"RODTANGGGGGG" - Martin Nguyen fired up by the flyweight champ advancing in the Muay Thai Grand Prix at ONE 157

Martin Nguyen, known by ONE Championship fans as the ‘Situ-Asian’ shared his excitement over Rodtang Jitmuangnon’s dominant victory over Jacob Smith at ONE 157.

“RODTANGGGGGG,” Nguyen posted on Twitter.

While the message was short, the enthusiasm was quite clear. Rodtang controlled the contest for the entire nine-minute duration in the evening’s featured contest. It was the flyweight Muay Thai world champion’s first time back in the Circle since being submitted by Demetrious Johnson in a hybrid rules bout at ONE X.

Rodtang returned to form, showcasing a striking skillset that included devastating elbows that left his opponent Jacob Smith a bloody mess by the end of the bout. Rodtang earned a spot in the Grand Prix semi-finals and a $50,000 bonus for his masterful performance. Rodtang will face Walter Goncalves in the next round of the Grand Prix.

Watch the full fight in the video below:

---

Martin Nguyen can relate to bouncing back after a devastating loss

Boasting 10 finishes under the ONE Championship banner, Martin Nguyen was ONE’s first two-division champion, having knocked out both Marat Gafurov and Eduard Folayang to capture their respective ONE featherweight and lightweight championships.

Less than a year after capturing the lightweight world championship, Nguyen was stripped of his title after suffering an injury during training. Two years later, Martin Nguyen dropped his featherweight championship to Thanh Le in the first of back-to-back losses. It was the first time Nguyen had dropped two straight under the ONE Championship banner.

“I was at the lowest of the low,” Nguyen said in an interview with SCMP. “Losing my title after three years, dominant champion, losing in the most embarrassing way in the second fight … I was in a dark hole. I don’t usually read comments or anything, but I did this time,” Nguyen added. “I don’t know why. And it kind of hit me in the heart. These guys were saying I was finished, glass jaw – blah, blah, blah. You get hit, it’s a fight. It’s just unfortunate the way the last two fights happened.”

Martin Nguyen bounced back in March when he earned a third-round knockout over Kirill Gorobets.

“The cherry on top was during this fight week when Kirill said I was done, and I was past my prime. I was already fresh from my fight camp, and I had so much faith behind everything I had been working on, but he sparked that extra fire of me wanting to do damage.”