MANILA, Philippines—There will be a fourth Team Lakay fighter who will compete in the stacked ONE: Dawn of Heroes card after Edward Kelly was added to the August 2 event at Mall of Asia Arena.
This will be Kelly’s second straight bout at MOA Arena where he will take on ONE Hefei Bantamweight Tournament finalist Xie Bin in a three-round featherweight bout.
“I am really excited for this match,” said Kelly (12-6) who attempts to get back-to-back wins after scoring a technical knockout victory against Sung Jong Lee in April. “I have to admit there’s always a nervous feeling when you fight here.”
“But even back then, I wanted to keep on fighting. I was really happy when I heard that I’ll be fighting again and it’s here in Manila.”
Other Team Lakay fighters will also be on the card with former ONE World lightweight champion Eduard Folayang taking on Eddie Alvarez while Danny Kingad and Honorio Banario are in the semifinals of their respective tournaments.
Kingad will take on Kairat Akhmetov in the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix while Banario came in as a replacement for Lowen Tynanes in the ONE Lightweight World Grand Prix to go up against Timofey Nastyukhin.
Kelly said that fighting in the same card with his Team Lakay brothers makes training more enjoyable with each and every one of them pushing each other to his best.
“Everything is just enjoyable, the feeling of training everyday is lighter because we all want to be at our best on August 2,” said Kelly. “This is a very important match for me. I know I have to win this because I want to push on my dream to become a World Champion.”