ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong caused quite the stir when he claimed his promotion was superior to the “sloppy, low-level striking” of the UFC last month.
Now he has been backed by two of his biggest-name champions, Jonathan Haggerty and Fabricio Andrade, who will battle for the vacant bantamweight kickboxing title in Bangkok on Saturday morning.
MMA champion Andrade gave short shrift to the idea his bantamweight counterpart in the UFC, Sean O’Malley, could hang with him in a cross-promotional clash.
“I would like to fight O’Malley. I think it would be a great fight but I would knock him out,” the Brazilian told the Post.
“He is a very good striker but I think I have got more weapons than him overall.”
ONE’s bantamweight Muay Thai champion Haggerty also backed himself when asked how he would compare to some of the UFC’s best strikers at 145 pounds such as Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez, Josh Emmett, Edson Barbosa, and Calvin Kattar.
“I feel like my stand up is way above any of these guys,” he said. “ONE Championship have the best strikers in the world.”
ONE Fight Night 16 weigh-ins: Haggerty, Andrade make main event official
ONE Fight Night 16 weigh-ins: Haggerty, Andrade make main event official
The Briton did give props to the UFC’s featherweight MMA champion, however.
“Alex Volkanovski is a beast,” Haggerty added. “I actually spoke to him before his title fight [loss to Islam Makhachev last month] and he was very confident.
“It’s upsetting to see such a great champion lose that way, but it’s the sport, and these things happen. [Israel] Adesanya, he’s a great fighter too. Also a great champion and he’ll be back stronger than ever.”
Chatri made his controversial comments after September’s ONE Fight Night 15 card in Singapore, where former Muay Thai and kickboxing champion Stamp Fairtex claimed the atomweight MMA title.
“What you see in, let’s say the UFC, is very sloppy, mediocre-ish striking because they’re not strikers,” Chatri told reporters backstage.
“A typical UFC fighter is a D-1 college wrestler, 7-0 in the minor leagues and then they do a little bit of striking then they enter the UFC. At ONE, they’re already multiple [time] world champions at the peak of their career when they arrive.”
His words certainly caused a splash in the combat sports world, with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones even getting involved.
“Bro this doesn’t make anybody want to watch your show any more. You just sound like a hater,” Jones said on Instagram. “Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners. Stay in your lane and do the best you can. Without the UFC there would be no ONE.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping also waded into the row.
“Yeah, I mean, first of all, he’s being a promoter,” Bisping said on his podcast. “Fair play to him. He’s saying we got the better fighters, we got the better strikers, and so on and so forth.
“In doing so, he’s attacked the UFC and the quality of the fighters. Granted, Rodtang [Jitmuangnon] and some of the fighters he’s mentioned are absolutely phenomenal.”
“Bring your best strikers over to the UFC, they’ll be lightweights, put them up against Islam Makhachev and see what happens,” Bisping added. “Guaranteed they’ll be choked out pretty quickly.”
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