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When she was 10 years old, promising young Muay Thai practitioner Stamp Fairtex quit.
What might she have done if she hadn’t returned to the martial art at 18 and, subsequently, went on to become a three-sport champion for ONE Championship?
“During my teenage years, I was considering becoming a math teacher,” Fairtex told The Post over Zoom through interpreter Matt Lucas during a recent visit to New York. “… I just like math.”
The Rayong, Thailand native is not far removed from solving the toughest equation of her career, securing a third-round TKO of legendary atomweight MMA fighter Seo Hee Ham for the vacant ONE title on Sept. 30 in Singapore.
The victory gave Fairtex — born Nadthawan Panthong but competing professionally under a name honoring the Fairtex Gym where she trains — her promotion’s MMA title for her weight class to pair with the belts she’d previously captured in Muay Thai and kickboxing.
Ham, a UFC veteran who had won nine straight since leaving the promotion to compete at her more natural weight class before Fairtex’s body punches shut her down, caught the new champ by surprise with her uncharacteristically measured approach.
“I was surprised because usually Ham puts on a lot of pressure in her fights,” Fairtex said, “but in this one, when she fought me, not so much pressure.”
That allowed Fairtex (11-2, seven finishes) to get comfortable in the cage after a slower first round with an elongated feeling-out process.
By the third, the rising star found her opening to take out the 36-year-old great from South Korea.
“I saw that Ham was getting tired and that her weak point was the body shot,” Fairtex explains, “so I went for it.”
The championship win wrapped up a huge year for the 2021 ONE Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix champion, a 2023 that began for her with her first MMA fight on U.S. soil.
After having its unique ruleset approved for utilization with the Colorado Combative Sports Commission, ONE brought an event to Broomfield on May 5.
Although UFC legend Demetrious Johnson defending his flyweight title in a rubber match against Adriano Moraes served as that night’s main event, perhaps no fighter left a bigger impression on the crowd and those watching on Amazon Prime Video than Fairtex.
In the lightest fight of the night, Fairtex blasted Alyse Anderson with a body kick that ended the American’s night midway through the second round, earning Performance of the Night and the admiration of fight fans.
“I was kneeing to the body, and then I saw that [Anderson] wasn’t breathing properly,” Fairtex says. “So I was able to kick the body and sort of explode the body at the same time.”
The positive reaction Fairtex received in Colorado caught her off guard but was very welcome.
“I was surprised. I did not expect to have, like, a fan club in America,” said Fairtex, who has competed primarily in Southeast Asia. “Obviously, in Singapore, I’ve been there a few times. I know there’s ties over there as well, so I realized that. But I did not expect the extent from the fan club in the States.”
There are no announced plans for a return to the U.S. for Singapore-based ONE, which has a Prime-streamed Muay Thai event scheduled for Dec. 8, although the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission last month approved ONE’s ruleset as well to open up another path to a U.S. event.
At whatever point ONE does return stateside, Fairtex would jump at another chance to show American fight fans what she can do.
“If I get the opportunity, I want to fight here again, that way more people know me out here,” Fairtex said from her New York hotel.
The location of her next fight is perhaps less of a concern than the opponent, and Fairtex has made it known exactly who she wants next: Xiong Jing Nan, the ONE strawweight champion who has reigned for nearly six years and seven title defenses.
The challenge of moving up in weight to face a dominant champion thrills Fairtex, who at 26 is seemingly only getting started on her combat sports career.
“If I get the opportunity, I’ll fight up in weight,” Fairtex said. “And if I lose, it’s not a massive deal to me. But I’d obviously like the strawweight belt as well.”
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