MMA: Filipino Belingon advances, Aoki sizzles in debut

Carlos Cinco

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Filipino fighter Kevin Belingon shines in One FC: Rise of Kings, as Shinya Aoki dominates in his debut

Photo by Louie Jabanag

SINGAPORE – Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) again proved why it is the fastest-growing sport in the world.

The Singapore Indoor Stadium played host to a throng of fight-hungry fans for MMA extravaganza, One FC: Rise of Kings Saturday, October 6.

For the first time in the history of One FC, Asia’s premiere MMA promotion company, champions were crowned. Victor Cui, the Filipino-Canadian CEO of One FC, presented the three black leather and gold plated championships belt to the crowd.

All three belts were, as expected, fought for valiantly before the night ended.

Aside from the championship fights, One FC’s eight-man Bantamweight Grand Prix also kicked off. The mini-tournament features 8 combatants who will compete against each other in various One FC events until one man is left standing.

The winner of the Bantamweight Grand Prix willearn the right to fight for the One FC Bantamweight championship in 2013.

The Philippines was represented in the Grand Prix by Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon of Team Lakay, who trains out of Baguio City and is a former URCC champion.

Belingon domination

Belingon came into One FC a promising, young fighter with an unblemished 9-0 professional MMA record. He eventually lost his first two fights but is known for his tenacious stand-up game and great cardio.

On Saturday, Belingon went up against Russian Yusup Saadulaev who made his One FC debut. From the beginning of the fight to the end, Belingon came at his opponent with ferociousness and speed, featuring a myriad of punches and kicks that threw Saadulaev around the cage like a ragdoll.

The strength advantage was evident. In fact, Belingon’s only weakness is his ground game and fortunately for him, the fight never went there.

Photo by Louie Jabanag

Belingon caught his Russian foe with a solid left hook that sent his opponent reeling and followed it up with another shot causing referee Shimada to call a halt to the fight.

With the victory, Belingon finally returns to the win column, beating Saadulaev by TKO at 3:18 minutes of Round 1. He advanced to the final four and is one step closer to the Bantamweight crown.

Deadly Aoki

The highly anticipated One FC debut of Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki ended just the way most expected it to — quick and by some sort of limb-lock.

Dubbed the “master of flying submissions,” Aoki is perceived to be Asia’s super elite fighter.

In his One FC debut Saturday, Aoki faced Arnaud “The Game” LePont of France who was up for the challenge, but clearly overmatched.

Photo by Louie Jabanag

Before the fight, LePont referred to his Japanese foe as his “idol” and said he looked up to Aoki but wanted to beat him.

Though the fight ended quickly, it didn’t fail to show off Aoki’s impressive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills.

In 30 seconds, Aoki had LePont on the ground, working full-mount. At 60, Aoki had already grabbed a hold of one of LePont’s arms and was working towards an armbar. Aoki secured an armbar triangle choke and within 85 seconds into the fight, had LePont in a deep sleep.

The referee stopped the fight and declared Shinya Aoki the winner by armbar triangle choke. In the post-fight interview, an ecstatic Aoki said he wanted to bring honor to his team, Evolve MMA, and win a One FC championship belt — a huge possibility given his technical knowhow.

Night of great fights

The packed stadium also witnessed the crowning of Kotetsu Boku as the first ever One FC Lightweight World Champion and Soo Chul Kim as the first Bantamweight World Champion.

Boku started throwing pin-point strikes at his far taller opponent Zorobabel “Zoro” Moreira from the opening bell and it became quickly apparent that though Boku was much smaller than Moreira, he was not afraid to stand and trade punches. But the size difference was too much and the punishment Boku received began to wear him out by the later rounds, particularly his left leg which was repeatedly kicked by Moreira to the point where Boku was having a hard time putting weight on it.

Both fighters displayed world class striking skills attempting various combinations throughout their bout. And in a shocking turn of events, Boku was able to land a series of right hands defeating Moreira at 1:02 minutes in round 3 by TKO.

It was an amazing come from behind victory for the Japanese Boku, and another tough loss for Evolve MMA. – Rappler.com

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