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Women’s Strawweight (Special Rules)

Jingnan Xiong vs. Nat Jaroonsak

Xiong is one of ONE’s greatest champions. Having first won the promotion’s women’s strawweight MMA crown with a knockout of Tiffany Teo in January 2018, she has since defended it an amazing seven times in a row. Her run includes two wins over rival Angela Lee, one of them by fifth-round knockout. She looks to conquer even more of the combat sports world when she engages in a custom rules kickboxing bout against Thailand’s Jaroonsak. What are the custom rules? Essentially, it is a boxing match with four-ounce gloves. Kicks, knees, elbows, and grappling are banned, which leaves only punches.

Neither fighter has ever competed in pure boxing before, so it is a little tricky to divorce their boxing from the rest of their striking. However, this looks like a mismatch. Jaroonsak was dominated by top strawweight Jackie Buntan in a muay thai fight, and Buntan did it with her boxing. Jaroonsak was overwhelmed by her combinations, as she usually ate the third or fourth punch clean. That was frequently a left hook, and one of them dropped Jaroonsak, who gingerly rose to her feet to beat the count. In an MMA match, it would have been an easy knockout. Offensively, Jaroonsak’s straight punches were wide and slow, and her hooks have a noticeable hitch to them. She was also ripe for counters, which Buntan ruthlessly exploited. Yes, that was over two and a half years ago and the 24-year-old Jaroonsak is almost certainly better now, but it is one of the few true data points we have since she has only competed in MMA since then. For obvious reasons, her opponents would rather grapple than strike with her.

By contrast, Xiong has vastly better boxing. Her straight punches are technical, fluid and much faster than Jaroonsak’s. Her hooks, while she uses them less, are more technical and effective. Xiong has a better sense of distance, moves much better and does not offer her chin on a silver platter when encountering punches in bunches or a left hook. Perhaps Jaroonsak, being only 24, has improved so much and Xiong, being 35, has declined just enough to make all this analysis wrong. Barring that, Xiong wins this one easily, either by dominant decision or stoppage.

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