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Thai striking sensation Rodtang Jitmuangnon never felt that he was in hostile territory when he competed at ONE 172 inside the Saitama Super Arena in Japan last Sunday against home bet Takeru Segawa in a flyweight kickboxing super fight.
Rodtang even silenced and stunned the Japanese crowd after knocking out Takeru in the opening round. It was his 17th win under the world's largest martial arts organization and his fourth kickboxing win in the promotion.
Following his incredible victory, 'The Iron Man' acknowledged the Japanese fans in attendance and shared the emotion he feels whenever he competes in the legendary halls of Saitama, as he stated during his post-fight interview:
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"First of all, I would like to say hi to all Japanese fans. Japan is like my second home. I always feel great to be here fighting in Japan in Saitama."
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With this win, Rodtang has essentially bolted himself in front of the line to challenge for the ONE flyweight kickboxing world title that Superlek Kiatmoo9 currently holds.
Furthermore, he also has a strong case to book himself a match for the vacant ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title - the 26-pound golden belt that he was stripped of due to missing weight.
Rodtang says he didn't expect that the knockout finish would come early at ONE 172
The 27-year-old not only impressed everyone with the early finish against 'The Natural Born Crusher' but he also surprised himself. According to him, he never expected Takeru to go down that early in the fight.
Rodtang stated this in his post-fight interview by explaining:
"I didn't expect that knockout to happen in the first round, but he did train very hard for it, to find a way to finish Takeu. Back home in Thailand, I've been training very hard for this fight. I have studied all the weaknesses, and all the openings of Takeru, and that left hook is one of the moves that I trained. I feel like I did my part, but I didn't expect that finish that quickly."
Fans can rewatch all the action from the ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang PPV card via watch.onefc.com.
