It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but Jonathan Haggerty’s move to bantamweight was the one that drastically changed his career for the better.
Haggerty once flourished at 135 pounds and even held the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title. A couple of medical issues, however, and the British star was forced to move up a weight class and practically rebuild his career.
Despite his early apprehensions, the restart proved to be the pivotal moment of his life.
During an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, Haggerty admitted that he did what needed to do if he wanted to preserve not just his career but also his health.
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The ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion wrote:
“I would say when I had to pull out of my flyweight bout against Amir Naseri, this made me realize and think that flyweight isn’t for me anymore, and I had to make the choice to move to bantamweight. It was very hard to move to bantamweight because my goal was to win the flyweight world title before moving up in weight!”
Haggerty, a former ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion, was supposed to face Naseri at ONE on Prime Video 1, but he had to pull out of the card due to health issues.
The 26-year-old ultimately left flyweight when he faced Vladimir Kuzmin at a 148-pound catchweight at ONE on Prime Video 4 in November 2022.
Following his split decision win against the Russian slugger, Haggerty challenged the legendary Nong-O Hama for the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world title at ONE Fight Night 9
Despite overwhelming odds against him, Haggerty did the unthinkable when he knocked out the seemingly invincible Thai icon in the first round to capture his second-world title.
Haggerty now has a chance to become a two-sport world champion when he faces Fabricio Andrade, the ONE bantamweight MMA world champion, for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title at ONE Fight Night 16.
The highly anticipated champion vs. champion superfight goes down on November 3 at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.
ONE Fight Night 16 is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.