Shannon Wiratchai has announced he will be fighting in February. The news will be of real interest to fight fans in Thailand who have waited over two years to see the featherweight in action.
Wiratchai was last seen beating Fabio Pinca by split decision. While the French fighter might have been making his MMA debut he came into the contest with a big reputation from the Muay Thai world making it an impressive result.
Wiratchai announced today that he was already in training for a fight in February:
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Long serving
Wiratchai made his ONE Championship debut in 2012. He finished Mitch Chilson with a soccer kick only for the result to subsequently be overturned.
The following year he finished Chilson with soccer kicks again and this time the result stood. In total Wiratchai has fought 15 times for ONE Championship but was on a bad run of results prior to the win over Pinca.
He was on a four fight losing streak heading into that fight. A loss to Pinca would potentially have ended the charismatic Thai fighter’s MMA career.
But he pulled out an impressive performance at the Impact Arena to beat the French fighter by split decision. Wiratchai was one half of Thailand’s premier MMA couple but he and Rika Ishige have subsequently gone their separate ways.
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Hard hitting
Wiratchai is a hard hitting southpaw who has caught several opponents with his right hook. He has faced three of the promotion’s former champions in Shinya Aoki, Honorio Banario and Amir Khan.
The 34 year old came to prominence fighting on the now defunct Dare promotion in Bangkok nightclubs at the start of the last decade. He has been a fan favourite ever since and is extremely popular in Thailand.
He does not come from a Muay Thai background but started out studying traditional martial arts. Wiratchai will be looking to roll back the years in February and could well find himself fighting on the ONE on Prime Video 7 card.
The promotion has not announced it’s full schedule for early 2022 yet. But ONE on Prime Video 7 is set for Jakarta on February 10th and it looks like Wiratchai could be making his long awaited comeback on that card.
