Masaaki Noiri

Masaaki Noiri is as tough as they come, but that toughness was forged from a challenging childhood in Nagoya, Japan.

As a young student, Noiri often found himself on the receiving end of harsh jokes and physical abuse from his classmates. But once he took up martial arts to protect himself, his tormentors stopped and a path toward kickboxing revealed itself.

Noiri made his professional kickboxing debut in 2010, and over the next 13 years, he went on to compete in Japan’s esteemed K-1 promotion, where he became a two-division champion.

Those accomplishments caught the eye of ONE Championship in 2024, and Noiri signed a deal with the world’s largest martial arts organization to compete in its featherweight kickboxing division. But the Japanese striker has a high mountain to scale, as the division is the most loaded in all of combat sports.