ONE Championship: 13 years after his first title, strawweight kickboxer Prajanchai PK Saenchaigym says best is yet to come
- The Thai had expected to face Canada’s Jonathan Di Bella at ONE Friday Fights 58 this week
- Becoming kickboxing champion for the first time would also secure Prajanchai the seventh major title of his career
Prajanchai PK Saenchaigym started training Muay Thai when he was four years old. His brother was a fighter as were several relatives and, as a young child in Bangkok, he dreamed of becoming the first member of his family to win a title.
Prajanchai fulfilled that dream in 2011, when he won the Rajadamnern mini flyweight title, and he has been consistently adding belts to the collection since.
Prajanchai is the reigning ONE Championship Muay Thai strawweight champion, turns 30 this year, and told the Post he feels the best is yet to come.
“I don’t think I am at my peak, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. Becoming a champion is not necessarily a peak, because defending the title and staying as champion is more difficult.”
At ONE Friday Fights 58 this week, he had expected to face Jonathan Di Bella in a unification bout, but the undefeated Canadian pulled out at the last minute.
Before doing so, Di Bella had said he was going into the contest as an underdog, not that Prajanchai viewed things that way.
“I don’t think he’s the underdog, I feel like he’s the king of kickboxing and I’m the underdog,” Prajanchai said. “I’m not as familiar with the rules as him and he has never been defeated – not even one time in ONE Championship – so I think I am the underdog.”
While Di Bella, who has yet to lose as an amateur or professional, Prajanchai was on the wrong end of a massive upset in 2022, when he quit on his stool three rounds into a strawweight Muay Thai title fight with Joseph Lasiri.
Last year Prajanchai avenged that defeat, stopping Lasiri in the opening round to recapture a belt that will not be on the line this Friday. It was put to him that the defeat made him stronger, but the 29-year-old does not see things that way.
“It’s not that I won [the rematch] against Lasiri and I became stronger,” he said. “But I believe if you train hard and train well, you keep disciplined and stick to your routine and schedule, then you will get stronger.”
Di Bella is a couple of years younger than Prajanchai but the Canadian has stated that he is in his prime. This is a source of motivation for the interim champion, who wants to test himself against the best opponents.
“I would be happy if I am able to defeat him because I remember in an interview he said that he is at the peak of his career and if I can defeat him at his peak that would be a great achievement,” Prajanchai said.
Ahead of this fight he has been taking advice from Superlek Kiatmoo9, considered one of the greatest Thai kick-boxers of all time.
Superlek recently beat Takeru at ONE 165 to cement his status as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.
Superlek started out in Muay Thai and transitioned to kickboxing relatively late in his career, as had Prajanchai, who said he had picked up a few tips from the flyweight champion.
“I am happy for Superlek to have had success in kickboxing. We know each other and we did have a talk before this fight and I will use his advice.”
Prajanchai will be looking to secure the seventh major title of his career, to go with a regional belt he won in traditional boxing. Clearly the novelty has not worn off.
He is determined to become an undisputed kickboxing champion for the first time, which is why this is an “important” fight.
“It’s very important to me to be a double sport world champion. It would make me proud.”
Thirteen years after accomplishing that goal of becoming the first family member to win a belt, there are clearly still challenges out there that excite this decorated Thai champion.
