Anissa Meksen appears to be ready to make her comeback. The French fighter has yet to compete in 2023 after a well publicized falling out with ONE Championship.
last month Chatri Sityodtong revealed that his team were working hard to try and welcome Meksen back into the fold. She pulled out of a mixed rules fight with Stamp Fairtex at the very last minute and has not been seen since.
Afterwards Meksen accused the promotion of showing a ‘lack of respect’ and announced she had decided to leave. Unfortunately for the French fighter contracts don’t really work like that.
It sounds like Meksen is ready to fight for ONE Championship again and she wants to face Kana:
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No interest
Kana has called Meksen out on several occasions. Unfortunately anyone trying to put together this fight is likely to run into another ‘contract problem’ because the former is signed to K-1 while the latter competes for ONE Championship.
There is absolutely no prospect of the two promotions working together because they have been involved in a war of words. Chatri told the SCMP after ONE Fight Night 14 that,
“K-1 was a powerhouse in the world of striking 30 or 25 years ago. The viewership is literally 2% of ONE Championship’s, and those are facts.”
Chatri has made it clear he has no interest in co-promoting with K-1. That means there is no prospect of Kana fighting Meksen unless her contract with the Japanese kickboxing promotion expires.
👑 K-1女子フライ級王者・KANA(@KANA_sw_d) @ABEMA で視聴中 https://t.co/kZaRGmZxLK #k1wgp pic.twitter.com/XiH8fd8EWH
— K-1【Official Account】 (@k1wgp_pr) July 17, 2023
Biggest star
ONE Championship has already signed K-1’s biggest star. Takeru put pen to paper on a contract earlier this year although he has yet to make his promotional debut.
It seems that Takeru was able to fight out his K-1 contract. If this is the case the timing for the Japanese promotion was bad because the bout with Tenshin elevated him to superstar status.
Since then Takeru has appeared on numerous television shows in Japan. His only fight took place in Paris when he stopped Bailey Sugden to add some more kickboxing belts to his collection.
A fight between Kana and Meksen would be a mouthwatering prospect because both are at the very top of the kickboxing game. There doesn’t seem to be much prospect of it happening unless ONE Championship can somehow sign the former.
It seems Meksen is ready to return to the ring. The opponent probably won’t be Kana but there are plenty of other options out there for the French fighter like Allycia Rodrigues and Janet Todd.
