Rodtang Jitmuangnon might have lost the fight with Superlek Kiatmoo9 but he walked away significantly richer. The Thai fighter picked up ten million baht and it seems that ONE Championship pays fighters in cash.
Rodtang posed for photos with the money he received after ONE Friday Fights 34 on the table. A journalist shared the photo and pointed out that the Thai fighter had earned 1.1mn per minute for the fight with Superlek at Lumpinee Stadium last month.
Crazy lifestyle
Ten million baht is equivalent to $270,000 USD and would be enough to buy a luxury home in Thailand. Given Rodtang’s wild approach to fights you might expect him to have a crazy lifestyle.
But he sees to be taking a very sensible approach to life as a wealthy individual. Rodtang is married now and was straight down the land office with his wife, Aida Looksaikongdin, to purchase land. Many fighters have squandered their money on women, drink, gambling and drugs but the 26 year old seems, who recently converted to Islam, to be made of more sensible stuff.
Earlier this year Rodtang admitted that he had barely trained for some of his ONE Championship fights. He claimed to have prepared for his bout with Edgar Tabares by playing football.
Rodtang gives Superlek a crimson mask in Round 1! 🩸#ONEFridayFights34 | 🔴 Live Now
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On weight
But it seems that he was taking Superlek seriously. He made weight for the fight, unlike his opponent, and was able to fight at a high pace for the full three rounds.
It isn’t clear how much Superlek received for the win but he has not been on the ONE Championship roster for nearly as long as Rodtang. So the loser probably walked away with more money even if he did lose his flyweight Muay Thai title.
Superlek’s celebrations might have been curtailed somewhat by the knowledge that he cost himself $50,000 USD by missing weight, equivalent to 1.8mn baht. That is a significant sum of money for any Thai fighter.
When Superlek and Rodtang were competing on the stadium scene in traditional Muay Thai they were getting paid around 200,000 baht. ONE Championship now pays its top Thai stars money that would have been unthinkable in the country a few years ago.
