Prajanchai Looks to Become Two-Sport Champion By Claiming ONE Strawweight Kickboxing Championship

June 25, 2024

5 months

ONE Friday Night Fights 68 isn’t a typical fight night card at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok. The promotion put together a card full of championship-level competitors. Five current and former ONE world champions will compete on this card, which should draw a large number of eyeballs to the product.

Prajanchai PK Saenchai will look to add more gold belts to his collection. People looking at online boxing news will see that Prajanchai is already the ONE strawweight Muay Thai champion. He hopes to be able to claim the vacant strawweight belt.

But Prajanchai’s path to a championship is blocked by one of the top kickboxers. Jonathan Di Bella has an undefeated professional kickboxing record and originally claimed the ONE strawweight kickboxing championship back in 2022. Di Bella defended the title before he ran into bad luck.

Di Bella was initially scheduled to battle Prajanchai at ONE Friday Night Fights 58, but he became ill and was hospitalized a day before the fight. Di Bella would be stripped of the championship.

But now Di Bella is back and healthy. He would like to show the entire promotion what he’s made of. While Prajanchai has over 400 professional fights on his resume, this fight should be a close one between two veteran combatants.

Superlek Readies for Trip to America

Superlek Kiatmoo9 is a fearless fighter. Typically, many combat sports athletes don’t like to take on fights too close to a title fight. Too many things can go wrong.

A serious injury or cup could force a postponement or outright cancellation of about. But Superlek wants to stay active. That’s why the current ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion will square off with Kongthoranee Sor Sommai.

Kongthoranee has been in excellent form since he took his only loss in April 2023. He has won seven consecutive fights, including a pair of knockouts. This will be Kongthoranee’s third fight of 2024.

But the amount of activity that Kongthoranee has put forward shouldn’t be too much of a concern. Kongthoranee fought six times in the promotion in 2023. He is a fighter that seems to feed off the adrenaline of competing. Superlek, who is set to bump up in weight and fight Jonathan Haggerty for the ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai World Title in September, will need to stay on his toes if he is going to get his hand raised at the end of this fight.

Petchtanong & Ramazanov Want to Stay Relevant

Petchtanong Petchfergus and Alaverdi Ramazanov both held championships at one point in ONE. But neither man is the current ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Champion today. What each hopes is that by beating each other, they can enter back into the conversation for an opportunity to win a championship.

Petchtanong will have to dust off some ring rust for this fight. He hasn’t fought since 2022. During Petchtanong’s last fight, he upset Hiroki Akimoto to grab the bantamweight belt. But the win ended up not being legitimate.

Petchtanong failed a drug test, was stripped of the belt, and was suspended a month after his big win. Ramazanov’s record doesn’t necessarily suggest he would have been a champion. He did claim the bantamweight belt back in 2019.

But Ramazanov lost the championship in his first title defense against Capitan Petchindee when he lost in the second round via knockout. Since then, Ramazanov has produced mixed results and has a 7-5 record in the promotion.

Rising Contenders Would Like to Make Their Names

Suablack Tor Pran 49 is learning what it is like to be in an intense build-up to a big fight. Suablack will put his unbeaten record in the promotion on the line against Kiamran Nabati. Nabati has helped pump up the promotion for the fight by sending some smack talk in Suablack’s direction.

Nabati is 20-0 in his professional career. Since he’s come to ONE Championship, Nabati has found he fits in with what the promotion is willing to offer. Nabati turned heads in September 2023 when he beat four-time Muay Thai World Champion Pongsiri PK Saenchai.

Suablack has a longer track record of success in ONE. He has won all six of his fights in one, including four knockouts. When Sublack ran off four consecutive wins in a row, he was awarded a six-figure contract from ONE.

Suriyanlek and Pompet Hope Sequel Surpasses Original

There are some times when revisiting an old matchup can produce good results for fans interested in watching fights. When Suriyanlek Por Yenying and Pompet PK Saenchai fought in March, they produced a wild fight. There were five knockdowns in the fight.

Despite all of the power punches landed, neither man could secure a knockout. Pompet ended up emerging victorious, but both fighters took a sustained beating. Pompet is 4-1 in the promotion and hopes to pick up his third consecutive win for the first time since joining ONE.

Suriyanlek didn’t wait long before returning to the ring. A little over a month after his loss to Pompet, he returned to ONE with a unanimous victory over Rittidet Sor Sommai. Suriyanlek is always willing to fight and has repeatedly stepped back into the fire.

One area where Suriyanlek struggles is impressing the judges when the fight goes the distance. He is 5-2 in ONE and has won four of his past five fights by KO. He is 1-2 when fights go to a decision.

Here’s a look at the rest of the fights on the card not mentioned above: