ONE FC's Bibiano Fernandes: Back to 145? Maybe. But flyweight? 'No way.'

Bibiano Fernandes has felt right at home at featherweight in the past. And he feels plenty comfortable now as a bantamweight.

Fernandes (14-3) this past month won ONE FC’s interim bantamweight title with a five-round unanimous decision victory over Koetsu Okazaki (8-3-1) at ONE FC 9 in the Philippines.

He was the DREAM featherweight champ in 2009-2010, then dropped down to bantamweight after losing the belt to Hiroyuki Takaya. And he quickly proceeded to win that promotion’s title at 135. Now he awaits word on when he might fight current ONE FC champ Soo Chul Kim, who has been sidelined with a shoulder injury.

In the meantime, would Fernandes ever consider going back up to featherweight? Maybe, he said. But given his walk-around weight, it would have to be a pretty good fight waiting for him.

“I don’t know – I walk at 147 or 148 (pounds),” Fernandes recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “That’s as high as I can go with my weight. There’d have to be a good reason to fight there. I can do it, but I’ll probably be at 135.”

He’d probably be giving up some size going back up to featherweight – though only having to cut a few pounds certainly could be a notch in his favor.

But considering the cut to 135 comes without much difficulty for him, what would he think about going down another 10 pounds to flyweight? After all, some flyweights make the cut to 125 from that 147-148 Fernandes is talking about making to get to bantamweight.

“At 135, I feel good,” he said. “I feel very strong and I don’t have to lose a lot of weight. But 125, definitely not. I can go up, but go down? No way.”

Fernandes had a brief flirtation with the UFC a year ago, and even was reported to be booked for a fight at UFC 149 against Roland Delorme. But that fight soon was removed from the UFC’s website, and Fernandes later said he merely was negotiating with the UFC – but never signed a deal.

As its interim bantamweight champ, Fernandes, who is ranked No. 7 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA bantamweight rankings now is a ONE FC loyalist.

“I have a six-fight deal with ONE FC, and I’m going to keep putting on good fights and we’ll see what happens for me,” he said. “I’m waiting to fight the champ at 135 and waiting for them to call me to say that’s the next fight. So we’ll see.”

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