By Thinesh John
A Featherweight scrap between Evolve MMA’s Mitch Chilson and 23-year-old Thai prospect Shannon Wiratchai, along with a Lightweight tilt between reigning URCC Welterweight Champion Eduard Folayang and Swiss fighter Felipe Enomoto, has been added to ONE Fighting Championship’s upcoming event titled, ‘Pride of a Nation’, which is set to go down on August 31st at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Manilla, Philippines.
The Chilson-Wiratchai match-up was first announced by the organization through its official Facebook page, while the Folayang-Enomoto scrap was first announced by MMAOrient.
ONE FC 5: Pride of a Nation, is set to take center stage in front of a capacity crowd of 16,500. The likes of former UFC Champions Andrei Arlovski and Jens Pulver, along with grappling maestro Shinya Aoki and former DREAM champion Bibiano Fernandes, are all set to make their respective promotional debuts at the event, making this undoubtedly the biggest fight card that ONE FC has ever showcased.
Shannon Wiratchai holds a Black-Belt in Judo, and will be bringing a 2-0 resume to the ONE FC cage. He has been training at Thailand’s Tiger Muay Thai lately, alongside the likes of UFC veterans Brian Ebersole, and Roger Huerta.
“I chose this place because they have many pro fighters here that can help with my training,” said Wiratchai. “Coming from Bangkok where different places have different training, it’s good that TMT has many classes in the same place which is good.”
Wiratchai also hopes that one day, MMA would be just as big as Muay Thai in Thailand.
“Thai people don’t know much about MMA. They just see the UFC,” he said. “I would love to try and educate more people here about MMA. I get a lot of support from them and one day I’d like to see MMA be on par with Muay Thai here.”
Mitch Chilson (3-1), on the other hand, will be competing for the third time in the ONE FC cage following a much needed submission victory over AJ ‘Pyro’ Lias Mansor at ONE FC 4: Destiny of Warriors. A member of Evolve MMA, the 34-year-old kicked off his MMA career with a record of 2-0, before falling short in his ONE FC promotional debut against Eric Kelly. Chilson is well-known for his brutal Muay Thai skill-set.
Earlier on this year, at ONE FC 3: War of the Lions, Eduard Folayang (8-2) suffered the second set-back of his career after dropping a controversial decision to Ole Laursen. A re-match was expected to be in the works for ONE FC 5: Pride of a Nation, but Laursen was unfortunately scrapped from the card. The 27-year-old URCC veteran is 4-1 in his past 5 fights, defeating the likes of A Sol Kwon and Wadson Teixeira.
Enomoto (6-4), in the mean time, recently snapped his 2-fight losing streak when he submitted Ole Laursen in his promotional debut at ONE FC 2: Battle of Heroes. However, he fell short against BJJ World Champion Zorobabel Moreira at ONE FC 3: War of the Lions, after succumbing to a nasty Armbar in the 3rd round. The Swiss fighter has faced the likes of TUF Alumni Akira Corassani, and Rich Clementi in his MMA career thus far.
Here’s the updated fight card for ONE FC 5: Pride of a Nation:
– Bibiano Fernandes vs. Gustavo Falciroli
– Andrei Arlovski vs. Soa Palelei
– Jens Pulver vs. Eric Kelly
– Gregor Gracie vs. Nicholas Mann
– Rolles Gracie vs. Tony Banello
– Eduard Folayang vs. Felipe Enomoto
– Phil Baroni vs. Rodrigo Ribeiro
– Mitch Chilson vs. Shannon Wiratchai
– Igor Gracie vs. Jung Hwan Cha
