ONE 168 - Haggerty vs Superlek - Sep 6th

[Nova44]

 

[Tayski]

Great, that was the next fight to make for Superlek, but why so far away in time?

 

[Monte Moku]

Jesus, six months? Did Superlek or Haggerty break something in their last fights?

 

[Nova44]

Jesus, six months? Did Superlek or Haggerty break something in their last fights?

Personally i think Haggerty will have his mma debut in the mean time. Hopefully not though.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Great scrap.
Who are you guys leaning to?

 

[Nova44]

Great scrap.
Who are you guys leaning to?

Superlek without a doubt for me.

 

[Monte Moku]

Personally i think Haggerty will have his mma debut in the mean time. Hopefully not though.

It will be beyond frustrating if they waste a talent like Haggerty on some BS MMA fight, all in the name of using "three sport champion" as a promotional tool. His Kickboxing belt is already a paper championship, all him winning an MMA belt would show is that ONE's MMA fighters aren't even good enough to beat a Muay Thai fighter with little to no ground game. Just let the guy be the Muay Thai fighter that he is and likely wants to be.

 

[Monte Moku]

Great scrap.
Who are you guys leaning to?

I feel like Ilias Ennahachi presented a somewhat similar style in a Kickboxing context, where Superlek had less weapons and still managed to control the fight. With Superlek being able to use whole skill set, I think he will be able to win pretty handily

 

[SuperLuigi]

Great scrap.
Who are you guys leaning to?

To win Haggerty would have to either level up by a significant margin or hope that Superlek lets him tee off on him the way he did with Takeru and get a KO. Superlek is the favorite for sure but he does have some significant factors working against him.

 

[Tayski]

Great scrap.
Who are you guys leaning to?

Logic says Superlek, but Haggerty has been on a tear lately with strong hands, maybe he can do something unpredictable. Superlek is a bad matchup for his style though. I'll be rooting for Haggerty to make it a war.

 

[Tayski]

To win Haggerty would have to either level up by a significant margin or hope that Superlek lets him tee off on him the way he did with Takeru and get a KO. Superlek is the favorite for sure but he does have some significant factors working against him.

Thing is Takeru was able to do that to Superek because it was in Kickboxing where clicnching isn't allowsed. No chance he'd let someone tee off on him when clinching is allowed.

 

[ryun253]

Damn, Superlek on a killer row of fights lately, wonder how Denver altitude will affect his cardio :O

 

[Metatron]

It will be beyond frustrating if they waste a talent like Haggerty on some BS MMA fight, all in the name of using "three sport champion" as a promotional tool. His Kickboxing belt is already a paper championship, all him winning an MMA belt would show is that ONE's MMA fighters aren't even good enough to beat a Muay Thai fighter with little to no ground game. Just let the guy be the Muay Thai fighter that he is and likely wants to be.

I could be wrong but I think the goal at some point is to make the transition to MMA permanently. He does come from an MMA gym in Team Underground. There's only so much he can gain in terms of stardom and finance in the kickfighting world which is why you see many fighters either go to boxing or mma. Plus outside of his win over Nong-O hes shown to be pretty beatable at 145 against the likes of kuzmin and lobo. Depending on how his ground game progression is going I can see him having a couple more kickfighting fights and then calling it a day so putting an MMA bout in there somewhere as a tester wouldn't be a surprise.

 

[Metatron]

As for the superlek vs haggerty fight itself, fingers crossed it all goes to plan but 6 months is a long time for things to go wrong especially considering ONEs track record. Also do Americans even care about this fight? It would be a great main event on a UK card which I thought they were planning on making this year after signing a deal with SKY. Either way great match up.

 

[machida90]

You can’t have a double champion and make him fight every 6 months. So we will not see an Akimoto fight in 2024?
Interesting that Rodtang was asking for the Haggerty fight too and they gave it to Superlek. In my opinion Rodtang vs Haggerty would have been better for a US card.

 

[Blazeblack]

I feel like Ilias Ennahachi presented a somewhat similar style in a Kickboxing context, where Superlek had less weapons and still managed to control the fight. With Superlek being able to use whole skill set, I think he will be able to win pretty handily

I don't know if that's a fair comparison. I think Haggerty is definitely the better pucher. Not that I think he has what it takes to beat superleck.

 

[Monte Moku]

I don't know if that's a fair comparison. I think Haggerty is definitely the better pucher. Not that I think he has what it takes to beat superleck.

It was a bit of a loose comparison, I mainly see Ennahachi and Haggerty having similarities in that they have a dynamic, bouncy, movement-oriented style that focuses on using the lead leg for controlling the range and pace of the fight. That's kind of where their similarities end, but I think that oftentimes Thais can have issues against that sort of style (i.e., Petchdam vs Ennahachi, Weerasakreck vs Asahisa). I'm not sure I agree that Haggerty is a better puncher than Ennahachi (or maybe I misunderstood what you meant), but honestly I find that hard to gauge since they primarily compete in two different sports against opponents with very different styles

 

[Blazeblack]

It was a bit of a loose comparison, I mainly see Ennahachi and Haggerty having similarities in that they have a dynamic, bouncy, movement-oriented style that focuses on using the lead leg for controlling the range and pace of the fight. That's kind of where their similarities end, but I think that oftentimes Thais can have issues against that sort of style (i.e., Petchdam vs Ennahachi, Weerasakreck vs Asahisa). I'm not sure I agree that Haggerty is a better puncher than Ennahachi (or maybe I misunderstood what you meant), but honestly I find that hard to gauge since they primarily compete in two different sports against opponents with very different styles

I see your point they do have distinct similarities.

I did mean that Haggerty has the more powerful punch, more specifically a better right hand. He is definitely the better finisher in any case.

Granted his power has been inconsistent, but has been impressive at his current weight (I'm assuming weight management is probably a contributing factor). But in fairness punches are going to be more devastating in those 4oz gloves against dudes you are almost always bigger than.

 

[CaptainRomania]

I could be wrong but I think the goal at some point is to make the transition to MMA permanently. He does come from an MMA gym in Team Underground. There's only so much he can gain in terms of stardom and finance in the kickfighting world which is why you see many fighters either go to boxing or mma. Plus outside of his win over Nong-O hes shown to be pretty beatable at 145 against the likes of kuzmin and lobo. Depending on how his ground game progression is going I can see him having a couple more kickfighting fights and then calling it a day so putting an MMA bout in there somewhere as a tester wouldn't be a surprise.

Haggerty thinks he can beat fabricio andrade in mma again and take that belt. Andrade would have to put on his wrestling shoes, his boxing is shit now

PS why no response to my post on the ONE thread hehe. bro looooves to tag people about arguments from months ago, but goes silent when the same happens to them! apparently it's not real when ONE fighters get exposed outside their organization

 

[SuperLuigi]

You can’t have a double champion and make him fight every 6 months. So we will not see an Akimoto fight in 2024?
Interesting that Rodtang was asking for the Haggerty fight too and they gave it to Superlek. In my opinion Rodtang vs Haggerty would have been better for a US card.

By June Petchtanong's suspension will be up. That would be a cool fight for Haggerty in the summer and perhaps more likely as Akimoto doesn't see to be in ONE's good graces.