Happy Easter martial arts warriors! Here’s one to watch out for…Stamp Fairtex was born, Nanthawan Panthong on November 16th, 1997 in the province of Rayong, Thailand. The 24 year-old is a former One Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and Women’s Atomweight MMA World Grand Prix Champion, and she is currently ranked no.1 in the One Championship Women’s Atomweight rankings.
She has a combined Muay Thai and kickboxing record of 63 wins, 17 losses, and 5 draws, as well as an MMA record of 8-2, with 3 KO’s/TKO’s, and 2 submissions.
Stamp Fairtex started competing in Muay Thai at the age of 5, in response to being bullied. She was trained by her father, who was also a Muay Thai fighter.
After capturing a few regional championships, Stamp took 8 years off Muay Thai, due to the lack of opponents, but she would return to the sport at the age of 18 after moving to Fairtex Training Center in Pattaya, Thailand.
At this same gym, Stamp also started training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and captured a gold medal at the 2019 Siam Cup BJJ tournament, competing in the Women’s gi 58.5kg division.
Although Fairtex most recently lost to current One Women’s Atomweight Champion, Angela “Unstoppable” Lee, no one can deny her accomplishments, and in fact, she is one of the poster girls for the One Championship roster.
Despite the cheerful and playful persona she demonstrates in her ever-entertaining “Stamp dances” she presents a demeanor in the ring/circle that suggests otherwise, as she is among of the fiercest strikers to ever step foot in the One Championship ring.
Stamp became a two-sport champion at One Championship, holding belts in both Muay Thai and kickboxing simultaneously. At this point, it made absolute sense for the Thai phenom to transition into MMA and embark on the journey of becoming a three-sport champion.
Even though she lost both her Muay Thai and kickboxing belts before her dreams of capturing MMA gold came to fruition, Stamp still became One’s Women’s Atomweight MMA World Grand Prix Champion. With such a colourful background covered, let’s get into counting down Stamp Fairtex’s Top 5 MMA Finishes! (in descending order)
5. Vs. Asha Roka – ONE: Dreams of Gold (Aug. 16, 2019)
With her eyes set on capturing MMA gold and becoming a three-sport champion, Stamp Fairtex’s first MMA test since her ONE Warrior Series KO win, was against Indian boxing champion Asha Roka, who had undefeated boxing and MMA records of 7-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now making her One Championship debut, of note is that Roka’s 4 MMA wins were all first-round finishes.
Roka started the fight with a few leg kicks, but Stamp countered with the clinch and knee strikes before the two disengaged. Stamp stayed composed, controlled the center of the ring, and countered Roka’s punches with an onslaught of strikes that led to a takedown at 2:02.
From there, Stamp demonstrated her superb ground game as she stayed on top of Roka via full mount and rained ground and pound. In the last few seconds, Stamp took Roka’s back and was about to attempt a rear naked choke, only for Roka to be saved by the bell.
Round 2 was a stand-up battle through-and-through. The exchanges mostly consisted of Roka connecting with a few punches, only for Stamp to answer with a barrage of punches and kicks every time. In addition, Stamp was landing leg kicks to mitigate Roka’s punches.
By round 3, the pair continued brawling, but Roka eventually got caught in Stamp’s clinch and ate knees to the body before getting taken down and mounted again at 0:26.
Stamp landed some brutal ground and pound, and Roka turned her back to Stamp. Unfortunately for Roka, Stamp used the opportunity to submit her via rear naked choke at 1:29 of round 3.
With the win, Stamp not only lifted her MMA record to 2-0, she was also awarded her BJJ blue belt.
4. Vs. Puja Tomar – ONE: A New Tomorrow (Jan. 10, 2020)
After defeating the popular Bi Nguyen by unanimous decision, Stamp Fairtex faced her next challenge in the form of India’s Puja “The Cyclone” Tomar, who was 4-3 at the time.
To start, whilst staying as composed as ever, Stamp pressed Tomar to the corner with a mixture of leg and body kicks.
Tomar grabbed Stamp’s leg and took her down eventually at 1:00, but Stamp easily scrambled back up, put Tomar in a clinch, threw one knee after another, and followed with another body kick on the break.
Tomar grabbed the leg and took Stamp down again at 1:11, but Stamp caught Tomar’s back in the process whilst Tomar struggled to get a dominant position on the ground.
Stamp eventually flattened her out at 3:24 and rained ground and pound before referee, Olivier Coste stepped in to stop the fight at 4:27 of round 1.
3. Vs. Sunisa Srisen – ONE: No Surrender (July, 31 2020)
Despite losing her kickboxing title to Janet Todd, Stamp returned to her winning ways against the then-undefeated Sunisa Srisen of Thailand, who was 3-0 with 3, first-round finishes at the time.
To start, Stamp landed some hard body kicks to halt any onslaught Srisen might have planned. In the clinch, even though Srisen landed some knee strikes, Stamp was the one who had full plum, which allowed her to land the more powerful knees with more volume.
A judo brown belt, Srisen tried throwing Stamp, but to no avail. As the pair were on the end of the ropes, referee Nick Chapman broke the two at 2:02 and had them return to neutral.
Now, with the two barely throwing anything, they eventually clinched up with Stamp taking full plum once again. From there, Stamp picked apart her Thai adversary with knees and elbows before taking her down at 3:07.
Landing in side control, Stamp eventually took Srisen’s back, flattened her out and landed ground and pound.
Despite Srisen putting Stamp in a headlock, she wasn’t stopping Stamp from landing, as the referee ultimately stepped in to stop the fight at 3:57 of round 1.
2. Vs. Ritu Phogat – ONE: Winter Warriors (Dec. 3, 2021)
Having advanced to the One, Women’s Atomweight Grand Prix finals and avenging her loss to Alyona Rassohyna in the process, Stamp Fairtex, who was then the no.2-ranked atomweight, took on Indian grappling maestro, Ritu Phogat who was 7-1 and the no.4-ranked atomweight at the time. On paper, this was the ultimate striker vs grappler showdown, but Stamp ultimately beat Ritu at her own game.
Once the bell rang for round 1, Ritu immediately tried blitzing in to take Stamp down, but was clinched and kneed in the process.
With Stamp taking the center of the ring, Phogat came in with an overhand right, hoping to use it to score a takedown, but Stamp saw it coming and kneed her again, forcing Phogat to disengage.
Phogat attempted a single leg, and forced Stamp to the end part of the cage at 1:38. Nonetheless, Stamp defended well, and Ritu tried to transition into a high crotch. She eventually took Stamp down at 3:02, only for Stamp to quickly scramble back up. Ritu lifted Stamp, preparing to take her down again, but was forced to let go as Stamp immediately put her in a closed guard and a guillotine.
In the second round, Ritu tried advancing but took some jabs and a knee. Ritu shot deep to successfully score a single-leg takedown at 0:27, and Stamp responded by eventually putting her in closed guard.
Stamp quickly transitioned into a triangle choke at 0:46. Although the triangle choke became deep, Ritu stacked Stamp, only for Stamp to transition into an armbar that forced Ritu to tap at 2:14 of round 2.
With this victory, Stamp became the One, Women’s Atomweight World Grand Prix Champion.
1. Vs. Rashi Shinde – ONE: Warrior Series 2 (July 19, 2018)
Before Stamp Fairtex made her full-time move to MMA, she impressed the likes of Rich Franklin at the One, Warrior Series. She quickly made her MMA debut against India’s Rashi Shinde, who was 1-1 at the time.
Despite Shinde having more experience in the realm of MMA, Stamp Fairtex put on a statement. She only needed 19 seconds of round 1 to score a head kick KO without receiving a single scratch from Shinde.
This victory became Stamp’s ticket into One Championship, where she would dominate in kickboxing, Muay Thai and ultimately MMA.
