Best MMA Fighter Of 2023: Stamp Fairtex Ends Flawless Year As Three-Sport World Champion
Thai megastar Stamp Fairtex accomplished the previously unthinkable in 2023, capturing a ONE World Title in her third combat sports discipline.
The 26-year-old competed three times this year – once in kickboxing and twice in MMA – to solidify her status as one of the martial arts world’s most talented and dynamic fighters.
Those performances garnered Stamp the undisputed ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Title, added to her legions of fans, and made her stand out as the year’s best MMA fighter.
A former ONE Women’s Atomweight Kickboxing and Muay Thai World Champion, the Fairtex Training Center representative opened up her slate with one of 2023’s most electrifying and unforgettable wars.
At ONE Fight Night 6 in January, she took a decision victory over Anna “Supergirl” Jaroonsak in a wild, back-and-forth kickboxing bout that earned both women a US$50,000 performance bonus.
Four months later, Stamp made her long-awaited U.S. debut at ONE Fight Night 10 when she squared off with Alyse “Lil’ Savage” Anderson in a pivotal atomweight MMA contest.
Despite going up against a home favorite, the Thai superstar received a warm welcome from the raucous American crowd.
Spurred on by their vocal support, Stamp showcased her all-around MMA game en route to a highlight-reel finish with a second-round body kick. The stoppage cemented her claim as the atomweight division’s next World Title challenger – and was also the best MMA knockout of 2023.
However, the divisional World Title picture wasn’t so simple.
With reigning atomweight MMA queen Angela Lee on the sidelines as she mourned the tragic loss of her younger sister Victoria Lee, Stamp was slated to face surging South Korean Ham Seo Hee for the interim crown in the main event of ONE Fight Night 14 in September.
Just minutes before the two combatants took to the Circle that night in Singapore, Lee publicly announced what she had already told Stamp and Ham privately – she was retiring from competition and vacating the belt.
Accordingly, the fight would determine the undisputed ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Champion.
In one of the finest performances of her impressive three-sport career, Stamp showcased refined tactical awareness, a dangerous ground game, and, of course, a world-class stand-up game to finish Ham in the third round with a ruthless flurry of strikes.
That landmark victory garnered the Thai 26 pounds of gold, adding to her collection that includes ONE Kickboxing and Muay Thai World Titles, as well as the ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Grand Prix Championship.
Now comfortably atop the combat sports world, Stamp is primed for an epic year in 2024 as she continues to seek out even bigger challenges.
