SUMMARY
- Nong-O Hama defeated Kulabdam at ONE Friday Fights 58.
- In an exclusive interview, Nong-O reveals how his hard training made the difference in the bout.
Nong-O Hama vs Kulabdam at ONE Friday Fights 58 was a spectacle to behold in the way NONG-O won the bout with a unanimous decision. The 8-time champion was fighting a fellow Thai fighter Kulabdam, a younger fighter but yet the age difference was a variable that didn’t reveal itself in this fight at all.
Nong-O and Kulabdam spent the first round being very measured in their respective approaches and feeling each other out. Fighting a southpaw with a powerful left hand, Nong-O threw in a lot of leg kicks but managed to slickly come back to his stance.
He also cut angles so that he could create some movement which is something that he attributes to his game plan. In a conversation with Sportsmanor, he admitted, “Since Kulabdam is a southpaw, I trained a lot in speed to cut angles constantly so that it becomes hard for him (Kuabdam) to land his left hand.”
This movement was seen throughout the fight and every time Kuabdam tried to set up a combination or a trap, Nong-O would move away from his opponent and try launching an attack from a different angle as he tried to bring the fight back to the center.
This strategy Nong-O admits is reminiscent of his earlier approach to fighting as he says, “This fight helped me bring my confidence back. I was a technical fighter – trying to feel the opponent out and then adjusting my game plan to suit the fight and that brought me a lot of success but because of the success I saw, I would want to knock out my opponent early into the fight. But this fight has made me believe in my strength again as a technical fighter who feels his opponent out and then launches an attack that could best counter my opponent’s style.”
Nong-O reveals how his endurance helped him win at ONE Friday Fights 58
This resurgence of confidence was evident at the culmination of the 3 round fight because Nong-O still looked like he had a lot of gas in the tank to go a few extra rounds and he resonates with this feeling and says, “In the end, I had a lot of confidence in my own game. Now that I am in my own game and beating a fighter like Kulabdam I feel good. And fighting 3 rounds was not tiring because all my training was at least 4-5 rounds.”
At 37 years of age fighting at such an elite level still brings with it learning and Nong-O claims that this fight has taught him that sticking to his old way of being a technical fighter is the best. “I know how to go forward, protect myself, and launch an attack. So I need to stick to this as it’s my strength and it’s important to stay close to this truth as I go forward in my career,” added in his interview with Sportsmanor.
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What Nong-O speaks of as he comes off this victory is the resounding importance of sticking to your strengths and finding the confidence to be yourself and play to your advantage, and perhaps discovering this even after many years of having a prolific fighting career is the secret to this much-celebrated longevity.
The win over Kulabdam puts Nong-O Hama in a very strong position to challenge for the ONE Bantamweight Muay Thai championship. The win was very important as he had lost two back-to-back bouts against Jonathan Haggerty and Nico Carrillo. So it will be interesting to see which direction Hama goes next.