"Now I need to finish this" - Smilla Sundell recalls the moment she flipped the switch in comeback win vs. Natalia Diachkova
Muay Thai superstar 'The Hurricane' Smilla Sundell recently delivered a play-by-play of the crucial moments that led up to her comeback victory over Russian rival Natalia Diachkova at ONE Fight Night 22.
Right at the onset, Sundell was severely behind on the scorecards after surviving a blitzkrieg of punches from Diachkova in the first round. But something happened in the following round that the Russian did not expect - an angrier version of Smilla Sundell.
Rising from the ashes, the teenage superstar stormed back. She continued backpeddling the Russian against the ropes until hurting her with a big body shot to the gut at the 2:59 minute mark.
This week, Smilla Sundell provided an exact play-by-play of her stunning comeback against Diachkova on her YouTube channel below:
"I just see her hitting me all the time. In here she teeped me, and here, I got very angry, and I was like, this is it? I got to finish this now. I'm angry. I'm like, you don't get me down. That's just embarrassing. And I was like, now I need to finish this."
Everything that could've gone wrong went wrong for Smilla Sundell until she gave Natalia Diachkova her due.
Before stepping inside the Lumpinee Arena, the young star had been stripped of her ONE strawweight Muay Thai crown for failing to meet the standard weight limit of her class.
It was a crushing disappointment, but it only added more fuel to her fire. Sundell plans to reclaim her belt in another exciting world title bout before starting her own division in a higher weight class.
"It doesn't matter who I fight" - Smilla Sundell says she's willing to scrap with anyone who has the courage to step up and fight her
Smilla Sundell is understandably one of the feared athletes in ONE Championship.
As Sundell said in a previous interview, there have been multiple occasions where she'd sign on the dotted line for a fight, but by the time her opponents find out who they're fighting, they opt out.
It's a frustrating process, to say the least, but it just proves that the young Swede is a rare specimen of a fighter. With a vacant belt left for grabs, she hopes to get another match in the books with someone who has the guts to fight her.
She told ONE:
"It doesn't matter who I fight. I just love fighting. So, I'll face anyone who wants to step into the ring with me."