Marlon Moraes signs with the PFL: Returns ‘home’ where he first won championship Gold

In combat sports these days, you can never be sure that when a fighter retires it’s definitely a true retirement. The case stands with former UFC bantamweight title challenger, Marlon Moraes.

Having retired from MMA just a few months ago, the Brazilian tweeted this week that he will be returning to the promotion where his MMA career really kickstarted, despite it now being under a new name. “Guys I wanna announce i’m coming home where I started, I wanna thank the legend Ray Sefo and PFL. Get ready for some fireworks.” the 34-year-old tweeted.

Moraes joins fellow Brazilian, Thiago Santos, who also joined the promotion earlier this month, as well as former UFC featherweight contender, Shane Burgos, someone Moraes may find himself facing next season.

Rewinding back to 2012 when “Magic” Moraes made his World Series Of Fighting debut, defeating Miguel Torres. Then fast forward two years to 2014 when he won the inaugural WSOF bantamweight title, then going on to defend it five times before signing with the UFC in 2017. In that time, what used to be World Series Of Fighting restructured to create what we now know as the Professional Fighters League.

One element of Moraes signing with the PFL that might surprise fans, is that he is set to join their featherweight league, but due to the gruelling nature of fighting so often, this is a move that will benefit Moraes.

Marlon Moraes isn’t the only fighter the PFL have signed this week. Biaggio Ali Walsh, grandson of Muhammad Ali, also signed along the dotted lines this week, and is expected to turn professional at some point in 2023.

With the PFL featherweight division now housing elite featherweights like Brendan Loughnane, Bubba Jenkins and Shane Burgos just to name a few, who would you like to see Marlon Moraes face in the 2023 season?