“He was very emotional” - Denis Puric says Rodtang hit rock bottom after missing weight at ONE 167

Rodtang Jitmuangnon was devastated by his weight miss ahead of ONE 167.

Making his first appearance of 2024, 'The Iron Man' was ready to put on a show for the fans who have been patiently awaiting his return to the Circle.

Unfortunately, things didn't go exactly as planned — especially when it came to stepping on the scale. Rodtang weighed in 3.5 pounds over the limit for his flyweight kickboxing clash with Denis Puric, forcing ONE to negotiate a catchweight fight between the two.

Fortunately, that proved to be an easy task and Rodtang would go on to deliver another dominant performance inside the Circle.

However, Puric recently revealed in an interview with Sportskeeda MMA that the 'Iron Man' was left distraught by his failure on the scale. In particular, the backlash he faced from the combat sports community.

"He was very emotional because people was talking a lot of bad things especially about him missing weight," Puric said. "Especially his own Thai people. I mean look, this is not my first time fighting someone who was overweight or never made weight. So for me, it wasn't really a big deal, you know."

He added:

"Because he's Rodtang, everyone thinks everything will be okay. But look, things happen. Not everybody is perfect. People don't see what happens behind the scenes."

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ONE 167 is not the first time Rodtang has missed weight and/or hydration

Sadly, this isn't the first time Rodtang was forced to exit a fight due to an issue with weight and/or hydration.

After securing a spot in the Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix tournament in 2022, 'The Iron Man' was forced out of a semifinal fight with Savvas Michael after he failed to provide a sample for ONE’s mandatory hydration test.

As a result, 'The Iron Man' was not allowed to weigh in, prompting the promotion to give his spot to Panpayak Jitmuangnon.

Though the Thai's misses have been few and far between, they've been frequent enough for many fight fans to call for 'The Iron Man' to make a move to bantamweight — especially if it means seeing a long-awaited trilogy fight against the division's reigning Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion, Jonathan Haggerty.

If you missed any of the action, ONE Championship fans in the United States and Canada can watch the ONE 167 replay on demand via Amazon Prime Video.