ONE Championship: “Confirmation of all my hard work”

Three-time Glory kickboxing world champion Marat Grigorian had been rehearsing the perfect finish inside his head for months. Inside the Ariake Arena, he watched it unfold in real time.

The Hemmers Gym affiliate knocked out Kaito Ono with a vicious uppercut-overhand combo at 1:51 of round one in their featherweight kickboxing showdown at ONE SAMURAI 1 inside Tokyo’s Ariake Arena on Wednesday, April 29.

The result earned the Belgium-based martial artist the fastest knockout of his ONE Championship career, pushed his slate to a stellar 70-14, and locked in another shot at reigning ONE featherweight kickboxing world champion Superbon.

For Marat Grigorian, the moment the finishing blow connected was the payoff for every hour of preparation.

His entire fight camp had been built around exactly that sequence, and he couldn’t have written the script any better in the Japanese capital city.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, the multi-time world champion walked through the moment the script came to life.

“When that overhand right landed, and he went down, it was confirmation of all my hard work,” the 35-year-old shared.

He added, “Everything I saw in camp played out exactly how I had envisioned it would be. I stayed calm. There were no emotions involved. It was just me completing the job that I came to do.”

Marat Grigorian’s icy composure could be the difference when he locks horns against Superbon once more

The clinical mindset behind that finish is exactly why so many believe Marat Grigorian is walking into his fourth fight with Superbon as the sharpest version of himself yet.

Fighters who deliver their game plans with zero emotional interference are the ones who tend to produce the cleanest, most decisive performances at the very highest levels of the sport, and the Armenian slugger has clearly tapped into that kind of clarity ahead of his next chapter.

The Hemmers Gym affiliate currently trails the Thai striking maestro 1-2 in their head-to-head rivalry.

He suffered defeats to the Superbon Training Camp founder under the ONE Championship spotlight. In their first encounter, however, the 35-year-old put the Thai to sleep in just 29 seconds.

Grigorian certainly won’t have it easy against the featherweight kickboxing king, but if he brings the same plan as he did against Kaito at ONE SAMURAI 1, the division could be looking at a power shift.