ONE Championship: Shannon Wiratchai recalls ‘life changing’ Iuri Lapicus fight, after his death aged 27
- Lapicus, 27, died on Monday after a motorcycle accident in Pogliano Milanese, Italy late last week
- ‘That was my toughest ever fight. Even now, my orbital is still numb,’ says Wiratchai, whom Lapicus beat on his debut in ONE
Shannon Wiratchai could not forget his former opponent Iuri Lapicus if he wanted to.
He still has scars from his ONE Championship fight with the Moldovan-Italian mixed martial artist, who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident near Milan last week, and died in hospital on Monday.
“He left some marks on my face,” the 34-year-old Thai told the Post on Wednesday night. “He left a Harry Potter scar [on my brow] and he broke my orbital. Even now, [my orbital] is still numb.”
Wiratchai met Lapicus, who was 27 at the time of his death, in a lightweight bout at ONE: Enter the Matrix in Singapore in 2019. It was a back-and-forth fight, but Lapicus, who was making his ONE debut, ultimately won the fight with a third-round rear-naked choke.
Wiratchai never got the chance to get to know his rival beyond the time they spent in the ring together, but still had a difficult time coming to grips with his former opponent’s death when his wife woke him up to tell him the news.
“The only interaction we had before the fight, I was in the breakfast room, and his whole team was there – they were all looking at me,” he recounted with a laugh. “I had no chance to know him beyond those 15 minutes [in the ring].”
“It’s a weird feeling,” he added. “When you fight somebody, you’re connected to that person.”