ANOTHER trilogy takes shape in ONE Championship as reigning bantamweight world champion Kevin Belingon squares off for the third time against former world champion Bibiano Fernandes on March 31.
The Belingon – Fernades match–up will be the fourth championship match slated at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, One Championship’s first event in Japan.
Belingon and Fernandes first met in January 2016, when the Brazilian made quick work of the Filipino, whom he finished via first-round submission. Belingon was unable to showcase much of his striking, as it was easily nullified by Fernandes’ vaunted grappling.
From there, Fernandes continued to establish himself as the most dominant ONE World Champion in history with eight successful title defenses.
Belingon worked his way back up to contention, winning six straight bouts in exciting fashion to earn another shot at the ONE bantamweight world title.
The fighting pride of Ifugao province then captured the bantamweight world championship with a scintillating split decision victory over Fernandes last November at ONE: Heart of the Lion in Singapore.
It was a close match-up, one that saw Belingon’s elite striking take center stage as he overcame Fernandes’ world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In the end, two of the three judges agreed that Belingon had done just enough to win the contest.
Now, Belingon and Fernandes will meet in the ONE cage for the third time to finally settle the score.
In the main event, reigning ONE lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang, a stable mate of Belingon at Team Lakay is set to defend his title against Japanese mixed martial arts legend Shinya Aoki.
In addition, reigning ONE women’s strawweight world champion Xiong Jing Nan of China will defend her belt against ONE women’s atomweight world champion Angela Lee of Singapore.
ONE middleweight world champion Aung La N Sang of Myanmar will also defend his world title against Ken Hasegawa of Japan.
Also seeing action on the card is Demetrious Johnson, who takes on Yuya Wakamatsu in a quarter-final bout of the ONE flyweight world grand prix, while Eddie Alvarez faces dangerous Russian adversary Timofey Nastyukhin in a quarter-final of the ONE lightweight world grand prix.