Tawanchai PK Saenchai made his ONE Championship kickboxing debut look easy last weekend. The featherweight Muay Thai king embarked on his quest for two-sport gold by defeating Davit Kiria at ONE Fight Night 13 on Friday, Aug. 4.
He may not even be a quarter-century old yet, but Tawanchai is only getting better. And despite his impressive run in the world’s largest martial arts organization, the talented Thai star is staying grounded and humble when it comes to discussing his skills.
“As being 24 years old, I feel like there’s still a lot of room for improvement for me, especially in kickboxing rules. I don’t think I’m good at kickboxing and there’s still a lot of things that I need to improve,” Tawanchai told ONE following his victory.
Tawanchai showed no emotion after his victory inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, in Bangkok, Thailand, and that wasn’t part of the show.
It simply came down to how focused he was on the task at hand.
“It’s not really a secret, I don’t intend to make a purpose out of it or anything. It’s just like my face when I concentrate on fighting. Because I was thinking all the time on how to defeat the opponent so that’s how my face looks like,” Tawanchai remarked.
The PK Saenchai standout showed he is a top contender in the featherweight kickboxing division with the final-round knockout win.
By showing excellence across two sports, many believe he should be placed firmly amongst the best pound-for-pound stirkers in the world.
But Tawanchai is not ready to claim that title just yet.
Instead, he is already planning for his next opponent. Tawanchai will defend the ONE featherweight Muay Thai world title against Superbon Singha Mawynn in his next outing on the global stage, and he’s excited to take on his world-class compatriot.
“I think it would be a fun fight. I think we have close skills in terms of skill sets so I think it would be entertaining,” he said.
“I feel like his timing was great [against Tayfun Ozcan], he was really good at, you know, finding the right time to strike the opponent and the strike became successful.”
Tawanchai will be back in the gym soon to begin his preparation for his toughest title defense to date, but the allure of kickboxing gold isn’t out his mind just.
He still wants a crack at ONE featherweight kickboxing champion Chingiz Allazov, and that intention alone sets the stage for an exciting end to 2023 for ONE’s striking ranks.
“I can’t say for sure because it’s up to ONE Championship which opponent they’re going to give me, but it’s my dream to get a belt in kickboxing,” Tawanchai said.