Jonathan Haggerty Hopes for Easy Defense of World Title Against Felipe Lobo

February 16, 2024

11 months

Image of Jonathan Haggerty and Felipe Lobo

Jonathan Haggerty has proven himself to be a man effective at many disciplines of combat sports. The two-sport champion will now have to defend his ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai belt against Brazilian Felipe Lobo this weekend. Lobo and Haggerty have already developed animosity with each other despite never meeting in the ring before.

Haggerty developed a dislike of Lobo after he knocked out Lobo’s teammate, Fabricio Andrade, to win the ONE Bantamweight kickboxing title. Following Haggerty’s win, Lobo started chirping at the English star, trying to spur on a fight.

Haggerty, 26, made his professional debut in 2014. He claimed an ISKA super-featherweight Muay Thai world title in 2015. He would end up working his way up to the ONE Championship in 2019. Lobo has fought four times in ONE Championship and has collected three wins. Lobo’s only knockout win so far was against Saemapetch Fairtex.

This weekend, both men will be able to settle their differences at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. It will be the main event of a scheduled nine-fight card that will feature a mix of MMA and Muay Thai. ONE Championship has one of the most unique mixes of fights in the world, and this event should be no different.

Online boxing news shows this card will have plenty of Muay Thai to go along with MMA. With a championship fight on the top of the card and plenty of contenders fighting throughout the card, this should be an action-packed event.

Fairtex Looks to Make Name

Saemapetch Fairtex has a long and decorated record in Muay Thai. But if the No. 4-ranked bantamweight Muay Thai fighter wants to fight for a title, he needs to start stringing wins together. Fairtex is looking to bounce back from a first-round TKO loss to Mohamed Younes Rabah in December.

Fairtex has found some issues with inconsistency as of late. He also lost via a third-round KO to Lobo last April. Having a rematch with Rabah was one the promotion was eager to set up after how the first fight ended. Rabah knocked Fairtext to the canvas late in the first round.

Before the referee could step in, Rabah fired off a borderline illegal knee strike. The damage from the blow left Fairtex unable to continue. Rabah has an edge in height and reach that could make this fight go the same way.

However, both men did score knockdowns in the first fight. This has the potential to be an exciting fight. Rabah doesn’t have a lot of professional combat sports experience. He has one kickboxing win on his record and won his debut with ONE.

Williams Wants to Get Back on Track

Image of Danial Williams knocking out Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke

Danial Williams put a big charge into his MMA career by knocking out former strawweight champion Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in February 2022. That would end up being the third consecutive knockout win during the longest winning streak of his career so far. Williams won two more fights before his winning streak ended with a TKO loss to Jeremy Miado in October 2022.

Williams won’t have an easy bout in his return to MMA. He will take on Lito Adiwang, who is on a two-fight winning streak. Adiwang is 15-5 overall in MMA competition, and he has a 9-3 record in ONE Championship MMA fights.

Williams attempted to stay active while he was in between MMA fights. During 2023, Williams competed in a kickboxing and Muay Thai bout. But he lost by knockout in Muay Thai and took a decision loss in kickboxing, according to online MMA news.

Liam Nolan Wants to Keep Up the Pace

Southpaw Liam Nolan has picked up two straight victories. Adding a third in a lightweight Muay Thai fight would start to give Nolan some serious momentum in his career. Nolan will have to try and keep that up against Spanish fighter Nauzet Trujillo.

Trujillo doesn’t have a lot of professional experience on his record. He took one professional MMA fight and lost by knockout in 27 seconds. During Muay Thai bouts, Trujillo has only had two previous professional fights. Trujillo lost his debut at ONE Fight Night 13, taking a decision loss to Rungrawee Sitsongpeenong, according to MMA news sites.

Nolan started his Muay Thai career at age 13. Nolan had a difficult upbringing and didn’t meet his father until he was 15 years old. After the two met and tried to reconcile, things fell apart quickly.

Rest of the Card

There will be plenty of big fights aside from the people who are toward the top of the marquee. People who are looking for Muay Thai and MMA bouts should both be satisfied with the amount of action on the schedule.

Japanese MMA fighter Hiroyuki Tetsuka is on a hot streak and will look to add another welterweight win to his record. Tetsuka is 12-4 as a professional fighter, including a 4-1 mark in ONE. During Tetsuka’s last three fights, Tetsuka has been able to come away with three finishes.

Tetsuka has won two of his past three fights by knockout. Brazilian Valmir da Silva will look to slow down Tetsuka. He is 9-3 overall in his MMA career. However, da Silva hasn’t been able to put things together in ONE yet. Da Silva is 1-2 in his first three fights with the promotion. Last time out, da Silva was submitted in the first round by Isi Fitikefu. While things haven’t gone great for him so far, this is a good opportunity to get back on his feet.

Here’s a list of the rest of the fights on the card not listed above: