By Michael Angelo S. Murillo , Senior Reporter

VETERAN Filipino mixed martial arts star Eduard “Landslide” Folayang’s thrust to go back to the sport’s mountaintop at this stage of his career took a blow when he absorbed a unanimous decision loss to Australian Antonio ‘The Spartan” Caruso on Friday at ONE Championship’s “Inside The Matrix” event in Singapore.

Viewed by many as a “crossroads” fight for the 36-year-old Team Lakay stalwart, Mr. Folayang put up a gallant stand but just could not overcome the height and reach advantage of his opponent en route to slumping to the defeat.

The loss was the fourth in the last five fights for Mr. Folayang (22-10), leaving observers to float the idea that maybe it is time for Landslide to hang his gloves and retire.

It is a thought that Mr. Folayang had shot down in the lead-up to the fight and after it, reiterating that he still has it in him to fight and would continue to do so.

For local combat sports analyst Nissi Icasiano, while the last year and a half have been tough for the former two-time ONE lightweight champion, he does not think that it is time for Mr. Folayang to call it a career.

The analyst, however, admitted that the Filipino MMA star’s push to once again be in the mix of contenders in the stacked lightweight division got more tricky with the Caruso loss.

“Is it time for Folayang to retire after that loss? My honest opinion: I think he has a couple of fights left in him before he can call it a career. I’ve seen worse, and it’s not the kind of fight you would draw a conclusion that his time is up. He is still there, believe me,” said Mr. Icasiano in an online interview with BusinessWorld.

“Definitely, the loss hampered his bid to at least break into the top five of the lightweight rankings. It’s sad to say, but it’s back to square one for the Landslide.  I won’t be surprised if Eduard gets relegated to the gatekeeping role after this. From a matchmaker’s perspective, it’s the most plausible option in order to gauge if he is still within the caliber of a lightweight contender,” he added.

Meanwhile, Inside The Matrix saw two world titles change hands.

“The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang of Myanmar lost his middleweight title to Reinier “The Dutch Knight” De Ridder of The Netherlands while Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen of Australia saw his featherweight title taken from him by Vietnamese-American Thanh Le.

The erstwhile champions fell in devastating fashion with Aung La sent to submission due to a rear-naked choke in the opening round. The Burmese fighter, however, still holds the ONE light-heavyweight title.

Mr. Nguyen, for his part, was knocked out in the third round.

ONE lightweight champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee of Singapore and women’s strawweight champ “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan of China, meanwhile, retained their respective titles.

Next for ONE Championship is “Inside The Matrix II” on Nov. 6 also in Singapore and to be headlined by the world welterweight title clash between champion Kiamrian Abbasov of Kyrgyzstan and challenger James Nakashima of the United States.

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