Next month Jackie Buntan will be fighting in the US for the first time since signing for ONE Championship. It will look very different to her previous fights in the country.
The 25 year old is Filipino bred but US born. She has started out fighting in her homeland but those bouts looked very different to her match with Diandra Martin at ONE Fight Night 10.
For starters none of the venues were as big as the 1stBank Centre in Broomfield which is completely sold out,
“When I was an amateur, I competed in empty gyms or little local casinos with crowds of 50 or 100 people. But the only big fights you can see here in the States are all MMA fights,” she recalls.
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New format
Buntan has also never worn MMA gloves for any of her previous Muay Thai fights in the US which all took place in a ring. That won’t be the case at ONE Fight Night 10 and she thinks the ONE Championship format will be more exciting for fans,
“This is something that they haven’t seen before. It’s something new, but yet again, it’s also familiar with it being in a cage, with the 40z gloves on. So there’s a level of relatability and familiarity in there.”
Buntan is representing her sport and feels that she has a responsibility to put in an entertaining and exciting match,
“I feel like I have to go hard. I have to put on a performance to make the fans and people who don’t know about Muay Thai excited to watch me again, watch Muay Thai again, and tune in to ONE Championship again. All of that is a win for everyone.”
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More exciting
She thinks the ONE Championship format is more exciting than traditional Muay Thai,
“The rule set, the gloves, the cage, three rounds only, it just puts you in a situation where you’ve got to go, making it exciting on both ends.”
But Buntan knows that first impressions count. She thinks a lot of fans will be watching one of these fights for the first time and wants to ensure they enjoy it,
“I think being able to put on a solid performance, and an exciting one at that, lets fight fans know this is really the new era of Muay Thai.”
