WATCH: Interim bantamweight Muay Thai champ Nabil Anane in a rollercoaster watching Hyu Iwata fight ahead of ONE 172

ONE interim bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Nabil Anane is about a month away from his unification bout with reigning ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion Superlek Kiatmoo9 at ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang on March 23. While he has been laser-focused in training camp, he recently took time to support Japanese kickboxer Hyu Iwata.

At ONE Friday Fights 96 last Friday, Feb. 7, the towering Thai-Algerian was in attendance to watch the flyweight kickboxing rising star capture his second win under the ONE banner.

In a video posted by the promotion on Instagram, Anane experienced all sorts of emotions as Hyu worked his way to a second-round TKO of Leandro Miranda.

Check out the video below:

Anane and Hyu's affinity for one another comes as no surprise, as they both train under the guidance of ISKA and WBC world champion Mehdi Zatout. Hyu will join the 20-year-old Anane on the ONE 172 card at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, where he will face the hard-hitting Zakaria El Jamari.

Tickets for ONE 172 are available via EPlus.

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Nabil Anane acknowledges Superlek's strengths

While Nabil Anane is hungry to exact his revenge on Superlek for knocking him out in his June 2023 promotional debut, he gave the Thai megastar his well-deserved and hard-earned flowers heading into their ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world championship unification bout.

Anane said this about 'The Kicking Machine', who also holds the ONE flyweight kickboxing world championship, during the recent ONE 172 press conference:

"Superlek is an all-around fighter. He has everything. He really has everything whether punch, feet, knees, elbows, skill, fight IQ, game adaptation. He is considered the best fighter. He was called one of the best pound-for-pound fighters already. Yes, he is very good."