ONE Championship: Tawanchai aims to revive title bid against China’s Liu Mengyang
Thai fighter believes any potential future trilogy match against featherweight kickboxing world champion Superbon ‘would be such an entertaining fight’
ONE featherweight Muay Thai world champion Tawanchai PK Saenchai has said his pursuit of featherweight kickboxing gold was back on track as he prepared to headline ONE Friday Fights 137 against Chinese stand-out fighter Liu Mengyang on December 19.
Already regarded as one of the finest Muay Thai fighters of his generation, Tawanchai’s ambitions stretch further. The Thai star has made no secret of his desire to add a kickboxing title to his collection, a goal that has proved more demanding than expected.
That journey suffered a major setback earlier this year when Tawanchai was stopped in shock fashion by Japanese striker Masaaki Noiri at ONE 172 in Tokyo for the interim featherweight kickboxing world title.
Now, with Liu beating Noiri at ONE Friday Fights 92, ONE Friday Fights 137’s main event offered both a test and an opportunity to reset the narrative.
“I have trained very hard and I’m ready to fight already,” Tawanchai told the Post. “It’s getting boring. I just want to fight.”
The bout has been months in the making, with Tawanchai originally scheduled to face Liu earlier in the year. During the delay, Tawanchai said he became aware of comments suggesting he had avoided the match-up.