ONE Championship's Tawanchai "not quite ready" for Nong-O's bantamweight title, eyes Petchmorakot's featherweight strap

ONE Championship rising star Tawanchai P.K. Saenchaimuaythaigym stunned the world after knocking out his close friend Saemapetch Fairtex, the number one Muay Thai bantamweight title contender, at ONE: Heavy Hitters on January 14.

While other fighters may have seen this as a golden opportunity to keep moving up the ladder, the 22-year-old does not want to get ahead of himself just yet.

Asked by ONE Championship commentator Mitch Chilson about his desire to challenge for Nong-O Gaiyanghadao's bantamweight title, Tawanchai gave an honest assessment of himself despite the stunning win:

"For this weight division, I cannot decide by myself. I think I'm not quite ready, but I'm really ready for [the] featherweight [division] and challenge for that world title."

After all, Tawanchai settled at featherweight since debuting for ONE Championship last year and reportedly missed weight before his match with Saemapetch.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, he went into more detail about his decision not to stay at bantamweight:

"I'm not too happy about it and I'm relieved that the fight is done. There are so many things that made me relieved [it's done]. One is making weight and two is fighting a friend. I felt emotional when I made the knockdown, so after this fight, I felt relieved."

With Saemapetch and the bantamweight division out of the way for now, Tawanchai reiterated to SCMP that he is setting his sights back on the featherweight title, currently held by Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy.

In one of his recent Instagram stories, Tawanchai revealed that he is already in lightweight territory, weighing above 75 kilos. This could put him in prime position to train for more featherweight action once he gets another fight date.

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ONE Championship's Saemapetch relieved with Tawanchai's featherweight belt pursuit

Despite the loss, Saemapetch is now back to being a full supporter of Tawanchai and is likewise happy to get his fight with him over with.

In an interview with ONE, the 27-year-old threw his full support into his friend's pursuit of featherweight gold and said that Tawanchai is a "very tough guy to fight."

Saemapetch must now get back to winning ways soon to keep his top contender spot intact.