ONE Championship’s bantamweight kickboxing belt is vacant and matchmakers are lining up a huge fight to find the new champion. Fabricio Andrade and Jonathan Haggerty both confirmed they were in talks to face each other in a title fight.
Andrade is the promotion’s reigning bantamweight MMA champion while Haggerty holds the Muay Thai belt. They have both been offered the opportunity to compete for the division’s vacant kickboxing strap and it doesn’t sound like either man will be turning it down.
Andrade was crowned as champion after stopping John Lineker at ONE Fight Night 6. He accused Haggerty of refusing to sign the contract and the message to the Englishman was,
“You said you want this fight, now sign the contract! I am waiting for you.”
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Making history
Haggerty wasted no time in responding telling the Brazilian that,
“I’m coming to make history again. Make sure you are ready.”
Haggerty was crowned as the promotion’s bantamweight Muay Thai champion when he stopped Nong-O Gaiyanghadao at ONE Fight Night 6. He had previously held the flyweight belt but doesn’t appear to have any kickboxing experience.
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Previous experience
By contrast Andrade fought ten times for Kunlun Fight in China under kickboxing rules, winning nine of those bouts. So while the Brazilian won’t be able to use his grappling or wrestling his opponent won’t be able to use his clinch game or elbows.
That potentially makes it a very level playing field. Andrade is also based permanently at Tiger Muay Thai so won’t have to make any major adjustments to his training camp in order to prepare for a new sport.’
While Haggerty has been dominant as a Muay Thai fighter, winning two belts, Andrade has been consistently knocking out opponents in his MMA fights. One of these two men will become the first fighter since Stamp Fairtex to win ONE Championship belts in two different sports.
The promotion is presumably waiting for the paperwork to be completed before announcing the fight. The belt is vacant because former champion Petchtanong Banchamek was stripped of the title after failing a drug test.
