Brandon Vera makes his return vs Italian challenger in ONE Manila card

Filipino-American MMA star Brandon Vera. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Brandon Vera is headed back to the ONE Championship after almost two years of being idle.

The promotion’s reigning World heavyweight champion will take on Italian challenger Mauro Cerrili in the main event of ONE: Conquest of Champions on Nov. 23 at Mall of Asia Arena.

This will be Vera’s first fight since he defeating Hideki Sekine on Dec. 2, 2016 via technical knockout in ONE: Age of Domination at the same venue of his next bout.

“The Philippines is a country extremely passionate about sports, especially martial arts,” said ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong. “We have some of the greatest martial artists in Asia that call the Philippines home.”

Vera (15-7) holds a three-fight winning streak, all of which never reached the second round. His quickest one ended in just 26 seconds after The Truth knocked out Paul Cheng in December of 2015.

Cerilli (12-2), meanwhile, has won five of his last fights with just one fight needing the judges’ scoring.

Preceding Vera’s title defense is Eduard Folayang’s bid to become a two-time ONE World lightweight champion when he takes on Singapore’s Amir Khan in the co-main event of the card.

Folayang (20-6) was the ONE’s lightweight champion for 364 days starting in Nov. 11, 2016 when he scored a technical knockout win over Shinya Aoki and lost to Martin Nguyen in 2017 via knockout.

Khan (11-3) has lost his last two fights including the one against Folayang’s Team Lakay teammate Honorio Banario.