A year late, Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Nong-O Hama are on. The two former ONE champions headline The Inner Circle 38 on Friday, Nov. 13, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, and their quarterfinal opens the 2026 to 2027 ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix. ONE confirmed the bout in a post on r/MMA, and Combat Press reported that both men cleared weight and hydration testing on Thursday. The winner moves into the semifinals.
That clean bill on Thursday matters more than usual here. The pair were booked last November at ONE 173 for the vacant flyweight title, and Rodtang got sick after making weight. The fight was scrapped, and the belt went elsewhere while the matchup sat on the shelf.
Both men arrive with a knockout loss from this year still fresh. Rodtang hasn’t fought under Muay Thai rules since Takeru Segawa stopped him in the fifth round of their kickboxing rematch in April, which Combat Press noted was the first stoppage loss of his ONE career. His title run was built on dragging opponents into his tempo and keeping them there. Nong-O has done much of the same work over his career without having to match anybody’s output, which is what makes this pairing so interesting on paper.
The former bantamweight champion already had his crack at the flyweight belt in 2026. Asadula Imangazaliev knocked him out in March. Nong-O answered in June by beating Kongthoranee Sor Sommai in their third meeting, so he comes into Friday with a recent divisional win and a chance to remove the man who used to own the weight class.
The other half of the bracket
The semifinal opponent gets decided the same morning. Shimon Yoshinari and Ramadan Ondash meet in the second quarterfinal, which opens the separate ONE Friday Fights 178 broadcast, and both have already beaten Johan Ghazali on their way into this tournament.
Yoshinari, a former WBC Muay Thai world champion, is unbeaten in seven ONE appearances. He earned his contract by beating Ghazali and then knocked out Suablack Tor Pran49 in Japan in September. Ondash got his deal at strawweight and is 2-0 since moving up, with wins over Suriyanlek Por Yenying and Ghazali.
The Inner Circle 38 streams for subscribers at live.onefc.com at 6:30 a.m. ET. ONE Friday Fights 178 follows at 8:30 a.m. ET, with ONE listing YouTube, Facebook and watch.onefc.com among its options, subject to regional restrictions.
My read: the Takeru loss came under kickboxing rules, and I wouldn’t carry it straight into a Muay Thai fight at Lumpinee, where Rodtang gets his clinch and his elbows back. The harder question is whether Nong-O lets him set the pace at all. Nong-O has spent a career making busier men look rushed, and if he can keep this fight quiet and measured, Rodtang’s volume becomes a cost he pays every round. I lean Nong-O by a hair, and I’d want to see the first two minutes before trusting that.
