Team Lakay Coach Predicts Knockout Win by Folayang

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Team Lakay coach Mark Sangiao predicts Eduard Folayang will knock out his Japanese opponent, Kotetsu Boku, in the ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) event on May 2, revealing that the Team Lakay fighter has improved a lot.

“But if Eduard won't be able to knock Boku out, I'm sure it's going to be a great fight until the third round and it may go to a decision,” Sangiao said.

He admitted that Boku is a great fighter, especially in boxing. “He is one of the best boxers in the ONE FC Lightweight division.”

Compared to Folayang’s past opponents, Sangiao said Boku is faster and a good striker.

That’s the reason, he said, they are not taking chances, specially that Boku just came from a first-round knockout win over Arnaud Lepont at ONE FC 14 in March in Malaysia.

“Eduard is undergoing a very intense training in all aspects of mixed martial arts, in standing and on the ground. There are some differences from some of the routines that we were doing before,” Sangiao said.

Folayang’s training regimen includes strength and conditioning in the morning, skills training in the afternoon and sparring sessions twice a week. “We are focusing in all aspects of the game,” the coach said.

A hired foreign wrestling coach likewise comes up to Baguio City every other week to train Folayang and the other Team Lakay fighters. Ground game or wrestling has been identified in the past as a weakness among these Filipino MMA fighters, which prompted Team Lakay to hire a foreign wrestling coach.

But if Filipino MMA fighters have a weakness in their arsenal, so does Boku, Sangiao said.

“We see some weaknesses in Boku's skills and that's one thing that we are trying to focus on right now, but this is MMA so we are preparing in all aspects of the game. We see some holes on Boku's skills and I hope we could address that during the fight,” he said.

Folayang (13-4) and Boku (21-9-2) will fight in ONE FC: Rise of Heroes’ co-main event headlined by the bantamweight world championship battle between Brazilian Bibiano Fernandes and Japanese Masakatsu Ueda at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.

In an earlier interview, Folayang expressed confidence he will win against the Japanese. “Mananalo ako. Magaling sya sa striking pero magaling din ako. Malakas ako sa kanya sa takedown,” he said.

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