Superbon says his step-in knees countered Marat Grigorian’s signature forward pressure: “That helped me to stop him”
Newly minted interim ONE featherweight kickboxing world champion Superbon won his trilogy bout against rival Marat Grigorian at ONE Friday Fights 58 last week. The Thai superstar defeated his Armenian foe via unanimous decision in a hotly contested five-round war.
Having fought the Thai icon already twice in the past, Grigorian did his homework and came at him with powerful punches inside the pocket. With Superbon being one of the greatest kickers in the world today, this strategy largely nullified his kicks.
Still, the former undisputed world champion adapted and found a different weapon to halt his foe's advance: his step-in knee strikes.
He told ONE during his post-event presser:
“We were prepared too. Because if he came close, this is what we did, I did the body knee every time he punched, and that helped me to stop him.”
Watch the full presser here:
Superbon confident he won all rounds after the final bell
Speaking to Sportskeeda MMA after winning the belt, Superbon gave a brief assessment of the bout and how it went his way.
Despite the back-and-forth brawl being seemingly close in the eyes of spectators, the new interim king saw it going his way from start to finish.
He said:
"I think I won every round with my weapons. I hurt him with low kicks, I hurt him to the body and every time, he cannot protect my knees to the body. And you can hear in the stadium, it was bang bang, [which means] it is a lot of power to hurt him in the body."
We can say that his knee strikes did a lot to slow the momentum of Marat Grigorian. Aside from those shots, his roundhouse kicks to the legs and body also largely did some damage. These weapons also allowed him to find openings to land some punches as well.