"Should have given myself time to recover" - Tagir Khalilov concedes he rush in too soon for Kongthoranee duel at ONE 169

Hindsight is a beautiful thing and sometimes lessons are only learned by making mistakes, and this is how Tagir Khalilov came away from ONE 169. The Russian took part in his second fight of the year and was in search of a big bounce-back win on Nov. 8.

On June 14 at ONE Friday Fights 67, he was stopped in the first round by Nakrob Fairtex and wanted to get back in the win column at the first chance he got to do so. A fight with Kongthoranee would be the perfect way for him to climb back up the rankings but it wasn't to be.

Tagir Khalilov lost a one-sided fight to the Thai striker and in an interview with ONE Championship after the fight, reflected on the defeat.

He believes that he was too eager to get back in there when he would have been better off taking more time to properly recover before returning. He said:

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"I feel like I've burned out and gotten tired because after my last loss, after the knockout, I went straight back into training and took on another fight. Maybe I should have given myself time to recover."

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Tagir Khalilov learned his lesson the hard way

Tagir Khalilov wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to face a top contender in Kongthoranee in the hopes that a rebound win would change his fortunes. Unfortunately, it simply wasn't his night on Nov. 8 as it was his opponent that returned to the win column instead.

Kongthoranee looked at the top of his game at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, having lost a decision to newly crowned two-sport king Superlek Kiatmoo9 last time out at ONE Friday Fights 68.

Khalilov isn't likely to make the same mistake twice and as long as he learns from this setback so that he can come back even stronger, this experience will serve him well.

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