"Badas* Muay Thai fighter" - Joe Rogan mesmerized by Superlek's 'beautiful KO' that dethroned Jonathan Haggerty
Joe Rogan has been a student of martial arts for a long time, so he knows brilliance when he sees it. Though MMA will forever be the UFC commentator's chosen sport, he is also a big fan of watching the best strikers in the world.
With that in mind, there's simply no way that ONE 168 was going to pass by his radar undetected. ONE Championship's return to the United States was headlined by one of the biggest fights of the year.
At the Ball Arena in Denver, Jonathan Haggerty put the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world championship on the line against Superlek. The fight ended up being over in less than a minute after the challenger landed a devastating elbow to close the show in style.
During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the long-time fight fan spoke about how impressed he was by the performance that 'The Kicking Machine' delivered:
"Superlek is this bada** Muay Thai fighter, and he fought Jonathan Haggerty. I saw an interesting breakdown. He caught him with that over-the-top elbow, like real quick in the fight. I think was like 40 seconds. Beautiful KO. So they had a real good fight in the first fight, it was six years ago, and Haggerty became the champion. And everybody thought it's gonna be a much, much different fight."
Watch the full podcast clip below:
Joe Rogan was taken by surprise, like many fans were
Joe Rogan is right to point out that many fans were expecting to see a closely contested fight in the main event of ONE 168.
Superlek may have defeated Haggerty once before but that was a long time ago and 'The General' has come a long way since that point.
Instead, it was yet another piece of evidence that Superlek is one of the greats. Despite already having a legendary career, he seems to be getting better with every fight.
The full replay of ONE 168: Denver is available on demand to Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.