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ONE: First Strike will be remembered in the history of kickboxing as the event that hosted the retirement fight of Andy Souwer. But while the legendary fighter has hung up his gloves, his contemporaries feel that he can still compete with the best.
Souwer lost to Marat Grigorian after suffering an injury in the second round at the ONE featherweight kickboxing Grand Prix quarterfinals. The Dutch fighter then officially announced that the fight was going to be his last.
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Marat, on his part, feels sad that Souwer's retirement fight came against him.
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"It was a great fight. I just won a fight against Andy Souwer but it’s sad that we are going to end his career like this. But what can I do, it’s a sport. This is a part of the sport. He’s a great fighter, a great warrior. He showed a lot of good fights but I must think about myself and about my record," said Marat on October 15.
Superbon says Andy Souwer is a role model for young fighters in ONE Championship
After Souwer's retirement match, Superbon Banchamek won the inaugural ONE featherweight kickboxing championship against Giorgio Petrosyan with a vicious knockout.
The 31-year-old fighter said he looked up to Souwer and feels that Souwer can still roll with the best kickboxers, even at 38 years old.
"Talking about Andy Souwer, I feel like he’s a role model for the younger generation like me. I totally understand because he wants to retire because of his age, however, I feel like at that age he can still be in the top level of kickboxers in the world. l respect him and I keep him as a good example and role model and I would like to follow him on that," said Superbon on October 15.
Souwer has capped off a kickboxing career that started in 1999. He was able to fight in 184 professional bouts and win 161 of them. 98 of those wins came via knockouts.
Milestones from Souwer's illustrious career include being the two-time K-1 World MAX champion, four-time Shootboxing world tournament champion and It's Showtime 70MAX world champion.
