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Reigning ONE lightweight Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion ‘The Immortal’ Regian Eersel of Suriname and The Netherlands is arguably the best striker in the world today, pound-for-pound. But he wasn’t always at the top of the food chain.
Earlier in his career, the 30-year-old from Amsterdam was just like anyone else, just a hungry fighter trying to climb through the ranks.
In a recent guest appearance on the YouTube channel Sensai Sam, Regian Eersel recalled what it was like trying to come up as a young fighter when he was starting out:
''I got a fight in Russia (versus Alexander Surzhko in October 2014). I lost that fight on points. And then my trainer made contact with my new manager, and he said, ‘Okay, let’s try something else. Because you’re not going to get fights here in the Netherlands because of the pay, and most of the time, the athletes won’t fight.’ So he told me to try something else, fight outside of the Netherlands.”
So fight outside the Netherlands, he did. However, it still wasn’t easy. Regian Eersel was still met with a lot of trials and tribulations. He continued:
“The only thing is the money was low, but if I earned my way up, I’ll start earning way more. It was like an investment. So we started doing that, and I kept winning, winning, winning, one loss here and there, and then I started winning, winning, winning.''
Eventually, Eersel made his way to ONE Championship, where he’s now unbeaten in the Circle and with two massive golden belts over his shoulders.
Eersel will defend one of those belts in his next fight.
Two-sport ONE world champion ‘The Immortal’ Regian Eersel will put his ONE lightweight Muay Thai world title on the line against dangerous Russian Dmitry Menshikov at ONE Fight Night 11: Eersel vs. Menshikov on Prime Video.
The event broadcasts live from the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, June 9th. It will stream free to fans in the United States and Canada with an active Amazon Prime subscription.
