Honorio Banario vs. Eric Kelly for Featherweight Title at ONE FC 7 in February

ONE FC will crown its featherweight champion when it returns to action in February.

ONE FC CEO Victor Cui on Wednesday told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the promotion has booked a long-awaited matchup between Eric Kelly (9-0) and Honorio Banario (7-1) for "ONE FC 7: Return of Warriors." ONE FC also on Wednesday made the fight official.

ONE FC 7 takes place Feb. 2 at Stadium Putra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. the Kelly-Banario fight will serve as the main event.

"They're really the top two contenders right now," Cui told MMAjunkie.com. "The fans out here in Asia have been asking for that fight for a long time and I think they both deserve a title shot. Both have a huge fan following. Eric Kelly is based in Malaysia, and he's one of the most popular MMA instructors out here – everybody from local people to government (employees) train with him. And Banario is a really aggressive young fighter that is going to make a name for himself."

The fight is one that was supposed to happen in October. But circumstances led to an announced title fight between Banario and Bae Young Kwon, instead, and then that fight was scrapped for "ONE FC 6: Rise of Kings" altogether.

Instead, two of the biggest MMA fighters from the Philippines will square off for what will be the third champion ONE FC will have crowned. The promotion already has put belts around the waists of lightweight and bantamweight champions. Cui said the promotion's plan is to get the flyweight champion crowned at some point after the featherweight belt goes to the Banario-Kelly winner.

Banario got back in the win column in August at "ONE FC 5: Pride of a Nation" with a TKO win over Andrew Benibe. In February, he was stopped by Kwon just 56 seconds into their fight with a rear-naked choke. Prior to that, he had a perfect 6-0 start to his career with six stoppages.

Kelly earlier this month kept streaking with a submission win in his native Philippines. Under the ONE FC banner, he is a perfect 3-0 with a submission win over Mitch Chilson, a unanimous decision win over Kwon in June and a second-round TKO against Jens Pulver this past August. Of his nine wins, seven have come by submission and his win over Chilson is the only one to go the distance.

In addition to the featherweight title fight, ONE FC has announced a four-man featherweight tournament. A.J. Lias Mansor (1-2) meets Jian Kai Chee (3-4) and Melvin Yeoh (6-1) takes on Raymond Tiew (5-2). Also on the card, Peter Davis (5-2) meets Leo Krishna (2-0) and Gianni Subba (1-0) takes on Saiful Merican (0-0).

Source:
http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2012/12/honorio-banario-meets-eric-kelly-for-featherweight-title-at-one-fc-7-in-february

Wonderful news. Best fight they could make in the FW division currently.

Not huge on the FW tourney though, why match Yeoh and Tiew against each other? At least it'll get these guys more exposure.

Also, can't wait to see more of Subba.

Yup, I'm looking forward to this title fight.

I'll get a chance now to become more familiar with some of these flyweights now that ONE will be having a tournament and champ here soon.

Subba putting Loh to sleep with that vicious soccer kick at Rise of Kings was nuts.