ONE Championship targets Rodtang fight for Atlanta card in November after Takeru clash in Tokyo
ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is hoping to squeeze Rodtang Jitmuangnon onto the promotion's second US card of 2024 in Atlanta in November.
"The Iron Man" has a busy second half of the year coming up, with a kickboxing tuneup tentatively scheduled for June at ONE 167 in Bangkok before a highly-anticipated showdown with Takeru Segawa in Tokyo in September.
That schedule ruled Rodtang out of fighting earlier the same month at ONE 168 when the promotion makes its return to Denver, where the flyweight Muay Thai champ received a huge reception for his second-round KO of Edgar Tabares.
But, speaking to Sportskeeda in Bangkok after ONE Friday Fights 58, ONE boss Sityodtong insisted he still hopes to treat American fans to another Rodtang fight, providing the 26-year-old is not too banged up. He said:
"Of course I do want him [Rodtang] in America, but we are saving Rodtang quite frankly for Japan. He was supposed to fight in Japan last time and there was a lot of buzz around him and Takeru, so we thought that would blow up Japan."
He added:
"We thought 'what’s the big fight people want to watch', it’s Haggerty vs Superlek, they also want to watch Haggerty vs Rodtang. But in the same month we’re on opposite sides of the world so we said look, where do we put the fight and when. Of course, I think Rodtang will then fight in America in November in Atlanta."
ONE has not officially confirmed any matchup yet for Rodtang, who last competed in a September 2023 decision defeat by Superlek Kiatmookao.
But the Takeru fight, which was originally set for January in Japan before Rodtang withdrew injured, is certainly in the works.
That's provided Takeru can recover in time from a knee injury sustained in his own defeat by Superlek, he stepped in on short notice to successfully defend his flyweight kickboxing title at Ariake Arena. Sityodtong added:
"I’d like to make that fight. It’s not 100 per cent because Takeru is still injured. He’s started training but he can’t kick yet, because his knee is still jacked. But I want to make that fight. That’s obviously a huge fight in Japan."
When the return to Japan is announced, it will kick off a busy stretch of numbered events for the promotion, starting with a stacked card at Impact Arena in June.
Tokyo will then be sandwiched by two big US cards at Denver's Ball Arena and the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Sityodtong concluded:
"We haven’t formally announced it yet. But it will be ONE 167 in Bangkok, ONE 168 in Denver, ONE 169 in Tokyo, ONE 170 it Atlanta. Then there’s a couple more we are trying to do. It's a full schedule."