By Jerome Lagunzad
Homegrown Kevin Belingon won’t just be eying a personal glory as he looks to sustain the country’s winning tradition against reigning two-division champion Martin Nguyen in the ONE: Reign of Kings next Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Aside from his daunting task of foiling Nguyen’s ambitious bid of becoming the first three-division world champion in mixed martial arts, Belingon, 30, will try to put the Philippines as the most winningest country in the seven-year history of the MMA promotions with five world titleholders.
Honorio Banario became the first Filipino fighter to crown himself a ONE crown courtesy of a fourth-round stoppage of compatriot Eric Kelly in their featherweight encounter in February 2013.
Then Fil-Am Brandon Vera followed suit by becoming the first ONE heavyweight world champion at the expense of Paul Cheng with a sensational TKO win via a high kick in December, 2015.
