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Reigning and undisputed ONE bantamweight MMA world champion ‘Wonder Boy’ Fabricio Andrade has no problem taking on former adversary ‘Pretty Boy’ Kwon Won Il in his next world title defense, even though he had already defeated the South Korean in the past.
Andrade feels Kwon has improved his game by leaps and bounds and is now worthy of a rematch.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post in a recent interview, Andrade says he is open to another round with Kwon, but is confident the result remains the same.
‘Wonder Boy’ said:
“I think whenever you lose, you kind of like see more things that you could have improved. I see that he improved a lot on his grappling, especially in his last fight. He was able to take the Mongolian [Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg] down, and ground and pound him. Against Artem [Belakh] as well, even though Artem was trying to get him down, he was able to defend very well and stand up. I see a lot of improvements in him but I'm sure if we fight again, I'm gonna knock him out again.”
Andrade stopped Kwon with a body kick in the first round of their June 2022 clash at ONE 158. ‘Wonder Boy’ went on to win the ONE bantamweight MMA world title against John Lineker shortly after.
Meanwhile, Kwon bounced back from his loss to Andrade by posting TKO wins over Mark Abelardo, Artem Belakh, and Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg. Now, the South Korean is firmly in the no.3 spot in the rankings, and is creeping toward another world title shot.
Fabricio Andrade mulls moving up to featherweight
If a matchup with Kwon Won Il doesn’t materialize, the bantamweight MMA king Fabricio Andrade is also considering a move up a weight class.
In the same interview, he added:
“It's gonna be a lot of pressure, a lot of stress to go down. But I would like to go up. I think it's more interesting for me to go up. You just gotta get stronger, you know, so yeah like it's possible for me to go either down or up a weight class but it depends how my weight is going to be in the next couple of years.”
