Allycia Hellen Rodrigues ‘extremely motivated’ to beat Smilla Sundell after missing son’s birthday

After dethroning Stamp Fairtex, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues took time away from her career to give birth and raise her only son, Josue.

The Brazilian world champion made her comeback to the circle earlier this year at ONE Fight Night 8,where she faced the interim champion Janet Todd. With another great display, Rodrigues proved that she still belonged at the top despite taking an extended period of leave away from the spotlight.

At ONE Fight Night 14, she is looking to make up for the lost time by taking an opportunity on late notice to achieve greatness.

With Jackie Buntan out of her rematch with Smilla Sundell, Rodrigues will move up a weight class to challenge for the ONE strawweight Muay Thai world championship.

Despite having the opportunity to become a two-weight world champion, the 25-year-old striker revealed in an interview with the South China Morning Post Martial Arts that it was a tough decision to make.

Having sacrificed some of the best years of her career to grow her family, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues has now had to make difficult choices regarding her personal life in order to put her career first:

“It’s very exciting to do this. I came with a lot of motivation today as you can see because today is my son’s second birthday. It’s really hard to be away, given everything we’ve been through and everything we have to go through, but this is my job and I love doing it and I’m extremely motivated to do it.”

Watch the full interview below:

Beating Sundell will be a very difficult task, especially when moving up a weight class on short notice.

But with the personal motivation behind her, Rodrigues is fired up to go back home with another 26-pound gold that could just make her belated birthday party with her son a far more memorable one.

ONE Fight Night 14 will air live and free in U.S. primetime for North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription on Friday, September 29.