Takeru was ringside at Lumpinee Stadium last night for ONE Friday Fights 34. Earlier in the day it seems that the Japanese superstar dropped into the Superbon Training Centre in Bangkok to spar with a Thai legend.
Takeru shared some footage on Instagram of him sparring with Nong-O Gaiyanghadao. The two men appear to be trading hard shots, albeit with 160z gloves on:
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Potential rivals
At ONE Friday Fights 34 he was sitting next to Jonathan Haggerty. The Englishman is coming off a win over Nong-O and it doesn’t seem as if Takeru views bantamweights as potential rivals.
He has long been linked with a fight against Rodtang Jitmuangnon who holds the flyweight Muay Thai title. He was beaten by Superlek Kiatmoo9 last night and the two look set for an immediate rematch.
Takeru flew in all the way from the US to watch the fights. Many fans speculated that, had Rodtang won, he would have faced off with the Japanese star in the Lumpinee Stadium ring immediately afterwards.
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Training hard
A fight between Superlek and Takeru wouldn’t be quite such a big draw because he isn’t as popular as Rodtang. But having missed weight by 4lbs for this flyweight fight it isn’t clear whether or not the reigning flyweight kickboxing champion will be able to stay in the division.
While we await news about Takeru’s eagerly anticipated ONE Championship debut the 32 year old is clearly training very hard. He was training at Boxing Works in Los Angeles earlier in the week, the gym which produced Janet Todd and Jackie Buntan.
Takeru’s reputation and bank balance increased dramatically after the fight with Tenshin Nasukawa, even if he did suffer defeat. Since then he has only fought once, beating Bailey Sugden in Paris.
Takeru’s star power has never been greater and he is clearly using the millions earned from that blockbuster Tenshin fight to travel and train. He showed this weekend that he could potentially be more than a match for the man who, until recently, was the reigning ONE Championship bantamweight Muay Thai champion.
Of course sparring is not fighting but Takeru’s speed looked to be causing Nong-O some real problems. Fans will be relishing the prospect of seeing what he can do against the promotion’s top flyweights and hoping the rematch between Rodtang and Superlek doesn’t delay his debut even further.
