Stamp Fairtex says she struggled financially as a fighter before she joined ONE Championship

Stamp Fairtex came from humble beginnings before achieving superstar status in ONE Championship.

Dedicating her life to martial arts, the 25-year-old has lived and breathed training and competition for the majority of her life. That hard work allowed her to enjoy the success she enjoys today.

Holding both the atomweight kickboxing and Muay Thai world championships simultaneously, the Thai star’s drive to accomplish new goals in her career only continued to grow.

Transitioning to MMA with the hopes of claiming a third world championship in a third ruleset, she came close to realising that dream at ONE X last year. However, Angela Lee kept the Thai away from her gold with another trademark submission.

Still, maintaining her focus, Stamp went away and produced back-to-back wins over Jihin Radzuan and Alyse Anderson to find herself back in title contention.

With the atomweight champ Lee currently inactive due to family reasons, an interim title fight was booked between the former double champion and South Korea’s Ham Seo Hee.

At ONE Fight Night 14 in September, the 25-year-old will look to ensure that this time around, she leaves with the belt wrapped around her waist.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post on YouTube, Stamp reflected on the early days of her career and how they differ to now.

Pointing out the huge difference in her earnings between now and then, Fairtex revealed that she wouldn’t even have enough money to help support her family in her early days.

“Before I couldn’t obviously give them this much money, before my mum would jokingly ask ‘Can I have 20 baht?’ The purse prize was worth so small [before ONE Championship]. It was nothing," said Stamp. [25:00 onwards]

Watch the full interview below:

ONE Fight Night 14 will air live and free for North American viewers with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.