Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Takeru will fight in a kickboxing match in Tokyo. The Saitama Super Arena has been penciled in to host the fight which was announced by Chatri Sityodtong at a press conference in Denver this afternoon.
ONE Fight Night 10 is set for Friday night (local time) in the US. Rodtang is defending his flyweight Muay Thai title against Edgar Tabares at the 1stBank Centre in Broomfield.
Last week it was announced that Takeru had signed with ONE Championship. Earlier today Chatri confirmed that he was looking to match him with Rodtang immediately:
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Biggest fight
Takeru also has a bout booked although it won’t be taking place on a ONE Championship card. The Japanese star is set to face Bailey Sugden in Paris next month.
But assuming that both men get through their upcoming assignments unscathed Chatri plans to have Rodtang face Takeru in Tokyo,
That is probably the biggest kickboxing fight in decades. We are going to Japan with it, we are discussing maybe doing Saitama, maybe bigger. The fight is huge in Japan.
Chatri also pointed out that Rodtang had beaten Takeru’s nemesis Tenshin Nasukawa. While that will go down on the Thai fighter’s record as a decision loss it was fairly clear to anyone who watched the six round kickboxing fight that he should have won.
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Smash hit
Takeru’s fight with Tenshin last year was a smash hit success at the box office. It sold out the Tokyo Dome and generated enormous revenue in domestic pay per view sales.
Tenshin has now retired from kickboxing in order to focus full time on his boxing career, he recently made his pro debut. According to Chatri that leaves Takeru as the biggest star on the scene in Japan,
Now that Tenshin went to boxing Takeru is the biggest martial superstar in all of Japan.
He told the media that he was 100% sure that ONE Championship would promote a kickboxing fight between Takeru and Rodtang in Tokyo. Both men have business to take care of before that event can become a reality but it is definitely in the works.
