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Jonathan Haggerty produced an incredible display of championship heart to defend his ONE bantamweight Muay Thai title in the main event of ONE Fight Night 19.
‘The General’ was forced to overcome some adversity in the fight following a tough opening round before going on to stop Felipe Lobo inside just 45 seconds of the third canto.
After the fight, Haggerty revealed that his opponent’s strong start wasn’t the only thing that affected his performance on the night after a tough fight week had damaged his preparations.
The two-division king told Sportskeeda MMA in a post-fight interview about a family tragedy that had occurred on the day of the fight that made it difficult to focus on the task at hand. He said:
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“I mean it was a tough fight, yeah I'd say so, you know. I made it tough for myself, that was a 60 percent fight camp. I know I keep saying it I shouldn't really say it but I'll be honest there were a lot of things going on.”
Haggerty continued:
“Got a knock on the door, day of the fight, my uncle passed away, and I thought I had to dig deep you know. It was hard to put my mind into it but we'd done it and this was for him, you know, and I thought I'd do this for him.”
Watch the full interview with Jonathan Haggerty below:
Jonathan Haggerty shows he has the heart of a champion at ONE Fight Night 19
Jonathan Haggerty's performance alone was deserving of incredible praise after he showed exactly what he is made of inside the celebrated Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Defeating Felipe Lobo in that manner is one thing, but to do it after everything he had been through in the lead-up to the fight only makes it more impressive.
The Haggerty era has now officially begun following his first title defense, and if there’s one thing he proved on fight night, it’s that no one is taking the double champ’s titles away from him without a fight.
The entire ONE Fight Night 19 card is available on ONE Championship’s YouTube channel. North American fans with an active subscription can relive all the action via Amazon Prime Video.
