WATCH: Jonathan Haggerty looking big and powerful as a bantamweight

Dripping with sweat in a stuffy gym, Jonathan Haggerty is preparing for war. The British Muay Thai fighter has successfully made the jump from flyweight to bantamweight and is ready to go straight for the king of the division.

'The General' is slated to fight Nong-O Hama, the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion, in the main event of ONE Fight Night 9 on April 21. In preparation for the huge fight, Haggerty posted an Instagram reel of his training, smashing pads with punches, elbows, and kicks.

After fighting and briefly holding the belt at flyweight, Jonathan Haggerty set out on the challenge of moving up in weight to bantamweight. He passed his first test with a majority decision victory against Vladimir Kuzmin at ONE on Prime Video 4 last November.

Now two months out from a scheduled five rounds with one of Muay Thai’s most intimidating world champions, Haggerty is getting deep into fight camp.

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Jonathan Haggerty chose Muay Thai over MMA in pursuit of winning a ONE Championship belt

With ONE Championship promoting four sports under their banner, athletes signed to ONE have several options that they may not have had in other organizations.

Jonathan Haggerty was one such fighter who was able to contemplate not only his path to his preferred sport of Muay Thai but if he wanted to try another sport like MMA. Haggerty gave a look into what those conversations with his team were like in an interview with media outlet The MMA Superfan and what prompted him to ultimately re-commit to Muay Thai:

“The plan was, I sat down with my team, and there were two options. We can go bantamweight Muay Thai or we can go fully into MMA. I chose bantamweight Muay Thai because I feel like I want to get the belt again at Muay Thai. I’m destined to get that. I want that belt, especially the new belt. We chose Muay Thai.”

Watch the full interview here:

At age 26, Jonathan Haggerty still has plenty of time to make waves at Muay Thai and still try out MMA down the line if he wants to. The prospect of Haggerty fighting in ONE’s bantamweight division is fun to entertain, at least. Imagine ‘The General’ going up against the likes of Bibiano Fernandes, John Lineker, or even rising stars like Fabricio Andrade and Stephen Loman.

For now, fans will get to see Jonathan Haggerty continue to create his legacy in Muay Thai as he attempts to become a world champion in a second weight class in ONE Championship.

The champ, Nong-O Hama, is yet to lose in ONE and keeps getting better. He’s coming off a successful world title defense last month against Ramazan Alaverdi, where he crippled the Russian with a body shot in round three. This was his fifth straight finish in the circle.