WATCH: The Tokyo barnburner between modern-day icons Superlek Kiatmoo9 and Takeru Segawa at ONE 165

It is not every day that combat sports fans are treated to moments in history but in January 2024, they were treated to one with ONE 165.

With it being ONE Championship’s first live event in Japan since 2019, fans inside the Ariake Arena were chomping at the bit to witness the main event matchup between Superlek Kiatmoo9 and their hometown hero, Takeru Segawa.

Superlek’s ONE flyweight kickboxing world championship was on the line and as soon as the bell rang, ‘The Natural Born Crusher’ initiated most of the action, carefully measuring his distance against Superlek with kicks to the leg.

However, ‘The Kicking Machine’ steeled himself and landed big combos of his own, chopping down Takeru’s lead leg with booming leg kicks that left him limping throughout the contest.

Despite a heavily bruised thigh, Takeru stayed in the fight and even landed a blistering combo that had fans believing in a comeback. Though Takeru fought his heart out, Superlek was just the better fighter that night and fans can relive their epic encounter below:

Takeru Segawa speeds up recovery from knee injury

After the fight, Takeru was showered with love and appreciation from fans and fighters alike for putting on one of the best performances for a debuting ONE Championship athlete.

Fans wondered just how much damage Superlek did to the decorated kickboxing star and he soon revealed the damage through social media.

Sharing that his left knee was “broken in two places”, many are not expecting him to be back inside the ONE Circle any time soon, but he also shared clips of himself training that seemingly hint at his recovery coming along much quicker.