Former UFC title challenger, Marlon Moraes, has called for a trilogy match with Sheymon Moraes after losing their rematch in the PFL.
Former WSOF bantamweight champion and ex-UFC title challenger, “Magic” Marlon Moraes, suffered a TKO loss in his rematch with short-notice replacement fighter, Sheymon Moraes, on the 2022 PFL Championship prelims last month. Marlon just took to social media to openly request a trilogy bout with Sheymon in 2023.
For the sake of clarity with this Moraes on Moraes violence, I will be referring to the fighters by their first names to try an avoid any confusion.
This saga began way back in the now defunct World Series of Fighting promotion, which may or may not have morphed into what we now know today as the PFL. The year was 2015 and Marlon was the 135-pound champion, and Sheymon was his challenger. Marlon had a stellar performance and pulled off a rear-naked choke in the third round to retain his title. That put him up 1-0 against Sheymon.
Marlon defended his WSOF belt three more times before transitioning over to the UFC. There, he had a strong start to make it to a title shot against then champ Henry Cejudo. he came up short against Henry, but then rebounded with a controversial split decision over Jose Aldo. That’s when had a hard fall from grace by getting brutally finished in four consecutive bouts.
Looking for a fresh start, Marlon departed from the UFC and signed with the PFL. He then got booked against another UFC vet that got picked up by the PFL in free agency in Shane Burgos — but an injury forced Burgos to withdraw.
In what was a brilliant move by the PFL matchmakers, they brought in Sheymon to replace Shane, which gave the fans an unexpected rematch seven-years after their first meeting. So the rematch happened, and after two strong rounds from Marlon, Sheymon rallied in the third to stop Marlon with a nasty overhand right to ground and pound.
That puts us at present day, and Marlon is now hunting for that rubber match. His social media post was written in Portuguese, so please forgive Instagram’s version of the translation. It’s choppy, but you can still get the drift that Marlon credits Sheymon for his victory, but is also looking to have their third fight happen in April of 2023.
“No soft talk was happy congratulations on the victory @sheymonmoraes!!! 2023 coming let’s solve this confrontation 1-1 No Bullshit Congrats to my opponent, hats off to him. I’m not happy let’s settle 1-1 perfect time do it MoraesvsMoraes3 April? New Years Eve at @pflmma @sugarraysefo.”