"You gotta think outside the box now" - Jackie Buntan on the importance of adding more tricks to her world-class arsenal

ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion Jackie Buntan knows she cannot solely rely on her Muay Thai weapons alone to continue reaching new heights in her career.

Buntan experienced this first-hand ahead of her world title duel alongside multi-time world champion Anissa Meksen at ONE 169 this past November.

Having largely trained and competed in Muay Thai, the 27-year-old's Boxing Works coach, Bryan Popejoy, recognized a need for Buntan to switch things up in line with 'C18's limitless abilities to explode inside the pocket with her concussive punching combinations.

While the athlete admits she didn't like the idea of it, she stuck to the gameplan and enjoyed a night to remember against the French-Algerian striker inside the Lumpinee Stadium last month.

Jackie Buntan outstriked Meksen throughout the entire 15-minute tie to lay her hands on the gold that she's had her eyes on from the very first moment she joined the organization.

Having come to terms with the importance of evolving, the Filipino-American striker had this to say during a recent interview with The Casuals:

"It's 2024. Sports are evolving. Athletes are evolving. You gotta think outside the box now."

Watch the full interview here:

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Jackie Buntan admits she was 'very confident' as judges decision was announced at ONE 169

In the same interview, Jackie Buntan talked about her confidence as ring announcer Dom Lau announced the outcome of her world title clash against Meksen.

She said:

"I was confident. I was very confident. The rules say, if you're throwing more shots that are clearly getting through and rocking that girl or that guy, then you're scoring versus, like, quick little shots that may touch you, but they're not damaging shots if you know what I mean."

Though Meksen did get off to a flyer in the five-round scrap, Buntan settled into rythm the deeper the tie went. She landed cleaner shots and applied pressure with her punch-kick combinations, to secure ONE gold and her seventh promotional win.