[Photo credits: Jojo]
Bangkok’s Impact Arena played host to another night of world-class fightfare as ONE Championship returns to the City of Angels on Friday, 10 May. ONE: Warriors of Light featured many of the city’s big name athletes along with top competitors from around the world.
The stellar fight card was headlined by 2 title matches with the ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion and ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Champion up for grabs.
In the main event, reigning ONE Muay Thai Bantamweight champion, Nong-O Kaiyanghadao successfully defended his title against the challenger, Hiroaki Suzuki. Widely recognized as one of Muay Thai’s pound-for-pound greats, Nong-O put on a dominating performance against the Japanese fighter.
The Thai’s game plan was clear-cut and simple: unleash the strong, right kick. Nong-O delivered over 100 kicks beginning from round 2, leaving Suzuki’s left arm, ribs and shoulder blade red hot and swollen by the end of the fight. The Japanese’s MMA background was clearly not working to his advantage but he deserves credits for making the full 5 rounds. An easy decision victory and first title defense for Nong-O.
Another local hero and fan-favorite, Petchdam “Baby Shark” Petchyindee Academy took on Algerian kickboxer, Elias Mahmoudi for the inaugural ONE Flyweight Kickboxing champion title. The highly-anticipated co-main event kicked off on the wrong foot as Mahmoudi threw an illegal elbow strike that left Petchdam stumbling just seconds into the first round. The Thai was visibly shaken but picked up to continue after a brief technical timeout.
The action picked up fast and furious as Mahmoudi played the game to his reach advantage, being much taller than Petchdam. The Algerian had the first two rounds to his name but Petchdam came back by the third to take the next 2 rounds.
Going into the fifth, Petchdam’s hard left kick connected with his opponent’s groin just as the latter was spinning into a back-fist. As Mahmoudi was unable to continue as a result of the low blow, a decision was made based on the judges’ scorecards with Petchdam clinching the title.
Hosting nation, Thailand made a near clean sweep with five out of six competing Thai athletes winning their respective bouts. As the motherland of Muay Thai, the event shows that Thailand continues to be a leader in producing the best strikers in the world.
Here are the full results:
PRELIMS:
Hexigetu (China) won by decision vs Ovais Shah (Pakistan)
Janet Todd (USA) won by round 2 TKO vs Wang Chin Long (Chinese Taipei)
Kota Shimoishi (Japan) lost by round 2 KO vs Pieter Buist (Netherlands)
Superlek Kiatmoo9 (Thailand) won by decision vs Rui Botelho (Portugal)
Singtongnoi Por Telakun (Thailand) lost by decision vs Savvas Michael (Cyprus)
MAIN CARD
Kazuki Tokudome (Japan) won by round 2 TKO vs Adrian Pang (Australia/Papua New Guinea)
Zhang Chenglong (China) won by decision vs Panicos Yusuf (Cyprus)
Pongsiri Mitsatit (Thailand) won by round 1 KO vs Robin Catalan (Philippines)
Rodtang Jitmuangnon (Thailand) won by round 1 KO vs Sok Thy (Cambodia)
Shoko Sato (Japan) won by round 2 TKO vs Mark Fairtex Abelardo (New Zealand)
CO-MAIN EVENT
ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Championship
Petchdam Petchyindee Academy (Thailand) won by round 4 technical decision vs Elias Mahmoudi (Algeria)
MAIN EVENT
ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Championship
Nong-o Gaiyanghadao (Thailand) won by decision vs Hiroaki Suzuki (Japan)
