There is something about January in Bangkok that makes fighters sharpen their intentions. The calendar turns, the city exhales its holiday breath, and inside Lumpinee Stadium on Friday night, two Thai fighters will chase the kind of payday that can change everything.
Pompet PongSuphan PK and Decho Por Borirak headline ONE Friday Fights 138, each man measuring his worth against the US$100,000 contract that separates hopefuls from ONE Championship’s main roster.
Pompet arrives carrying 109 career victories like campaign ribbons on a dress uniform. The PK Saenchai Muaythaigym man made his entrance to ONE Championship’s consciousness at ONE Friday Fights 17 in May 2023, where he introduced Duangsompong Jitmuangnon to the canvas with a single punch that settled matters before they’d properly begun. It was the kind of announcement that makes matchmakers take notice and opponents reconsider their career choices.
The twenty-seven-year-old veteran has since compiled seven promotional victories with four finishes, building his case fight by fight. His resume reads like a Bangkok phonebook — wins over seasoned campaigners Rittidet Sor Sommai and Suriyanlek Por Yenying, the kind of names that carry weight in Muay Thai circles where reputation is currency and victories over known quantities matter.
His recent form has shown the inconsistency that plagues even skilled fighters — a win here, a setback there, the frustrating pattern of a man good enough to compete at this level but not quite consistent enough to dominate it. Yet Pompet enters riding consecutive victories over Thai ace Yodlekpet Or Atchariya and Scotland’s Gregor Thom, the latter a November showcase that saw him floor the Scottish fighter three times in the second round before the referee mercifully called proceedings to a halt.
It is the kind of momentum that makes a man dangerous, the feeling that the pieces are finally clicking into place at the exact moment when it matters most.
Across the ring stands Decho, the Singha Mawynn representative who brings 48 career victories and the hunger that only youth and opportunity can properly season. Where Pompet measures his career in three-digit win totals, Decho’s ONE Championship journey reads like a fighter still writing his opening chapters, each bout a sentence in a story whose ending remains unwritten.
He announced himself at ONE Friday Fights 104 last April with a split-decision victory over Isannuea ChotBangsaen, the kind of narrow verdict that settles nothing and demands a sequel. The rematch in June provided the definitive answer, with Decho earning a unanimous decision that suggested the first victory was no statistical accident.
His promotional path hit turbulence against the relentless Suriyanlek at ONE Friday Fights 124. Despite scoring a late knockdown that momentarily suggested salvation, Decho absorbed two eight-counts in the final round and suffered his first promotional defeat, the kind of lesson that either breaks young fighters or teaches them things they cannot learn any other way.
The rematch in October revealed which category Decho occupies. He dominated across three rounds, earning a unanimous decision that showcased both technical evolution and the mental fortitude required to avenge a loss. It is one thing to bounce back from defeat; quite another to do so against the same man who handed you that defeat, to look across the ring at your recent conqueror and find within yourself the improvements necessary to reverse the narrative.
Now he faces Pompet, a fighter whose 109 victories represent more than double Decho’s entire career win total. The numbers tell one story — veteran experience against youthful ambition, dangerous finishing power against resilient determination. But fights are not fought on paper, and inside Lumpinee Stadium on Friday night, with a six-figure contract hanging like ripe fruit waiting to be picked, mathematics gives way to the simpler equation of who wants it more and who can impose their will when the moments turn critical.
For Pompet, victory would validate the journey, proof that seven promotional wins and four spectacular finishes have earned him passage to the main roster. For Decho, it would represent his biggest victory and dramatically improve his chances of securing the contract that transforms promising prospects into established fighters.
The Bangkok night will provide the answer soon enough, and when it does, one man will walk away with his dreams still intact while the other returns to the drawing board to sketch new plans and reconsider old assumptions. Such is the nature of this business, where January in Bangkok means opportunity for those hungry enough to seize it.
