Often dubbed as ‘The Manny Pacquaio of MMA’, Eric Kelly’s rise to stardom has been nothing short of spectacular. The 30-year-old has scooped victories in all of his 3 fights under the ONE FC banner thus far, and is still unbeaten in his MMA career.
Following Kelly’s TKO win over former UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver at ONE FC 4: Destiny of Warriors, the Filipino earned himself a spot in the upper echelon of the promotion’s Featherweight division, and solidified his status as one of the region’s best Mixed Martial Artists.
ONE FC CEO, Victor Cui, rewarded Kelly with a Featherweight championship bout against URCC Champion Honorio Banario at the promotion’s upcoming ‘Rise of Kings’ event, that’s slated for October 6th.
The Featherweight belt is one of three straps that’s reportedly set to be awarded at the event. (Only 2 Championship bouts have been confirmed thus far)
‘The Natural’, however, told MMASucka.com that his fight with Honorio Banario is not going to happen.
“I will not be competing because URCC won’t let me fight, since I’m scheduled to compete in November for URCC Philippines,” he said. “I think I’ll fight for ONE FC in Kuala Lumpur, this December.”
With Kelly’s commitment to URCC still in tact, the Filipino has confirmed that he will be fighting for the URCC promotion first, before continuing his stint with the Singapore-based ONE FC.
Headlined by a Super-Fight between grappling maestro Shinya Aoki and frenchman Arnaud ‘The Game’ Lepont, ‘ONE FC: Rise of Kings’, is the 6th installment of the Singapore-based promotion, and is set to go down on October 6th at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.
‘Rise of Kings’ is set to feature multiple title fights, and the start of a Bantamweight tournament.
Keep it locked to MMASucka.com for more news and updates regarding this event.
As it stands, here’s the current fight card:
- Shinya Aoki vs. Arnaud Lepont
- Zorobabel Moreira vs. Kotetsu Boku (For inaugural Lightweight championship)
- Leandro Issa vs. Soo Chul Kim (For inaugural Bantamweight championship)
- Jens Pulver vs. Zhao Ya Fei (Bantamweight Tournament match-up)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Follow @ThineshJohnMMA on Twitter and Keep up with the latest MMA news on Twitter and Facebook
