Former WEC star Kamal Shalorus, who was cut by the UFC nearly a year ago, makes a comeback at 40 with ONE FC in May.
Shalorus (7-3-2), an Iranian born wrestler, announced on his Facebook page that he would face Eduard Folayang (12-3) on May 31 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, a relatively new 20,000 seat arena in Pasay, Philippines, just outside of Manila.
ONE FC is Asia’s leading MMA promotion, with television deals in Indonesia and Singapore, as well as a ten-year contract with ESPN Star Sports, which runs throughout the continent. The May 31 show will be the ninth the promotion has put on since debuting in September of 2011.
Shalorus wrestled internationally for years, at one time being an Olympic hopeful, before moving to Austin, Tex., in 2006 and getting into MMA. He debuted in 2008 at the age of 35, meaning he was already starting on borrowed time.
His combination of power wrestling and heavy hands did well in the WEC’s lightweight division, where he went 3-0-1, with the draw coming against Jamie Varner, a former WEC lightweight champion, in a fight Shalorus was docked a penalty point for a low blow.
But after moving to UFC, a combination of getting older and facing a tough lot of competition in Jim Miller, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Rafael dos Anjos saw him lose the first three fights of his career. He was cut when dos Anjos beat him via choke in just 1:40 on May 15, 2012, in Fairfax, VA, on a Fuel show.
Folayang is a popular Filipino fighter that the company has been trying to promote to the local audience. One FC is based on creating stars in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where they’ve done most of their live events. The 28-year-old is 2-1 in ONE FC.