Jackie Buntan admits she had trouble swapping her Muay Thai roots for a kickboxing style: “I was not comfortable doing that”

Filipino-American striker Jackie Buntan made it a successful first foray into kickboxing under ONE Championship's banner by becoming the women's strawweight world champion in her last fight. However, she said it came not without its challenges.

The 27-year-old Boxing Works standout added her name to the list of champions with a decision win over veteran Algerian-French fighter Anissa Meksen for the inaugural women's strawweight kickboxing world title at ONE 169 back in November.

In an interview on The Casuals MMA podcast, Buntan talked about, among other things, her transition from her traditional lane of Muay Thai to a kickboxing style.

She said:

"For this fight, yeah, it's funny, even up until now, this really solidified my style, like starting my career up until now. When I was an amateur, I was very Thai style, like I would back up, teep kick, like, long range. I just try to make it pretty, you know? Going into ONE, my coach talked to me. This is a game plan for her [Meksen], specifically, like, run her into that left hook. And he always knew I had fast hands, heavy hands, so he's, like, with four-ounce gloves, you got to capitalize on that.

"I used to hate being in the pocket like that, and getting up close to punch range. So we worked that a whole lot for this fight. But before that, I was not comfortable doing that at all, where now it's like, that's my bread and butter. I love boxing."

Check out what she had to say below:

Jackie Buntan showed the full product of the work she put in for her kickboxing game, every bit technical in taking on Meksen head-on throughout their five-round joust to get the well-earned decision win at ONE 169.

Before plunging into kickboxing, Buntan competed in seven Muay Thai matches in ONE, winning six of them.

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Jackie Buntan proud of how she handled Anissa Meksen in title fight

Jackie Buntan is proud to have gotten the better of a decorated fighter like Anissa Meksen at ONE 169 in November, taking it as a testament to how far she has come in her martial arts career.

She spoke about it during the ONE 169 post-event press conference, highlighting that to be the best, you have to beat the best, saying:

"Anissa is a legend in the game. I remember watching her when I was still in high school. So it was a very big fight, a very big opportunity, but that's the type of fight I wanted, especially for the belt.

"You've got to beat the best to be the best. I didn't take her lightly, I didn't underestimate her at all. But going in there, I felt so confident. I felt like I was the better fighter right before the [first] round even started, to be honest."

Apart from becoming a world champion, Jackie Buntan's win at ONE 169 was also her fourth straight.