ONE Championship: Shannon Wiratchai gets quick return, buys wife wedding ring with bonus
- Wiratchai already heading back to Bangtao for fight camp following his triumphant comeback victory at Lumpinee Stadium
- The 34-year-old pioneer wants to show Thai MMA fighters ‘you can do it too – and go further than me’ after TKO and US$10,000 performance bonus
After two and a half years on the sidelines, Shannon Wiratchai was keen to get straight back to work following his triumphant return to the ONE Championship ring last week.
“I’m interested in all of the events. I always try to be ready for all of that, anything can happen,” he told the Post on Monday, just three days removed from a first-round TKO of Iran’s Pouriya Golpour at ONE Friday Fights 3 inside the famed Lumpinee Stadium.
“I’m already hearing about another fight in Lumpinee but I’m open for whatever is coming. More tuneups are good but I’m ready to get back there,” Wiratchai added.
Just days later, the Bangkok-based Thai MMA pioneer was packing his bags again for another training camp at Phuket’s Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA gym, with a quick turnaround set for another Friday Fights card in March.
It capped a whirlwind week for the 34-year-old, who also picked up a US$10,000 bonus – a large chunk of which he quickly spent on buying a wedding ring for his wife Fay Lee Wiratchai, who is also his manager.
The pair got married last October, while “OneShin” (11-6, 1 No Contest) – a ONE Championship veteran who has been with the promotion almost since its inception – was busy plotting his comeback after seeing his career inexplicably stall through no fault of his own.
So it has all been a nice reward for Wiratchai, who for so long was on the outside looking in while everyone else seemed to get an invite to the party, as he toiled away in Bangkok and Phuket, honing his skills in case that phone call to fight came.