Jonathan Haggerty says two-sport supremacy was too good to pass up: “I couldn’t turn it down”

When Jonathan Haggerty shocked the world at ONE Fight Night 9, he suddenly found himself with a whole host of new options in front of him.

Having moved up to the bantamweight division at the end of 2022, ‘The General’ went into a matchup with then-dominant champion Nong-O Hama earlier this year.

Bringing the divisional king’s incredible win streak to a swift ending, Haggerty stopped Nong-O in the first round to become a two-time Muay Thai champ under the ONE Championship banner.

With several contenders looking at the newly crowned king of their division and staking their claim for a shot at the belt, the British striking ace wasn’t short of potential challengers.

While he was initially aiming to defend his title to secure his position as the best bantamweight in the world, his expectations for the remainder of 2023 went out the window when an unmissable opportunity came across his desk.

At ONE Fight Night 16, ‘The General’ has the opportunity to accomplish an incredibly rare feat by holding two world championships in different sports simultaneously.

With the bantamweight kickboxing world championship vacant, Haggerty will meet the MMA bantamweight king Fabricio Andrade for a clash of champions featuring two elite strikers of this generation.

In an interview with ONE Championship ahead of the fight, Jonathan Haggerty spoke about how this matchup came around and how he instantly diverted his focus to writing his name into the history books:

“I would want to defend [my Muay Thai belt]. Why did I accept this fight in kickboxing? I originally wanted to defend my Muay Thai belt. You know, I've always said you're not a champion until you defend your world title. So when it was offered to me to do a kickboxing fight for the world championship, I couldn't turn it down. You know, I want all the gold. So the more gold, the better.”

ONE Fight Night 16 will air live and free in U.S. primetime for North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.