The upcoming lightweight fight between Eddie Alvarez and Eduard Folayang, scheduled for ONE Championship’s event on Aug. 2 in Manila, will now serve as a tournament semifinal after Timofey Nastyukhin was forced to pull out of the grand prix with an injury, the promotion announced.
Alvarez (29-7, 1 no-contest), a former UFC and Bellator champion, met Nastyukhin in his ONE debut in March, losing via first-round knockout. Folayang (21-7), who lost the ONE gold to Shinya Aoki that same night in a non-tournament bout, now has a chance to join the company’s lightweight tournament.