Thank you all for your support, whether at the arena or here online. You are truly amazing 💪🏻 @k1wgp_pr
Thank you @tanigawa_seiya for taking on this challenge.
I wish you the very best and success in your future fights.
The highest honor 👑 Takeru will be officially inducted into the ONE Championship Hall of Fame later this year! ⭐️ The perfect ending to a legendary career. @takerusegawa@yodchatri
Watch the full #ONESAMURAI1 event replay on VOD:
🌏 Global PPV 👉 https://t.co/SymCf6lx05
Le visuel magnifique du ONE 🔥 pour la retraite de @takerusegawa 🇯🇵😍
- First ever and only 3 divisions K-1 champion 🏆🏆🏆
- ONE interim flyweight Kickboxing champion 🏆
- One of the most entertaining style in kickboxing ever💥
The Natural Born Krusher 👊🙏
Via @ONECHAMPJP
🆕 Takeru Segawa’s fairytale ending will now get a formal ONE Championship send-off.
Chatri Sityodtong has announced the Japanese kickboxing icon will be inducted into the ONE Hall of Fame later this year, with a “10 gong salute” retirement ceremony set for ONE Samurai 4 in October.
Takeru will join fellow ONE Hall of Fame inductees Demetrious Johnson, Bibiano Fernandes and Aung La N Sang.
The announcement comes less than a week after Takeru stopped Rodtang Jitmuangnon in the fifth round at Ariake Arena, laid down his gloves, and brought the curtain down on one of Japan’s great kickboxing careers.
Chatri said Takeru now retires as “arguably the greatest Japanese kickboxer in history”, after first winning titles in K-1 before closing his career with what the ONE boss called the most important world title of his career.
“The world will forever remember this extraordinary moment in history,” Chatri wrote. “His spirit. His power. His tears.”
Takeru had said before the Rodtang rematch that his body had only one fight left.
Then, in Tokyo, he produced the kind of final act few fighters are ever granted – dropping Rodtang twice in the second round, turning the tables under pressure, and finding the finish in the fifth to win the interim flyweight kickboxing belt.
Takeru has had little time to come down from the moment since, bringing the belt back to Team Vasileus and placing it on the shoulder of longtime coach Masakazu Watanabe before hosting a retirement press conference in Tokyo.
For Takeru, October will now bring one more night in front of a home crowd – not as an active fighter, but as the latest name added to ONE’s Hall of Fame.
Full story on @BangkokPostNews 🔜 (link in comments).
#ONEChampionship #BangkokPostONE