Nong-O Gaiyanghadao is set to faces Jonathan Haggerty at ONE Fight Night 9. The Englishman confirmed the matchup on his Instagram page yesterday and it appears he will be moving up to bantamweight to challenge for the belt.
Haggerty is the former flyweight Muay Thai champion but has been struggling to make weight. So it would not be a major surprise to see him moving up a division.
But having won his last four fights it appears Haggerty has been handed an immediate title shot:
View this post on Instagram
No location
The homemade poster states that the fight will take place on March 25th but this appears to be a typo. The fight is listed as being booked for ONE Fight Night 9 which takes place on April 22nd but doesn’t currently have a venue.
ONE Fight Night 7 takes place in Bangkok this month while ONE Fight Night 8 is booked for Singapore in April. On May 5th the promotion heads to the US for the first time with ONE Fight Night 10 confirmed for Colorado.
So it is anyone’s guess where Nong-O and Haggerty will be fighting but the bout pits a former champion against a current champion. The Englishman beat Nong-O’s former teammate Sam-A Gaiyanghadao during his stint as the flyweight Muay Thai champion.
ONE year ago today, Jonathan Haggerty upset the legendary Sam-A 🏆 #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #OTD pic.twitter.com/9Qrou0A077
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) May 3, 2020
Total dominance
But Nong-O has been completely dominant in ONE Championship’s bantamweight division. He has won ten fights out of ten for the promotion and his last five victories have all come inside the distance.
In the main event of ONE Lumpinee 1 he stopped Alaverdi Ramazanov in the third round to successfully defend his bantamweight belt for the seventh time. Nong-O remains the only fighter to ever hold the title.
ONE Championship also has an openweight Muay Thai Grand Prix coming up. It appears that this tournament will be primarily for fighters in the lower weight classes but the matchups have not been announced yet.
There will be $1 million USD prize money on the line and ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong says he expects both Haggerty and Nong-O to be involved.
ONE Fight Night 9, TBA, April 22nd
Muay Thai: Nong-O Gaiyanghadao vs. Jonathan Haggerty (For bantamweight title)
