“Different feeling and atmosphere” - Phetjeeja feels rejuvenated after switching gyms ahead of title defense vs Kana

Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom has enjoyed the "different feeling and atmosphere" presented by her new training gym.

Over the past two years, Phetjeeja, the ONE women's atomweight kickboxing world champion, has validated her hype on a global platform.

'The Queen' has remained unbeaten in ONE, establishing promotional records of 2-0 in kickboxing and 4-0 in Muay Thai.

Despite her tremendous success, Phetjeeja recently changed her training gym from Team Mehdi Zatout to Sor Dechapan. During an interview with ONE, the 23-year-old phenom explained the decision by saying:

"My old gym only had foreign teammates, but for my new gym here, there are Thais. It gives a different feeling and atmosphere. And I have more sparring partners. Sometimes Xavier comes to help me as a sparring partner, Rambolek, trainer Chat will hold the pads for me. But most of the time, I have my brother as my main sparring partner because we’ve been training together since we were kids."

'The Queen' followed up by saying:

"They taught me more Muay Thai techniques like flying knees, jump kicks. Because I was good at boxing but I still have a lot to learn in Muay Thai. They are trying to improve my Muay Thai skills until I am skilled enough to utilize it on stage."

Phetjeeja captured the ONE interim women's atomweight kickboxing world title with a unanimous decision win against Anissa Meksen in December 2023.

Three months later, the Thai superstar upgraded her status to be the undisputed world champion a unanimous decision win against Janet Todd.

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Phetjeeja plans to showcase rejuvenated energy at ONE 172

Later this week, Phetjeeja will be featured on the highly anticipated ONE 172 fight card featuring several world-class matchups.

The Thai phenom has been tasked with defending her women's atomweight kickboxing throne against Japan's Kana Morimoto.

Kana has fought in ONE twice, suffering a unanimous decision loss against Anissa Meksen and defeating Moa Carlsson by the same method.

At ONE 172, Kana will be one of three Japanese fighters looking to become a world champion in her home country. The other two are Masaaki Noiri (interim featherweight kickboxing) and Yuya Wakamatsu (vacant flyweight MMA).

Sunday's event inside the Saitama Super Arena in Japan will conclude with a non-title flyweight kickboxing bout between Japanese legend Takeru and Rodtang.

Fight fans can catch the entire card live via pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com this Sunday, March 23.