Kevin Belingon is the new ONE world champion. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Kevin Belingon added another golden strap to the mythos of Team Lakay after dominating Martin Nguyen for five rounds to earn the ONE interim bantamweight title Friday at Mall of Asia Arena.
The 30-year-old Belingon joined ONE flyweight champion Geje Eustaquio as current titlists under Team Lakay, which had Honorio Banario and Eduard Folayang as former holders of ONE Championship gold.
“To my team this is an honor and this is a great feeling,” said Belingon. “And I’m a champion.”
“I trained hard for this fight to get this belt and I’m proud to say I’m one of the champions in the Philippines with Geje and [heavyweight champion] Brandon [Vera].”
Kevin Belingon’s entrance (part 1). #ONEFightNight pic.twitter.com/0ltpcDyIAB
— Bong Lozada (@BongLozada92) July 27, 2018
Belingon continued to stuff Nguyen’s takedown attempts and dictated the tempo of the first two rounds through his striking.
It was in the third round when Belingon found a breakthrough, landing devastating combinations to the head of Nguyen.
Belingon kept Nguyen off track with unorthodox striking patterns in the third but scored with a spinning heel kick later in the round.
Nguyen tried his takedowns early in the fifth round but had little success as Belingon continued to stuff it.
Belingon then connected with his best combination in the fight sending four straight punches to the face of Nguyen and finishing it off with a spinning heel kick.