ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is keeping faith in former three-division K-1 Champion Takeru “Natural Born Krusher” Segawa, even after seeing the Japanese megastar get finished in his biggest fight yet in the promotion.
In the most anticipated bout of the year, former ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang “The Iron Man” Jitmuangnon needed just 80 seconds to dispatch Takeru in their flyweight kickboxing super-fight at ONE 172 last Sunday, March 23, at Saitama Super Arena.
Despite the shocking finish of their bout, Sityodtong understands how that quick ending can happen in such a high-stakes matchup, especially facing a fighter as dangerous as Rodtang.
“You know when you fight at the highest levels in the world, you make one split-second error and you’re gonna get knocked out, especially against a fighter like Rodtang,” Sityodtong said at the post-fight press conference.
“So I knew that, again, like I predicted before, somebody was gonna get knocked out in that fight. But again, I went backstage, Takeru still wanted to fight again.
“I’ll talk to my team and figure out what’s next for Takeru. But Takeru wants to fight for the World Title one day in ONE. That’s his dream.”
He isn’t even discounting the possibility of these two men rematching in the future, but certainly these two fighters are on different paths after such a result.
“I don’t know why I always thought that Rodtang and Takeru were gonna fight more than one time,” he said.
“I spoke to Takeru, he wants to come back and fight Rodtang. He still wants the World Title in ONE. Of course, you know, Rodtang also wants a World Title back.”
For now, Sityodtong shared that it’s going to be up to Takeru to build himself up, while stating that he plans to pit Rodtang against Jonathan Haggerty once more — although there aren’t any definitive details about that fight except that it will be under Muay Thai rules.
“So there’s a lot of storylines here, but yes, I think Takeru will have to regroup, because, you know, Rodtang delivered an outstanding, flawless performance,” Sityodtong said.
“So I have to sit down with my team to figure out what’s going to happen next for Takeru. But for Rodtang, I think Rodtang is going to fight Haggerty next in Muay Thai.”
