Smilla Sundell didn’t want to fight. Now she is world champion.
The 19-year-old is currently the ONE Muay Thai Strawweight World Champion and will defend her title live against Natalya Dyachkova at ONE Fight Night 22 in Bangkok, Thailand in the early hours of May 4th Sky Sports.
Sundell’s rapid rise saw her become the WBC’s top-ranked Muay Thai competitor at the age of 16, before becoming ONE’s youngest Muay Thai World Champion at 17.
The worst teenager in the world? Quite possible.
“I think that’s fun to hear,” Sundell laughed Sky Sports. “I’ve heard different types of it. I think I still have a lot to offer to grow from.”
Sundell grew up in Sweden and began learning karate at the age of five before being introduced to Muay Thai during a vacation in Thailand, where she eventually moved for her parents’ work. The rest was gold standard history, and the best is undoubtedly yet to come.
“I moved to Thailand when I was 11 to 12 years old and I was always interested in sports and stuff. When we moved to the small island in Thailand, there weren’t many sports and only Muay Thai,” she explained. “So I started training for fun with my family and later the coaches and my parents thought I was good enough to fight.”
“But I didn’t really want to do it. One day, like the night before, they told me that I had a fight the next day, and that’s how it started. I didn’t want to do it. I was very angry” and insulted everyone because I didn’t want to get hurt.
“That wasn’t for me. It took me three fights to really get into it. It was the same in the first three fights. I was told the same thing as the day before. But I like winning and I won my first three fights, I like that. “Feeling of victory, so I kept going and now I’m world champion.
Natalia Diachkova., ONE Championship
Sundell jokes that she’s gotten somewhat used to the regular dose of pain now. When she wins confidently, as she often does, that helps limit that.
She made her Muay Thai debut in 2018 and prevailed with a first-round stoppage in a contest that might never have happened.
“I was actually planning on canceling my first fight because I really didn’t want to get hurt,” she continued. “But the next day I thought, ‘She’s a little girl too’ and if the coaches tell me I’m fine, I have to trust them.”
“I see the girl in the stadium. ‘I think, oh, she’s short too,’ and we agreed not to do elbow exercises, so that was nice. But I thought, ‘Oh, she looks nervous too, let’s just do this.’ “It’s done and then I don’t have to do it again.”
Sundell had to make a decision at the age of 15 when her family decided to move back to Sweden. She had found Muay Thai and didn’t want to give it up.
“I don’t think I would have done Muay Thai in Sweden, and I would continue to learn and be like everyone else,” she said. “Maybe work in a clothing store or a restaurant, so I’m very glad I found Muay Thai.”
“I had just opened a Fairtex gym and I know they have great opportunities here, so I could choose to live my dream or go back to Sweden and just start like everyone else, and my family was very supportive of my decision.
“We thought they would come back even earlier to visit me, but their flights kept getting canceled, so I didn’t see my mother for a year and a half. They come to every fight now.”
Teenage sensation Smilla Sundell will defend her world title on Sky Sports on May 3rd
Sundell’s father, in particular, is as close as anyone to The Hurricane’s blossoming career and served as one of his daughter’s cornerstones.
“He supports me a lot and always pushes me forward. He knows I can do it,” she says. “He just tells me to calm down, usually because I get too aggressive, I don’t concentrate in the first round, I get too many hits and he says, ‘Okay, calm down now’.”
Sundell made her ONE Championship debut in February 2022, defeating Australia’s Diandra Martin via third-round TKO before winning the Muay Thai Women’s Strawweight World Championship two months later with a unanimous decision win over Jackie Buntan.
In doing so, she became the youngest fighter to win a world title, which she successfully defended last September by defeating Allycia Rodrigues in the third round, having also made her kickboxing debut in May 2023.
“I was a little surprised that it happened so quickly, but I also kind of knew I could do it. It was my biggest dream come true,” she said.
With her appearance came the opportunity to meet other martial arts greats, including WBC heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, with whom Sundell recently took a photo while the Gypsy King was training at her gym.
“I took a photo with him before training, but I didn’t particularly like the photo. I thought, ‘No, I don’t look good in that picture, so I let him train,'” she laughed. “I did my own workout, then I did some weights and waited for him to finish, and then I got to take a photo with him.”
Smilla Sundell targets Allycia Hellen Rodrigues
While she enjoys the opportunity to interact with other sports stars, she admits she doesn’t feel like one herself yet.
“No, I don’t feel like a superstar,” she said. “But then people come up to me and want a picture, so it’s a bit like a superstar, but in my eyes I’m just like a normal person.”
Although Sundell is still early in her career, she hopes to inspire other young female fighters to follow in her footsteps by pursuing success in combat sports.
“I think it’s really nice that people look up to me,” she said. “For example, people come to my training and say, ‘Oh my God,’ and they’re impressed, and I can’t really believe it.”
“That just makes me so happy. And I just want to keep pushing and getting better.”
Having already taken his seat at the world championship table, Sundell isn’t ready to stop just yet.
Dyachkova awaits us as the next step towards dominance.
“I want to be a world champion in all three categories, so kickboxing, MMA and Muay Thai, I want to have all the belts at the same time,” she explained.
“But my first step will be to defend my belt every now and then and then get the kickboxing belt and then MMA will come in the future.”
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