Belingon KOs Viet in ONE FC showdown

SINGAPORE – Filipino fighter Kevin Belingon moved closer to a title crack in ONE Fighting Championship with a second straight knockout win, stopping Vietnamese-Australian Vu Thanh in their fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kellang here Friday night.

Belingon lived up to his moniker “The Silencer,” silencing the cocky Thanh with a second-round knockout.

During pre-fight interviews, Thanh promised he would knock the sense out of Belingon and break his bones. On fight night, the Filipino made Thanh eat his words.

Coming off an equally impressive first-round TKO of Russian grappler Yusup Saadulayev in ONE FC: Rise of Kings also here last year, the 25-year-old Belingon dominated the taller Thanh both up and on the ground, scoring on massive blows and kicks, and some nice takedowns.

The end came in the first minute of the second round when Belingon landed some crisp one-two combinations that sent Thanh backpedaling and straight to the canvas near the edge of the fence, forcing the Japanese referee to stop the match.

“The only way he (Thanh) can make me sleep is if he forces sleeping pills into my mouth,” said Belingon, a criminology degree holder at University of Cordilleras in Baguio.

“But I will never let him do that to me so that’s why I was aggressive from the start, and didn’t give him a chance,” he added.

It was the 11th win in 13 fights for the proud Tuwali Igorot warrior, who grew up in the hills of Kiangan. More importantly, the victory sent him to the finals of the Bantamweight Grand Prix when ONE FC returns to Manila, at the MOA Arena in Pasay, on May 31.

There, Belingon will tackle a dangerous Masakatsu Ueda, who snared the other finals berth with a clinical d’arce submission of former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion Jens “’Lil Evil” Pulver at 3:52 minutes of the second round.

It was the 17th win against two losses and two draws for Ueda, the undisputed Shooto featherweight champion and Bellator veteran with a deep grappling resume after having studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu to mix with his shooto.

But Belingon is unfazed.

“I’m not afraid of anyone including him (Ueda). He’s a well-rounded fighter but I’m training to improve my submission and takedown skills as well.

I’m really looking forward to that fight,” he said.

A lot is at stake in the Belingon-Ueda duel as the winner gets the chance of fighting reigning bantamweight king Soo Chul Kim of South Korea, who stunned Evolve’s Leandro Issa of Brazil in ONE FC: Rise of Kings to emerge the best in the division.

Incidentally, one of the two losses of Belingon came at the hands of Soo, who beat the former with a unanimous decision in ONE FC: Pride of Nation at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last year.

“I had an injured hand when I fought him (Soo) so I wasn’t really 100 percent that time. I hope I’ll have a chance to face him again,” said Belingon.

Another Filipino, former Southeast Asian and Asian Games gold medalist Rene Catalan, wasn’t as fortunate as he lost to Brazilian Alex Silva via armbar at 4.34 minutes of the opening round on his ONE FC debut.

“I’m disappointed that I lost but I will train hard to get a win in my next fight,” said Catalan, fighting for Fighting Empire.

Meanwhile, Shinya Aoki defeated Kotetsu Boku in the second round via rear naked choke to crown himself new lightweight champion.

In the co-main event, American Brock Larson scored a unanimous decision over Dutch Melvin Manhoef.

Larson ran and eluded Manhoef’s power punches in the first two rounds before finding a way to send the fight to the ground in the third round.

Other results saw Hong Kong’s Eddie Ng win over France’s Arnaud Lepont via armbar submission at 4:45 minutes of the second round, Issa defeat Saadulaev via unanimous decision, Pakistan’s Bashir Ahmad edge Thai Shannon Wiratchai also via decision.

In the other undercard bouts, Princeton’s All-American wrestler Jake Butler defeated Swain Cangco, a last minute replacement to India’s Nuur Mohammad, via submission at 2:52 minutes of the first round; and Malaysia’s Chen Yun Ting trounced Singapore’s Ronald Low via RFC-strikes at 3:58 minutes also in the first round.

The Kings and Champions card was shown live on Star Sports for the first time, according to ONE FC big boss, Fil-Canadian Victor Cui.

For more updates on ONE Fighting Championship(tm), please visit www.onefc.com and follow on Twitter @ONEFCMMA and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ONEFCMMA.