Regian Eersel admits Alexis Nicolas clocked him good in first matchup: "The referee started counting"
Regian Eersel is looking to correct some mistakes that he made last time out under the ONE Championship banner.
In his return to Lumpinee Stadium, 'The Immortal' is out for revenge and to reclaim his ONE lightweight kickboxing world championship.
His first meeting with Alexis Nicolas in the main event of ONE Fight Night 21 saw his opponent win the fight via the scorecards. The bout would have ended as a draw, but with there being no draws in ONE Championship's ruleset, the bout was decided by Nicolas landing the most significant strike of the fight with a second-round knockdown.
Before they run it back at ONE Fight Night 25, the former champ is happy to admit where the fight went the way of his opponent.
Eersel knows that he would have had the fight won if it wasn't for that one shot. but he did acknowledge in a recent interview with ONE Championship ahead of the rematch that it was a good, well-placed strike:
"In the second round, I got knocked down. I was pressuring him a lot. He caught me with the right hook. The moment I got hit, I was going to my ankle. I feel down. I thought, 'I'll stand up quickly and we will continue to fight,' but the referee started counting. So I was like, 'Yeah, I'm not going to protest, I got hit,' but it was not like I was dizzy or something like that."
Regian Eersel went straight back to the drawing board
Despite the fact that he went undefeated for such a long time, Regian Eersel didn't sit on this setback for too much time.
The former champ went back to the drawing board and started to look at what he could have done differently in his first encounter with Nicolas.
As he looks to make the right adjustments, it will be on the defending champion to also show evolution from the first fight. If he's able to demonstrate his power once again, it could be the defining factor for a second time.
ONE Fight Night 25 will air live in US primetime free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in North America.