ONE Championship boss Chatri open to Smilla Sundell fighting for strawweight title again despite weight miss

Smilla Sundell is determined to win back the ONE Championship strawweight Muay Thai title after losing it on the scale – and boss Chatri Sityodtong thinks it may still be "possible".

The martial arts promotion's chairman and CEO told Sportskeeda he will consider letting Sundell go for gold again at 125lbs, despite saying he would make a flyweight division following Sundell's weight miss for last weekend's ONE Fight Night 22 main event.

The 19-year-old Swede, who won the belt at 17 but has since shot up to 1.79 meters in height, came in 1.5lbs heavy and was stripped of the belt.

But, she went on to TKO Natalia Diachkova in the second round at Lumpinee Stadium, and told Sportskeeda backstage:

"Of course I have regrets. Yeah it sucks. but I'm thankful. I think everything happens for a reason. But I'm sorry I didn’t make weight. I'm very happy Natalia took the fight and she’s a good opponent and I hope to make it next time and get my belt back."

Sundell believes that with more time, she can comfortably make the weight at 125, despite appearing to have simply outgrown the division.

Sportskeeda understands the teenager experienced a stressful fight camp and did not have optimal conditions to get in the best mental and physical shape. She said:

"I don’t think it will be the final one at strawweight but I do want the flyweight division a lot because I think I will be better at that weight, but I still want this belt.

"I just need more time. I think at least two months I need to prepare so maybe America sounds good. That’s my dream. Stamp [Fairtex] is fighting in Denver. It would be cool to fight on the same show but if not, I think Atlanta sounds cool too."

ONE will return to the US on September 6 in Colorado, before putting on their first card in Georgira two months later.

Such a time frame would give "The Hurricane" – who trains out of the Fairtex gym in Pattaya, Thailand – plenty of time to drop down safely, without needing to resort to extreme measures such as cutting her hair, which her team considered in the desperate final minutes of last Thursday's official three-hour weigh-in window.

Smilla Sundell celebrates after stopping Natalia Diachkova.

Videos of the incident went viral online, with Sundell seen in tears, and many high-profile fighters in ONE – including former atomweight MMA champion Angela Lee – reached out to her with words of comfort on social media. On this, she said:

"I didn’t know how much I needed that but it really helped having them supporting me. I think that helped me a lot. OK, I have my family but sometimes when other people, other fighters tell me they have been through the same, it means a lot to me and it helped me get going today."

Indeed, it is easy to forget how young Sundell is, given some of her amazing feats – she once completed a marathon in Sweden with a broken foot, and won her title with the same injury against Jackie Buntan in April 2022.

Smilla Sundell hugs her father Christofer after her victory at ONE Fight Night 22.

Sundell even learned to walk at just six and a half months old. "She is just different," her mother told Sportskeeda. Sundell added:

"I just push myself. No, I think 'just keep going, just keep going', that’s going through my head. I want to run a marathon in June again, that’s my next goal. Maybe I will beat my time."

Other goals include transitioning to mixed martial arts, where many believe she has a permanent future.

"That will be later in the future. I want to try a mixed rules fight first maybe, but I also want the kickboxing belt, so when Jackie and Anissa [Meksen] have fought for that one [in July] I will let them have it for a bit of time and then maybe I can go for it as well."