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ONE: First Strike has stacked up a deep kickboxing fight card for October 15. Among these matches is veteran fighter Andy Souwer taking on Marat Grigorian at the ONE Kickboxing Featherweight Grand Prix Quarter Finals.
The 30-year-old Armenian fighter has amassed 77 professional bouts since starting his kickboxing career in 2007. 33 of his victories have come via knockout and he has lost 11 times.
Marat's professional record is dwarfed by Andy Souwer's 183 kickboxing bouts. His opponent, a 38-year-old veteran, has been fighting professionally since 1999. Souwer currently has 161 victories under his name and is two knockouts shy of reaching 100 KO wins.
Even with Marat's status as one of the best Armenian fighters behind Giorgio Petrosyan, he is very careful in approaching this match against Souwer:
"It is a fight that anything can happen. He has so much fighting experience. I don’t underestimate him. He is still dangerous. Just watch what can happen every second," said Marat during an online media press conference through Zoom.
This will be Marat's second fight since joining ONE Championship. The first match he took was against Ivan Kondratev in December 2020. That ended at the 1:52 mark of the second round with a left hook to the body knockout.
His current winning streak is at five as Marat took four wins in Glory World Series prior to signing a contract with ONE.
Souwer's throwing everything inside the ring at ONE: First Strike
There is no question who has more experience in the ring between Souwer and Marat. The Dutch kickboxer knows that father time is catching up and has already hinted at retirement and the ONE Kickboxing Grand Prix being his swan song. Nonetheless, Souwer feels that he has the edge over Marat:
"I see this as an advantage because I already achieved so many things. I don’t have to prove everything to anybody except for myself and my family, and that’s where I am and what I am doing right now. I’m doing things for a certain proper goal, and that feels OK, great, good. The only thing that is in front of me is Marat," Souwer said.
Losing his first two matches in ONE Championship, Souwer broke the dry spell and won over Zhang Chunyu back in December in Kallang, Singapore. The match went to the full three rounds and the judges unanimously decided to give the victory to Souwer.
