ONE Championship Announces Events for the Remainder of 2015. Will the Manila Card Be Where Eric Kelly Fights Again?

 ©ONE Championship

Two day prior to their Kingdom of Warriors card held in Yangon, Myanmar last July 18, mixed martial arts promotion ONE Championship announced the dates of six upcoming events which will fill out the remainder of 2015. Shows have been booked to take place in Shanghai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, and the promotion’s base of Singapore.

Pinoy fight fans can look forward to ONE closing out the year as they always do on December 11^th, where the promotion will once again hold a card in Manila.

While the Singapore-based promotion is known to prominently feature homegrown fighters of the country they are currently holding an even in, the recently announced schedule now begs the question, is this where we see the return of Pinoy fighter Eric “The Natural” Kelly?

Eric Kelly declared the victor versus Rob Lisita at "War of Dragons."
 ©ONE Championship.

Kelly was last seen gracing the ONE cage July of last year, at ONE's "War of Dragoons" event, where he took on “Rutless” Rob Lisita and earned an impressive come-from-behind victory against the elite Australian mixed martial artist. In the fight, Kelly submitted Lisita after a brutal war, where he effectively earned a performance bonus, and what was then a guaranteed title shot for the ONE Featherweight title.

Unfortunately, the injured nose Kelly sustained in the fight against Lisita prevented him from being medically cleared to challenge then-champion Koji Oishi later that August. By the time he was ready to contend, a new champion had emerged in Jadamba Narantungalag, who originally replaced the injured Kelly as contender months before.

Slated to be the title bout for the December 2014 “Warriors Way” card of ONE in Manila, Kelly's shot did not push through due to a failure in contract negotiations. Reports have indicated that Kelly was unsatisfied with the low fight purse offered, which was reported to be significantly lower than that of other top fighters.

Due to the impasse, Kelly had remained inactive in MMA, and it was then thought that his contract with ONE had expired in March. However, it seems it was merely put on hold, and numerous news outlets have reported in this past week that the fighter is eager to finish the said contract.

It has yet to be determined if it will be finished via a buyout or termination, or if Kelly will compete in whichever number of fights remain. Most fight fans in the Philippines would unquestionably want to see Kelly compete again, especially if it were in the December 2015 card of ONE Championship.

For now however, we wait, and hope that “The Natural” finds himself in the best situation possible, both from a financial and competitive standpoint.