ONE Championship: Nong-O Hama set to fight Nico Carrillo in Bangkok, sources say
- Former bantamweight Muay Thai champion will face the No 5-ranked Carrillo at ONE Friday Fights 46 in December
- The bout, a potential title eliminator, bolsters a stacked year-end card at Lumpinee Stadium, which already boasts three title fights.
Former ONE Championship bantamweight Muay Thai king Nong-O Hama is set to face Nico Carrillo at ONE Friday Fights 46 in Bangkok on December 22, sources told the Post.
The bout, a potential title eliminator, will bolster a stacked year-end card at Lumpinee Stadium, which already boasts three title fights.
Superbon will challenge Tawanchai for the featherweight Muay Thai title in the main event, with Phetjeeja Ormeekhun and Anissa Meksen set to face off for the interim atomweight kickboxing title.
The martial arts promotion announced last Saturday that divisional champion Joseph Lasiri and interim king Prajanchai PK Saencahi will also unify the strawweight Muay Thai title at the event.
Scotland’s Carrillo, 22, was tipped as a future champion after earning a US$100,000 ONE Championship contract after just two wins on the weekly ONE Friday Fights cards at Lumpinee.
Both were by knockout, the second an impressive finish of Thai veteran Muangthai PK Saenchai in June, which also scored him a US$10,000 performance bonus from ONE’s chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
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“The King of the North” entered the bantamweight rankings last month at No 5, and could position himself as Jonathan Haggerty’s next title challenger with another win over the legendary Nong-O.
Haggerty had said he is open to a rematch with the No 1-ranked Nong-O, from whom he took the title in April with a first-round KO in Bangkok, snapping an eight-fight win streak for the Thai.
“Nico is going to win by knockout, one hundred per cent, I genuinely do believe that,” Carrillo’s coach JP Gallacher told commentator Joe Comerford when asked last week about his fellow Scot’s next fight, without naming the opponent.
“Nico gets better and better every single fight. The Nico you see in the last fight, isn’t who you’re going to see in the next. That’s why he’s so hard to prepare for.
“We’re there to do a job and we are coming for gold after that. Nico is my best pal and he’s my fighter, but unbiased, I genuinely believe I’ve got the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world on my hands here.”
The 37-year-old Nong-O returned to full training in late September after a battle with dengue fever that left him in an intensive care unit in hospital for several days.
He was suffering with “life threatening” late stage symptoms, which prompted Chatri to book Haggerty in a fight against Fabricio Andrade for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing title, instead of a rematch with Nong-O.
“I’m not choosing. Anybody in bantamweight in ONE Championship, just tell me the name,” Nong-O told the Post in September, when asked who he would like to face on his return.
“I want to come back by the end of this year, that would be perfect.”
