By Brian Yalung
Filipino mixed martial arts and Brave CF fighter Rolando Dy believes that Eduard “The Landslide” Folayang of Team Lakay is far from done in his MMA career.
The 30-year-old recently appeared on the Sports Bytes PH podcast in an exclusive interview last Dec. 2 and answered several interesting questions in the world of fight sports.
Among the questions thrown to the son of Filipino boxing great Rolando Navarette was the plight of two-time lightweight champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang.
In his book, Dy feels that Folayang is still not at that age where he should retire. Instead, he feels that the 37-year-old needs to recalibrate his mixed martial arts career.
Dy, who is set to take on Slobodan Maksimovic at Brave CF 56 on Dec. 18 in Belgrade, Serbia, suggested Folayang may want to take a look at the run of Team Lakay stablemate Honorio Banario.
“Banario, before I thought he needed to retire. Natalo siya four-consecutive and some of them were via knockouts. He didn’t quit, kasi alam niya sa sarili niya na may fire pa sa puso niya. He came back and won so many fights after those consecutive losses,” Dy pointed out.
But Dy explained that he is in no position to say if Folayang should retire or not. Rather, he believes the best people to address it would be Folayang and/or his coaches.
“The only person who can say if he should retire is his coaches or Eduard himself. Mas kilala niya sarili niya and kung anong ‘hunger’ meron siya. The only thing I can see as far as retirement, is if he is either injured or too old. In my eyes, he is not that old,” Dy said.
As an example, Dy referred to the case of Jorge Masvidal who still managed to win the BMF Championship in November 2019, winning via TKO over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 held in New York City.
Folayang has lost four consecutive fights thus far. His last fight was against Zhang Lipeng at ONE Championship: Battleground 2 last Aug. 13 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Folayang lost to the debuting Chinese fighter via unanimous decision.
Before that, the 37-year-old from Baguio City also lost to Shinya Aoki, Antonio Caruso, and Pieter Buist.
Folayang’s last win was against Amarsanaa Tsogookhuu at ONE Championship: Masters of Fate held on Nov. 8, 2019, held in Manila. -rir
