Based in Singapore, ONE Fighting Championship held “ONE: Return of Warriors” at Putra Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 2, 2013. The fight card included 10 mixed martial arts matches.
In the main event, Honorio Banario, 23, of Benguet, Philippines faced Eric Kelly, 30, of Baguio City, Philippines. They battled it out for the inaugural featherweight championship title of ONE FC.
A total of seven countries were represented at “ONE: Return of Warriors” namely Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam. Banario and Kelly were two of the three fighters from the Philippines on the card.
Yuji Shimada served as the referee of the match between Banario and Kelly. The referee stopped the title bout after 1 minute and 1 second in the fourth round.
Banario was declared the winner via technical knockout due to eye injury. He made history as the first ever home-grown Filipino MMA fighter to win an international MMA championship title.
The victory improved Banario’s professional MMA record to 8 wins and 1 loss. On the other hand, Kelly now has 9 wins and 1 loss.
Born in Mankayan, Benguet, Banario made his professional MMA debut on February 19, 2010. He earned his bachelor’s degree in criminology from the Cordillera Career Development College in La Trinidad, Benguet.
When Banario made his ONE FC debut on February 11, 2012, he lost to South Korea’s Bae Yong Kwon via rear-naked choke submission. On August 31, 2012, the Mankayan native earned his first win in the promotion by beating his fellow Filipino fighter Andrew Benibe via technical knockout.
CONAN Daily 