Towering teen Smilla Sundell admits she didn’t enjoy Muay Thai at first: “I like basketball more”

Former ONE women's strawweight Muay Thai world champion 'The Hurricane' Smilla Sundell of Sweden recently revealed that she had no plans of becoming a professional fighter when she was younger.

In fact, the 5-foot-8-inch tall striker wanted to become a basketball player. It wasn't until a family vacation to Phuket, Thailand, where she tried training in Muay Thai with her sister for fun, that she fell in love with 'the art of eight limbs'.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA , Sundell went into detail and said:

"I like basketball more. I don’t play anymore, though. Actually I didn’t want to do Muay Thai, but we moved to the small island, so there was no basketball for me to do there, so I did Muay Thai instead."

Sundell is fresh off a scintillating second-round technical knockout victory over Russia's Natalia Diachkova at ONE Fight Night 22: Sundell vs. Diachkova on Prime Video.

After falling behind on the scorecards early and getting dominated by 'Karelian Lynx', Sundell came storming back like 'The Hurricane' that she is and connected with a thunderous body shot that ended matters abruptly.

Unfortunately, however, Sundell did lose the strawweight gold on the scales when she failed to pass weight and hydration for what would have been her second world title defense.

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Smilla Sundell contemplates flyweight move: "I think I would be stronger"

After missing weight and losing her Muay Thai belt on the scales at ONE Fight Night 22, 'The Hurricane' Smilla Sundell says she has contemplated moving up to flyweight.

The 19-year-old Swedish fighter believes she would be able to put on more exciting fights when she doesn't have to struggle cutting weight too much.

'The Hurricane' told Sportskeeda MMA:

"Yeah, that would be good. I think I would be stronger, I can put on muscles. And yeah, that move to flyweight would be great. I know there’s people out there."

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