Two of the hottest prospects to come out of Japanese kickboxing, Yuki Yoza and Kaito Ono, finally made their much-anticipated debuts on the biggest stage in striking, ONE Championship, to mixed results.
ONO GETS OUTWORKED BY SIASARANI
Kaito Ono was overly cautious in his ONE debut against Team Mehdi Zatout's standout Mohammad Siasarani, who is building a respectable kickboxing résumé with wins over Mohammed Boutasaa, Liu Mengyang, and now the Japanese Shootboxing star.
Kaito struggled to find his range and seemed gun-shy, a far cry from his previous performances against Davit Kiria and Petchmorakot. The Japanese kickboxer began throwing and landing more frequently in the third round.
Still, it was too late as he would need a knockdown to bridge the scorecard gap, which Ono failed to do, leading to a clear decision win for Siasarani and a rough debut in ONE Championship for the Shootboxing standout.
YOZA DOMINATES WITH CRUSHING KICKS
Former K-1 champion Yuki Yoza would show out against undefeated Dagestani-Russian kickboxer Elbrus Osmanov, who was on a six-fight win streak in ONE Championship. In their hectic back-and-forth technical brawl, the Karateka would get the better of Osmanov relentlessly targeting both legs with his signature calf kicks—drawing visible, painful reactions from the Dagestani.
Yoza continuously stalked and countered every strike Osmanov threw at him with brutal calf and body kicks. In the later half of the battle, Yoza began to dominate the fight, with Osmanov having no meaningful answer for the crushing kicks. Yoza won a wide decision, making a fantastic debut in the ONE Championship and avoiding the trend of Japanese fighters underperforming in their ONE debuts.
In a post-fight interview with Nick Atkin and Woradon Yomjinda, Yuki Yoza opened up about the challenges of making weight under ONE’s hydration rules and how he overcame them with the support of his team. He also credited his preparation to studying former seniors: "I watched all the videos of my seniors who fought in ONE before, and we got the shared experiences that helped me a lot—especially the must-round ruleset."
Before wrapping up the interview, Yoza made it clear that he wants to be included in the upcoming pound-for-pound rankings.
"Beyond Kick-san! Please put me in pound-for-pound ranking!" [laughs]
