“I want the belt” - Ekaterina Vandaryeva says Smilla Sundell’s gold ‘will look really good’ over her shoulders

After her breakthrough victory at ONE Fight Night 20 against Martyna Kierczynska, Ekaterina Vandaryeva is now setting her sights on claiming the ONE strawweight Muay Thai world title that is currently held by Smilla Sundell.

Vandaryeva unanimously defeated Kierczynska in front of the packed crowd inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium to snap her four-fight losing skid and tally her inaugural victory in ONE Championship.

‘Barbie’ recently spoke with the South China Morning Post on their YouTube channel and revealed that she is planning to make a world title run against ‘The Hurricane’ because the 33-year-old veteran believes that it will suit her.

The Gridin Gym representative claimed:

“Yeah, sure. I want the belt. I want to get the belt because simply it's going to look really good on me. But, you know, if I keep fighting, if I want to fight for the title, I got to think about my strategy. I'm going to think about my training camp because, as you know, like before in Belarus, I had a really great team of fighters and trainers, I could get a really good training camp. But at the same time, now there are just older people training Muay Thai.”

Prior to her victory over the previously unbeaten Polish phenom, Ekaterina Vandaryeva dropped her bouts to Janet Todd, Jackie Buntan, Anna Jaroonsak, and Iman Barlow, which made her an underwhelming underdog heading into the fight with Kiercyznska.

Additionally, Kiercyznska made a grand arrival into the world’s largest martial arts organization by stopping Nat Jaroonsak in the second round of their strawweight Muay Thai fight at ONE Fight Night 19 in February 2023.

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Ekaterina Vandaryeva ecstatic with first win in ONE Championship, claiming that she only followed her fight plan

Vandaryeva was fully satisfied by the fact that she finally got over the hump with her win over Kiercyznska because she was able to remind people of who she really is.

The Belarusian athlete won various titles in different organizations before signing with ONE Championship.

She attributed this success to the fact that she followed her plan during their match, where she fully maximized her height and reach advantages to keep her younger opponent at bay and cruise into a decisive win.

North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE Fight Night 20 via the free event replay.