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Japanese kickboxing star Takeru Segawa will be making his long-awaited ONE Championship debut against Superlek Kiatmoo9 for the ONE flyweight kickboxing world title. At ONE 165 on Jan. 28, fans will be treated to a match for the ages as 'The Natural Born Crusher' challenges 'The Kicking Machine' for his belt in Tokyo, Japan.
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Superlek is one of the most technically crafty and dynamic fighters in both Muay Thai and kickboxing today. Meanwhile, Takeru is one of the best combat exports from Japan as he is the only K-1 world champion to win belts in three different weight classes.
Despite his lofty accolades, however, the Japanese superstar hasn't always been certain that he can make a living out of the sport.
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He told ONE:
“I always wanted to do kickboxing, but there were no kickboxing gyms in the neighborhood when I was a kid, so I started karate when I was in second grade.”
'The Natural Born Crusher' continued:
“I always wanted to be a fighter, but I thought I couldn’t make a living only by fighting. So, I thought about what I wanted to do for a job, and I thought I could be a childcare worker, so I went to a high school that had the curriculum for that."
Having a dream so strongly that you'd do anything to achieve it is good. However, there's no shame in having something to fall back to. Takeru was smart to have something to support his fighting career early.
Takeru says he used Karate as a way to enter the kickboxing world
Every world champion had to start somewhere. 'The Natural Born Crusher' chose to practice the Japanese striking art of full-contact Karate as a stepping stone to becoming a kickboxing world champion one day.
He told ONE:
“I had always dreamed of becoming a kickboxing champion when I was a child. I was watching K-1 on TV, and I saw a lot of karate practitioners, and I admired them. I thought if I did karate, maybe I could enter K-1.”
Karate is one of the hardest striking combat arts in human history, and you can easily see this in the grittiness of Takeru's style. Come ONE 165, we'll see a classic battle between his Karate vs. Superlek's Muay Thai. It's a tale as old as time.
ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru will air live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
