Lakay Belingon all set for One FC stint

FILIPINO top bantamweight Kevin Belingon eyes a shot at a possible world title as he returns to the ring for the One Fighting Championships dubbed Kings and Champions slated April 5 at the Singapore stadium.

The reigning flyweight champion in the Universal Reality Combat Championship is set to take on Vietnamese-Australian Thanh Vu for the One FC Bantamweight Grand Prix semi-final fight with former Lightweight World Champion from the United States, Jens Pulver taking on Japan’s Masakatsu Ueda.

“ONE FC will make history again on 5 April when we go live on Star Sports for the first time across 28 countries to an estimated 500 million viewers. This is a huge step in the progress of ONE FC and is a testament to our ever-increasing following all across Asia," said One FC CEO Victor Cui.

Cui added the event will be the biggest in ONE FC history and features the top names in MMA, headlined by a Lightweight World Championship showdown between submission ace Shinya Aoki and our reigning Lightweight World Champion Kotetsu Boku.

The first fight of the night will revive the sporting rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia as Singapore’s Ronald Low faces Chen Yun Ting from Malaysia.

Ronald Low is undefeated in his professional Muay Thai and MMA career. He will make his ONE FC debut in front of his fellow countrymen against top Malaysian MMA prospect Chen Yun Ting, who trains out of the famed Muayfit gym alongside ONE FC fighters Peter Davis, Eric Kelly and Arnaud Lepont.

Also on the undercard, NCAA Division I wrestler Jake Butler returns after making a successful ONE FC debut last month in Malaysia. He now faces Bengal MMA Champion Nuur Muhammad.

The main card will begin with a bout between Pakistani MMA pioneer Bashir Ahmad, who is making his ONE FC debut, facing off against Shannon Wiratchai from Thailand. Both fighters carry undefeated professional records into this battle but only one will leave with his loss column intact.

Wushu World Champion, SEA games and Asian games gold medalist Rene S. Catalan from the Philippines faces Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Alex Silva in a Flyweight division battle. This clash of styles promises to be an exciting affair between two world champions in their respective martial art.

Leandro Issa is another Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion who trains at the world-class Evolve MMA gym in Singapore alongside title contender Shinya Aoki.

Yusup Saadulaev is the former TFC Featherweight champion and is an outstanding wrestler from the Dagestan region in Russia. The winner of this bout will take a step closer to a Bantamweight title shot in the near future. (Roderick Osis)