“You have to fight to survive” - Eduard Folayang reevaluates MMA career ahead of Muay Thai showdown with John Wayne Parr at ONE X

Eduard Folayang will face John Wayne Parr at ONE Championship's biggest event, ONE X. This will be the first time that Folayang, who is a Wushu gold medalist, will fight in a non-MMA bout in over a decade. The fight will be contested under Muay Thai rules, and will be Parr's farewell fight after a career that spanned more than 20 years.

Understanding that this will be a departure from his sport of MMA, Folayang understands that Muay Thai might open some new opportunities for his career.

'The Landslide' has fallen on hard times in the cage lately, losing four straight matches in a row. Speaking with ONE Championship, Folayang made an assessment of his MMA career:

"That’s life, basically. There will come a point where you’re in a make-or-break situation, and you have to fight to survive. But I’m still passionate about what I do and for as long as the passion is still there, I will keep competing. It’s not like I lost these fights very badly. A lot of them were close. I know that I still have a lot of things to offer. It just so happens that there are things that I have to fix, and if I can fix those things, I believe I’d be more dangerous than ever."

The former ONE champion still has high hopes for his MMA career and is aware of his weaknesses and how to fix them. While the fight with Parr at ONE X might be a one-off affair, we'll never know if Folayang dips his toes further into ONE Super Series. if he does, there will be a long list of exciting fights waiting for him there.

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"I don’t think I was dominated in my previous fight" - Eduard Folayang on his previous performances ahead of ONE X

Despite losing four fights in a row, Folayang believes there are good takeaways from his previous fights. His losses to Zhang Lipeng, Antonio Caruso and Pieter Buist all came via decision while Shinya Aoki submitted him in the first round. On his losses, the Team Lakay veteran said:

"It all comes down to my ground game and grappling. If I can fix my holes there, I’ll be better off. In my previous fights, that’s where I struggled. I don’t think I was dominated in my previous fights, my opponents just pushed me to areas where they were more comfortable."

Ever the humble warrior that he is, Folayang is extremely self-aware of his weaknesses. This is a good sign as the Filipino warrior is gunning to make a resurgence and it all starts at ONE X.