The first ONE Samurai main event could not have been scripted any better.
ONE Championship has announced that Rodtang "The Iron Man" Jitmuangnon and Takeru "Natural Born Krusher" Segawa will meet in a five-round ONE Interim Flyweight Kickboxing World Title super-fight at ONE Samurai 1 on April 29 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
It will be the final fight of Takeru's storied career, giving Japanese fans the chance to send off one of their greatest martial arts heroes in the city he calls home.
The two men have unfinished business. When they first collided in the main event of ONE 172 last year, Rodtang ended the contest in breathtaking fashion, stopping the Japanese icon in just 80 seconds.
Takeru did not stay down for long. He returned to close out the year with a second-round TKO victory over Denis Puric, signaling that his competitive fire burns as brightly as ever.
That win set the stage for this rematch, and the setting could not be more fitting — Tokyo, home soil, a packed Ariake Arena, and a World Title on the line.
Rodtang arrives as one of ONE's most iconic figures. The 28-year-old has been a cornerstone of the promotion since making his debut in 2018, building a 17-2 ONE record and a staggering 274-43 career mark while serving as a former six-time ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion.
The Jitmuangnon Gym product has made a career of delivering unforgettable performances, and he showed in their first meeting exactly how devastating he can be.
Takeru, at 34, represents something rare in combat sports — a fighter whose legend only grows with time. The three-division K-1 Champion carries a 45-5 career record and introduced himself to ONE audiences in January 2024 with a breathtaking debut against Superlek that immediately cemented his place among the promotion's most celebrated performers.
Now, with his career coming full circle in front of his own fans, Takeru has one final statement to make.
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