“I hit rock bottom” - Masaaki Noiri says pain from two-fight skid fueled his world-title winning moment at ONE 172

Masaaki Noiri hit rock bottom after dropping his first two fights under the ONE Championship banner.

The former two-division K-1 titleholder arrived in ONE to much fanfare, but excitement quickly turned to disappointment after he suffered back-to-back losses against Sitthichai and Liu Mengyang.

Looking back on his rocky start, Noiri admitted that it felt like he'd hit rock bottom before finding success in his last two outings.

"It's really tough. There's a lot of competition here, and you can see, I lost two fights before winning my last two," Noiri told My Navi News. "I hit rock bottom when I lost those two fights, and it hasn't even been a year since I joined ONE Championship."

Returning to the ring at ONE 172 in Japan, Noiri earned the biggest win of his career, scoring a stunning third-round TKO over Thai superstar Tawanchai to claim the ONE interim featherweight kickboxing world championship.

Now, the Japanese fan favorite finds himself going from 0-2 in ONE to capturing his first 26 pounds of gold with the promotion.

Next up for Noiri, in all likelihood, is a massive title unification clash with reigning ONE featherweight kickboxing king Superbon.

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Masaaki Noiri still can't believe how far he's come in such a short period of time

A year ago, Masaaki Noiri couldn't even imagine competing on martial arts' biggest global stage.

Today, he's one of the promotion's world champions—a reality that the former K-1 star is admittedly still trying to wrap his head around.

"Only a year ago, I'd never have imagined that I'd be competing in ONE and winning the belt, and I would have probably never fought four matches in such a short period of time," Noiri added.

If you missed any of the action, you can watch the full ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang replay on demand via watch.onefc.com.