Fearsome Nabil Anane is a 6-foot Muay Thai fighter with black belts in karate and taekwondo

Apart from his towering height as a flyweight, what makes Nabil Anane a must-see prospect is his unique style of Muay Thai.

The 19-year-old Algerian wonder, after all, was not raised into ‘The Art of Eight Limbs’ as his first combat sport. Instead, Nabil excelled upon transitioning to Muay Thai because he already developed a strong foundation in karate and taekwondo.

Ahead of the fight of his life against the established Superlek Kiatmoo9 at ONE Friday Fights 22 on June 23, Anane talked about complementing some of the best concepts from karate and taekwondo and mixing them with traditional Muay Thai.

He told ONE Championship:

“When I first started in Muay Thai, my style was very much like karate and taekwondo. I brought elements of those disciplines into my skills. It was more of a mix. But as I got more and more into Muay Thai, my style started to change. I don’t think I can be able to fight like I did before, when I was doing karate and taekwondo.”

The 6-foot-2 Nabil literally stood out from the competition and went on to become the youngest WBA Muay Thai world champion.

Apart from his physical tools, the lanky fighter was an unsolvable puzzle for his foes, who could not bypass his hybrid style of Muay Thai.

Nabil, who sports a 33-4-1 career record, has been guided by former ONE fighter Mehdi Zatout since he was 14 and religiously trains with killers at Venum Training Camp in Pattaya.

The ONE debutant will surely be a massive underdog in his acid test against the reigning ONE flyweight kickboxing world champion Superlek. Then again, we’ve seen crazier things happen in combat sports, and Nabile certainly has the talent to shock the world this Friday at Lumpinee Stadium.