EDUARD Folayang believes referee Olivier Coste made a premature decision to stop his match against Edson Marques in One Fight Night 5: De Ridder vs Malykhin on Saturday.
"I think napaaga masyado yung pag-stop," he said minutes after his second-round technical knockout loss, the fifth straight in mixed martial arts for the former lightweight champion.
See Marques wins by TKO in second round, extends Folayang's MMA woes
Folayang crashed to the mat with a right straight from Marques at the 2:53 mark of the second round but quickly got up .
"Going into a clinch, ita-try ko pa rin sana going into my right pero nasabayan ako ng suntok," he recalled. "Hindi naman ako na-blangko eh. Pero hindi, napasubsob lang talaga ako."
Folayang said he felt he was still able to fight, but by then, Coste has already waved the fight off.
"I immediately got up kasi kung nahilo talaga ako dun, na-blanko ako pero hindi. I can still recall [what happened]."
"Pero nagawa na yung decision eh. It was a split-second moment in time pero nagawa na yung decision and it's very difficult para habulin pa."
"All of us are not happy kasi syempre ako mismo, alam ko yung feeling ng na-knockout o na-groggy talaga tulad sa naramdaman ko kanina," said Folayang. "I know yung parang kapag sa computer kapag shinut down mo, di ba? Mahihirapan talaga siya mag-respond kapag in-on mo, pero hindi eh. I can still recall yung lahat lahat."
Marques was even given a US$50,000 fight bonus for the performance (around P2.7 million), which Folayang felt was adding insult to injury.
"Chatri's (One Championship chairman Sityodtong) very generous kasi syempre it's still considered a KO ... Pero syempre, on my part, parang medyo pag may sugat na nalagyan pa ng salt. So yun lang."
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