Is Jonathan Haggerty Better At Kickboxing Than Muay Thai?

Jonathan Haggerty recently deafeted Wei Rui in Qatar in an epic 5 round battle to retain his One Championship kickboxing world title.

Haggerty’s fighting career started when he was first introduced to the sport of Muay Thai by his father when he was a child.

It wasnt long before it was clear that the sport was made for him and after years of dedication he become a One Championship Muay Thai champion.

Not only that, but Impressively enough, Haggerty also become a One Championship kickboxing world champion, especially for the fact the purists of the sport believe kickboxing and Muay Thai are completely different.

For those unaware, even though kickboxing and Muay Thai use many similar techniques, the sports are actually world’s apart. In One Championship Muay Thai bouts, elbows and clinches are also permitted making it a totally different fight.

Furthermore, they also wear smaller gloves rather than boxing gloves, similar to what you see in MMA, so the fighters have to be even more evasive.

Is Jonathan Haggerty Better at Muay Thai or Kickboxing?

Even though Muay Thai is Haggerty’s chosen sport, who originally trained under former World champion, Alan Keddle. He has more than demonstrated he can comfortably transition to kickboxing as Haggerty is currently holding the ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Title

However, many suggest Jonathan Haggerty is considered to be better at kickboxing than Muay Thai.

While also previously holding the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Title, which he has since lost; many experts believe his style better suits kickboxing.

Analysts believe his fighting style is more suited to the open striking of kickboxing compared to the clinch-heavy Muay Thai. However, Haggerty enjoys both fighting styles, and the fact he is a big lover of the elbow, it would be fantastic to see him go for another Muay Thai world title.

We asked Haggerty what it’s like to switch to kickboxing.

He said: “Yeah it was easy to be fair! I kinda like kickboxing”

Will Haggerty Fight In Glory Kickboxing?

Glory kickboxing is a global promotion that solely focuses on kickboxing. The current Glory featherweight (equivalent to One bantamweight >65kg) champion is Petch ‘The Professor from Thailand. His record boasts over 200 fights with 173 wins. Haggerty is very familiar with fighting the Thai’s so this would be an interesting fight to see.

We asked Haggerty if he would ever fight in Glory?

His response was kept short:

“Probably not!”

Final Thoughts

Jonathan Haggerty is an incredible athlete. The dedication he puts in to the sport is astounding. There is definitely not many fighters out there that can comfortably change sports.

Whether or not he is better at kickboxing or Muay Thai, we believe he is great at both.