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ONE Championship strawweight Muay Thai sensation 'Wondergirl' Jaroonsak will be making her MMA debut at ONE 157 on May 20.
Ahead of her much-anticipated debut in mixed martial arts, the dashing and dangerous Thai sat down with South China Morning Post for a pre-fight interview.
Speaking about her transition to a different sport, 'Wondergirl' expressed her intentions to eventually move to MMA after signing with ONE Championship.
Having already competed in and won numerous jiu-jitsu competitions as a white belt, Nat Jaroonsak is quite primed for a professional MMA debut. Add that to her world-class Muay Thai skills, and the Thai sensation might be too much to handle in the cage.
The former Fairtex fighter said:
"Actually, I have been planning to move to MMA since day one, back in Pattaya. Because back then, three, four years [ago], I was reeally wanting to fight in MMA. I [fought] MMA amateur back then. Full fights. I got 3-1, yeah. Two submissions, one knockout, and I lost via ground-and-pound. Yeah, that was a long time ago... I was training in Pattaya because my main purpose was to sign in MMA with any promotion. ONE [was] my first choice back then. And then I trained, trained, trained."
'Wondergirl' was formerly a member of the renowned Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand that houses some of ONE's Muay Thai-turned MMA fighters like Yodkaikaew and Stamp Fairtex. It's no surprise that Nat Jaroonsak joined their team back then to pursue a career in MMA.
Watch the full interview here:
'Wondergirl' never stopped training in MMA even while under a Muay Thai contract with ONE Championship
In the interview, 'Wondergirl' also mentioned that while she was training for MMA back in Fairtex, she was offered a Muay Thai contract as she was deemed not ready.
In her own words, the Jaroonsak fighter said:
"[ONE CEO] Mr. Chartri [Sityodtong] came to the gym, he was like, feeling not really wanting me to fight in MMA back then because I didn't seem like I'm ready. I was pretty new to the sport. But back then I got the Thailand title, champion Muay Thai, so yeah, they gave me an opportunity to fight in ONE Championship in a Muay Thai contract. So yeah, I took it because it was a big opportunity... But still, I've been training in MMA. I never stopped training."
While she had a decent run in ONE Championship Super Series, this didn't mean that 'Wondergirl' kept her eyes away from her ultimate goal: an MMA debut. She further explained her motivation to keep training until her eventual transition to cage fighting:
"I kept training. I didn't want to wait until my first MMA fight and [not be ready]. I don't think it's good for my if I just jump into MMA when they give me a fight right away. So I think it would be better to collect skills before and then, when opportunity comes, I'll be ready."
Whether or not her hard work and patience will pay off is still yet to be seen. Regardless, however, we can't wait for 'Wondergirl' to finally step inside the world of MMA. May 20 can't come soon enough.
