CV Stardom

ONE Championship chairman and chief executive officer Chatri Sityodtong has confirmed the date and venue of the rematch between Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes, 38, of Brazil and Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon, 30, of the Philippines. The two will co-headline “ONE: Heart of a Lion” at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore on November 9, 2018.

“The highly-anticipated rematch between reigning ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano Fernandes and Filipino superstar Kevin Belingon is going down,” Chatri stated. “It’s going to be an awesome matchup that fans will surely not want to miss.”

Fernandes is the reigning ONE Bantamweight World Champion, and widely considered one of the best martial artists in the world bar none. He made his ONE Championship debut back in 2012 and captured the bantamweight world title in 2013.

Since then, Fernandes has remained unbeaten inside the ONE Championship cage, showcasing tremendous striking and grappling ability and an unwavering will to win. In his most recent bout, he defeated two-division titleholder Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen, 29, of Australia and Vietnam by split decision in a super-bout.

After failing to capture the ONE Bantamweight World Champion belt from Fernandes, Nguyen competed for the ONE Interim Bantamweight World Champion title against Belingon. Reigning as the ONE Featherweight and Lightweight World Champion, the Vietnamese-Australian MMA superfighter failed to earn his third division title as he lost to the Filipino contender.

Belingon made his professional MMA debut in 2007, winning his first nine bouts while capturing a local flyweight title. After joining ONE Championship in 2012, he put together a series of tremendous performances, including several highlight-reel finishes, to earn a shot at the reigning ONE Bantamweight World Champion in 2016.

Although Belingon failed to capture the title, he has since been on a warpath back to world title contention. Now the reigning ONE Interim Bantamweight World Champion, the Filipino fighter has to defeat Belingon in their rematch at “ONE: Heart of a Lion” to become the undisputed ONE Bantamweight World Champion.