Today, the Thai ONE Championship Instagram account provided a surprise. Tawanchai will return to ONE Fight Night 13 on August 4, this time under kickboxing rules!
It's not the first time the 24-year-old Thai has competed under kickboxing rules. He has already fought several times at Wu Lin Feng as recent as three years ago, winning three of four fights. In his most recent outing before he was signed to ONE Championship, Jia Aoqi stopped him in the second round with a barrage of punches.
His opponent Davit Kiria, is currently ranked No. 10 in the Beyond Kickboxing Lightweight Rankings, and has won titles in GLORY Kickboxing and Kunlun Fight. He's faced the who's who in today's Lightweight division such as Giorgio Petrosyan, Enriko Kehl and Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong. His most recent wins have come outside of ONE against Mickael Pignolo in France and Johannes Baas in Germany.
This promises to be an exciting bout. Tawanchai, who's been vocal about wanting to follow the footsteps of Regian Eersel to become a double-sports champion has the opportunity put himself closer to the title against a solid opponent in Kiria. On the contrary, the former GLORY champion can prove he still belongs to the division's elite with a win against fan-favorite Tawanchai.
