Expect a ONE Championship event in Qatar before 2024, the Singapore-based martial arts organization’s head honcho Chatri Sityodtong has announced. It will be the promotion’s first event in the Middle East.
There are still no details about the fight card of ONE Championship’s debut in Qatar but Sityodtong confirmed that there will be Filipino fighters on it. One of the athletes from the Philippines currently signed with the promotion is “The Ferocious” Kelly, 39, whose most recent opponent happens to be from the Middle East.
Kelly is now a member of Lions Nation MMA. He made his professional mixed martial arts debut in 2003 and when he joined ONE Championship in 2013, he was training at Team Lakay in La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines, which is near Baguio City.
On June 24, 2023, Kelly attended the opening ceremony of the Landslide Martial Arts Training Center in La Trinidad. It is the base of operations of Lions Nation MMA, a new team founded by ONE Championship athletes and former Team Lakay members “The Landslide” Eduard Folayang, 39, “The Silencer” Kevin Belingon, 35, “The Rock” Honorio Banario, 33, and “The Passion” Joshua Pacio, 27.
“Most of my training partners are in Lions Nation MMA,” Kelly told me when I asked him about his decision to move from Team Lakay to his new team. “I got used to training with them.”
Currently, Kelly is based in Balanga, Bataan. He is training there with his coach Yob Austria, who got his Brazilian jujitsu brown belt in the United States.
Kelly is a blue belt in BJJ. He told me he has yet to receive a fight offer from ONE Championship since his most recent fight.
“My plan is to be active in BJJ tournaments while training here in Bataan,” Kelly said. “If a fight is confirmed, I will move to Baguio for a fight camp.”
Kelly’s most recent fight was at “ONE: Full Blast” at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore on April 28, 2021. He defeated “The Prince” Ahmed Faress, 31, of Cairo, Egypt via split decision.
“When can we expect you to fight in ONE Championship again? ” I asked Kelly. He said he is waiting for ONE Championship’s call.
“I am ready and eager to fight again because it has been two years since my last ONE Championship appearance,” Kelly said. “I won that fight but I studied the holes in that game and since then, I have been trying to improve my skills.”
It will be interesting to see a rematch between Kelly and Faress in the first ONE Championship event held in Qatar. But since the latter is no longer with the promotion, any opponent from the Middle East will be a great challenge for the Lions Nation MMA fighter.
CONAN Daily 