Trilogy bout with Rodtang or showdown with Superlek? Jonathan Haggerty makes his pick

Jonathan Haggerty has been tasked with taking on ‘The Iron Man’ Rodtang Jitmuangnon not once, but twice inside the circle.

Their first meeting took place at ONE: Dawn of Heroes in 2019. On that night, Rodtang bested ‘The General’ to capture the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world championship. Feeling that he had won the first bout, Haggerty was given the opportunity to immediately go for a rematch against the Muay Thai icon five months later.

At ONE: A New Tomorrow, Rodtang seemingly closed the books on their rivalry with a third-round knockout of the British striker. Nearly three years removed from their last bout, much has changed and there is a renewed interest in Haggerty vs. Rodtang 3.

In a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, Jonathan Haggerty addressed the demand for a trilogy bout with Rodtang, but revealed that he is much more interested in testing himself against Superlek.

“Everyone wants to see Haggerty vs Rodtang III. But I want to fight Superlek. It’s a fresh challenge, slightly different…the more everyone bigs him up, the more I want to fight him. That’s just how it is.”

Superlek is currently slated to face Walter Goncalves in the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix semifinal. The bout is scheduled to go down as part of the highly anticipated ONE on Prime Video 1 card on August 26.

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Jonathan Haggerty still has trouble coming to terms with his first loss to Rodtang

While nobody can deny that Rodtang Jitmuagnon was the winner of their 2020 bout, Jonathan Haggerty is still trying to cope with the loss in their first meeting in the summer of 2019.

As the decision was handed over by the judges, ‘The General’ was absolutely gutted, feeling he did more than enough to walk away with the victory.

“On paper, he [Rodtang] has annihilated me, really. I just need to redeem myself in that first fight and go from there.”

While Haggerty realized that ‘The Iron Man’ ran through him in their second outing, the former world champion still has the desire to redeem himself after their first clash.

“One hundred percent, the first loss got me bad. The second one, I just had to accept that he ran through me like a steam train. But the first one was a difficult one [to accept], because I put everything that I had [into that fight]. I felt like I won.”

Catch the full interview below: