Superlek Relieved With Hometown Crowd's Reception After Outstanding Victory

Superlek Kiatmoo9 brought his extremely impressive Muay Thai skill set to the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand at ONE Fight Night 12, and the reigning ONE flyweight kickboxing king is grateful for the support shown to him by his countrymen.

In the post-event press conference, Superlek was asked about his unique victory celebration wherein he shushed the crowd first before leading them to simultaneously explode in jubilation and "The Kicking Machine" explained how it came to be.

"That celebration truly came from the happiness that I felt in my heart. I was really relieved that I wasn't a disappointment to any fans that have come to support me. I'm really happy that they are here or they're watching on TV and they could watch me being able to defeat the opponent like that," Superlek mentioned.

At the event, Superlek was tasked with taking on Tagir Khalilov in the main event and while there were some initial worries about the Russian pulling off the upset, Superlek made sure that those who bet against him regretted it.

Khalilov sought to stay in pace with the Thai star, but it soon became evident that he was running on the wrong side of the tracks as Superlek immediately went after him with a deluge of elbows and knees that left him bleeding to close out the first round.

"Samingpri" may have survived the initial onslaught, but Superlek was simply too good and would soon find himself losing by TKO after referee Olivier Coste called a stop to the bout.

"Well in the very first round I was just watching Tagir fight, mostly just to see his movement. I noticed he had a lot of like head movement, so, I [matched my] movement [with his] as well in order to counter that and [by] the second round, he caught my elbows and the referee decided to just stop the fight," Superlek said of his victory.

"I watched Tagir fight extensively before this fight and I have prepared like my strategy wasn't just using the elbows and, also, I was determined to leave scars on him so I'm very happy that it [went] according to plan."

It is worth noting that Superlek was coming off three weeks' worth of rest since his last fight saw him face Nabil Anane at ONE Friday Fights last June 23, with the lanky Algerian succumbing to a body shot knockout late in round one.