ONE Championship 156: Liam Harrison gets US$100,000 bonus, bantamweight title shot after ‘crazy, freaky’ win over Muangthai PK. Saenchai
- ‘The Hitman’ picks himself up off canvas twice to drop Muangthai three times in wild first round of Muay Thai clash in Singapore
- ‘I’ll stand and fight until he goes down or I go down,’ says Harrison, who will now face fearsome champ Nong-O Gaiyanghadao
Cageside commentator Michael Schiavello called it the wildest round ever seen in combat sports, and with five knock-downs inside three minutes he may have been right.
Liam Harrison earned himself not just a double US$100,000 performance bonus, but a bantamweight Muay Thai title shot after picking himself up off the canvas twice to put Muangthai PK. Saenchai down three times for the victory at ONE Championship 156 on Friday night in Singapore.
“This is nuts, this is crazy – you crazy, freaky man,” Schiavello screamed from the broadcast booth. “I’ve been commentating kick-boxing and Muay Thai since 1994. I thought I’d seen it all, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“The Hitman” looked seconds away from the end after being dropped two times early on, with Muangthai swarming for the finish.
But Harrison unleashed a barrage and dropped the 28-year-old, who had come back from two years out retired, with a left hook. He then planted the Thai veteran again with an uppercut, setting up a thrilling finale.
It was anyone’s game with around a minute to go, and Harrison sealed the deal with one more knockdown, before charging wildly around the ONE Circle in celebration.
“I blinked and I was on the floor,” Harrison told Mitch Chilson in his post-fight interview. “I thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ I got up and I was on the floor again. I thought, ‘I’ve got to bite down on my gum shield’. I’m from a rough part of Leeds – we go to war, and that’s what I did.”