Smilla Sundell says kickboxing detour was a good ‘warm-up fight’ for her first Muay Thai title defense

Smilla Sundell believes her brief excursion into kickboxing was a solid warm-up fight ahead of her highly anticipated world title tilt at ONE Fight Night 14 this Friday night.

Heading back to Singapore Indoor Stadium for an absolutely stacked lineup in Lion City, Smilla Sundell will put her ONE women’s strawweight Muay Thai world title on the line for the very first time as she meets reigning atomweight Muay Thai queen Allycia Hellen Rodrigues in a can’t-miss clash of champions.

It will be Smilla Sundell’s first Muay Thai fight in more than a year, but in March 2023, ‘The Hurricane’ scored a solid win over Milana Bjelogrlic in her promotional kickboxing debut. Looking back on the bout during her appearance at the ONE Fight Night 14 press event, Sundell was excited to step inside the Circle after such a long layoff and hopes to strap on the eight-ounce gloves once again someday.

“I was very excited because it was over a year since I last fought,” Sundell said. “It was fun to do kickboxing and I want to do that [again] in the future.”

With 13 months between bouts, Smilla Sundell admitted to feeling a bit of ring rust in the opening round of her matchup with Bjelogrlic, but it didn’t take long for the teen phenom to get comfortable and impose her will.

“Maybe in the first round, the first minute or something, but I got used to it," she said. "I think that helps that I had like a warmup fight if you could say that. So, yeah I think that will be good.”

Sundell walked away with her hand raised via a unanimous decision, her third-straight win in ONE. She’ll look to keep that streak going against one of the most dangerous women in the art of eight limbs, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues, this Friday night.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 14: Stamp vs. Ham on Prime Video live and for free in U.S. primetime on September 29.