Kevin Belingon returns to ONE Championship cage vs Reece McLaren
FOLLOWING a successful ONE Championship foray in his previous fight, Filipino bantamweight fighter Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon returns to the cage next month to take on top division contender Reece “Lightning” McLaren of Australia.
In an announcement made earlier by ONE, Asia’s largest sports media property, Team Lakay stalwart Belingon will be part of the card for “ONE: Quest for Greatness” set for Aug. 18 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The fight event will be headlined by the title fight between ONE featherweight world champion Marat “Cobra” Gafurov of Russia against top contender Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen of Australia.
Mr. Belingon comes into the fight fresh from his impressive opening-round submission of Toni Tauru in “ONE: Kings of Destiny” held here in Manila in April.
It was the second straight victory for Mr. Belingon (15-5) in ONE and hopes to build on it as he tries to make his way back for another shot at the title currently held by Brazilian champion Bibiano Fernandes.
Against Finnish sensation Tauru, 29-year-old Belingon was on top of his game right from the get-go, swarming his opponent with a relentless barrage of attacks coming from different directions.
Despite surrendering some centimeters in height, Mr. Belingon cut down the taller Tauru with his aggressiveness and wasted little time to secure the win in front of the pro-Filipino crowd at the jampacked Mall of Asia Arena.
Mr. Tauru tried his best to keep the distance, but Mr. Belingon launched a furious offensive to close the gap, pounding the Finn with thunderous lefts and rights. In the end, Mr. Tauru had no choice but to bow out of the contest via verbal submission.
The impressive ending to the bout was something that he was angling for and happy and proud to do, said Mr. Belingon.
“In every fight, I always try to finish things. I am always looking for that. If there’s an opening to get the knockout or submission, I will go for that in a split second,” he said after his victory.
ALSO ON A MISSION
Looking to stop the streak of Mr. Belingon while also beginning his bounce back mission after a previous loss is Mr. McLaren (9-4).
The Filipino-Australian nearly came close to completing what five previous fighters were not able to do — strip Mr. Fernandes of his ONE bantamweight belt — by taking the champion to the limit.
In their title fight held here in Manila as well in December last year, Mr. Fernandes retained his title but not after having made to dig deep and overcome a nose injury amid a furious challenge from 25-year-old McLaren.
Both fighters were very evenly matched, with each having their moments over the course of the five-round title tiff.
But the Brazilian would do just enough all told to earn the split decision victory in a grueling affair that could have easily gone the other way.
Mr. McLaren now hopes to get the better of Mr. Belingon and use it as a springboard for another clash date with Mr. Fernandes.
Other fights featured at Quest for Greatness are the lightweight battle of Ev Ting against Nobutatsu Suzuki, welterweight Agilan Thani against Sherif Mohamed, flyweight Gianni Subba versus Riku Shibuya, female strawweight Ann Osman against newly signed ONE fighter May Ooi, strawweight Robin Catalan versus Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke, featherweight Keanu Subba vs. Christian Lee, featherweight Edward Kelly against Emilio Urrutia, and Rene Catalan versus Bu Huo You Ga. —