"This fight is not going to be the same" - Nabil Anane vows to exact revenge against Superlek in title unification bout at ONE 172

ONE interim bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Nabil Anane promises to unleash his fury when he steps into the circle against ONE bantamweight Muay Thai and flyweight kickboxing world champion Superlek Kiatmoo9 at ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang on Sunday, March 23.

Ahead of their bantamweight Muay Thai world championship unification bout at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, Anane promised to avenge his June 2023 promotional debut knockout defeat to 'The Kicking Machine' in a video shared by ONE on Instagram. The Thai-Algerian phenom said:

"He beat me in a way that nobody had done before. That was my first time that I got knocked out. This fight is not going to be the same as the other fight. That was my first fight in ONE Championship. Ever since I lost against him, all the fights after, I tried to prove myself. But there's still a lot of people not believing in me. So this fight, I'll prove myself. I'm not the same anymore."

Always willing to joke around with fans and his peers, Anane's change in tone shows how much the loss has been weighing on his mind despite winning his last six fights and capturing interim gold this past January.

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Nabil Anane unamused with Superlek's staredown antics

Nabil Anane proved that this new version of him is here to stay, at least until the conclusion of ONE 172, during the recently held pre-fight press conference staredown he had with Superlek.

With a nine-inch height difference, the two-sport ONE world champion tilted his neck back to look the 6-foot-4 Anane right in his eyes and tried to make a joke out of it.

To many fans' surprise, and likely even Superlek, the Team Mehdi Zatout standout kept a straight face and stared daggers right into him until the staredown ended.

ONE 172 will be available live on pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.