Rodtang praises Denis Puric's determination 'to run through many opponents' ahead of ONE 167 showdown

Arguably ONE Championship's most recognizable Muay Thai athlete, Rodtang Jitmuangnon will once again take to the Circle on June 7 as part of ONE 167. His opponent then will be longtime Muay Thai competitor Denis Puric in a flyweight kickboxing match in the undercard.

'The Iron Man' is coming off an injury that sidelined him since January, but has fully recovered from it and is ready to stand toe-to-toe with Puric in the middle of the Circle.

In an interview with ONE Championship, the flyweight Muay Thai king spoke glowingly of Puric's willingness to take on all opponents coming his way with the end goal of taking him on:

"I respect him for his determination because it's really difficult to run through many opponents to reach me."

Puric earned his way to fighting the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion by stringing together two straight victories that started by knocking out Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat in two rounds and producing a unanimous decision win over Jacob Smith in his most recent outing.

As for the Thai megastar, his first fight of the year was supposed to be at ONE 165 in January against then-debuting Takeru Segawa but was shunted off the card due to the aforementioned injury.

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Denis Puric gives Rodtang his flowers for Muay Thai's global growth

Despite Puric and Rodtang being on a collision course of epic proportions inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand, the former was not against giving Rodtang respect for what he has done for their sport.

Speaking with Bolasport, Puric stated:

"He helped put Muay Thai on the map and he's one of my favorite fighters."

ONE 167 will air live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.