‘Wow’ – Smilla Sundell Speaks About Training With Fellow ONE World Champions Tawanchai and Stamp
Reigning ONE Women’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Champion Smilla “The Hurricane” Sundell is happy to soak up all she can from her fellow ONE superstars.
The 19-year-old phenom will soon put her gold on the line when she battles surging Russian knockout artist Natalia “Karelian Lynx” Diachkova in the main event of ONE Fight Night 22 on Prime Video.
That highly anticipated World Title clash will take place in U.S. primetime on May 3 in front of a raucous Bangkok crowd at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
Undefeated in ONE and recognized as one of the planet’s top pound-for-pound strikers, Sundell has already reached the top of the Muay Thai mountain, but that doesn’t mean she’s about to stop learning.
To that end, she recently trained with current ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion Tawanchai PK Saenchai, as well as three-sport queen and reigning ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Champion Stamp Fairtex.
Sundell Blown Away By Tawanchai
In March, the Swedish titleholder visited Tawanchai at the famed PK Saenchai Muay Thai Gym in Bangkok.
Now that she’s a global superstar, Sundell hopes to hold a seminar tour in the United States, and she was excited to learn the finer points of teaching Muay Thai from the featherweight kingpin.
As she told onefc.com, she learned not only how to be a better teacher but also some unique technical details:
“I did his seminar in Bangkok at PK Saenchai with my friend Matt. We went there and wanted to learn some new skills and see how he did seminars because I want to go to America after my fight to do seminars. I’ve done one now, and I like teaching, so it was fun.
“I just wanted to see other people doing it too. He had some good tricks, so I learned some new stuff. He taught me some small tricks, like how to do a push kick differently, which was cool.”
For his part, Tawanchai is slated to defend his gold against “Smokin” Jo Nattawut on June 7 at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on Prime Video.
After the seminar, the pair of ONE World Champions shared the ring for a playful bit of sparring and Sundell was blown away by the Thai’s incredible speed, power, and technique:
“We did drills and a one-minute sparring with him. He’s very fast and strong. He didn’t go full power in the sparring, but wow.
“There’s no competition in it. He’s like a cat playing with a rat. It’s too easy for him sometimes – he doesn’t even try.”
Sundell Inspired By Stamp
“The Hurricane” has also spent plenty of time with her Fairtex Training Center teammate and reigning atomweight MMA queen Stamp Fairtex.
The two have known each other for years, but despite Stamp’s fame and accomplishments, Sundell says that her friend hasn’t changed:
“She’s always been a happy girl and trains hard every day. She’s basically the same, funny girl. Still hungry (to get wins).”
Of course, Sundell and Stamp have traded many tricks of the trade when it comes to Muay Thai and kickboxing, but the Swede says the biggest lesson she’s learned has been the value of perseverance.
After all, Stamp has accomplished the previously unimaginable – becoming a ONE World Champion in MMA, kickboxing, and Muay Thai. She’ll next defend her ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Title against Denice “The Menace” Zamboanga in June at ONE 167.
“The Hurricane” explained why her training partner has been such a huge inspiration:
“I think I learned that you can achieve whatever you like as long as you put in the work. But I learned that from my parents too. But maybe more practical, in a sense, because Stamp did it in martial arts.”
