At ONE Fight Night 15, Jonathan Di Bella showed his class in defending his ONE strawweight kickboxing world championship for the first time.
Defeating Danial Williams on the scorecards, the champ has demonstrated his skill and fighting spirit in both of his appearances inside the circle.
Having been inactive since his debut, where he won the vacant title title, the Canadian-Italian had to put a lot of work into his training camp to ensure that he would be back in prime form for October 6.
During his preparations for the first defense of his title, Di Bella crossed paths with one of the world’s best, who joined the ONE Championship roster this year and is waiting for a chance to get his promotional tenure off to a bang.
Through his career in K-1, Takeru Segawa has announced himself as an elite kickboxing competitor who has become a huge star in his native Japan.
While his debut inside the circle is yet to be announced, fans can’t wait to see the potential dream matchups that could be on the table for his time under the ONE Championship banner.
Ahead of his contest with Williams, Di Bella spent some time in the gym with Takeru and took away some key impressions of the superstar.
During his press conference after the event, the champ spoke about the training they did in Santa Monica and how light sparring was not an applicable concept to the Japanese striker:
“Yeah, he’s very cool. We did like a light sparring. We still landed some shots. With Takeru, light sparring doesn’t exist, and we still landed some shots, and yeah he’s very quick, he’s good. He’s very good.”
Watch the full press conference below:
While Jonathan Di Bella may be a long way off from accomplishing the legacy that Takeru’s name has, he continued his impressive run in the promotion by beating Williams in some fashion.
ONE Fight Night 15 is available to watch back in full for free via the event replay on Amazon Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription.