Nong-O Gaiyanghadao’s abdomen muscles will be fully ready to take whatever his opponent throws his way on January 20.
A video posted to ONE Championship’s Instagram account shows the absolute shredder that fighters pass through to prepare before entering the cage. In the video, Nong-O stands against the ropes and takes dozens of punches to the gut from a training partner much larger than him.
Take a look at Nong-O Gaiyanghadao’s painful preparation below:
While the video is shocking to those unfamiliar with the training customs of elite combat sports athletes, this kind of muscle conditioning combined with pain tolerance is normal. At this point in his long Muay Thai career, Gaiyanghadao’s body is a machine that can take the kind of abuse that most human bodies can’t.
The evidence of that is his lackadaisical expression while taking so much punishment.
Facing Alaverdi Ramazanov on January 20, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao will be fully prepared for battle inside the hallowed arena of Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium. The bout kicks off a long relationship of weekly fights held by ONE Championship in the arena.
Watch Nong-O Gaiyanghadao pulverize the ribs of Hikoaki Suzuki
While he can take a shot, Nong-O Gaiyanghadao can dish out twice as much punishment to the body of his opponents.
A video uploaded to ONE Championship’s YouTube channel highlights the savagery of the Muay Thai champion’s body kicks in a fight with Hiroaki Suzuki at ONE: Warriors of Light in May 2019, where Nong-O successfully defended his world title for the first time via unanimous decision.
Suzuki should be praised for going the full five rounds in this fight. His entire left flank was peppered red and purple, and his body and will held up surprisingly well to the lopsided offense of Gaiyanghadao.
The fight was the fourth of Nong-O’s undefeated run through ONE Championship, a streak that has seen him defend his world title a whopping six times, knocking out his last four challengers.
He’s pushing to extend that win streak when he fights Russian slugger Alaverdi Ramazanov. The two were scheduled to fight in March 2020, but the event was canceled as the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Because of that prior booking, the two have had a long time to prepare and size up each other. Ramazanov has won four of his six fights in ONE Championship and has avenged his most recent loss to Capitan Petchyindee.
The 28-year-old is eight years younger than his Thai opponent and has competed both in ONE kickboxing and Muay Thai fights, previously holding the ONE bantamweight kickboxing world title. Meanwhile, Nong-O will attempt to make the seventh defense of his ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world title.
