MMA: Eric Kelly to battle Honorio Banario for the ONE FC featherweight title

Two Filipino mixed martial artists will battle for the right to be called the ONE FC featherweight champion. Eric Kelly will battle Honorio Banario on February 2 in Malaysia in a card billed as ONE FC: Return of Warriors.

 

ONE FC President Victor Cui said that his organization is glad to be back in Malaysia to kick off ONE FC’s busy 2013 schedule. "Eric Kelly versus Honorio Banario for the ONE FC Featherweight World Championship Title could possibly be the most demanded fight in Asian MMA history and I know the fans cannot wait to watch these two champions clash in the ONE FC cage," Cui said.

 

Kelly is one of the most dominant fighters in ONE FC and is still unbeaten in his MMA career. He will have his toughest test to date when he rumbles with arguably the most exciting featherweight in all of Asia in Banario.

 

Last month, Kelly scored a gritty submission victory over Australian Brad Terry. With one eye closed shut, Kelly still managed to catch his opponent in the last round of URCC 22 - Dekada. The win raised Kelly's record to nine wins without a defeat, with eight of those wins coming via the short route.

 

Banario on the other hand is a proud representative of the legendary Team Lakay from Baguio City, Philippines. Training alongside Filipino champions like Eduard "Landslide" Folayang and Kevin "The Silencer" Belingon, the Wushu expert is renowned for his pin-point striking accuracy.

 

He holds a record of seven wins against only a single defeat. In his almost three years in MMA, Banario has never heard the final bell for a fight. He stopped all of his opponents in his seven wins, the last of which was a technical knockout victory over Andrew Benibe in ONE FC 5: Pride of a Nation. 

 

The two were supposed to fight last October for ONE FC 6: Rise of Kings but Kelly had earlier signed up to fight for URCC's December fight card. - AMD, GMA News