27 July 2018
By Niel Victor Masoy
After the dust has settled, not even a tinge of doubt surfaced in the minds of the boisterous fans inside the Mall of Asia Arena as to who’s the better fighter between Kevin Belingon and Martin Nguyen, and understandably so.
Filipino MMA star Belingon just completely dominated Nguyen in five rounds in the main event of the ONE: Reign of Kings Friday night, after all.
The Team Lakay standout churned out an impeccable performance in front of his home crowd to claim the ONE Interim Bantamweight Championship belt.
Belingon bombarded Nguyen with thunderous kicks, spinning backfists, and powerful punches all throughout the fight.
Nguyen wasn’t able to dodge and neutralize those attacks as he bore the brunt of The Silencer’s impressive striking display.
The Situ-Asian and two-division world champion tried to use his ground game against Belingon but the Pinoy fighter was just adept, staving off Nguyen’s takedown attempts.
Belingon took an accidental headbutt and a low blow from Nguyen in the middle rounds, but even that wasn’t enough to stop him as he continued to punish Nguyen.
The 30-year old even pulled out a nifty flying kick to Nguyen in the fifth round to the delight of the crowd.
Belingon’s rousing victory puts him in a position to clash with the bantamweight champ Bibiano Fernandes of Brazil in a unification bout.
“I can’t explain this feeling, I’m the happiest athlete tonight. Thank you to all the people who came out to support me, and of course to ONE Championship, my team, my coaches and trainers, and my teammates,” said Belingon in a post-fight interview.
“To Martin (Nguyen), it was an honor fighting you. You’re such a great athlete and champion. I trained very hard for this fight, just to get this belt. I’m proud to be a champion representing the Philippines,” he added.
The interim bantamweight champion also wished for Fernandes’ fast recovery to make their bout happen this year.
“My friend Bibiano, I respect him as a champion, but we’re in the same weight class and I’m the top contender. So there is no escape in facing me. I hope you recover fast and we can make the fight this year.”
Belingon improved to 19-5 while Nguyen, who failed to make history as the only three-division champion in ONE history at least for now, dropped to an 11-3 win-loss card.
Follow the writer on Twitter: @mambaniel24
