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Reigning ONE bantamweight kickboxing world champion and former Muay Thai king 'The General' Jonathan Haggerty of the United Kingdom was full of confidence heading into his world title defense against Thai dynamo 'The Kicking Machine' Superlek Kiatmoo9 last month.
Haggerty met Superlek in a highly anticipated rematch at ONE 168: Denver at Ball Arena on Sept. 6, and the fiery Englishman was more than motivated to get the win.
After all, 'The General' had thousands of screaming fans in his corner in the United States.
However, there was another individual who gave Haggerty a boost of confidence just before he entered the circle. That man was none other than WWE legend Bill Goldberg, who Haggerty ran into in the hallways just as he was about to walk out for his fight with Superlek.
Haggerty shared the chance encounter with the famous wrestler with Sky Sports MMA Club podcast:
"We didn’t speak. We spotted, and I remember when Liam [Harrison] lost and he was coming back towards me because I was getting ready to go out and Liam had his head down and then Goldberg was a little bit upset as well so he said to me, 'Go out and smash the f**k out of this guy,' and I was like, ok, let’s go. So that was a good interaction."
Unfortunately for Haggerty, he lost via 49-second knockout when Superlek separated him from his senses with an explosive counter elbow.
Jonathan Haggerty admits being starstruck by Goldberg: "It was great to witness it"
'The General' Jonathan Haggerty was admittedly starstruck when he saw Bill Goldberg at ONE 168: Denver.
Goldberg was walking out to the ircle to corner 'Hitman' Liam Harrison for the United Kingdom fighter's battle with Seksan Or Kwanmuang.
Haggerty told Sky Sports:
"Yeah, I was, to be fair. It was amazing. In the back room, he just turned up, he was all blacked out and I thought Liam done a great job there. I was thinking to myself, in my next fight I’m gonna figure out who to bring out. So he’s done a great job, Liam. Starstruck, yeah, it was great to witness it."
