The Iron Man’ Rodtang Jitmuangnon has his next booking to defend his Muay Thai world title, and fans are not impressed. Later this year at ONE 169 hosted in Atlanta, USA, ONE Championship paired the Muay Thai champion against Jacob Smith.
Fans laugh at Rodtang vs. Jacob Smith
The Thai-born Rodtang has been a superstar for ONE Championship. The Muay Thai champion is popular on social media and has over 270 victories. Many of his recent fights have been brought into question as they are largely unworthy of facing a champion in Muay Thai. The Jacob Smith fight is one more to add to this list and fans are unhappy.
Some of the recent opponents of ‘The Iron Man’ include the debuting Edgar Tabares, winless in ONE Jiduo Yibu, lower weight class fighters such as Joseph Lasiri and Danial Williams, plus a loss to Superlek Kiatmoo9. Now, he has been paired against the UK-born Smith, an opponent ‘The Iron Man’ already defeated in a dominant fight years ago. In his most recent fight, Smith is coming off of a loss and has only had a single victory in ONE since signing with the organization three years ago. Fans let ONE know their discontent with this matchup.
MuayThaiJME on Twitter said:
“Honestly not sure how anyone can like Rodtang Hitting new lows even I didn’t think were imaginable As much as I like Jacob, he was embarrassed by Rodtang last time out, he’s coming off a loss, & that loss was to the guy Rodtang just beat Piss poor matchmaking once again Shameful.”
RISE fighter Jay Snoddon added:
“I like Jacob but this match literally makes zero sense. Jacob gets merked by Rodtang, then loses to Denis Puric who fights Rodtang and loses in Kickboxing. Now, Jacob for whatever reason gets a title shot?!?”
CombatCr said:
“A truly pathetic slice of matchmaking, a fight that absolutely no one needs to see. Rodtang is a fighter not even worth paying attention to while he’s in fights like this (that we’ve already seen, and do not need to see again at all) while there are so many better options.”
Thesilverwolfgg added:
“Just why? Rodtang easily beat Smith last time and Smith hasn’t done anything to earn this. All the title fights in ATL are beyond lopsided. Man @ONEChampionship thinks we’re really stupid out here in the west.”
On Instagram, _thomasdonnelly said:
“He only wants the easy fights
Chatri needs to stop this cherry picking bullshit”
Chatri needs to stop this cherry picking bullshit”Rodtang vs. Jacob Smith is not a match that the fight community is impressed with but it is the co-main event at ONE 169.