“She’s a champion for a reason” – Jackie Buntan has nothing but respect for strawweight Muay Thai queen Smilla Sundell

ONE strawweight Muay Thai world champion Smilla Sundell has earned the utmost respect of her former opponent, Jackie Buntan, whom she defeated via unanimous decision during their championship clash at ONE 156: Eersel vs. Sadikovic in April 2022.

In her most recent interview with the South China Morning Post’s YouTube channel ahead of her catchweight Muay Thai bout with Martine Michieletto this March 8 inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Jackie Buntan reflected on that defeat and acknowledged how great of a champion she is.

The Filipino-American sensation explained:

“She definitely does have my respect, you know. Anybody I fight, again it takes so much to step in here and do what we do, you have my respect regardless. And with Smilla being so you, you know, youngest champ now, it’s such an impressive feat. There’s nothing against her. She’s a champion for a reason.”

That setback from Sundell was her lone loss under the world’s largest martial arts organization. Outside of that blemish on her record, the Boxing Works star has won five other fights, and the two the most recent ones were over Amber Kitchen and Diandra Martin.

Jackie Buntan open to compete in mixed-rules super-fights

With the opportunity that ONE Championship is giving its athletes for staging mixed-rules super-fights among its top fighters, Jackie Buntan has openly revealed that she intends to compete in such bouts but only limited to striking rules only.

The Boxing Works representative will also be backed by the ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion Jonathan Di Bella because according to him, she is fun to watch.

North American fans with an active Prime Video subscription can catch the entire ONE Fight Night 20 card live and for free in U.S. primetime this Friday, March 8.