ONE Fighting Championship Sign Unbeaten Filipino Fighters Kevin Belingon, Roy Docyogen and Honorio Banario

From Left to Right: URCC Promoter Alvin Aguilar, Undefeated Champions Roy Docyogen, Kevin Belingon and Honorio Banario. Photo by Paolo Tabuena.

According to Filipino newspaper Sunstar four URCC champions from Team Lakay Wushu have signed eight fight contracts with ONE Fighting Championship. Eduard Folayang (10-1) was already known to have signed on with the Singapore based promotion and it appears his team mates Honorio Banario (6-0), Kevin Belingon (9-0), Roy Docyogen (9-0) and Geje Eustaquio (2-0) have also put pen to paper.

The URCC is the premier promotion in the Philippines and ONE FC have now signed up four of its champions. Folayang who fights at 155 lbs is the URCC welterweight champion, Banario, who might drop down to 145 lbs, is the lightweight champion, Belingon, who will be fighting at 135 lbs, is the flyweight champion while Docyogen, who will compete at 125 lbs, is the pinweight champion.

Eustaquio is the odd one out in that he does not hold a URCC belt but he is also likely to compete in the 125 lbs division. However the biggest coup for ONE FC is probably securing the signature of Belingon who was reportedly attracting interest from a number of rival promotions.

As well as fighting in the Philippines he has also featured on cards in Singapore in Hong Kong and is rated as one of the most outstanding bantamweight prospects in Asia. A well rounded fighter his wins have come by both submission and  stoppage due to strikes and Belingon is also more experienced than most fighters are after nine fights because he has gone the distance against high calibre competition on a number of occasions.

Belingon is the only man to ever beat outstanding FIlipino flyweight Richard Lasprilla with that fight lasting a full 30 minutes including a grueling 20 minute second round. He also holds a very impressive win over one of Guam's finest fighters, Justin Cruz, with that contest going the distance over the course of two ten minute rounds.

When Belingon made his international debut at Martial Combat 2 he made short work of top Thai fighter Ngoo Ditty and followed this up with two solid wins at Legend FC. He will be one of the fighters to watch in the ONE FC bantamweight division and might well find himself fast tracked to a title shot.

Kevin Belingon in action against Ngoo Ditty at Martial Combat 2

Docyogen's record is identical to Belingon's with nine wins and no losses but it would probably be even better if he had been able to find more opponents. He competes in the URCC pinweight division which has an upper limit of 119 lbs and has only fought three times in the last three years, defeating the same opponent on two ocassions.

At 5'5" he is not particularly short for a flyweight and the move up to 125 lbs shouldn't be too traumatic. ONE FC is the only major organization in the world to currently feature a flyweight division and it will be an excellent opportunity for Docyogen to show that he is good enough to make his mark on the international stage.

Banario is 6-0 in his MMA career and has already won four fights in 2011. He has stopped every opponent he has ever faced, either with a submission or strikes, and is ready to follow in the footsteps of his Team Lakay Wushu team mate Eduard Folayang by fighting outside of the Philippines.

The fact that Folayang is already competing for ONE FC at 155 lbs might encourage Banario to make the cut to featherweight, something which his coach Mark Sangiao believes he could conceivably do. He only made his professional debut in 2010 and is nowhere near as experienced as Belingon or Docyogen but the URCC lightweight champion has shown in his short career the sort of well rounded skill set which could one day make him a world class mixed martial artist.

Given that both the URCC and Team Lakay Wushu are part of the 'ONE FC Network' it is no surprise to hear that these fighters have signed but the prospect of seeing Belingon, Banario and Docyogen put their unbeaten record on the line against the region's elite is definitely an exciting one for fight fans.

At present the ONE FC schedule for the first six months of 2011 looks like this:

ONE Fighting Championship 2, February 11, 2012, The BritAma Arena, Jakarta, Indonesia    
ONE Fighting Championship 3, March 31, 2012, Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore 
ONE Fighting Championship 4, April 27, 2012, Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia    

There is no word yet on future match ups or when Belingon, Banario, Folayang and Docyogen will be fighting but in the meantime you can check out this highlights video from the first show which has just been released:

Highlight Video: ONE Fighting Championship 1 (via OneFCMMA)