ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong is eyeing a fight between Jonathan Haggerty and Yod-IQ, the Bangkok Post reported Tuesday. He has a bantamweight Grand Prix on his radar too. That’s everything the report gives us. There’s no date, no ruleset (Muay Thai or kickboxing) and no bracket, so for now both ideas belong in the “Chatri wants it” pile. Nothing is signed.
Haggerty comes into this conversation off a sharp night in Tokyo. At ONE Samurai 4 he defended the ONE bantamweight kickboxing title against Hiroki Akimoto and stopped him 42 seconds into Round 3. Combat Press ranked Akimoto No. 8 in its featherweight (66 kilograms) kickboxing division going into the fight. Haggerty was No. 5 in that same division, and he stays there in the November update. ONE’s X account went lighter on Saturday and posted a Halloween greeting from the champ with a pumpkin emoji.
Yod-IQ is the reason this pairing makes sense on paper. Combat Press’s November Muay Thai rankings list Yod-IQ PK Saenchai as the No. 1 welterweight (147 pounds), ahead of Niall McGreevy at No. 2. He also climbed from No. 7 to No. 5 in the men’s pound-for-pound list, passing Superlek Kiatmoo9 and Pangtor Por.Lakboon. That’s the “rising” part of the story, and it’s real movement.
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The size gap needs answers. Combat Press ranks Yod-IQ at 147 pounds under Muay Thai rules. Haggerty carries a bantamweight kickboxing belt, and his kickboxing ranking sits at 66 kilograms. The report doesn’t say where they’d meet or under which rules. That detail will shape the whole fight.
The Grand Prix idea lands while the division around Haggerty is busy. On the same ONE Samurai 4 card, Nabil Anane beat Yuki Yoza by unanimous decision in a ONE bantamweight kickboxing bout. That win sent Anane into Combat Press’s featherweight kickboxing top 10 at No. 5. He isn’t slowing down either. Anane is booked to challenge Nico Carrillo for the ONE featherweight Muay Thai title in December. No entrants have been named for any tournament, so any bracket you’re drawing in your head right now is fan fiction.
My take: book the superfight first and let the tournament wait. Haggerty finished a ranked Japanese challenger in Tokyo on his own terms, and Yod-IQ is sitting at No. 1 in his division. Those are two guys at the right moment. A Grand Prix can sort a messy division, but it can also leave the champion parked on the sidelines for months while others fight it out. Haggerty after a Round 3 finish doesn’t need to sit and wait. He needs a name like Yod-IQ across the ring. The next real date on this corner of the roster is Anane vs. Carrillo in December, and if Anane wins that, he becomes the guy who makes any bantamweight bracket a lot more interesting.
