Southeast Asia’s leading and most active promoter ONE FC announced three bouts for their upcoming event, ONE FC 9: Rise to Power, which takes place May 31 at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines.
An announcement from the organization states the finals of their bantamweight grand prix will be held at this event and will feature finalists Kevin Belingon against Masakatsu Ueda. The Filipino Belingon advanced to this position with wins over Thanh Vu and Yusup Saadulaev while Ueda was able to get past Jens Pulver and Min Jung Song.
ONE FC also announced a featherweight bout between Filipino standout Eduard Folayang against WEC and UFC veteran Kamal Shalorus. Folayang is 1-2 in his last three bouts and 12-3 overall in professional MMA. He is 2-1 inside the ONE FC cage. This upcoming bout marks the ONE FC debut for Shalorus who lost his last three professional MMA contests, all of them his UFC appearances. He holds a 7-3-2 record in MMA.
Lastly, PRIDE, UFC and Strikeforce veteran Phil Baroni will return to the ONE FC cage when he takes on Nobutatsu Suzuki. Baroni has not competed in MMA since losing to Hayato Sakurai in December of 2012. He is 15-16 overall in MMA, but 1-1 in his two appearances for ONE FC. Suzuki is 9-1-2 in professional MMA. He most recently competed in December of 2012 where he lost by via first-round submission against UFC and Sengoku veteran Keita Nakamura.
ONE FC 9 will be broadcast live as an Internet pay-per-view event.