ONE Championship will have a superfight between two of its champions at “ONE: Legends of the World.” Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen will try to have two titles by dethroning Eduard “Landslide” Folayang on November 10, 2017 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Nguyen is the reigning ONE featherweight world champion while Folayang is the reigning ONE lightweight world champion. On October 10, 2017, the two had the traditional skyline photoshoot at City Garden Grand Hotel in Makati City, Metro Manila.
Right after the photoshoot, I got to have a brief interview with Nguyen. I asked him if he considered being the underdog in the match as an advantage or a disadvantage.
“Look, I’ve been the underdog, story of my life, I’ve been an underdog my whole MMA career so it doesn’t faze me,” Nguyen told me. “At the end of the day, all I’m worried about is beating my opponent, A, and B, putting a show for the Filipino fans.”
“You know that Eduard Folayang is the top fighter of Team Lakay,” I told Nguyen. “What does that mean to you?”
“I respect Eduard as a martial artist and as a friend,” Nguyen replied. The Vietnamese-Australian MMA fighter noted that Folayang has spent his whole MMA career showing his Filipino warrior spirit.
“The guy is a living legend,” Nguyen said of Folayang. The former added that the latter has overcome adversity and it is the right choice for Filipinos supporting the top Team Lakay fighter because “he inspires the right people.”
To end the interview, I asked Nguyen to give pieces of advice to young people whose dream is to become an MMA fighter like him. He said, “You’re gonna have a lot of people that’s gonna feed you negative information.”
“There’s gonna be a lot of negative people in your life,” Nguyen added. “What you’re gonna do is cut them out, and you know what, stay persistent in what you wanna be, who you wanna become and where you wanna be.”
Watch my interview with Nguyen here:
CONAN Daily 