Rodtang says he expects the unexpected against Edgar Tabares

Rodtang Jitmuangnon isn’t creating expectations for his upcoming title defense based on Edgar Tabares’ past fights.

At ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video, ‘The Iron Man’ returns for his fourteenth appearance under the ONE banner. The Thai superstar looks to defend his flyweight Muay Thai world championship against Tabares, a promotional newcomer who previously held the WBC international Muay Thai championship.

Tabares doesn’t have a lot of fight footage to study, but Rodtang isn’t concerned about what is available. During an interview with ONE, ‘The Iron Man’ had this to say about his upcoming opponent:

“I cannot know [how good he is] from watching the videos. The videos show he has powerful punches. He has aggressively knocked out many opponents, and so on. It’s like how I fought with Jacob Smith, who had the most dangerous weapons [in his previous fights]. But once we fought, what really happened [a dominant win for Rodtang] was absolutely opposite from what they said about him.”

Rodtang last fought in January, defeating Jiduo Yibu in kickboxing. ‘The Iron Man’ was supposed to take on Superlek for the flyweight kickboxing title, but the Muay Thai king pulled out due to an undisclosed injury. He now returns his focus to “the art of eight limbs" for his title defense against Edgar Tabares, which was already scheduled before the kickboxing world championship fight fell through.

‘The Iron Man’ vs. Tabares goes down on May 5 in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 10, the promotion’s first event on U.S. soil. The event will take place inside the sold-out 1stBank Center in Colorado, which can be seen live and for free by North American Prime Video subscribers.