LOCAL mixed martial arts (MMA) fans were treated to an impressive night of action on Friday night at ONE Championship’s “Heroes of Honor” event at the Mall of Asia Arena as they got to witness hometown hero Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon continue his ascent in devastating fashion and the debut of ONE Super Series.
Displaying the highly improved skills set that has marked his push of late, 30-year-old Belingon made short work of American Andrew Leone in their headlining bantamweight fight at ONE’s 13th stop in the country, winning by technical knockout in the second round by way of strikes.
Mr. Belingon, a member of Team Lakay in Baguio City, was on top of things right from the get-go.
He was on attack mode at the onset, pushing at Mr. Leone with a ferocious display of striking and ground and pound that had the latter busted open and bleeding in the opening round, which was halted for a while to have medical staff attend to Mr. Leone.
The American eventually survived the opening onslaught but it proved to be short-lived as Mr. Belingon was at it again to begin the second round, swarming Mr. Leone and taking the fight to him anew.
The end came when Mr. Belingon connected on a thunderous spinning side kick that sent Mr. Leone to the canvas, following it up with a series of powerful strikes from which his opponent could not recover from, prompting the referee to stop the fight at the 1:27 mark of the round.
After the fight, Mr. Belingon said he takes special pride in the way he finished things against Mr. Leone, saying it was an opportunity that was there and he just took it.
“I saw it as an opening throughout the fight and I just took it when the opportunity came,” said Mr. Belingon of the impressive side kick.
With the win, Mr. Belingon (18-5), winner now of five straight fights, put himself in prime position to challenge anew reigning champion Bibiano Fernandes of Brazil.
Also victorious on Heroes of Honor were Filipino lightweight Honorio “The Rock” Banario, a split decision winner over Australia’s Adrian Pang, as well as women’s atomweight fighter Gina “Conviction” Iniong, who defeated Jenny Huang of Taiwan by unanimous decision.
A NEW DAWN
Meanwhile, also at Heroes of Honor, ONE debuted its unique martial arts league which signaled the organization’s evolution to becoming more than just an MMA group.
“We are no longer a mixed martial arts organization, that is the big change that is happening with the arrival of the Super Series,” said Chatri Sityodtong, ONE chairman and CEO, in a roundtable discussion with members of media on fight week.
“We started the company as an MMA promotion but it is just one of many verticals in martial arts. But there is muay thai, kickboxing, wrestling, submission grappling and more and we want to highlight that in the Super Series,” he added, underscoring the mission of ONE to celebrate true martial arts forms along with the values that go with them.
In the debut of the Super Series, played inside the newly introduced five-rope ring of ONE, four fights were featured.
Kickboxing legend Giorgio Petrosyan of Italy was a unanimous decision victor over Thai Jo Nattawut while top muay thai fighter Nong-O Gaiyanghadao defeated French-Italian Fabio Pinca also by UD.
Also victorious were muay thai lightweight Cosmo Alexandre over Elliott Compton by knockout in the second round and kickboxer Regian Eersel over Brad Riddell by unanimous decision.
Next stop for ONE Championship is “ONE: Grit and Glory!” in Indonesia on May 12, featuring the world strawweight title fight between champion Alex Silva of Brazil and challenger Yoshitaka Naito of Japan. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
