ONE Championship has focused on ushering in an exciting new era for the ancient sport of muay Thai, and the promotion is gearing for its most significant event in that quest this week.
On Friday, September 22, the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, will play host to the ONE flyweight muay Thai world title battle between reigning divisional king Rodtang Jitmuangnon and flyweight kickboxing titleholder Superlek Kiatmoo9 – two of the most dominant strikers in the world today.
The highly anticipated match will headline the 34th edition of ONE Friday Fights, and ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong explained the importance of the blockbuster matchup to the combat sports community during a recent appearance on the SCMP MMA podcast.
“Rodtang vs. Superlek is the biggest fight in muay Thai in 50 years. You can ask anybody in Thailand, the entire country is riveted. It’s very hard to get two of the very best of their era together and to actually compete, you know? And it’s for high stakes, obviously, to see who’s the best pound-for-pound muay Thai striker in the world,” he said.
“I don’t think the rest of the world outside of the muay Thai community understands – this card is literally the greatest card assembled in the history of muay Thai. Full stop. It’s killers and monsters on that card. Bar none, it’ll be the most watched event in the history of muay Thai.”
Muay Thai has long been a staple of Thai culture, and shows are regularly broadcast throughout the country. But the striking art had only a niche fanbase overseas until ONE integrated it into its shows and began its run in Lumpinee Stadium.
During the same interview this week, Sityodtong revealed that it was Thai government that asked ONE to take up residency at the iconic striking venue, as they wanted to promote “the art of eight limbs” to the world.
“The Thai government invited me to be a promoter at Lumpinee and to restore the honor and glory of muay Thai and to spread it all over the world,” the ONE co-founder said. “Obviously, it’s the Mecca of muay Thai. And at one point, during COVID, they were considering shutting it down forever. I felt a real moral duty, and I thought if I come back, I could do the normal thing like the Friday Fights, which is phenomenal anyway. But I wanted to really bring back the popularity of muay Thai, not just in Thailand, but around the world. I wanted to showcase the beauty of my country.”
ONE’s innovative muay Thai rule set has breathed fresh air into the sport. Bouts under the promotion’s banner are three rounds instead of five, and combatants wear four-ounce MMA gloves to maximize punching prowess. The new format has endeared the sport to a whole new fanbase, and its practitioners are becoming household names as a result.
Sityodtong is a lifelong practitioner of muay Thai and a former fighter himself, so he has a deep passion for it. According to him, the martial art had been teetering on the edge of oblivion before the global giant stepped in.
“For the last 10 years, muay Thai was dying because of all the gambling problems. There’s nothing wrong with gambling, but if the gamblers are paying off the fighters, or the judges, or the referees, then it becomes a problem,” he said.
“So, every week for the last few years, there was a social media scandal about how this fighter was robbed, or that fighter was robbed, this scandal and that scandal. Quite frankly, the viewership kept on dropping for 10 years. If ONE Championship didn’t step in, I predicted that within five years muay Thai would be gone completely from Thailand. That would’ve been a shame, you know, it’s obviously the national heritage, the cultural treasure of Thailand.”
