5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Miss The Star-Studded ONE 173: Superbon vs. Noiri
The biggest martial arts event of the year will go down this weekend at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, as ONE 173: Superbon vs. Noiri captivates the world on Sunday, November 16.
In a dream card stacked with the world’s greatest combat sports athletes, this glorious spectacle features 17 exhilarating bouts, including five World Title fights, spread across mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling.
Before the action starts and the fighters make their way to the Circle, here are five things fans should watch out for.
#1 Five Blockbuster World Title Fights
Modern-day heroes will be immortalized in the history books with five World Titles taking place at ONE 173: Superbon vs. Noiri.
Fresh from his stint on globally acclaimed Netflix show Physical: Asia, reigning ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon will step into the main event to prove he’s the greatest kickboxer of his generation.
Standing across from him is hometown hero, ONE Interim Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Masaaki Noiri, who is eager to show the world that his career-defining knockout win over Tawanchai PK Saenchai this past March was no fluke, as he attempts to unify the 155-pound kickboxing throne.
In the co-main event, ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu will seek to continue his unbeaten 2025 campaign by denying ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio‘s bid for two-division supremacy.
Elsewhere on the card, Japanese Muay Thai sensation Nadaka will compete to become the first-ever ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Champion in front of his hometown fans. But upset-minded Numsurin Chor Ketwina will look to cash in on the opportunity of a lifetime and bring the inaugural World Title back to Thailand.
The vacant ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Title will have a new owner once the dust clears between Thai icons Rodtang “The Iron Man” Jitmuangnon and Nong-O Hama.
Rodtang is putting his friendship with the living legend aside to reclaim the throne he lost on the scales last year. Nong-O, the former bantamweight Muay Thai king, has reinvented himself at 135 pounds and now seeks to add to his legacy as a two-division ONE World Champion.
Unfinished business will be settled when two-division MMA titleholder Christian “The Warrior” Lee puts his ONE Lightweight MMA World Championship on the line against undefeated Turkish veteran Alibeg Rasulov.
Their initial meeting at ONE Fight Night 26 in December 2024 met an anticlimactic end after Rasulov suffered an injury due to an inadvertent eye poke from “The Warrior.”
#2 Takeru’s Road To Redemption Begins
Former three-division K-1 Champion Takeru “Natural Born Krusher” Segawa will return in a high stakes flyweight kickboxing clash with veteran bruiser Denis “The Bosnian Menace” Puric.
The Japanese superstar still carries the pain of his shocking first-round knockout loss to Rodtang at ONE 172 this past March. He also suffered a close defeat to “The Kicking Machine” Superlek at ONE 165 in early 2024.
Takeru hasn’t tasted victory on home soil in nearly five years. But the 34-year-old isn’t making excuses and won’t let his setbacks define him. The Team Vasileus representative is hell-bent on reclaiming the form that made him one of the most exciting strikers on the planet.
With vindication in mind, Takeru enters this clash with Puric at full strength, determined to prove he deserves another encounter with “The Iron Man.”
#3 Stamp Makes Her Highly Anticipated Return
A harrowing knee injury threatened former three-sport World Champion Stamp Fairtex‘s career, but now she’s back on the world stage after nearly two years away from action.
The Thai megastar will return to her striking roots in an important women’s atomweight kickboxing battle against former K-1 Champion Kana “Krusher Queen” Morimoto.
Stamp captured the ONE Women’s Atomweight MMA World Title in March 2023. But fate dealt a cruel blow when she suffered a knee injury in training that derailed her momentum. Multiple setbacks in her recovery ultimately forced Stamp to vacate the belt in May 2024, closing a chapter she had barely begun to write.
Being away from the game for so long has taken a physical and mental toll on Stamp, and this matchup will test both her rehabilitated knee and her mettle.
Now hungry to reclaim her status as one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters on the planet, the Fairtex Training Center standout is taking a calculated approach to her highly anticipated comeback.
Before diving back into MMA competition, Stamp will return to the discipline where her World Championship dreams all began —atomweight kickboxing, where she captured her first ONE World Title back in 2018.
#4 Intense Rivalries Reach A Fever Pitch
Three personal rivalries explode into action as bitter adversaries finally settle their differences inside the Circle.
Yuki Yoza has had his sights set on Superlek since “The Kicking Machine” gave his teammate Takeru all he could handle in a five-round war at ONE 165 in January 2024.
The former K-1 Champion has been on a warpath with his hot 2-0 start in ONE, and Yoza is now on a quest to avenge his Team Vasileus training partner.
On the other hand, Superlek remains unfazed in the face of another stiff test against an iconic Japanese kickboxer, and he’s confident he can reassert his dominance as one of ONE’s most prolific strikers.
The ONE Flyweight Kickboxing World Champion is also eager to bounce back after suffering a loss to Nabil Anane and losing his Bantamweight Muay Thai crown on the scales earlier this year.
Fireworks are guaranteed when knockout artists Marat Grigorian and Rukiya “Demolition Man” Anpo collide in a potential ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Title eliminator.
Tensions flared during the ONE 173 Tokyo press conference, when the Japanese superstar dismissed the Armenian kickboxing icon as a one-dimensional fighter during heated exchanges. Anpo clearly got under the skin of the usually composed Grigorian, and the 34-year-old veteran vowed to dominate the brash ONE debutant physically and mentally.
Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki and Hiroyuki “Japanese Beast” Tetsuka‘s lightweight MMA showdown may be a late addition, but their animosity has been brewing for quite some time.
What started as social media noise has become deeply personal, ignited by Tetsuka’s constant callouts of the multiple-time former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion. Aoki further stoked the flames with choice words for his fellow Japanese athlete during a YouTube podcast in April.
Now, it’s time to settle their dispute the old-fashioned way.
#5 Submission Grappling Stars Take Center Stage
ONE’s submission grappling division ventures into middleweight territory with a matchup that couldn’t be more compelling.
Two-time ADCC World Champion Giancarlo Bodoni will square off against multiple-time IBJJF World Champion Rafael Lovato Jr. in a battle between generations.
Training under legendary John Danaher at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu in Texas, Bodoni arrives in the world’s largest martial arts organization as one of the most exciting competitors in modern grappling, known for his relentless finishing ability from every conceivable position.
But across from him stands a living legend with nothing left to prove in Lovato. At 42, the former Bellator Middleweight World Champion remains undefeated in MMA and stands as one of the most decorated BJJ competitors of his generation.
Also, ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion Tye Ruotolo returns for his sophomore MMA outing against Shozo Isojima in a battle of undefeated phenoms.
The 22-year-old dazzled in his professional MMA debut at ONE Fight Night 35 this past September, putting Adrian “The Phenom” Lee to sleep with a rear-naked choke.
The youngest IBJJF World Champion will be tested once more against the 28-year-old Isojima, who extended his pristine slate to 6-0 with a second-round ground-and-pound finish of Nicolas “El Paisa” Vigna at ONE Fight Night 36 this past October.
