"Adapted perfectly for kickboxing" - Fans in awe of Jonathan Haggerty's electrifying world title defense against Wei Rui in Qatar

Jonathan Haggerty's spectacular defense of the ONE bantamweight kickboxing world championship in the co-main event of ONE 171: Qatar last Thursday, Feb. 20, has fans marveling at his evolution as a fighter.

The world's largest martial arts promotion posted the entirety of his five-round war with Chinese kickboxing standout Wei Rui on YouTube, which can be viewed below:

Fans shared their thoughts on Haggerty's unanimous decision victory to retain the gold in the comments section, writing:

"Well Haggerty's muaythai adapted perfectly for Kickboxing, I think he'll do better in KB than muaythai with his knees and teeps. Other KB are not used to these weapons like MT fighters are. Great style to have with such power from Muaythai base."

"Haggerty has a way of making great fighters look like they dont belong. Other than Rodtang who is beating Haggerty right now?

"Needs 3 more rounds. They are both too skilled to get caught within 5."

"Looked easy work for Haggerty."

"Both fighters' stamina is insane, not even fading on the 5th round."

"Haggerty was so close to landing elbows a few times, his instincts see the opening for the elbow and he goes for it, had to pull his strikes back a few times."

Screenshot of comments. [ONE Championship/Instagram]

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Jonathan Haggerty enjoying downtime after ONE 171 win

During the ONE 171 post-event press conference, Jonathan Haggerty announced he would savor his first successful defense of the 145-pound kickboxing gold before jumping back to training. He stated:

"I feel like I'm just going to celebrate now. Have a little bit of chill time. Explore Qatar, and I'll still go back to training, but whatever ONE Championship or Chatri wants to give me then, obviously I'm here to take it."

Watch the entire press conference below:

The full replay of ONE 171 is available to fans who purchased the pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.