Coach Christian Knowles says Jonathan Haggerty has grown since encounters with Rodtang, Superlek: “We’ve learned so much”
Veteran Muay Thai and kickboxing coach Christian Knowles recently spoke about one of his finest students, two sport ONE world champion Jonathan Haggerty. In the past four years, 'The General' has been on a phoenix-like resurgence which culminated in him holding both the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai and kickboxing world titles.
Before going on an epic comeback tour, however, Jonathan Haggerty suffered back-to-back losses in ONE Championship - both to dominant ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon. At this point, being a two-sport world champion in a weight class above 'The Iron Man', Haggerty may want his former rival to move up in order for him to come full circle in his quest for redemption.
Another loss 'The General' and his coach Christian Knowles want to get back is to ONE flyweight kickboxing world champion Superlek Kiatmoo9. Haggerty lost to 'The Kicking Machine' in another promotion back in 2018.
On how his Haggerty fares against these two former foes, Knowles told Wesley Gunman Graham on YouTube:
"So yeah, he [Haggerty] could do it, yeah. But I think Rodtang has mentioned that he wants Superlek, and as a coach, I really like them two fights for Jon. Because Jon's fought Superlek and Rodtang, we've learned so much since them fights."
Watch the full interview here:
Looking back at Jonathan Haggerty's violent six-fight winning streak
As mentioned earlier, Haggerty has had one of the most impressive career comebacks in recent combat sports history. He came from virtually finished to becoming one of the best strikers in the world today.
After dropping his 135-pound ONE Muay Thai belt to Rodtang in 2019 and failing to reclaim it in the following year, 'The General' bounced back with a dominant unanimous decision win over Taiki Naito at ONE: Big Bang 2. He then took a slight detour outside the promotion and beat Arthur Meyer for the ISKA lightweight Muay Thai world title.
'The General' then returned to ONE Championship and defeated Mongkolpetch Petchyindee in another shutout victory. In his next bout, the fighting Brit moved up a weight class, beating Vladimir Kuzmiin via a unanimous decision.
Jonathan Haggerty then challenged the legendary Nong-O Hama for the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world title. In perhaps the most shocking moment in recent Muay Thai history, 'The General' knocked out the dominant Thai icon in the first round.
He then followed his historic win by snagging another belt - the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title - by stopping his division's MMA king, Fabricio Andrade.
In his most recent performance, Jonathan Haggerty starched Brazil's Felipe Lobo inside two rounds afer overcoming a frightening knockdown in the first round.