Superlek admits he felt ‘a little bit’ of pressure to perform against late-notice foe Danial Williams

Superlek Kiatmoo9 admitted to feeling a little bit of pressure going into his main event showdown with late-notice replacement Danial Williams.

‘The Kicking Machine’ scored his 133rd career victory and retained his ONE flyweight kickboxing world championship in the ONE Fight Night 8 main event on Amazon Prime Video.

Originally, Superlek was scheduled to defend his title against Muay Thai rival Rodtang Jitmuangnon. Unfortunately, ‘The Iron Man’ was forced to withdraw due to an injury sustained during training.

Danial Williams stepped up to the plate and gave it everything he had, but in the end, ‘The Kicking Machine’ proved to be too much for Williams to handle. Following his spectacular third-round knockout, Superlek revealed that he did feel some pressure to perform against a man he never expected to face:

“I am very happy how it turned out, I have worked on my game plan and also I trained very hard because I was supposed to face Rodtang,’ The Kicking Machine’ said in a post-fight interview. So the result came out really good. I was a little bit in the pressure that I had to face ‘Mini T.’”

With his first ONE world title defense behind him, Superlek is now looking to challenge Rodtang for his ONE flyweight Muay Thai world championship later this year.

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ONE CEO says Rodtang ready to go on May 5 despite withdrawal from Superlek bout

ONE Championship fans were understandably upset when their hopes of seeing Superlek Kiatmoo9 square off with Rodtang Jitmuangnon were once again dashed days before ONE Fight Night 8. With ‘The Iron Man’ scheduled for a ONE world title defense just six weeks later, many fans wondered if Rodtang may have to remove himself from the promotion’s U.S. debut on May 5.

Fortunately, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong set a lot of minds at ease when he revealed in an interview with the South China Morning Post that ‘The Iron Man’ will be good to go for his ONE flyweight Muay Thai title fight with Mexico’s Edgar Tabares.

“I haven’t talked to Rodtang and his camp yet but obviously, I wish him well. I know he’s going to do a quick seminar tour. He hurt his lower back, so he wants to do a quick rest before the May 5th event. But he’s ready to go on May 5th [for Edgar Tabares]”

Should ‘The Iron Man’ takes care of business on May 5, he’ll likely have ‘The Kicking Machine’ to contend with next.