Jonathan Di Bella says his mindset remains bulletproof ahead of Rui Botelho clash: "Nothing really changed"
Jonathan Di Bella may find himself in a new spot after tasting defeat for the first time in his last outing. Still, the Canadian-Italian star says nothing has changed as he gets prepped for his next dance on the global stage.
The 28-year-old martial artist steps back into action against Portuguese star Rui Botelho in a three-round strawweight kickboxing matchup on Friday, Dec. 6.
Looking to put his ONE strawweight kickboxing world title defeat to Prajanchai PK Saenchai in the rear-view mirror, the Team Di Bella Kickboxing representative told Sportskeeda MMA that he remains as game as ever to return to winning ways inside the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Jonathan Di Bella shared:
"I'm the same. I just trained the same, fight the same, and that's it. Nothing really changed. I just have more experience in my account."
Catch the two trade leather at ONE Fight Night 26, which will be available to active Amazon Prime Video subscribers live in U.S. primetime for free on December 6.
Jonathan Di Bella admits losing world title hurt more than dropping unbeaten record
The Quebec native enjoyed a dream start to life in the world's largest martial arts organization, claiming back-to-back wins over 'Fighting Rooster' Zhang Peimian and 'Mini T' Danial Williams in two epic world title fights.
However, his tenure as the divisional king came to an end after he fell ill during the weigh-in day of his originally scheduled tie against Prajanchai at ONE Friday Fights 58, which forced him to miss weight and led to him being stripped of the world title.
He eventually pulled out of the bout, recovered, and had his fight against Prajanchai rebooked for ONE Friday Fights 68 in June.
Despite putting on a valiant effort, the 28-year-old struggled to settle in against the Thai megastar, who added the vacant strawweight kickboxing gold to his strawweight Muay Thai world title after a five-round war.
Looking back at the loss, Jonathan Di Bella told Sportskeeda MMA what hurt the most between him not being able to maintain his perfect streak and dropping the crown:
"I never wanted to be undefeated. It was never my thing to think about being undefeated. I always wanted to like just fight. I just wanted to go fight the best in the world and be [a] world champion, and what hurt me the most was not being a world champion, you know? The record, for me, didn't matter."