by Dane McGuire
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before– a retired combat sports athlete is coming back. This time however, it’s former UFC bantamweight king Marlon Moares.
Moraes released a statement at the time of his retirement, saying:
“I want to thank everyone — Sean Shelby, Dana White and the UFC for giving me so many opportunities,” Moraes said. “I wanna thank my family, my coaches, my manager, everybody who has been around and been part of my career. I want to say thank you to Mark Henry, Ricardo Almeida, Frankie Edgar, Anderson Franca and Hunter Campbell.
“I’m still gonna be around the sport helping young guys and helping my friends.”
Moraes will join the Professional Fighters League’s 2023 season.The news was revealed to MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin on Thursday by Moraes’ manager, Ali Abdelaziz. Moraes has since tweeted (sic):
“Guys I wanna announce I’m coming home where I started, I wanna thank the legend Ray Sefo & @PFLMMA get ready for some firework”
“Now I get to fight on the same card @KaylaH”, he also tweeted in regard to the face of the PFL, women’s lightweight queen Kaylay Harrison.
For context, Harrison is fresh off a first round submission victory in London last month at PFL 9 (2022) against Martina Jindrova. More details including the date and venue have yet to be announced. Follow the developing card here.
Harrison now advances to a third straight championship final opposite Larissa Pacheco.
The promotion also recently posted a highlight of Moraes extending his WSOF victory streak to 6-0 around the time the news broke.Mores will be moving up in weight to 145 pounds.
Prior to his time in the UFC, Mores was an established veteran of the PFL’s predecessor, World Series of Fighting. During his stint with the promotion, he amassed an 11-0 record including five WSOF bantamweight title defense.
Mores had only been retired since April. He retired following a four fight skid with the world leader in MMA, having initially won five of seven. His last fight with the UFC was a first-round knockout loss to Song Yadong at UFC Vegas 50.
Ahead of his return to action, “Magic” has a 23-10-1 record overall including 10 knockouts and six submission victories.