"To achieve peak greatness" - Jackie Buntan reveals her biggest drive to scale to new heights as a world champion

Filipino-American striking phenom Jackie Buntan has finally reached the pinnacle of success when she unanimously beat Anissa Meksen last November at ONE 169 during their ONE strawweight kickboxing world title battle at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Following that triumph, Buntan revealed that her primary motivation was to strive for greatness and push herself to the absolute best that she can be, as she stated:

"It's corny and clinche, but greatness is what inspire me. I think every athlete will probably tell you that or admit to that. When you do something for so long and you're doing it at the highest level, you're really only doing it to achieve peak greatness, and that's what I want. There's nothing cooler than being a world champ."

With that victory, Buntan extended her win streak to four and picked up her seventh career win under the world's largest martial arts organization.

Her other victims inside the ring were Nat Jaroonsak, Ekaterina Vandaryeva, Daniela Lopez, Amber Kitchen, Diandra Martin, and Martine Michieletto. The only blemish in Buntan's record was courtesy of Smilla Sundell, who handed her a unanimous decision loss in April 2022 at ONE 156.

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Jackie Buntan opened up about almost giving up in her professional career before championship breakthrough

The 27-year-old striking sensation also talked about how she almost gave up her career as a professional athlete because of the doubts she had before.

However, this all changed when she finally secured the 26-pound golden belt because those doubts went down the drain instantly, as she told ONE Championship in a recent interview:

"It solidified everything for me. There were many times where I had so much doubt about pursuing this path of being a professional athlete, especially in combat sports. But after winning the belt, it just kind of solidified like, "OK, those doubts can all go to rest."