Smilla Sundell credits Stamp for helping her shoot for the stars: "I learned that you can achieve whatever you like"
Smilla Sundell has learned a lot from training alongside three-sport queen Stamp Fairtex.
The ONE strawweight Muay Thai world champion returns to action for her second world title defense against Natalia Diachkova in the main event of ONE Fight Night 22 on May 3. Their planned five-round tilt gets underway inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
Ahead of her fight, the Swede phenom touched on Stamp's impact during their sessions at Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand, highlighting the biggest lesson she learned from the reigning ONE atomweight MMA world champion.
Smilla Sundell told ONE Championship:
"From training with Stamp, I learned that you can achieve whatever you like as long as you put in the work. But I learned that from my parents, too. But maybe more practical, in a sense, because Stamp did it in martial arts."
With the right guidance from the Thai megastar alongside her world-class coaches and teammates, the 19-year-old is on her way to achieving greatness under the ONE banner.
The Stockholm native has made steady progress with each passing fight, and her undented 4-0 slate against Diandra Martin, Jackie Buntan, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues, and Milana Bjelogrlic only proves her worth against the best.
Still only 19, fans can expect more from her as the years go by. For now, she will be geared up to dish out another spectacle at ONE Fight Night 22.
Smilla Sundell down for MMA transition in the future
With a desire to follow Stamp's historic three-sport success, Smilla Sundell hasn't wasted any time trying to mix up her usual pad-smashing Muay Thai sessions with a couple of MMA classes in Fairtex.
In fact, in the same exchange with the promotion, the teenage sensation teased that she had already added a couple of submissions to her textbook of finishes.
She added:
"I've done some guillotines already, so definitely gonna try those [when I transition to MMA]."
North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can catch the entire ONE Fight Night 22 card live and for free in U.S. primetime this Friday, May 3.