ONE Championship: Jackie Buntan healed up and ‘back to the drawing board’ after Smilla Sundell loss – ‘I want that rematch’
- Buntan lost a decision to Sundell in ONE Championship’s first strawweight Muay Thai title fight on April 22 in Singapore
- Filipino-American calls Sundell ‘a great opponent’ but remains confident she is ‘a more technical fighter’ than the new champ
Muay Thai star Jackie Buntan was bruised and bloodied after her loss to Smilla Sundell on April 22 in Singapore – 10 days later, it is difficult to tell she was even in a fight.
“All the damage was on my eyes,” The Filipino-American told the Post. “There was a lot of swelling and bruising that took maybe five days to go down, but I’m fine. I just have a little bit of bruising.”
Buntan was in action in the co-headlining attraction of the ONE Championship 156 event, taking on 17-year-old Swede Smilla Sundell in the Asian martial arts promotion’s first strawweight Muay Thai title fight.
Despite a gutsy effort, and some noteworthy success in the early going, she ultimately lost a decision to her Swedish rival. It was the first setback of her professional career, and a painful twist on her mission to become a world champion.
The 24-year-old seems to have recovered mentally even faster than she has physically.
“Losing’s always a nagging feeling,” she said. “It never sits well with anyone, but with anything really, I never tend to get too hard on myself and dwell on things – especially something of this magnitude. It was heartbreaking at first, but I’m able to get over losses fairly quickly.
“I understand the bigger picture. I understand there’s lessons and growth with defeat. It is what it is. Back to the drawing board. Life goes on.”