Jonathan Haggerty was thrilled to become ONE world champion again: “I knew one day I’d get that back”

An epic clash of world champions will happen tomorrow night at ONE Fight Night 16 as ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Jonathan Haggerty faces ONE bantamweight MMA kingpin Fabricio Andrade for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing throne.

Such a monumental match has history written all over it as it would be the first time world champions from MMA and Muay Thai will fight for a vacant belt in kickboxing.

It's been quite the road back to gold for 'The General'. At ONE Fight Night 9 last April, Jonathan Haggerty made it to the annals of history by knocking out arguably the greatest Muay Thai world champion of this generation, Nong-O Hama.

It was undoubtedly the biggest upset in Muay Thai's modern history as the seemingly unbeatable Nong-O Hama was on a 10-fight winning streak and a 5-fight knockout streak. He was the most dominant world champion in ONE and was handily stripped off of his iron-clad grasp of the belt.

Jonathan Haggerty's KO win for the belt was a grand return to gold since dropping his ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title and losing the subsequent rematch back in 2020. On his journey from losing his 135-pound throne to winning a new one at a higher weight class three years later, Jonathan Haggerty told ONE:

"I mean, it was great. Every interview that I'd done, I still said, I can't wait to get my world title back. I used the word ‘my’ because I knew one day I'd get that back. And it was a dream come true and it finally happened again."

He continued:

"So getting the world championship belt back after four years felt great. You know, every time I had an interview, I told myself, I told the interviewer, I can't wait to get my belt back. It was great to finally get that world title back in the UK where it belongs."

Catch Jonathan 'The General' Haggerty face his MMA counterpart, Fabricio Andrade, in an attempt to make history at ONE Fight Night 16 on November 3.

The entire card, which goes down at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, is available live and free on Prime Video in North America.