Former ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion Jonathan Di Bella’s goal for 2025 is to be the king of his weight bracket once again.
That journey begins for the Canadian-Italian star when he meets Rui Botelho at ONE Fight Night 26 on Saturday, December 7, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Stadium.
Di Bella enjoyed sitting atop the strawweight kickboxing throne following his victory at ONE 162 in October 2022.
That was until two-sport king Prajanchai PK Saenchai outstruck him for the crown and his first loss at ONE Friday Fights 68 this past June. And now all he’s focused on is righting the wrongs to do everything in his power to take back the crown.
“My goal is to get my belt back – for sure, 100 percent to get my belt back. That’s my main goal,” Di Bella said.
“It was a close fight (against Prajanchai). I still lost, still came out on the short end. I just want to get the belt back, that’s all. I want to be champion. I like being champion. I love being champion, and yeah, I just want to be champion again.”
Before Di Bella can think of wearing gold again, he must topple Botelho, which won’t be an easy task.
The Portuguese standout is currently in the best form of his ONE Championship tenure, with a win over Zhang Peimian in kickboxing and Thongpoon PK Saenchai in Muay Thai in his last two promotional outings.
Di Bella knows Botelho has a noteworthy set of skills, but he is unfazed overall. The former strawweight kickboxing king is confident he’ll adapt to what he sees in the ring at ONE Fight Night 26 and establish a route to victory from there.
“I think he has a lot of power, a lot of speed, a lot of timing. He’s very tricky, and as far as weaknesses, I don’t see really many weaknesses, but I see that he’s very offensive. He’s more offensive than anything. He comes to fight, so that’s good,” Di Bella said.
“Whatever I have to do to win, I’ll do. I’ll see his style in the fight, during the fight, and whatever happens, happens. Maybe win by decision, win by knockout. I’m not going to look for a knockout, but anything can happen. If it comes, it comes. But it’s just to win, you know? I just play to win.”
