ONE Championship: Petchtanong just focused on fighting, not titles ahead of return to ring

Petchtanong Petchfergus makes his ONE Championship return on Friday following a year-long suspension for a failed drugs test.

The Thai fighter won the bantamweight kickboxing title in 2022 but never got to defend it after failing an out of competition test, and will face Alaverdi Ramazanov at ONE Friday Fights 68.

But Petchtanong is simply happy to be back in the ring again.

“My only focus was on when would I be fighting again after the suspension, I wasn’t focused on whether I would be fighting for any titles,” he told the Post.

His reputation has been seriously damaged after testing positive for metenolone and boldenone, banned anabolic steroids, last year.

And while Petchtanong accepted the punishment, he denied having intentionally used a banned substances and said he was proscribed the steroids by a doctor to treat a recurring elbow injury, having been out of action for eight months at the time of the failed test.

“Looking back I still feel upset but it was a lesson, I needed to educate myself more in terms of the rules and regulations and learn from my mistake,” he added.