After the first loss of her entire career Noelle Grandjean appears to have gone back to basics. She normally trains at Tiger Muay Thai but the atomweight shared a photo of herself kicking what appears to be a banana tree.
She could well have been paying tribute to Buakaw Banchamek. The video of him destroying a banana tree with kicks is iconic and has been viewed millions of times.
But while most fighters in Phuket like to share photos of themselves at the beach, in the pool or at the gym she has found a much more rural setting and says that,
Nothing beats nature.
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Bonus winner
Grandjean was on top of the world after stopping Lea Bivins on her ONE Championship debut. She earned a $50,000 USD performance bonus and instantly established herself as one of the top contenders in the atomweight division.
But the 27 year old was brought back down to earth with a bump by So Yul Kim. Grandjean appeared to be getting the better of the Korean at ONE Friday Fights 28.
But in this sport you can’t afford to switch off for a single second and Grandjean did just that, getting caught in a guillotine choke with just over a minute remaining in the second round.
So Yul Kim would go on to sign with the UFC. But Grandjean was left to deal with the realization that she would not be able to emulate Khabib Nurmagamedov and retire undefeated:
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Self belief
But while her dream of retiring undefeated might be over it sounds like the 27 year old’s self belief remains intact as she told her Instagran followers that,
I know who I am.
I know my abilities.
I know I need to gain weight.
I know I can’t do this journey on my own.
I know I was alone in this camp.
I know I need a strong team.
I know this is a hard path.
Standing at just 5’0″ she is one of the shortest fighters in the division. Kim was three inches taller than Grandjean which might explain why she wants to gain weight.
It sounds like Grandjean has a plan that involves more than just kicking trees. She might have suffered the first defeat of her MMA career but the atomweight is already on the comeback trail.
