Amber Kitchen will be looking for her first ONE Championship win on Saturday morning (local time). She faces Martine Michieletto in a strawweight Muay Thai fight at Lumpinee Stadium.
The English fighter has made some big changes in the buildup to this fight. She has moved from Cornwall to Yorkshire in order to train at the Bad Company gym in Leeds.
The 24 year old feels this will make all the difference as she prepares for make or break fight at ONE Fight Night 11,
“I’ve moved to Bad Company permanently now. I’m just feeling amazing for this one. Everything’s going perfectly to plan. I’ve got no distractions of running my own business down in Cornwall anymore and I’ve come away from my whole life just to dedicate it to this fight.”
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Super confident
Kitchen has been on the ONE Championship roster since 2019 but has only fought three times. Her career has been badly interrupted by the pandemic so it is no surprise that the strawweight, whose mother was also a successful Muay Thai fighter, has had to seek alternative employment.
But heading into this fight she has been able to dedicate herself full time to her competitive career,
“I’m feeling super confident because I had such a long camp. In my last camp, I had six weeks’ notice, but for this one, I’ve had 12. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
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Previous experience
Kitchen has lost three fights out of three for ONE Championship but she has never been stopped and feels she has given as good as she has got,
“I’ve taken on the top opponents in the division. I know I’ve had losses, but I’m putting on exciting performances. They’re not one-sided. I’m still standing there and giving as much as I take.”
Michieletto has also had to wait a long time to make her ONE Championship debut but there is plenty of footage out there of the Italian who has fought for Bellator. Kitchen thinks that her previous experience of fighting in the smaller gloves could be vital,
“I’ve watched some of her videos and the speed is there but I don’t feel like she’s got much power. I feel like she’s going to come out all guns blazing, she’s very explosive but I don’t know how long she can keep that up, especially not when she’s being hit in the four-ounce gloves and being on such a big platform. I feel like I’ve got that advantage on her.”
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Knockout power
While Kitchen has yet to score a knockout or a knockdown during her ONE Championship career she is not lacking in belief. The 24 year old thinks the power is there and she just has to make some minor adjustments in order for fans to see it,
“I’ve been working a lot on getting my distance right. I feel like I’ve got knockout power. I just haven’t had that accuracy with the distance so far. So, I’ve been working a lot on that.”
Kitchen hasn’t had much luck with the ONE Championship judges so far. She lost her first fight by split decision but wants to finish this one inside the distance,
“I want to go and do some damage on her. I feel like I can knock her out.”
