“It makes it more exciting” – Jonathan Haggerty says animosity with Felipe Lobo adds an interesting spice to their fight

Jonathan Haggerty is using the tension between him and his next opponent as an added bit of motivation for this fight.

At ONE Fight Night 19, he will look to defend his ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world championship in the main event against Felipe Lobo.

The two men have had each other in their sights for some time now but their intensity reached a new level at ONE Fight Night 16 in November.

After Haggerty stopped Lobo’s teammate Fabricio Andrade in the main event, the two men came face-to-face to set up this clash on February 16.

Rather than taking his eye of the ball in wanting to silence his challenger, ‘The General’ is drawing added energy and passion from the back and forth that he has had with Lobo.

He told Sportskeeda MMA that the tension only mates him more motivated to go out there and make a statement in his first title defense:

“There's a bit of animosity there, so it makes it more exciting so it [makes us want] to go in there and put on a great performance.”

Watch the full interview below:

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Jonathan Haggerty will look to continue his impressive run of finishes

Since moving up to the bantamweight division, Jonathan Haggerty has put together the most impressive run of his career so far.

With consecutive wins and finishes over Nong-O and Fabricio Andrade, the Brit rose to become a two-sport world champion in the bantamweight division.

He will now look to put the No.3-ranked Lobo away in a similarly convincing manner to really solidify his title reign before, in many people’s eyes, moving on to more difficult challenges.

While he cannot afford to overlook an opponent like Lobo, the tension between the two men will make that very hard to do.

ONE Fight Night 19 will air live and free in U.S. primetime for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.