Jonathan Di Bella is determined to reclaim the ONE Strawweight Kickboxing Championship after losing his last bid against Prajanchai PK Saenchai.
The road toward another shot at the gold begins at ONE Fight Night 26 on Prime Video on Friday, Dec. 6., against Rui Botelho.
“My goal is to get my belt back – for sure, 100 percent to get my belt back. That’s my main goal,” Di Bella confessed to ONE.
The title is at the forefront of Di Bella’s mind and serves as his primary motivation. Once at the apex of the division, the talented strawweight is not hiding how much he enjoyed holding the position atop the mountain.
“It was a close fight. I still lost, still came out on the short end. I just want to get the belt back, that’s all. I want to be champion. I like being champion. I love being champion, and yeah, I just want to be champion again,” the Italian-Canadian said.
Against Botelho, Di Bella is only focused on getting back in the win column. There are no illusions of a highlight-reel KO, only of him getting his hand raised.
Once that task is completed, he feels he will be ready to throw his name back into the mix for a shot at the title.
“I believe I gotta get a win. Don’t look for any knockouts. Just go out there and perform, focus on Rui, and then whatever is next, is next. If Prajanchai is next, we’ll focus on Prajanchai for sure. But yeah, my main focus is Rui,” Di Bella remarked.
Botelho will not roll over for the Italian-Canadian. The Portuguese striker is riding back-to-back upset victories into the matchup and hopes to make it a streak of three with Di Bella’s name on the docket.
The former divisional king has been breaking down his opponent’s game and sees that Dec. 6 will not be an easy night at the office.
“[Botelho is a] very unorthodox fighter. I think he has a lot of power, a lot of speed, a lot of timing. He’s very tricky, and as far as weaknesses, I don’t see really many weaknesses, but I see that he’s very offensive. He’s more offensive than anything. He comes to fight, so that’s good,” the former strawweight king said.
With a laser-focused mindset, Di Bella plans to be adaptable at ONE Fight Night 26.
Di Bella wants to shut down his opponent’s game and score enough points to exit with a winner’s purse. If a knockout should come in the process, even better.
“Whatever I have to do to win, I’ll do. I’ll see his style in the fight, during the fight, and whatever happens, happens. Maybe win by decision, win by knockout. I’m not going to look for a knockout, but anything can happen. If it comes, it comes. But it’s just to win, you know? I just play to win,” Di Bella said.
ONE Fight Night 26 airs live and free on Prime Video at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST on Friday, Dec. 6, to all U.S. and Canadian Amazon Prime subscribers.