“I shouldn’t have done a boxing fight with her” - Smilla Sundell marks her flaws in Natalia Diachkova win at ONE Fight Night 22
Looking back, Smilla Sundell realizes that trying to box with the fast and furious Natalia Diachkova probably wasn't the best idea.
Ahead of receiving her first shot at ONE Championship gold at ONE Fight Night 22, Diachkova had won four straight fights, three of them coming by way of knockout. Still, that didn't deter Sundell from engaging with the 'Karelian Lynx' in an all-out boxing match from the opening bell in their entertaining headliner.
"She was very fast and she was very accurate with her hands too," Sundell said of Diachkova in a video on her YouTube channel. "I shouldn't have done a boxing fight with her. But clearly I did and I lost the first round."
After getting outworked in the opening round and taken off her feet in the second, Sundell got back to what made her a world champion—pouring on the pressure and using her length and reach to overwhelm Diachkova.
With one second left in the second, the Swedish teen phenom put her opponent away with a spectacular late-round onslaught.
Smilla Sundell hopes for a shot at taking back the strawweight strap
Though the victory moved Smilla Sundell to 5-0 under the ONE Championship banner, she did not leave The Land of Smiles with her 26 pounds of gold. Prior to the fight, 'The Hurricane' failed to make the strawweight limit for their anticipated title tilt. As a result, Sundell was stripped of her crown, leaving only Diachkova eligible to win.
Since Diachkova came up short, the ONE strawweight Muay Thai world championship remains vacant, though Sundell hopes that she will have the chance to redeem herself and reclaim the crown she never lost in short order.
"I don't think it'll be the final one in strawweight," she told Sportskeeda MMA. "But I do want the flyweight division because I'll be better at that weight. But I still want this belt."
Do you want to see Smilla Sundell have the chance to take back the strawweight strap, or is it time for 'The Hurricane' to move on?