Smilla Sundell ready to go the full five rounds in champ vs. champ battle against Allycia Hellen Rodrigues: “She has a big heart”

Smilla Sundell is ready to go through the gauntlet in her first defense of the ONE women’s strawweight Muay Thai world title.

The Swedish phenom will defend the gold against Allycia Hellen Rodrigues, the ONE atomweight Muay Thai world champion, at the stacked ONE Fight Night 14 card on September 22.

ONE Fight Night 14 emanates from Singapore Indoor Stadium in ONE Championship’s first event in Singapore since ONE Fight Night 8 in March this year.

In an interview with ONE Championship, Sundell said she anticipates Rodrigues to go at her throughout the five-round contest.

She said:

“I know she has a big heart and she won’t back down easily. So it might [go five rounds].”

Sundell, who’s just 18 years old, is an impressive 34-5-1 in her professional career and is 3-0 in her ONE Championship tenure.

After knocking out Aussie star Diandra Martin in her promotional debut in February 2022, Sundell took on Jackie Buntan for the inaugural ONE women’s strawweight Muay Thai world championship in April 2022.

Sundell took a brief detour to kickboxing at ONE Friday Fights 18, where she dominated Serbia’s Milena Bjelogrlic for the unanimous decision win.

‘The Hurricane’ was originally scheduled to defend her strap against Buntan in a rematch, but the Filipino-American star had to pull out of the bout due to family matters.

Despite the setback, Rodrigues stepped in and now brought a different layer of drama to Sundell’s first world title defense.

Rodrigues never figured in a non-title match in ONE Championship, and she now plans to become a two-division world champion when she takes on Sundell in Singapore.

The 25-year-old Brazilian star made her promotional debut in August 2020 when she dethroned Thai megastar Stamp Fairtex for the ONE atomweight Muay Thai world champion. Rodrigues, though, took a lengthy leave of absence after giving birth to her son.

She ultimately returned at ONE Fight Night 8 this past March where she unified her gold against interim world titleholder Janet Todd for the undisputed ONE atomweight Muay Thai world championship.

ONE Fight Night 14 is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.