Swedish Muay Thai sensation Smilla Sundell has formally entered combined martial arts, signing with Tuff-N-Uff to make her skilled MMA debut in December 2025. The announcement marks a big chapter within the profession of the fighter often known as “The Hurricane,” who beforehand held the ONE Ladies’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Championship and stands because the youngest particular person to attain a world title in Muay Thai historical past.
Smilla Sundell To MMA
Sundell, presently 20 years previous, will compete at 135 kilos in her debut, representing a weight class choice following her departure from ONE Championship. The choice to shift weight courses reveals bodily development that occurred throughout her tenure with the Asia-based promotion.
At weigh-ins for her Might 2024 title protection in opposition to Natalia Diachkova, Sundell got here in 1.5 kilos over the strawweight restrict, leading to her being stripped of her championship regardless of successful the bout by way of technical knockout within the second spherical. By August 2025, ONE Championship formally eliminated Sundell from their roster, citing her incapacity to compete inside the group’s out there feminine weight classifications.
The fighter’s path to MMA prominence started by way of Muay Thai competitors. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 12, 2004, Sundell began martial arts coaching at age 5 with karate for self-defense functions. Her introduction to Muay Thai occurred throughout a household trip to Thailand when she was roughly 10 or 11 years previous. What initially appeared like a brief curiosity remodeled right into a everlasting profession course when her household relocated to Koh Samui.
Coaching at Fairtex Gymnasium in Pattaya from October 2019 onward, Sundell developed into an elite striker at an accelerated tempo. By January 2021, at simply 16 years previous, she held the primary rating amongst feminine featherweights at 57.153 kilograms in response to the WBC Muay Thai. Her beginner file earlier than becoming a member of ONE Championship included over 31 victories.
Sundell made her ONE Championship debut on February 25, 2022, at ONE: Full Circle, defeating Australia’s Diandra Martin by third-round TKO. Lower than two months later, she captured the inaugural ONE Ladies’s Strawweight Muay Thai World Championship by defeating Jackie Buntan by way of unanimous determination at ONE 156 on April 22, 2022. At 17 years and 5 months previous, this victory established her because the youngest world champion in ONE Championship historical past, a distinction that prolonged throughout all weight courses and martial arts disciplines inside the group. The efficiency earned her a $50,000 Efficiency of the Night time bonus.
Sundell’s ONE Championship tenure included one profitable title protection in opposition to Allycia Rodrigues on September 29, 2023, at ONE Battle Night time 14, securing one other technical knockout within the third spherical and a second $50,000 Efficiency of the Night time award. Her aggressive file inside ONE encompassed 5 victories throughout Muay Thai and kickboxing disciplines with out experiencing defeat earlier than her title protection in opposition to Diachkova, although the burden administration points had turn out to be more and more obvious.
Tuff-N-Uff, the promotion facilitating Sundell’s MMA entry, operates because the second-longest-running MMA group in america, established in 1994. The promotion has developed and signed over 3,000 athletes all through its 30-plus 12 months historical past, with greater than 60 fighters progressing to UFC contracts. Notable alumni embody Corridor-of-Famer Ronda Rousey, Ladies’s Bantamweight Champion Aspen Ladd, present UFC fighters Felicia Spencer and Tracy Cortez, and Khalil Rountree Jr. Tuff-N-Uff has constantly featured on UFC Battle Cross and obtained tv protection throughout a number of networks together with ESPN, HBO, and specialty fight sports activities channels.
Sundell’s placing basis supplies a significant benefit in distance administration and clinch management, areas the place Muay Thai coaching straight transfers to MMA software. At 20 years previous, Sundell enters the MMA panorama considerably youthful than many feminine fighters starting their skilled profession.
The particular December 2025 date and potential opponent stay unannounced as of the announcement date, although Sundell has indicated her readiness to start this chapter of her fight sports activities profession.
