Kevin Belingon, Bibiano Fernandes trilogy bout added to ONE: A New Era

ASIA's largest martial arts organization ONE Championship, has just announced an additional match for ONE: A NEW ERA, which takes place Sunday, 31 March at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.

Reigning and undisputed ONE Bantamweight World Champion Kevin 'The Silencer' Belingon of the Philippines is set to defend his World Title against former titleholder Bibiano 'The Flash' Fernandes of Brazil in a trilogy bout.

Belingon and Fernandes first met in January 2016, when the Brazilian made quick work of the Filipino, whom he finished via first-round submission. Belingon was unable to showcase much of his striking, as it was easily nullified by Fernandes’ vaunted grappling.

From there, Fernandes continued to establish himself as the most dominant ONE World Champion in history with eight successful title defenses. Belingon, on the other hand, worked his way back up to contention, winning six straight bouts in exciting fashion to earn another shot at the ONE Bantamweight World Title.

Belingon captured the ONE Bantamweight World Championship with a scintillating split decision victory over Fernandes last November at ONE: HEART OF THE LION in Singapore.

It was a close match-up, one that saw Belingon’s elite striking take center stage as he overcame Fernandes’ world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In the end, two of the three judges agreed that Belingon had done just enough to win the contest.

Now, 'The Silencer' and 'The Flash' will meet in the ONE cage for the third time to finally settle the score.

READ: MMA: ONE Championship announces Tokyo bout with DJ, Alvarez in the card

In the main event of ONE: A NEW ERA, reigning ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard 'Landslide' Folayang of the Philippines is set to defend his World Title against Japanese mixed martial arts legend Shinya 'Tobikan Judan' Aoki.

In addition, reigning ONE Women’s Strawweight World Champion 'The Panda' Xiong Jing Nan of China will defend her belt against ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion 'Unstoppable' Angela Lee of Singapore.

ONE Middleweight World Champion Aung La 'The Burmese Python' N Sang of Myanmar will also defend his World Title against Ken Hasegawa of Japan.

Also seeing action on the card is Demetrious 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson, who takes on Yuya 'Little Piranha' Wakamatsu in a quarter-final bout of the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix, while Eddie 'The Underground King' Alvarez faces dangerous Russian adversary Timofey Nastyukhin in a quarter-final of the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix.