ONE Championship: Stephen Loman looks to test his skills against Kwon Won Il after successful debut win

Stephen Loman made quite a good impression on his ONE Championship debut. ‘The Sniper’ was able to defeat No.3-ranked bantamweight Yusup Saadulaev via a first round knockout.

It was a victory that drove butterflies out of Loman’s system after waiting so long to have his ONE Championship debut. Having beaten a ranked fighter, Loman does not want to quickly jump to a title fight and feels that another victory is needed for him to prepare to face the champion.

“Even if they give me another opponent before the championship, I will happily accept it. This is one chance to fight again and going to compete very close to the title shot. I need to prove that I will do my best to reach that until I have the opportunity to fight the champion,” said Loman in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

ONE Championship: Winter Warriors II featured many bantamweights, and one of them was Kwon Won Il, who secured an upset victory over No.2-ranked Kevin Belingon. The Korean fighter was vocal in calling out ONE Championship to give him a title shot during his post fight interview.

Fabricio Andrade also made his case for a title shot after an impressive TKO victory over Li Kai Wen during the main card. The No.5-ranked bantamweight also wanted a crack at the title and made it known during his post fight celebration.

Meanwhile, Loman is expected to make a jump in the ONE Championship bantamweight rankings. He looks at Kwon Won Il as his ideal opponent after beating his Team Lakay stablemate.

“Andrade has good sharp hands while Kwon Won Il is also very good at mixing his punches and kicking,” said Loman. He caught Kuya Kevin with the liver shot and I think he has good hands. So I think I would like to test myself [against] Kwon Won Il. Yusup, my last opponent was a southpaw, I would like to face Kwon so we would have a different fight stance. I want to prove that I will do my best to study first, make a game plan to fight him and get the win.”

Loman now holds a professional MMA record of 14-2 and the victory over Saadulaev was the fifth knockout victory of his career.

Watch the entire interview with Stephen Loman below:

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Stephen Loman expects Kevin Belingon to bounce back from his four-fight losing streak in ONE Championship

The Team Lakay stable is stacked with bantamweight talent, especially after Stephen Loman and Jhanlo Sangiao made their ONE Championship debuts.

The former Brave CF champion looks up to Kevin Belingon and believes that ‘The Silencer still has a lot left in his tank.

“Everything happens in the fight and we accept it. We train together. We push one another in our training camp. He is very explosive like in sparing, everything, and in the ground,” Loman said about Belingon. “Maybe I think that this fight was not just his fight, he accepted it and he is feeling positive again that he will learn from his mistakes and I think he will come back strong.”

Getting to train with the former ONE Championship titleholder is an opportunity that Loman did not hesitate to take. He credits Belingon with guiding him moving forward in his budding MMA career.

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“As a teammate, he always and also gives me advice to be positive in the right way.”