The announcement of the weekly fight series by ONE CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, brought about a huge changeover. This Friday witnessed the fifth edition of ONE’s weekly fight series, Friday Fights, being organized at the coveted Lumpini Stadium in Bangkok. The people in the audience had already witnessed a lot of enthralling bouts. It also set up the perfect environment for the main event of the night.
ONE Friday Fights 5 was set to feature an all-Thai main event with Kongklai Annymuaythai matched up against Superball Tded99 for a catchweight Muay Thai bout. Several knockouts in the previous fights already had the crowd at their feet. The main event was expected to take things even one more level higher. Both fighters took the ring in supreme confidence for the pre-bout Muay Thai ritual.
Both Kongklai and Superball presented a tough challenge to each other in the initial rounds
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The bout had a quiet start. Superball threw a number of good kicks at Kongklai’s body. While Kongklai trusted his hand strikes more. He also landed a good hook on the face of Superball. The referee separated the first clinch of the bout. Superball pushed Kong back to the corner and landed a few good strikes. Kongklai landed a superb combination as well, which was replied to aptly by Superball. The bell rang, signaling the end of the first round after a few strikes from both.
Kongklai went into the attack at the beginning of the second round. But, Superball took over and scored a knockdown through an awesome head kick. Startlingly, Kongklai rose up and scored a knockdown of his own with a heavy left-hand strike. But Superball, too, got back up and the two traded a few wild shots before getting into a clinch. Both men looked a bit worn out by this time. A fierce left from Kongklai landed perfectly.
With a minute to go in the second round, Superball went into attack once more and took his opponent off his feet. The final seconds of the enthralling second round ended with Superball landing a few good strikes with a minimum reply from Kongklai.
Neither Kongklai nor Superball gave up, which drew the bout to the judge’s scorecards
The final round started with both going into a clinch. A superb elbow from Kongklai hurt Superball. The two exchanged a few wild shots following that. Superball scored another knockdown with a kick. After Kongklai stood back up, Superball tried a flying knee but missed. Kongklai instead landed a few heavy hand strikes. The referee separated the fighters from a clinch with about a minute to go in the clock. Kongklai caught a kick from Superball and landed a good left. With 10 secs left, he landed another vicious right, but both men went the entire distance of the bout.
The winner of the bout had to be decided by the scores which the judges had allotted to each fighter. All three judges at ringside scored the bout in favor of Superball Tdek99, awarding him a unanimous decision victory.
In his post-bout interview, Superball was asked, “How confident were you when judges scorecards were being read?”. He replied in his native language but the translator clarified his words, “I was confident about this fight. I made a few mistakes, but I came right back.”
He was also asked whether “Shutting down his opponent’s punches was a part of his gameplan or not.” Superball iterated, “Yes, that was my plan for tonight. He was very good with his fists, but I knew I had to use all my weapons.”
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After the announcement about the 350,000 bucks fights bonus from Chatri Sityodtong, the Thai stated, “I would like to thank my gym, all my supporters”. A huge chunk of fans might also agree that the ONE Championship boss, Chatri Sityodtong, displayed a truly heartwarming gesture as he awarded a 350,000 buck bonus to the defeated fighter, Kongklai Annymuaythai, as well.
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