MMA: Eduard Folayang beats Shinya Aoki, becomes lightweight world champion

The Filipino stopped Asian mixed martial arts legend Aoki from Japan by technical knockout within three rounds at ONE Championship’s ‘Defending Honor’ in Singapore, Friday night.

Aoki took charge of the first round with his superior ground skills, but Folayang struck back in the second round, displaying his world-class wushu talent.

Folayang continued his momentum in the third round, rocking Aoki against the cage fence -- finishing him off with ground-and-pound.

In the co-main event, reigning ONE Featherweight World Champion Marat Gafurov from Russia successfully defended his title against challenger Narantungalag Jadambaa from Mongolia.

After a brief exchange of strikes, action quickly went to the mat when Jadambaa missed a kick and fell to the floor.

Gafurov worked on his submission to Jadambaa, finishing the fight with a rear naked choke.

Meanwhile, in a preliminary match, sole Malaysian fighter at the event, Muhamad Haidar lost to Singaporean fighter Niko Soe who made his debut at ONE Championship.

Both fighters started out aggressively, but it was Soe who managed to overpower his opponent, winning by armbar in the first round to the cheer of his hometown crowd.

ONE Lightweight World Championship bout: Eduard Folayang defeats Shinya Aoki by TKO (Strikes) at 0:41 minutes of round 3

ONE Featherweight World Championship bout: Marat Gafurov defeats Narantungalag Jadambaa by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:50 minutes of round 1

Lightweight bout: Amir Khan defeats Vaughn Donayre by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:22 minutes of round 3

Women’s strawweight bout: Michelle Nicolini defeats Mona Samir by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:16 minutes of round 1

Lightweight bout: Roger Huerta defeats Adrian Pang by Split Decision (SD) after 3 rounds

Featherweight bout: Kotetsu Boku defeats Timofey Nastyukhin by TKO (Injury) at 5:00 minutes of round 1

Women’s flyweight bout: Tiffany Teo defeats Walaa Abbas by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:15 minutes of round 2

Featherweight bout: Ahmed Mujtaba defeats Benedict Ang by Unanimous Decision (UD) after 3 rounds