Masaaki Noiri delivered a statement in front of his home crowd, stopping Liu Mengyang in the opening round of their ONE SAMURAI Featherweight Kickboxing Tournament quarterfinal.
The former ONE Interim Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion stayed composed through the early exchanges before turning up the pressure late in the round.
After trading kicks and punches with Liu, Noiri found his opening and landed a pair of clean left hands, the second sending the Chinese contender crashing face-first to the canvas.
Liu could not beat the referee’s count, bringing the contest to an end at 2:59 of the first round.
The knockout earned Noiri a US$100,000 performance bonus and booked his place in the tournament semifinals, where he will meet Mohammad Siasarani. Noiri then celebrated with fellow Japanese star and teammate Takeru Segawa.
{Mohammad Siasarani also advanced in spectacular fashion, scoring a first-round knockout of Kaito Ono in the co-main event.
Kaito started aggressively, throwing combinations and looking to dictate the pace, but Siasarani remained patient behind a tight guard. The Iranian fighter gradually found his timing, using stance switches, counters and low kicks to disrupt Kaito before capitalizing with his boxing.
The finish extended Siasarani’s winning streak to five victories and earned him a US$50,000 performance bonus, while securing his place alongside Noiri in the tournament semifinals.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference, Siasarani revealed that Kaito’s high-kick knockout of one of his teammates had motivated part of his preparation. After being sent footage of the finish, the Iranian said he specifically worked on his own high kicks ahead of the matchup, adding that he wanted to “teach him a lesson.”
In the third tournament fight of the evening, Luo Chao advanced to the semifinals, outgunning a game Kosuke Takagi over three high-volume rounds to earn a unanimous decision.
One day earlier, at ONE: The Inner Circle 25, Marat Grigorian booked his place in the ONE SAMURAI Featherweight Grand Prix semifinals with a unanimous decision victory over Mamuka Usubyan.
After spending the opening round finding his range and adjusting to Usubyan’s movement, the Armenian-Belgian veteran began to take control with his low kicks. Grigorian steadily disrupted his opponent’s rhythm and carried the momentum through the later rounds to secure the judges’ decision.
