Eddie Alvarez couldn’t be anymore motivated to get back to winning ways, going into Friday night’s bout with Team Lakay’s Eduard Folayang. ‘The Underground King’ faces Folayang in the ONE Lightweight Grand Prix semifinal at ONE: Dawn Of Heroes.

There aren’t many challenges bigger in the sport of mixed martial arts than facing an athlete from Team Lakay in front of tens of thousands of their screaming fans in Manila, Philippines. And that suits Alvarez just fine. In fact, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ahead of GP semifinal, we spoke to Alvarez about the similarities between his home city of Philadelphia and the Philippines and their love for combat sports, overcoming his loss to Timofey Nastyukhin in his ONE debut in Tokyo, the stacked ONE lightweight division and of course, Friday night.

You can also watch the whole ONE: Dawn Of Heroes press conference here:

And see the Face Offs here.

See also:

DJ Ready For ONE: Dawn Of Heroes Even With No Master In His Corner