Janet Todd has remained patient in her quest to unify the ONE atomweight muay Thai world title, but the wait is almost over.
“JT” will finally get her chance to convert the interim strap into the full world championship when she takes on divisional queen Allycia Hellen Rodrigues at ONE Fight Night 8 on March 24.
The bout will serve as the co-main event at the blockbuster showcase, which airs live on Amazon Prime Video in U.S. primetime at 8 p.m. ET.
The pair were originally scheduled to lock horns at ONE Fight Night 5 in December, but the matchup was postponed just days before the event when the American tested positive for COVID-19.
Now three months later, Todd revealed that she has suffered no longterm effects from the virus.
“I’ve definitely recovered; it was just like a stuffy nose. I was really devastated when I tested positive. I did not think I had COVID. I asked multiple times if I could get tested again and again,” she recalled.
While she may have had a huge opportunity delayed following her positive test, it was not all doom and gloom for “JT.”
Todd, who is also the ONE atomweight kickboxing world champion, used the extra time to further develop her already formidable arsenal.
“I was back training in December. We were having more fun with it, like, not necessarily working on tactics against Allycia, but trying to incorporate more different skills and just being creative with what I do to incorporate new skills. Whether it’s doing it against Allycia, or doing it with a future opponent,” she said.
“(The fight cancellation) gave us a little bit of downtime to play around with different skillsets, and not necessarily just be purely focused on tactics and skills against Allycia. It still gave me time to expand my skills.”
Rodrigues, for her part, is returning to the ONE circle for the first time since claiming the ONE atomweight muay Thai world title with a majority decision victory over Thai superstar Stamp Fairtex in August 2020.
The Brazilian, however, stepped away from the sport to start a family after climbing to the top of the mountain.
In the interim, Todd has been doing her homework, and the Boxing Works representative feels like she has Rodrigues’ game worked out.
“She’s a very good kicker, and she’s very good in the clinch. I know that at one point in the fight we’re going to end up in the clinch because she’s a clinch fighter,” she said.
“And I know that she’s got very good left kicks against punchers, so I’m going to be expecting that too.”
As well as studying her opponent, “JT” has also used her extra training time to devise a winning strategy for the impending world title unification battle.
The 37-year-old American feels that her movement-based game will match up well with the Thai style of Rodrigues.
“I always like being in more of like a punching and kicking range,” she said. “So, I’d like to use my footwork to keep myself at that range, because I think that’s where I excel.”
