee have lorded it over their respective divisions. But their dream showdown was sealed after the latter decided to move up in weight in a bid to become the fight outfit’s first woman two-division winner.

Aung, arguably the most decorated fighter to come out of Myanmar, and Hasegawa will rekindle their epic fight in June this year when the Burmese eked out a close win in what could be the greatest bout in ONE’s history. It received the “Bout of the Year” honors in the 2018 Global Martial Arts Awards.

Making the card more interesting is the much-awaited ONE debut of UFC legends  – Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson vs Yuya Wakamatsu of Japan and Eddie Alvarez vs Timofey Nastyukhin of Russia.

The 32-year-old Johnson has a record of 27-3-1 and owns the record for most number of consecutive title defenses in UFC history at 11 after a five-year flyweight reign. He only lost the crown 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. He is a former lightweight titlist in both the UFC and Bellator.