This appears in the Monday, August 14, 2012 edition of the Business Mirror.
Eduard
Folayang and Kevin Belingon: the calm before the storm
by rick olivares
When Filipino Mixed Martial Arts
fighter Kevin Belingon enters the cage, like his teammate Eduard Folayang and
his idol Georges St. Pierre, he has this calm presence. Living through
firefights not to mention his cage matches will do that to you.
As a youngster growing up in Ifugao
province, his town would explode in violence whenever the Philippine Army would
roll in. Like a moth to a flame, the New People’s Army rebels would inevitably
come down and engage the government troops in sustained firefights. One time
when Belingon was only five years old, his father hid him and his sibling
inside an empty water tank as the bullets and grenades exploded all around.
“You can say that I got used to the
intense firefights. So cage fights are nothing compared to living through
combat,” Belingon reveals of his preternatural calmness.
Belingon fights to represent his tribe
(Ifugao), his country, and the Filipino people. It isn’t the usual remark about
serving the people. Belingon means every word. He is a Criminology graduate and
if he weren’t fighting now, he’d be a cop. “I would love to help bring back the
public’s trust in the police.”
Belingon isn’t the only one who
exhibits grasshopper calm. His teammate, Eduard Folayang, is the same. Folayang
was once a Physical Education teacher in his home city of Baguio. He was
already into wushu when his mentor pushed him into getting into Mixed Martial
Arts.
Even with three wushu medals in the
Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games as well as a Universal Reality Combat Championship
welterweight title to his name, Folayang keeps a regal sereneness about him. If
it weren’t for his sculpted physique, one could still mistake him as a teacher.
Folayang carries with him a small
notebook where he jots down things that he picks up and learns everyday from
the people he meets to events that surround him. When I inquire about it, he
simply said, “To learn. There is a lot to learn in life. Not just MMA. This
makes you a better person.”
Over a bistek Pilipino lunch, both Folayang and Belingon talk about
mistakes they made in their previous losses. For Eduard, it’s all about doing
something in the right as opposed to not doing it. Against Filipino-Danish Muay
Thai specialist Ole Laursen, Folayang was suckered into a ground and grappling
game. While known as a stand up striker, Eduard isn’t beyond going to the
canvass when need me. “I should have done it to him first,” he regrets. “It’s a
huge learning for me to leave everything in the ring so when I exit there are
no regrets.”
He pauses to accentuate a point,
“Things – even a loss – happen for a reason. They teach you hard lessons to
learn and to be humble.”
Belingon saw his win streak stopped at
nine when he lost to Japanese fighter Masakazu Imanari in the first round of
One FC last March in Singapore. “Wrong move on my part,” he rued. “Mistakes are
part of life. You have to make sure that you do not repeat them. You have to
get over the loss and fear if you want to stand up. That’s life.”
Inside the air-conditioned and plush
Manila Peninsula, people are insulated from the beating that nature has wrought
down on Metro Manila. But Folayang and Belingon think about their hometowns and
loved ones.
Folayang is nicknamed “Landslide” for
his sudden fury inside the ring that evokes the disasters that occasionally
beset Baguio City. Both fighters talk about people they know or heard of who
have been victims not just of the rains and flooding but also landslides. “We
all try to give back in our own way,” pointed our Eduard. “When the time comes
that I can make big money then I can give back to more people. Some times, all
I can do is represent them in the cage. To give them glory as well as to honor
them.”
On August 31, 2012, both fighters will
be a part of the biggest Mixed Martial Arts event in the country to date. One
Fighting Championship, Asia’s biggest MMA fight organization, will bring 24 of
Asia as well as Pan-Asia’s best fighters to the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Folayang will be up against
Japanese-Peruvian Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai specialist Felipe Enomoto
(6-1-1). Enomoto beat Folayang’s conqueror Ole Laursen and it would be
interesting to see how the two tangle with one another.
Belingon will take on 20-year old
Korean Soo Chul Kim who has a pro record of 4-3 having lost his last two One FC
fights against Leandro Issa and Gustavo Falciroli.
“August 31,” summed up Folayang. “I
hope we can really make the nation proud.”
Get your tickets to One Fighting Championship: Pride of the
Nation at ticketnet.com.ph today! It’s gonna be packed in more ways than
one.
 |
| With Kevin Belingon, One FC CEO Victor Cui, and Eduard Folayang. |
No comments:
Post a Comment