Pinoy fighter Eric Kelly faces ex-ONE Championship titleholder in China

MANILA, Philippines – After being scratched off from ONE Championship’s “Global Rivals” card two months ago, Filipino fighter Eric Kelly will be given another opportunity to resume his road to redemption. 

However, a tough test awaits the 34-year-old Baguio City native as he is booked to face former ONE Championship featherweight titleholder Jadambaa Narantungalag in the main event of the organization’s “Dynasty of Champions 6” card, which takes place at the Hefei Olympic Sports Centre in Hefei, China on July 2. 

Kelly (12-2) seeks to bounce back from his third-round submission defeat at the hands of Malaysian-Kiwi sensation Ev Ting last January.

The painful loss to Ting spoiled Kelly’s objective to elevate his stature in ONE Championship’s featherweight rankings and possibly be considered for a title tilt with division kingpin Marat Gafurov.

After the disappointing setback, “The Natural” was penciled to square off with Russian prospect Timofey Nastyukhin, who withdrew from the bout as he could not comply with the promotion’s new weigh-in policy and did not meet the permissible weight limit at the pre-fight check.

ONE Championship officials were tasked to search for a replacement with less than a week before its 8th venture on Philippine shores, but no fighter in the active roster heeded the call.

On the other hand, Jadambaa (11-4) captured the ONE Championship featherweight belt by outpointing Koji Oishi in August 2014 before relinquishing the gold-plated strap to Gafurov 15 months later via fourth-round submission. 

The 40-year-old Mongolian kickboxer made a triumphant return to the ONE Championship cage last May by submitting ex-lightweight champion Kotetsu Boku with a third-round shoulder choke.

Jadambaa was supposed to lock horns with Kelly in December 2014, but the planned championship clash did not push through as the latter had a highly-publicized contract dispute with ONE Championship. – Rappler.com