“The Iron Man’s” next fight in ONE Championship is confirmed, and it’ll be under kickboxing rules. 

For the first time since January 2023, ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon will lace up the big gloves for a battle with Denis Puric at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on Saturday, 8th June, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Impact Arena. 

Rodtang last competed at ONE Friday Fights 34 in September, where he suffered his first promotional loss in ONE’s striking ranks in a Muay Thai super-fight with flyweight kickboxing king Superlek Kiatmoo9.

Fortunately for the legendary Thai, his gold wasn’t up for grabs that evening as Superlek missed weight. But the pair delivered an iconic clash that rocked the combat sports world nonetheless, with Rodtang missing out by unanimous decision.

“The Iron Man” has been sidelined with a hand injury since then, and he was forced to pull out of his highly anticipated match with Takeru Segawa in his backyard in Tokyo earlier this year as a result.

However, all looks well for him to return in June, and fans are excited to see Puric get the dream fight he’s always wanted.  

“The Bosnian Menace” has been amassing momentum in ONE Championship recently. 

After quashing Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat’s comeback in December 2023, he scored a dynamic victory over former #2-ranked flyweight Muay Thai contender Jacob Smith at last month’s ONE Fight Night 21 to usurp the Brit’s position.

All the while, Puric has been calling out Rodtang and claiming that he would face him in any discipline. 

Now, he gets his wish, and it will be fascinating to see how his never-back-down approach fares against the aggression of “The Iron Man” at ONE 167 on 8th June.

Manchester’s Brendan Loughnane is coming into the 2024 PFL regular season with a point to prove after what many would call a shock, disappointing showing last year.

The PFL thought they had struck gold when they signed Brendan Loughnane straight off the back of his infamous appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series. Coming in with proven ability and a name value in the UK which they had not had until that point, they were right. He made it to the playoffs in 2021, his debut season, narrowly falling in the semi-finals to Movlid Khaybulaev via a split decision.

The following season was where the Featherweight really showed his ability. Two unanimous decision victories took him through the regular season relatively scot-free. A heated semi-final showdown against Chris Wade at London’s Copper Box Arena was next. Wade had lost in the playoffs three seasons in a row, and 30-27 scorecards across the board made that four, and moved Loughnane through to the final for $1m.

It was to be another man competing in his second season, Bubba Jenkins, standing in the way of that cheque. The iconic Theater at Madison Square Garden was the setting for the final, which proved to be the perfect moment for Loughnane to pick up his first finish of the season. In a fight he was clearly leading, a straight right from Loughnane made Jenkins do the splits in the middle of the SmartCage. A few punches on the ground followed by a knee to the chest was enough to make the Mancunian $1m richer.

As the newly minted 2022 PFL featherweight champion, Loughnane started the 2023 season strong, with a second round-TKO of former UFC contender Marlon Moraes earning him five points. A victory that put him, at that point, in good stead to make the playoffs for a third consecutive year. Then came the sophomore fight of the season, a fight in which he closed as a -800 favourite over Jesus Pinedo. What came next was the shock of the season.

Less than ninety seconds in the fight, the Peruvian landed a flush knee off of a clinch which dropped Loughnane seemingly out of nowhere, and four punches later it was over. The face of the 2022 season was not making the playoffs. Pinedo went on to win the season, and of course the $1m.

This gave Brendan Loughnane an elongated break, and in that time came a lot of change within the PFL. The acquisition of Bellator means new competition for the Mancunian, as well as the rest of the PFL roster, and that starts on Friday as he faces former Bellator title challenger Pedro Carvalho, in what is a big fight for the UK and Ireland market.

SBG Ireland’s “The Game”, makes his PFL debut, and along with his contemporaries from Bellator, has been a part of refreshing the PFL regular season roster which was at risk of becoming stale due to the small roster size leading to repeated matchups in the playoffs. Through eleven fights in Bellator, he fought the best that the organisation had to offer including Aaron Pico, Mads Burnell, and organisational GOAT Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, becoming one of the go-to names on their regular events in Dublin, which became a staple of the company over the last few years. A win for him over Loughnane will instantly ensure he is highly thought of in his new organisation and put him in a great position to make it to the playoffs at the first time of asking. As we learned last year however, all can change as the season goes on.

Despite the loss last season, Brendan Loughnane does not feel the pressure coming into the 2024 season. Speaking at media day this week, he said:

“I feel like the pressure’s off. I’ve got the title here, I’m the 2022 champion and I’m just coming here now out of choice and to have fun and I think that makes me very dangerous”.

Loughnane was able to see the positives of his shortened season in 2023.

“I was happy for the layoff. I’m the most experienced guy in my division now and Bubba [Jenkins] so I’ve been in this thing for so long that I didn’t know life outside of this for a while so it was nice to take care of a few things and reset”.

The co-main event tonight between Loughnane and Carvalho promises to be a fight of the night contender. Both men come to throw down every single outing and to many people, especially those on this side of the pond, this is the most anticipated matchup of the first round with whoever prevails putting themselves in a great position and taking that first step towards making the playoffs.

For a fighter to become the best, it helps to remain humble and focused. And if the opportunity to train with world-class athletes arises, they should grab it with both hands. Ahead of her return to ONE Championship next month, ONE Women’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Champion Smilla Sundell has been doing all that. 

The Swedish striker is set to return in the main event of ONE Fight Night 22 on Saturday, 4th May, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, where she’ll defend her crown against Russian ruiner Natalia Diachkova.

Sundell has been dominant across four promotional outings. But she knows she’ll have her hands full with Diachkova, so she recently chose to take some tips from ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion Tawanchai PK Saenchai. 

“I did his seminar in Bangkok at PK Saenchai with my friend Matt. We went there and wanted to learn some new skills and see how he did seminars because I want to go to America after my fight to do seminars. I’ve done one now, and I like teaching, so it was fun,” Sundell said. 

“There’s no competition in it. He’s like a cat playing with a rat. It’s too easy for him sometimes. He doesn’t even try.”

The strawweight Muay Thai queen sharpens her skills at the Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, alongside other world-class striking talents, like three-sport ONE World Champion Stamp Fairtex. 

Stamp’s fun-loving nature has rubbed off on Sundell, but it’s her commitment to never backing down that has truly inspired the 19-year-old sensation.

“She’s always been a happy girl and trains hard every day. She’s basically the same funny girl. Still hungry (to get wins),” Sundell explained. 

“I think I learned that you can achieve whatever you like as long as you put in the work. But I learned that from my parents, too. But maybe more practical, in a sense, because Stamp did it in martial arts.”