Jonathan Di Bella proud to witness a Muay Thai revolution in Canada: "I hope they can become like us"

Jonathan Di Bella is excited to watch the striking sports grow in his home of Canada. The former ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion believes that the scene is certainly evolving over time, and this will only continue thanks to fighters like him leaving an impression and giving kids someone to look up to in the sport.

While his kickboxing heritage comes from his father and Italian roots, Di Bella hopes that someday, there will be Canadians like him who are ready to compete at the highest level.

He spoke about this during a recent interview with Calf Kick Sports ahead of his return at ONE Friday Fights 68. Di Bella acknowledged that although there isn't a particularly strong foundation for striking sports in Canada right now, it is growing:

"Yeah, we're gonna have some kids that are moving like Thais. That's what I see. That's what the plan is for the future. I hope they can become like us because really there's not many of us Canadians [in striking]. There are some of us doing kickboxing and more Muay Thai, but there's gonna be more."

Watch the full interview below:

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Jonathan Di Bella leads by example

In order for any sport to expand in a certain part of the world, it needs frontrunners like Jonathan Di Bella who can inspire change. This is exactly what he has been doing since signing with ONE Championship and representing Canada and Italy on the global stage.

As striking sports continue to grow around the world, Di Bella can be a fighter that people look up to when making their own journeys into martial arts.

In the main event of ONE Friday Fights 68, he can continue to do so by attempting to reclaim the strawweight kickboxing title that he lost due to unfortunate circumstances.

He will now fight for the vacant title against Prajanchai on June 28, with the entire card airing live in Asian primetime across the ONE Super App and digital platforms from Lumpinee Stadium.