“To make him miss” – Jonathan Haggerty’s head coach reveals master plan that overwhelmed Felipe Lobo

ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Jonathan Haggerty successfully defended his world title against Brazilian challenger Felipe Lobo last month. His head coach said the victory fell within their plan.

‘The General’ stopped ‘The Demolition Man’ by third-round TKO in their headlining title clash at ONE Fight Night 19 on Prime Video on Feb. 16 in Thailand.

The British champion encountered a tough roadblock early on in the contest but eventually found his range and was not to be stopped after, with telling strikes that just overwhelmed his opponent.

Haggerty’s coach Christian Knowles shared in a recent interview on the podcast of Wesley Gunman Graham that how the fight went was in line with their game plan of making Lobo pay every time he misses.

The coach said:

“The Lobo game plan was to make him miss. Block, block, really strong and hit him back on the counters and force reactions with fakes.

“And then when we got a reaction, hit him hard and he did a little bit of that and I think watching back that fight, there's a few shots maybe that well we were trying to force that early stoppage and maybe John was just trying a little bit too hard to force that stoppage rather than let it come naturally.”

Watch the interview:

The win was the first successful defense by Jonathan Haggerty of the world title he took from longtime divisional king Nong-O Hama in April last year by first-round knockout.

Haggerty, who is also the ONE bantamweight kickboxing world champion, has been training at Knowles Academy in south London for a long time now under the guidance of noted Muay Thai coach Knowles.

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Work continues for Jonathan Haggerty after impressive victory over Felipe Lobo

Double ONE world champion Jonathan Haggerty said work continues for him after successfully defending his bantamweight Muay Thai gold against Felipe Lobo at ONE Fight Night 19 on Prime Video last month in Thailand.

The 27-year-old Orpington, England, native shared with Sportskeeda MMA following his third-round TKO win over Lobo that he would continue elevating his game so that when the next challenge comes, whoever that may be, he would be ready.

‘The General’ said:

“I need to stop focusing on everyone else calling me out. I need to focus on myself, getting better, [that’s] the main thing, you know, elevating.”

Check out what he had to say below:

Haggerty has been on an impressive roll, winning sixth straight matches, the last three all having world title implications.