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MANILA - ONE interim bantamweight title holder Kevin Belingon of Baguio City's Team Lakay is deep in training for his November 9 rematch against the reigning ONE bantamweight world champion Bibiano Fernandes at the Indoor Stadium in Singapore.
The 30-year-old Belingon fell short in his first attempt to snatch Fernandes' title in 2016 after he was submitted in the opening round with a kimura.
The Filipino striker worked his way back to the top since that fateful night and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak against top tier competition.
In his most recent outing, Belingon defeated the then two-division champion Martin Nguyen to capture the ONE interim bantamweight title.
Unlike Nguyen, however, Fernandes is considered a much more dangerous foe on the ground, prompting the entire Team Lakay to work together to improve Belingon's ground game before the rematch.
"Training is going really well. I have the entire team with me on this as I work on my wrestling and jiu-jitsu. What we do is go down from the mountains to train with Coach John Baylon. We do the basics, gather what we can use in actual fights then go back to Baguio to do it all over again. We trim down what can be used for our fights and what not," explained Belingon.
"It's so hard to roll with coach John. He's difficult to control and his technique is on another level. Despite his age, he's very strong and is very flexible. Us at Team Lakay would usually get submitted by coach John. Other than that, Eduard Folayang has also brought in new techniques he learned from his training camp in the USA."
Former ONE lightweight title holder Eduard Folayang is one of Belingon's top tier sparring partners in preparing his ground game against the reigning bantamweight champ. Despite the team being composed of mostly white belts in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Folayang is confident that they've built a system that has a practical and effective use when it comes to MMA.
"We focus on no-gi jiu-jitsu and its practical uses in mixed martial arts. USA's approach in grappling is a bit different, it is about going to a dominant position and not forcing to secure a submission. As much as possible what I learned is to get to a dominant position then score from there," Folayang added.
"I think we have a good grappling base in wushu. That is a huge factor because in wushu you do takedowns with a pair of gloves. Another factor is we now have the confidence that even if we go to the ground, we do not worry about getting submitted easily."
Team Lakay's head coach Mark Sangiao, meanwhile, believed that his pupil was now a much more of a complete fighter compared to how he was during the first encounter with Fernandes.
"We all know that Bibiano is very good on the ground. We are preparing for that and we are looking for high level partners that Kevin can roll with. Our base is wushu, which has takedowns and striking but realized we lack grappling in MMA," said Sangiao.
"Our fighters skill set are complete now. Jiu-jitsu has same techniques, but in a mixed martial arts contest some of its techniques would work and some of it would not. What we did is pick what we can apply and what we cannot in actual bouts." — DVM, GMA News
