FORMER ONE Bantamweight MMA World Champion Bibiano “The Flash” Fernandes’ reason for returning to MMA is pretty darn simple.
He wants to ride out his final time in the division against someone who’s helped him build the weightclass up.
For an unprecedented fifth time, Fernandes will face archrival Kevin “The Silencer” Belingon in a three-round bantamweight MMA bout at ONE 171: Qatar this Thursday, February 20, inside Lusail Sports Arena in Doha.
Belingon looked back on one of his four fights with Belingon and realized just how big this rivalry was.
“Let me put it this way. The other day, I was watching a fight between me and Kevin. I was watching that on Facebook, it just showed up and said it had 29 million views. That fight was watched 29 million times,” he said.
“I was here in Canada, had a stopover in Manila, before I flew out to Thailand. While I was in Manila, everybody came to say hi to me. For the Filipino fans, [this fight is] a 100 percent.”
While both him and Belingon have been away from active competition for quite some time, he still expects the same dangerous “Silencer” when they meet in a few days.
“Kevin is a tough dude. He’s explosive and very dangerous. He has good power. He’s been in ONE Championship for a long time as well. We’ve both been there for a long time,” he said.
“When [ONE CEO] Chatri [Sityodtong] asked me if I wanted to fight Kevin, I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ And that’s it. I’m here now.”