Starting January 20, ONE will begin hosting weekly tournaments on Lumpini, which include battles between international and Thai cards. On the first card, fights are announced in all ONE disciplines – Muay Thai, kickboxing, submission grappling and MMA, and on the second card, Muay Thai will be predominantly represented. In the main showdown of the first tournament, Russian Alaverdi Ramazanov and Thai superstar, multiple champion Lumpini Nong-O will meet – he will defend the ONE bantamweight division belt.
The launch of a new weekly Friday tournament series, called ONE Lumpinee in Thailand and ONE Friday Fight worldwide, means an investment of approximately $100 million in the global development of Muay Thai, an increase in the level of fees for this spectacular style. of fighters and broadcast in more than a hundred countries around the world. .
Vakhitov acknowledged that international media attention and higher fees could help the sport grow:
– Thai boxing is underestimated both financially and in the media, even with all the entertainment of this sport, which also requires the highest level of skill. Muay Thai is known as eight-handed fighting. It’s not easy to have such a skill as Thai boxers: working in the clinch, calculating tactics for five rounds, where there are dangerous knees and elbows, where most fights end in KOs, cuts… I think with an increase in fees, many will want to return to Thai boxing. They will be able to appropriately win and glorify this sport.
A native of Prokopievsk, Vakhitov, 31, had a career in kickboxing but started out in Muay Thai and still considers himself a basic Thai boxer. Artem started practicing this sport at the age of eleven and won the world title three times. Vakhitov first came to prominence at a high level when he won the IFMA Russian Championship at the age of eighteen.
The Russian admitted that he himself wouldn’t mind performing in the legendary arena, where he had been as a spectator:
– Lumpini Stadium is famous all over the world, and I think all European lightweights would like to fight in this stadium. I always dreamed of performing in this arena when I was doing Muay Thai. But, in my memory, there were no heavyweights – mostly lightweights and middleweights in Lumpini. I was there, but not as a fighter, but as a spectator.
Being on Lumpini reminded Vakhitov of the movie Kickboxer, which inspired many young people of his generation to train in martial arts.
— It is an honor for any Thai boxer to perform in this arena. It’s like a check mark that you have to put in your career. For a Muay Thai boxer in terms of career, playing Lumpini is like planting a tree, giving birth to a child, building a house, Vakhitov believes.
Watch live broadcasts of ONE tournaments on the federal channel and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source : MatchTV
I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.
