The pound-for-pound best nak muay in the world, Superlek Kiatmuu9, took on an interesting test in the co-main event of the the biggest ONE Friday Fights card as he took on 6’4″ phenom Nabil Anane in a flyweight bout.
Nabil’s incredible height for the weight class, giving him nine inches over Superlek, may make him the tallest fighter to ever weigh in at 135-lbs, at least in Muay Thai. At only 19 years old he would look to shock the world and take out one of the best fighters of the modern era, who also happens to be the current ONE flyweight kickboxing champ. Due to TV scheduling issues in Thailand the fight was moved to the last fight of the night, as a postlim after the main event, but still took place on ONE’s YouTube for most of the world.
Superlek immediately targeted Nabil’s long legs when the fight started. Nabil countered with kicks to the body when he was able to evade the leg kicks. Superlek tried to go forward and push the longer fighter back, where his reach would be a hindrance as the ropes would restrict his movement more. He had some success early and then seemed to do significant damage to Nabil’s legs just under two minutes into the bout. As Nabil retreated, Superlek landed an right straight to the body and his foe crumpled to the mat. Nabil then rolled over on his face and struggled to get up, but was not near gaining his feet as the ref waved the fight off at the count of eight.
Superlek once again demolished an outmatched opponent as he had Danial Williams before him. The elite of elite Thai lived up to his nickname of ‘The Kicking Machine’ by his excellent and intelligent use of leg kicks to take out the base of the tall, skill fighter. He was asked what’s next for him, as this fight was in Muay Thai but he also owns the kickboxing belt in the weight class in ONE. He answered that he wants to gain a Muay Thai belt in ONE Championship, specifically the one held by Jonathan Haggerty at bantamweight currently after the Brit won it off of the legendary Nong-O earlier in 2023.
To finish the night, Superlek got a $50,000 bonus from the promotion, different than the usual 350,000 Baht (about $10,000USD) bonuses usually given out on Friday Fights cards at Lumpinee.
