By:  | July 25, 2022 8:10 am

Janet Todd claimed the interim atomweight Muay Thai title at ONE 159 last Friday. She beat Lara Fernandez by decision to claim a second title with the promotion.

Fernandez was making her promotional debut and a few eyebrows were raised when she was announced as Todd’s opponent. French fighter Anissa Meksen is coming off two very impressive ONE Championship wins and has been calling for a fight with the American for over a year.

Afterwards Todd was asked about potential opponents and admitted that,

“Anissa Meksen is on my radar.”

 

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Main priority

But her main priority is to become the undisputed atomweight Muay Thai champion. Allycia Rodrigues currently holds the regular title but the Brazilian has been out of action for nearly two years after giving birth.

Todd was asked who she wanted to fight next and says unifying the Muay Thai titles is her priority,

“It’s up to ONE Championship (but) I definitely would like to unify the belts.”

Fernandez posed Todd more of a challenge than people had expected. It was one of the toughest fights of her Muay Thai career and at the end of the fourth round the American’s corner seemed to think she might be losing,

She came out and clearly won the fifth round and ultimately the fight. All three judges scored it for Todd but she admits that the situation seemed desperate going into the final round,

“Bryan (Popejoy) said I gotta’ go, I gotta’ win this round. I knew I couldn’t just wait, I had to come forwards and win that round so that’s what I went out and did.”

Tough fight

Todd started strongly but Fernandez rallied and the momentum seemed to be with the Spaniard heading into the final round. The newly crowned champion says she was not surprised to find her opponent was strong,

“I know at this point my fight aren’t going to be easy. She fought vey good I thought she was a good challenge. It was a tough fight.”

Todd first fought for the atomweight Muay Thai title on her ONE Championship debut in 2019. The title has eluded her until now but she is conscious she only has an interim version of the strap.

Todd wants to continue to defend her kickboxing belt but unifying the Muay Thai title sounds like a priority,

“I want to unify my belts and defend my kickboxing belt.”