Yuya Wakamatsu admits past demons haunted him heading to world title win at ONE 172: "The enemy is in yourself"

Newly minted ONE flyweight MMA world champion Yuya Wakamatsu shared that he was fighting against himself more than fighting Adriano Moraes during their championship showdown at ONE 172 last Sunday in front of his home fans at Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

According to Wakamatsu, he has been trying to shake off the memory of the submission loss to Moraes in March 2022 at ONE X during the lead-up to their world title rematch.

'Little Piranha' spoke about this during the ONE 172 post-event press conference, as he explained:

"And I always think, and always say to myself that the enemy is in yourself, not the opponent. So I was just facing myself for the past three years, and that's the reason."

Watch the full ONE 172 post-event press conference here:

This victory by the Japanese MMA superstar proved that he is a master of a rematch and allowed him to pick up his ninth win in 13 matches under the world's largest martial arts organization since his promotional debut in September 2018.

Wakamatsu has also extended his current win streak to four after previously beating Xie Wei, Danny Kingad, and Gilbert Nakatani.

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Yuya Wakamatsu proud of his performance against Adriano Moraes at ONE 172

Apart from becoming the undisputed flyweight MMA king, the Tribe Tokyo MMA representative was very satisfied with his own performance because he was able to fully display the samurai spirit.

The 30-year-old athlete stated this during the ONE 172 post-event conference, where he explained:

"I feel I performed, and I showed this samurai spirit, and this is an important part of the Japanese people, and the Japanese heart. And so, yes, ONE is the world's number one. And if I'm the champion and I'm the best."

Fans can rewatch all the action from the ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang card via watch.onefc.com.