Asadula Imangazaliev: The Kid Who Once Watched Nong-O On TV Now Steps Into The Ring With Him
Asadula Imangazaliev grew up watching Nong-O Hama compete. He watched the Thai legend dismantle opponents with calm, clinical precision, and in those moments, even as a kid, he was already working out how he would beat him.
On Friday, March 20, at ONE Friday Fights 147 inside Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium, he gets to find out.
The 22-year-old Team Mehdi Zatout representative enters the vacant ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Title fight on the back of an 11-0 career record, a perfect 7-0 promotional mark, and six finishes that have established him as one of the most dangerous and unpredictable strikers in the game. Body shots, head kicks, spinning attacks — he finishes fights in ways opponents do not see coming, from angles they cannot prepare for.
“I watched his fights when I was still a kid,” Imangazaliev said. “Even back then, when I was watching fighters at such a high level, I always tried to imagine how I could beat them one day. Now that I’m older, I have the opportunity to show my style to the whole world.”
The stakes extend well beyond personal ambition. No Russian fighter has ever held ONE gold in Muay Thai. A victory on Friday would make Imangazaliev a trailblazer for an entire nation’s fighters, and he carries that weight with clarity rather than pressure.
“This is an opportunity to announce myself and put my name in the history of Russian Muay Thai by becoming the first Russian ONE Champion in Muay Thai,” he said.
Standing in his way is a fighter with a 267-58 career record, eight ONE bantamweight title reigns, and three decades of elite competition. Imangazaliev has studied the legend. He respects him. And he has no intention of letting any of that matter when the bell rings.
“I respect him as a fighter and as a legend,” he said. “But once the fight starts, I will be hunting him every second.”
His confidence is rooted in the specific problems his style creates. Constant movement, shifting angles, strikes arriving from positions opponents have never faced. It is a formula that has yet to be solved inside ONE Championship.
“My style is a problem for any fighter,” he said. “I’m constantly moving, using different angles and unpredictable strikes, which makes it very difficult for my opponents to adapt to me.”
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