Jonathan Haggerty has been through many tough battles that he was able to emerge triumphant from in his stay in ONE Championship. Among them was against Brazilian Felipe Lobo, where he came from behind to score an impressive TKO victory.
The setting was the headlining match at ONE Fight Night 19 in February 2024 at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. ‘The General’ was defending the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world title he was then concurrently holding with the division’s kickboxing gold against ‘The Demolition Man’.
Haggerty was rocked early by the challenger with a solid uppercut that found the champion having to sit on the ropes and given the count by the referee. Fortunately, he was able to gather himself after and was able to finish the first round fighting back.
In the next two rounds, Jonathan Haggerty was able to recalibrate his game and had added bounce in his attack, steadily tearing down Lobo with unrelenting strikes that came from different directions. He capped things off by sending Lobo to the canvas with 45 seconds left in the third round, with the challenger visibly dazed and no longer able to continue.
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ONE Championship looked back to Haggerty’s conquest of Lobo by sharing the full fight on its official YouTube page, which now has over 120,000 views.
Check out the video below:
Jonathan Haggerty describes Felipe Lobo battle as brutally competitive
While he came away with a victory against Felipe Lobo, Jonathan Haggerty felt lucky to have been able to survive what he described was a brutally competitive match.
The Orpington, England native shared this after looking back to it, with both amazement and pride, months later.
He told Sky Sports’ MMA Club podcast:
“I had to sit down and watch it back, because I didn’t realize how much of a mad fight it was. When I watched it back, I was like, gosh, it was pretty brutal. When I came out, it was like fractured knuckles, and I was just like, wow.”
Unfortunately for Haggerty, the win over Lobo was his first and last successful defense of the ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world title as he lost it to Thai superstar Superlek Kiatmoo9 in September 2024. But he is looking to have another shot at it in his next matches as he also tries to hold on to the kickboxing championship belt in his possession.
Edited by Aziel Karthak
