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Exclusive: Jonathan Haggerty vows to win by knockout in massive ONE title fight

Published

April 18, 2023

Jonathan Haggerty ONE Championship 1 Frontkick.online

Jonathan Haggerty. Photo via Instagram (@jhaggerty_)

On Saturday, former ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Jonathan Haggerty is up for the biggest test of his career.

At ONE Fight Night 9, he will challenge legendary eight-time ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Nong-O Hama for his title.

Ahead of the massive fight, Frontkick.online’s Vidar Redmond visited the Englishman in the gym, at the Knowlesy Academy in London, to talk about the upcoming title bout.

“It’s a big fight, I’m looking to get the knockout,” Haggerty said.

“I’m going to set myself a goal for this year. This year is the year when I’m becoming a champion. Fight as often as I can, stay in fight camp, stay dedicated. I’m always dedicated, but I’m just going to have a lot more fights this year. I’m going for gold.”

Moves up a weight class: “Starving”

In his last fight this past November, Jonathan Haggerty faced Vladimir Kuzmin at ONE on Prime Video 4.

Haggerty missed weight by 3 pounds, but the fight continued at catchweight. Even if the Londoner got his hand raised, it wasn’t the fight he intended to fight.

“My last fight in ONE Championship was a bit tricky. It wasn’t the fight I wanted to fight. I had to adapt when I was in there. We had a game plan but when I got in there, everything was a bit different, so I had to do what I had to do to get the win.”

Eventually he stood as the winner via majority decision.

“It was a bit back-and-forth, you know, it wasn’t a pretty fight, it was a bit boring I have to say, not the fight I normally fight. But a win is a win.”

“I felt like he wasn’t on my level. But he was quite tricky, I’m used to fighting kickboxers, and it was a Muay Thai fight, so it was pretty hard for me. Like I said, he wasn’t really on my level, but a great fighter.”

This time the Brit is moving up to bantamweight, a weight class he claimed to feel more comfortable in.

“I feel a lot better in it honestly. I can eat more, and the fight camp was more exciting. I enjoyed it more, that’s the main thing. A happy fighter is a dangerous fighter. So I can’t complain.”