AFTER racking up three impressive wins last year, Kevin Belingon was named among the best martial artist of One Championship for 2017.
Representing the famed Team Lakay, Belingon is one of the country’s most talented martial artists with a professional record of 16-5.
Belingon is known as a fierce competitor with the ability to finish opponents in a variety of methods as the 29-year old wushu practitioner owns seven huge knockouts on his resume and is considered as one of the most feared strikers in ONE Championship’s deep bantamweight division.
Since losing to reigning ONE bantamweight world champion Bibiano Fernandes in January 2016, Belingon has barged through his top rivals with a slew of fearsome striking performances and showcased his incredible punching power.
It began with a thorough defeat of Tajikistan’s highly-touted Muin Gafurov in October 2016, followed by a complete first-round annihilation of Finnish submission wizard Toni “Dynamite” Tauru at ONE: Kings of Destiny in Manila on April 21.
Those two consecutive wins earned Belingon a showdown with top bantamweight contender Reece McLaren at "ONE: Quest for Greatness" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on August 18.
Belingon needed just 62 seconds to end matters abruptly as he began the bout-ending sequence by dropping McLaren with a well-placed overhand right.
As the Aussie crashed to the canvas, Belingon followed with a relentless volley of punches to finish the contest.
At "ONE: Legend of the World" in Manila November 10, Belingon scored his fourth straight victory by defeating Korean-American contender Kevin Chung via unanimous decision.
With his recent excellence inside the ONE Championship cage, Belingon is validating his case for a title rematch against Fernandes in 2018.
Two weight division champion Martin Nguyen of Sydney, Australia tops the list.
Sporting a 10-1 professional record, Nguyen’s all-around skill set allows him to compete at the highest level of competition.
Nguyen stepped into the ONE Championship cage on August 18 at "ONE: Quest for Greatness", notching his first belt when he stopped former undefeated featherweight champion Marat Gafurov to claim the featherweight world championship.
Nguyen wrote his name in history books as the first man to hold two world titles simultaneously in ONE Championship by knocking out Filipino martial arts superstar Eduard Folayang to bring home the lightweight world championship in the main event of "ONE: Legends of the World".
Included in the list are Aung La N Sang, Christian Lee, and Alex Silva.