Present ONE bantamweight kickboxing champion Johnathan Haggerty is slated to face Chinese language kickboxing phenom Wei Rui at ONE 171. It is a tall order, the place the Haggerty’s stakes are simply as excessive as ever. Johnathan Haggerty is coming off a brutal loss to ONE flyweight kickboxing champion Superlek in a struggle the place “The General” misplaced his bantamweight Muay Thai title.
Since profitable the ONE bantamweight kickboxing world championship in opposition to Fabrício Andrade in late 2023, Haggerty has not defended the belt. His opponent is the Chinese language kickboxing phenom Wei, a fighter who has received many world titles, together with the celebrated Ok-1 World Grand Prix and changing into a Ok-1 champion of their light-weight division, or 62.5 KG division.
Wei is a embellished kickboxer and defeated former ONE bantamweight kickboxing champion Hiroki Akimoto with relative ease in his earlier debut bout in ONE Championship, evading his protection and outscoring the previous champion.
Haggerty is now caught between a rock and a tough place as the previous two-sport world champion misplaced his muay Thai title to a generational nice in Superlek. Now, attributable to his inactivity in kickboxing, being pressured to defend his kickboxing title in opposition to a fighter who conquered the best stage of kickboxing in Japan and China.
On high of that, with Haggerty additionally having a extreme expertise drawback in kickboxing, Haggerty has fairly the uphill battle to climb on this struggle.
Johnathan Haggerty seems to defy the chances in opposition to Wei Rui.
This isn’t the primary time that “The General” has confronted an uphill battle the place he’s anticipated to lose, he managed to defy the chances in opposition to monstrous low kicker in Nong-O Hama. He will likely be trying to do the identical in opposition to the defensive grasp and difficult southpaw in Wei Rui. However irrespective of the chances Haggerty will proceed to reside by that “anyone, anywhere” perspective that has helped propel British Muay Thai to heights it hasn’t seen in many years.
