Senzo Ikeda scored a big win on Saturday at ONE: ‘X’. In the first fight of the day he faced an opponent 13 years his junior but rolled back the clock to convincingly beat Ryuto Sawada.
It must have been close to the perfect weekend for the 39 year old. But things took a turn for the worse when he landed in Tokyo last night. The strawweight veteran tested positive for Covid-19:
日本の空港でコロナ陽性になってしまいました😭
— 仙三 足ツボは世界を変える。(senzo ikeda) (@senzolkeda) March 28, 2022
No symptoms
The Tweet was sent out at around midnight Singapore time on Monday night. That is less than 48 hours after Ikeda’s fight with Sawada which would suggest he contracted Covid-19 before stepping inside the cage.
That makes the win even more impressive although Sawada says he is asymptomatic. He will be forced to spend the next week in a quarantine hotel though.
If the Japanese veteran gets bored during his quarantine he might like to entertain himself by watching this video again a few times:
Good time
We are not sure if there is ever a good time to test positive for Covid-19. But for Ikeda the timing could definitely be worse, he is coming off the biggest win of his ONE Championship career and can definitely take a few weeks off training.
The 39 year old will have plenty of time to plan the next phase of his career which he hopes will involve becoming the oldest strawweight champion in ONE Championship history. He can certainly expect to see his name in the top five when the new rankings come out.
