ONE Championship

A comeback knockout, a US$50,000 bonus, and a shared training lineage now stand at the center of one of Saturday’s most compelling ONE SAMURAI 3 matchups.

Suablack Tor Pran49 meets 21-year-old Japanese standout Shimon Yoshinari in a flyweight Muay Thai clash at Yokohama Buntai in Yokohama, Japan, this Saturday, September 12.

The 30-year-old Thai veteran rebuilt his career with a second-round knockout of Stephen Irvine at ONE Fight Night 45 last July, a finish that also carried a $50,000 performance bonus he used to fund a water well for his parents in the mountains, with the remainder going to his wife as savings in gold. Across the ring stands a fighter with a 26-1 professional record and a former WBC Muay Thai World Championship, but also a familiar face: both men trained under veteran Pakorn PK Sialaytentmungkorn, a man Suablack himself faced and lost to at ONE Friday Fights 137 last December.

“Pakorn used to train him back then, and Pakorn trained me too. We’re both Pakorn’s students,” Suablack said.

“We’ll just have to see in the ring whose application of Pakorn’s techniques proves superior.”

Suablack Tor Pran49 dismisses long odds against Shimon

Suablack’s own numbers tell a story of survival. He arrives off consecutive losses that preceded his flyweight move, and oddsmakers have installed him as a heavy underdog against Shimon’s unblemished ONE Championship record.

The Thai veteran, however, points to specific technical cracks he believes tilt the numbers back in his favor, regardless of what the record book says. He has broken down the matchup as closely as any opponent he has faced.

“Most people are giving me a 10 percent chance to win and him 90 percent. But I’m going to make that 10 percent a reality,” he said.

“He’s tough, but when he gets hit, he flinches. I saw several flaws that I can exploit.”

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