Smilla Sundell Eyes Future Three-Sport Glory Following ONE Fight Night 22

ONE Championship muay thai women’s 125-pound champion Smilla Sundell recently shared three-sport glory plans ahead of her second title defense.

The youngest champion in the history of the promotion, Sundell has already achieved more at 19 years of age than many fighters do in their entire career. “The Hurricane” became the inaugural ONE Championship muay thai women’s 125-pound champion with a unanimous decision over Jackie Buntan and has since defended her strap with a knockout win over Allycia Hellen Rodrigues. The Swede is now scheduled to defend her title for a second time against Natalia Diachkova at ONE Fight Night 22 on May 3.

Sundell recently shared future three-sport championship aspirations leading up to her bout against Diachkova. Having already started dabbling in mixed martial arts, Sundell wants to simultaneously hold ONE Championship muay thai, kickboxing and MMA titles.

“I just want to be the best version of myself. And I want to have the kickboxing belt. I also want the MMA belt as well in the future,” Sundell said. “I’ve started training in MMA now, and I would like to have all the belts all at the same time.”

While Sundell is considering an immediate bid for kickboxing gold should she get past Diachkova, “The Hurricane” wants to preferably ease into MMA with a mixed-rules bout; a regular spectacle offered by the promotion.

“I would like to try for the kickboxing belt. And then maybe I can squeeze in a mixed rules fight so I can try out MMA. I’ve done some guillotines already, so I'm definitely going to try those.”

Sundell will admittedly be watching out for the proven knockout power of Diachkova, who has finished three of her four ONE Championship wins via first-round KO. However, the champ wonders how “Karelian Lynx” will hold up when the fight goes into Rounds 4 and 5.

“Yeah, I have. I watched all her [ONE] Friday Fights. Very short finishes on most of them, so it’s very hard to say how it will be if it goes longer than one round. But yeah, she’s strong and has good boxing… [I’m most impressed by] the speed and her power because she knocks her opponents out.”