During a Facebook live session recently Chatri Sityodtong revealed that he had approached Buakaw Banchamek about fighting for his promotion. The ONE Championship CEO / Founder said that he was still waiting for a response.
Buakaw is best known for winning the K-1 Max tournament twice but has not faced a high level opponent for many years. While he has been facing relatively unknown fighters ONE Championship has been steadily signing up some of the biggest names in the sport like Giorgio Petrosyan, John Wayne Parr and Andy Souwer.
The Thai media picked up on this story and a piece was published about how Buakaw had not responded to the offer. Earlier today the fighter’s team issued a response in Thai which can be translated as:
“Following on from the story that Buakaw was silent and didn’t reply, after being invited to compete on ONE Championship. With people challenging Buakaw online we feel that it is a good thing for people to talk about and for promoters to agree on how to bring it about. This is the job for promoters and Buakaw’s job is that of a fighter. More importantly right now the world is struggling with the spread of the Covid-19 virus, so it is probably not the ideal time to talk about it. Right now we are at home carrying out self sufficient agricultural activities and trying to help stop the spread of the virus to help the country. After this crisis has passed we can talk about it.”
While Souwer and Wayne Parr have both moved up in weight since the K-1 Max days there would still be some huge fights for Buakaw in the ONE Super Series. A match with newly crowned featherweight Grand Prix winner Petrosyan would be a mouthwatering proposition.
But while the Thai fighter’s team have publicly expressed a willingness to talk it seems a deal is not close to being done. With the combat sport world currently on hold due to the coronavirus, or Covid-19, now could be the ideal time for negotiations.
But Buakaw’s team has made it clear that they are not ready to negotiate. So fans hoping to see Buakaw in the ONE Super Series probably shouldn’t get their hopes up just yet.
