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ONE interim atomweight Muay Thai world champion Janet Todd has had to wait a long time for her chance to become a multiple sport world champion. After rising through the ranks of the atomweight Muay Thai division, the California native competed against Spain’s Lara Fernandez in July, winning the contest via a unanimous decision to claim the division's interim world title.
At ONE on Prime Video 5 in December, Todd was scheduled to unify the division against the returning world champion Allycia Hellen Rodrigues, but the fight was canceled on extremely late notice after the American tested positive for COVID-19.
Now rescheduled to face off at ONE Fight Night 8 on March 24, Janet Todd is more than ready to compete against her Brazilian opponent. In an interview with ONE Championship, the 37-year-old veteran spoke about her brush with COVID-19 and how it affected her:
“I've definitely recovered. It was just like a stuffy nose. I was really devastated when I tested positive; I did not think I had COVID. And I asked multiple times if I could get tested again and again. That was… that was interesting.”
ONE Fight Night 8 is live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium on March 24 and airs live and free for North American viewers with an active Prime subscription.
Janet Todd says martial arts allowed her to "discover" what she’s capable of - “I don’t let failures get me down”
Janet Todd is currently on an incredible run in her career as the reigning ONE atomweight kickboxing and interim Muay Thai world champion. The American has only been able to get to this point in her career by learning lessons from her losses and turning herself into a seasoned veteran.
A crucial loss that she experienced was in her ONE Championship debut. In February 2019, Todd was defeated by rising superstar prospect Stamp Fairtex. With Todd’s credibility as a gold medalist at the 2017 IFMA Pan American Championships in Muay Thai, it was a tough loss to take against a much younger opponent.
Instead of letting it negatively affect her, Janet Todd was able to use the experience as a positive, fueling her motivation to make her way back to the top of the division. Eventually, Janet Todd found herself in a rematch with Stamp Fairtex, this time facing the Thai star under the kickboxing ruleset in February 2020. Dethroning Stamp via a split decision, Todd has established herself as a dominant world champion.
Ahead of her upcoming clash with another world champion, Allycia Hellen Rodrigues, the 37-year-old spoke about the career setbacks that have made her a better fighter as a result:
“I don’t let failures get me down, I just know I just have to try again, find a different way to do it. And it’s given me the confidence to be able to get back up and try again and be able to discover more of what I’m capable of, which has been really rewarding. So I hope that people who start martial arts gain that kind of experience too.”
