ONE Championship Muay Thai ace Andrew Miller is riding high on a wave of confidence, and justifiably so.
The Scottish warrior is fresh off an emphatic win over a very dangerous opponent in Malaysia’s Mohamed ‘Jordan Boy’ Bin Mahmoud at ONE: For Honor in Indonesia in May.
After coming up short in his promotional debut, ‘Maddog Fairtex’ knew that having his hand raised would be critical to his cause, and that’s exactly what he did, turning that pressure into results and a massive dose of relief.
“I felt a lot of pressure on myself for this one as kind of a crossroads fight. If I lost this one, where would I go from here?” said Miller.
“But I’m always confident in my abilities when I’m fighting. When my mentality is in the right place, I’m a hard person to fight. That was six months in the making, so it was just patience, patience, patience to get my hand raised.”
Empowered with the kind of special self-belief that comes with victory, Miller’s now looking to continue that momentum into his bout against local hope Han Zi Hao at ONE: Legendary Quest in Shanghai on June 15.
Miller has been back at his base at Pattaya’s renowned Fairtex gym in the thick of preparations for China’s Han, where a win could boost him straight into title consideration.
As far as Miller is concerned, his all-round abilities have gone from strength to strength at Fairtex, and he believes he’s now operating at the peak of his powers, particularly when it comes to his counter-striking and clinch game.
“Training at Fairtex, I feel stronger than ever, and I know how good my clinch is. I’ve been quite pleased with my boxing – my counter-striking. We focus on boxing a little bit, but I’ve been really impressed with my hands,” said Miller.
Miller is eager to get past his Chinese adversary and put his Muay Thai to the ultimate test.
“I want to fight the best fighters – that’s what we’re here for. I’d like to get a superstar Thai one day to see what level I’m at,” Miller concluded.
There’s plenty of mouth-watering action to fill out the rest of the event at Baoshan Arena, including a ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Championship clash between Stamp Fairtex and Alma Juniku, and the ONE debut of Japanese-Korean star Yoshihiro Akiyama who takes on Malaysia’s Agilan Thani.
