The Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand, apparently unaware that desire doesn’t constitute negotiation, has set its eyes on Nabil Anane for the national team’s Olympic campaign. The interim ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion, they believe, might just be the medal hope they’ve been searching for.
Jitinat Asdamongkol, president of ONE Championship’s Thailand operations, met this news with the bemused tolerance of a man who’s seen this movie before. He noted dryly, implying that daydreaming about borrowing Anane was several steps removed from actually securing his services. In fact, ONE holds Anane’s rights, Asdamongkol said, just in case the boxing authorities had somehow missed this fundamental detail in their medal-colored reverie. But he and ONE are open to working with them should anyone reach out.
The boxing federation’s wishful thinking carries the faint scent of déjà vu. Not long ago they cast similar longing glances toward Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, the former two-time WBC super flyweight champion, dreaming he might punch Thailand’s ticket to glory at the 2024 Paris Games. That romance, too, withered on the vine of practical impossibility.
The pattern suggests Thailand’s Olympic boxing braintrust continues to hunt for shortcuts to the podium in other promoters’ stables rather than developing their own prospects—a strategy that has proven about as effective as fishing with bare hands in an empty pond.