“A top teammate” - Denis Puric addresses close friendship with bantamweight MMA king Fabricio Andrade

Veteran kickboxer Denis Puric is grateful for the friendship he has forged with ONE bantamweight MMA world champion Fabricio Andrade, who according to Puric, generous with his time and knowledge when they had the opportunity to train together.

The two go back a long way, back to their time competing in China, when the Brazilian was beginning his martial arts journey. Puric said that even then, he already saw the 'Wonderboy's' potential to succeed in combat sports and attributed a lot of it to his tremendous work ethic.

Since then they have built a friendship, which has seen them train together at one point in the past.

'The Bosnian Menace' shared this in an interview with the South China Morning Post, saying:

"I knew that kid was coming for greatness as long as he's in, you know, in the right place with the right people he definitely had a bright future. As I mentioned, I knew there was a big future ahead of him. So when I did train with him, you know, he comes and helps out sometimes before and he's really a top teammate to work with."

Watch the interview below:

While Andrade has already realized his goal of becoming a ONE world champion, Denis Puric, 39, is still working on it and is angling to use his scheduled fight next month to build up his case for a title shot.

The Bosnian-Canadian fighter will take on ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a flyweight kickboxing showdown at ONE 167: Stamp vs Zamboanga on June 7 in Thailand.

The contest is part of the stacked card emanating from the Impact Arena in Bangkok and will be available live and for free to North American fans with an active Prime Video subscription.

Denis Puric looking to build on back-to-back victories heading into ONE 167

Denis Puric will be competing in his tradional lane of kickboxing for the first time under ONE Championship.

The Team CSK athlete will battle flyweight Muay Thai king Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a kickboxing clash at ONE 167: Stamp vs Zamboanga on June 7 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Heading into the contest, Denis Puric is coming off two straight wins in his last two Muay Thai matches in convincing fashion, something he is out to use as solid jump-off point against 'The Iron Man.'

He first defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tran Duy Mhat by way of knockout in the second round of their catchweight (139.75 lbs) duel in December. He then followed it up with a unanimous decision victory over Jacob Smith of the United Kingdom last month.

Rodtang, meanwhile, will be back competing in kickboxing since January last year. He was last in action back in September in an epic catchweight (140 lbs) Muay Thai battle with fellow Thai superstar Superlek Kiatmoo9.