Noelle Grandjean has signed with ONE Championship. The Thai strawweight only made her debut last October but already has three wins to her name.
Grandjean who has Muay Thai experience and holds a black belt in judo shared the news on Instagram:
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Fast finish
The 26 year old is currently training at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket. Last weekend she took on fellow Thai Rungnapha Phangsin at Legend FC 3 and finished the fight in just 77 seconds.
Grandjean has won the national judo championships in both Holland and Thailand. She looks set to compete in ONE Championship’s strawweight division.
Her Thai compatriot Nat Wondergirl also competes at strawwweight and is coming off a successful MMA debut. She was cageside to see Grandjean’s most recent win and was among the first to congratulate her on Instagram.
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Lease of life
The MMA scene in Thailand has enjoyed a new lease of life following a prolonged Covid-19 induced slump. Fairtex Fights has offered mixed martial artists the opportunity to compete at the famous Lumpinee Stadium for the first time.
Grandjean is among the fighters to have tasted victory on the Fairtex cards. Meanwhile Legend FC, launched earlier this year, is owned by one of Thailand’s biggest companies and attracted a domestic television audience of 2.2 million people for its most recent card.
Earlier this year Bang Tao Muay Thai opened its doors and has already hosted training camps for UFC stars Jiri Prochazka and Weili Zhang. Meanwhile Grandjean will be training with numerous ONE Championship stars at Tiger Muay Thai including Fabricio Andrade and Tang Kai, who has a featherweight title fight coming up.
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Potential opponents
Grandjean will be hoping she can make a similar impact to Kai and Andrade, with the latter also in line for a title shot. ONE Championship doesn’t currently have any strawweight rankings but Xiong Jing Nan remains the only fighter to have ever held the belt.
Other potential opponents include Tiffany Teo, Michelle Nicolini, Dayane Cardoso and Ayaka Miura. An all Thai battle with Nat Wondergirl would also be an intriguing proposition for the 26 year old.
Stamp Fairtex has led the way for female mixed martial artists in Thailand. She challenged for the atomweight title earlier this year, causing Angela Lee plenty of problems before eventually being submitted by the champion, and Grandjean will be hoping to enjoy this sort of sustained success.
