Chalamkhao PK.Saenchai, Mohammed Siasarani Stun At ONE Friday Fights 2
The second half of ONE Friday Fights 2 on January 27 delivered from top to bottom.
In total, eight fighters took to the ring and displayed all styles of Muay Thai inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand – from muay maat to muay femur and everything in between.
If you missed any of the action, here’s a rundown of the four bouts that ushered in the night’s main event.
Chalamkhao PK.Saenchai Puts Technical Brilliance On Full Display
In high-level Muay Thai, timing is everything. And like clockwork, Chalamkhao PK.Saenchai stayed seconds ahead of Pettong Kiatsongrit to score the unanimous decision win in their strawweight Muay Thai matchup and improve his record to 121-45-15.
From the opening stages of the bout, it was obvious that Chalamkhao meant business. He stuffed push kicks into his adversary’s belly and followed up with rib-splintering body kicks. Pettong tried to keep his tricky foe still with hard straight punches and elbows when in range, but they only grazed the PK.Saenchai Muaythaigym standout’s head.
In round two, Chalamkhao upped his output and pelted Pettong with elbows and punches. The Kiatsongrit Muay Thai Gym fighter returned with kicks, but that only gave his compatriot the chance to catch and counter with left hooks and straight rights.
Chalamkhao rode that momentum into the final stanza, where his technical brilliance came to a climax. In fact, at one point he countered Pettong with such a hard right hand that the latter almost lost his footing.
The PK.Saenchai Muaythaigym star’s victory showed that he could be a viable threat to any strawweight on ONE Championship’s global Muay Thai roster.
Mohammed Siasarani Earns Majority Decision In Tight Battle
Iranian striking specialist Mohammed Siasarani left the iconic venue with one of the biggest upsets of the night, earning a majority decision over Avatar PK.Saenchai in the Thai capital.
After a slow opening round, which saw them gauging the distance and trading teasing strikes, both men started to deliver rounds of attacks in the second frame of their featherweight Muay Thai clash.
Avatar ripped through the Venum Training Camp representative’s frame with quick one-twos, occasionally throwing a roundhouse kick and elbows whenever he needed to. Siasarani did not engage with a similar pace, but his counter-attacking and catch-and-hit strategy allowed him to score with knees and jabs.
The PK.Saenchai Muaythaigym star then invited his rival to stand and bang inside the pocket when the third round began. Siasarani accepted the offer, but he continued to defend well against the Thai’s ruthlessness.
Though Avatar decided to mix things up and alternate targets from the face to the body, the 20-year-old Iranian kept his guard tight and continued to reply with hard punches and knees to fend off the constant wave of attacks.
After nine minutes of intense action, Siasarani was handed the majority decision victory, bumping his record to 19-9.
Nakrob Fairtex Punches Ticket To Unanimous Decision Win
Nakrob Fairtex was just too precise and too powerful for Sherzod “Lion” Kabutov in their flyweight Muay Thai duel, and that led to a clear-cut unanimous decision win for the Thai.
Round one was a wild battle that saw Kabutov trying to land spinning back kicks on the Fairtex athlete. Hip to the game, Nakrob consistently evaded and countered with punches and elbows to subdue the aggressive Russian.
It wasn’t a pretty three minutes, but it gave the Thai a blueprint to follow for the next two stanzas.
Kabutov continued to spin into punches and kicks, but he may as well have been trying to throw a Hail Mary into a plastic cup from 100 yards away. Nakrob, never a standing target, read each attack and countered with accurate right hands, one of which plastered “Lion” to the canvas in round three for an eight-count.
Following the near-finish, the Thai banged on Kabutov with punches, knees, and elbows to coast toward the decisive victory, which nudged his Muay Thai and kickboxing record to 60-20.
Songchainoi Kiatsongrit Too Slick For Yoddoi Kaewsamrit
Promotional newcomers Yoddoi Kaewsamrit and Songchainoi Kiatsongrit thrilled fans over three closely contested rounds in their atomweight Muay Thai battle. And after an intense striking clinic from both men, Songchainoi left Lumpinee Boxing Stadium with his hand raised.
Songchainoi was one step ahead of his 27-year-old Thai compatriot throughout the tilt, landing more accurate punches, staying more active, and simply countering whatever his rival threw at him.
In the first frame, the 22-year-old delivered powerful punches and dumped his foe on the mat a few times with piercing low kicks. When he was done trading heavy artillery, he landed clean outside knees to the midsection in the clinch.
Yoddoi attempted to swing the pendulum in his favor during the second frame, but once again, the Kiatsongrit Muay Thai Gym representative took matters into his own hands. Songchainoi attacked his countryman with blistering kicks, and it was a push kick that would once again dump his rival on the canvas. Toward the end of the round, he connected with a clean counter left, which earned him the first eight-count of the battle.
The third and final stanza shared a similar plot to the second round. Although Yoddoi was still game to throw uppercuts and elbows from close range, Songchainoi continued to hammer away at his rival with huge roundhouse kicks and boxing combinations, and that ultimately helped him to earn the judges’ nod.
The victory pushed his record to 51-18-2 and could make him a leading name in the division.
