Ilias Ennahachi Knocks Out Petchdam To Claim Flyweight Kickboxing Gold

Dutch-Moroccan striking ace Ilias Ennahachi had a ONE Championship debut to remember on Friday, 16 August.

In his first promotional appearance, the 23-year-old challenged for the ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Title in the main event of ONE: DREAMS OF GOLD in Bangkok, Thailand.

Although it was a big assignment, Ennahachi was up to the task, and ultimately, he knocked out Thai hero Petchdam “The Baby Shark” Petchyindee Academy in front of his hometown crowd to capture the gold.

Ennahachi displayed his kicking skills early in the first round with a slick leg sweep. He followed that up with a head kick and connected with more eye-catching strikes.

But while the Dutch-Moroccan was throwing a host of kicking techniques, it was Petchdam who was arguably the more aggressive of the pair. He pushed forward and often forced the challenger onto the back foot.

The 21-year-old Thai hero started the second round aggressively in a bid to take his adversary out of his rhythm, and he connected with some powerful strikes of his own, too.

That did not deter Ennahachi, however. He stood his ground well and countered impressively, and very nearly scored a knockdown when a big left hook almost forced “The Baby Shark” to touch down as he staggered sideways.

The challenger poured on the pressure as he unleashed a barrage of strikes on the defending titleholder. But Petchdam absorbed everything that came his way, and then he hurt the Dutch-Moroccan phenom with a superb body shot in the final exchange of the stanza.

It set things up perfectly for the third round. Both men came out of their respective corners guns blazing and engaged in a wild exchange in the center of the Circle.

However, it was Ennahachi who found the mark with his power shots. He badly rocked his Thai adversary with a solid left hand, and then dropped him with a salvo of punches.

Petchdam bounced back to his feet, but he was on very wobbly legs. Ennahachi noticed, and then he finished the job with a final flurry to claim the knockout victory just 59 seconds into the third frame.

The stoppage win capped off an outstanding performance from the Dutch-Moroccan, who registered his 35th victory in his ONE debut.

Also, he claimed the seventh — and most prestigious — World Title of his young career.