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On November 5, 2018, ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong confirmed that the main event of “ONE: Heart of the Lion” has been cancelled. This means that the co-main event, which is the rematch between Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes, 38, of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil and Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon, 30, of Kiangan, Ifugao, Philippines, will be the new main event.

Belingon is the reigning ONE Interim Bantamweight World Champion while Fernandes is the reigning ONE Bantamweight World Champion. Their title unification bout in the main event of “ONE: Heart of the Lion” will be a rematch.

“ONE: Heart of the Lion” will take place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore on November 9, 2018. Originally, ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion Angela “Unstoppable” Lee, 22, of Singapore was set to challenge reigning ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion “The Panda” Xiong Jing Nan, 30, of China in the main event.

However, Lee was injured and was deemed unfit to compete so Chatri decided to pull her out of the card. The ONE Championship chairman and CEO wrote, “We all know that Angela is a warrior with an unbreakable spirit.”

“However, she suffered a serious back injury in training last week and badly herniated a spinal disc; she was unable to walk just a few days ago,” Chatri continued. “Doctors suspect that the injury originally happened last year when Angela’s car flipped five times on the highway in her near-death accident. If it was up to her, she would still compete this week, even if it meant walking into the cage on crutches.”

With the bout between Lee and Xiong out, a new mixed martial arts match has been added on the “ONE: Heart of the Lion” card. A featherweight bout between the reigning ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion’s brother Christian “The Warrior” Lee, 20, of Singapore and Kazuki Tokudome, 31, of Japan will be the new co-main event.

There are 14 matches on the “ONE: Heart of the Lion” fight card. These are nine MMA bouts, three Muay Thai fights, one kickboxing bout and one sanda contest.