The Evolve MMA representative<\/a> found his opening in round two. He caught Jaosuayai with a perfectly timed counter left hook that dropped the phenom for the first knockdown. The younger fighter rallied hard, backing Sam-A to the ropes with massive punches and elbows. But the veteran southpaw hung tough and landed an uppercut-left cross combination for the second knockdown.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSam-A Gaiyanghadao targets title shot after career-defining victory<\/p>\n
The win proved decisive. Sam-A seized control in the third round with sharp elbows and crafty counters to seal the unanimous decision. The performance improved his record to 377-50 and positioned him for one final championship run.<\/p>\n
Two paths exist toward gold. He could chase a rematch with Jonathan Di Bella for the unified ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Title after falling short at ONE 172 earlier this year. Or he could pursue a trilogy fight with Prajanchai PK Saenchai for the ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get a title shot because at this age, if I could get one shot at the title, it would be something great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Muay Thai path requires patience. Prajanchai faces Aliff Sor Dechapan next after the Thai-Malaysian prospect earned his shot by beating Ramadan Ondash at ONE Fight Night 38. Sam-A believes the champion\u2019s craftiness gives him the edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this matchup, Aliff is a tall fighter who\u2019s difficult to fight,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it will go the distance with their styles. I favor Prajanchai because of his angles and craftiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam-A predicted Jaosuayai\u2019s power might diminish after dropping weight classes. That read proved accurate. The veteran capitalized on those weaknesses to secure the biggest win of his comeback and possibly earn another shot at greatness before time runs out.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam-A Gaiyanghadao knows what the calendar says. At 42 years old, the Thai legend doesn\u2019t have unlimited chances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,1865,156664,156665,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-365412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-one-championship","13":"tag-one-friday-fights-137","14":"tag-sam-a","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}