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Prajanchai was very impressed with Sam-A Gaiyanghadao's performance against Jonathan Di Bella. At 41 years old, Sam-A stepped back inside the Circle in March for one of the biggest tests of his career at ONE 172 in Japan.
And while Sam-A ultimately came up short, dropping a unanimous decision against Di Bella, the 375-fight veteran put on an undeniably magnificent showing against his much younger competition.
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Looking back at Sam-A's effort inside the Saitama Super Arena, reigning two-sport ONE world champion Prajanchai praised his countryman for going toe-to-toe with the Canadian-Italian kickboxer and never once backing down during their five-round war.
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"He's older now, though his conditioning is still excellent," Prajanchai said on The ONE Podcast. "Do I think I could fight until I'm Sam-A's age? If I get hurt, I'm done! When I saw Sam-A getting hit repeatedly and still standing, I thought if it were me, I'd probably be better off falling down."
Jonathan Di Bella is ready for a rematch with Prajanchai
With Jonathan Di Bella's victory over Sam-A at ONE 172, the former captured the ONE interim strawweight kickboxing world championship, setting the stage for a highly anticipated rematch with Prajanchai, the reigning ONE strawweight kickboxing world titleholder.
Di Bella and Prajanchai previously met at ONE Friday Fights 68 last year—a fight that saw Prajanchai come out on top, handing Di Bella his first career loss and solidifying himself as a two-sport titleholder.
Since then, Di Bella has been chomping at the bit to run it back, and his win over Sam-A guarantees him an opportunity to do exactly that.
Will Di Bella even the series against Prajanchai, or will the Thai fan favorite continue his incredible run on martial arts' biggest global stage? Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long to find out.
If you missed any of the action, you can watch the full ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang replay on demand via watch.onefc.com.
