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Marat Grigorian knows it's unwise to trifle with the tropical heat of Thailand.
The Armenian superstar is aware of how difficult it is fighting under the humid heat of Southeast Asia, and he experienced it firsthand when he fought Superbon Singha Mawynn a couple of years ago at ONE X in Singapore.
Grigorian, while putting up a gallant fight, lost via unanimous decision to his old rival for the ONE featherweight kickboxing world title in March 2022.
Nevertheless, he has another shot at gold when he faces Superbon for the ONE interim featherweight kickboxing world title in the main event of ONE Friday Fights 58 on April 5 at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.
Grigorian revealed in an interview with ONE Championship that he's been training at Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand for a few weeks to try and acclimate to the country's tropical weather. He said:
"So that's why now we are here [in Thailand] for longer, to get healthy and recover," Marat Grigorian said. "It's helping me get used to the time. I'm sleeping well and things like that. So I think it will be a different night."
Grigorian is based in the Netherlands where average temperatures this month would dance around nine to 12 degrees Celsius. Thailand's weather, however, reaches upwards of 30 degrees Celsius during the country's summer months.
Marat Grigorian blames sluggish performance in loss to Superbon at ONE X
Marat Grigorian has always relied on his speed and explosiveness during fights, but he realized those two traits abandoned him in his first fight against Superbon in ONE Championship.
The three-time Glory Kickboxing world champion said in the same interview that he felt sluggish and couldn't recover his energy during the fight at ONE X. He said:
"You can see it in my fight. I was really slow. I was throwing everything like slow motion."
Superbon, then the ONE featherweight kickboxing world champion, ultimately beat Grigorian via unanimous decision to retain the gold.
