ONE Championship: Superlek says he will consider bantamweight move after 5lbs miss for Rodtang fight
- Rodtang agrees 140lbs-catchweight fight, but Muay Thai title will not be on the line in ONE Friday Fights 34 main event
- ‘I can still guarantee it will be a fun, entertaining, exciting fight. I will go 100 per cent to not disappoint the fans,’ Superlek says
Superlek Kiatmookao has apologised to fans after missing weight for Friday’s highly anticipated ONE Championship Muay Thai title fight against Rodtang Jitmuangnon.
The champion has agreed to a 140lbs-catchweight bout at Lumpinee Stadium, but the ONE Friday Fights 34 main event will no longer have a title on the line.
“Before coming here I was over around 6 pounds which I thought wasn’t so much and I definitely could do it, and today I went running and also tried a bit more to lose the 6 pounds,” Superlek said.
“But it didn’t seem that my body was there to be able to lose the excessive amount, so I told the team. ‘this is what I can do right now’, which was 138 [pounds].”
The 27-year-old admitted he would consider whether he needed to move up a division to bantamweight after his third scale fail in the space of 10 months – which would require him to vacate his flyweight belt.
“I still have to think about that,” he said. “I am a bit disappointed by my performances in losing weight, because I’m also the champion in kickboxing at flyweight, so I will have to consider it.
“It feels like it’s a missed opportunity for me to not be able to get the title in Muay Thai but I have to accept that.”
Prem Fairtex, managing director of ONE Championship Thailand, informed the media at Lumpinee Stadium of Superlek’s weight miss. He suggested “The Kicking Machine” should “improve his diet and nutrition “if he “still wants to compete with us”.
“Actually, I do have a nutritionist. They have been helping me throughout the process of cutting weight, but this happened,” Superlek added.
Rodtang will take a percentage of Superlek’s purse, on top of his own guaranteed 10 million baht fight fee – giving him plenty of incentive to accept the catchweight.
“I’m happy that Rodtang agreed to fight me, I think mainly it’s because it’s a fight that Thai people and fans around the world have always looked forward to for a long time,” Superlek said.
“The Iron Man” did not come in to speak to the media backstage at Lumpinee Stadium, where Thursday’s weigh-ins and hydration tests were held.
Instead, the 26-year-old Thai held his own Facebook Live question and answer session with fans while eating chicken, which he later deleted, but he said simply on Instagram “see you tomorrow”.
“I can still guarantee it will be a fun, entertaining, and exciting fight,” Superlek added. “So I will just go 100 per cent to not disappoint the fans.”
