Takeru Segawa is a ONE World Champion. He is also retired. On April 29 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, he did both in the same night.
Takeru stopped Rodtang Jitmuangnon in the fifth round to claim the ONE Interim Flyweight Kickboxing World Title in the main event of ONE SAMURAI 1, closing his professional career at 46-5 and collecting a 15 million yen performance bonus in the process.
Takeru dropped Rodtang twice in the second round with left hooks, survived a fourth-round exchange that tested everything he had left, and finished the job with a right hand, a left hook, and another right that sent Rodtang to the canvas in the fifth. When Rodtang rose and could no longer stay upright against the ropes, the referee stopped it.
What made the victory remarkable was not the technique but the state Takeru was in before the bell rang. He had spoken publicly about nightmares in the weeks leading up to the fight, about fear, and about whether his body would answer when called. He chose to accept whatever came and walk in anyway.
“Every day I was having nightmares about being knocked out, losing consciousness, or breaking my leg. I was terrified of disappointing everyone’s expectations,” he said.
“My biggest anxiety was whether my body would even hold up enough to stand in the ring. It was my last fight. I was prepared to die rather than fall, so I just took the punches.”
Takeru entered his retirement fight with the weight of a rematch, a title, and a career on the line
Takeru Segawa’s road to this moment ran through the most humbling defeat of his career. Rodtang had stopped him in 80 seconds at ONE 172 last March in front of his own country. That result, absorbed in silence by a packed Saitama Super Arena, was the wound that drove every subsequent training session.
Two years of work, a redemption win over Denis Puric at ONE 173, and a retirement announcement later, Takeru had the rematch he always wanted. He used it. When the final horn never came because the referee had already intervened, the relief that followed matched the size of everything that had led to it.
“So right now, my overriding feeling is just, ‘I’m glad I came back alive,’” he said.