Kaito Ono to face Mohammad Siasarani at ONE Friday Fights 109
In a shocking turn of events, Japanese Shoot Boxing fighter Kaito Ono has signed to fight in the ONE Championship at ONE Friday Fights 109 against Iranian striker Mohammad Siasarani. This comes after the drama between Kaito Ono’s refusal to fight Marat Grigorian at ONE 172 due to Grigorian missing weight, which in turn led to Chatri Sityodtong insulting both Ono and Shoot Boxing as a promotion.
Tensions died down as Chatri Sityodtong would retract his comments towards Ono and Shoot Boxing, and the two promotions are very much open to working with each other now, as apparent with Kaito Ono’s new match-up in the ONE Championship ring. Siasarani won over Liu Menyang, who had previously defeated the current Interim ONE Kickboxing champion, Masaaki Noiri.
Ono himself has a win over the interim champ, Masaaki Nori. He also won at the historic K-1 and RISE crossover event, THE MATCH, which headlined the much-anticipated Takeru Segawa vs. Tenshin Nasukawa bout. Ono and Noiri fought on the undercard.
Kaito Ono has a shot to prove himself against a hostile promotion.
While the tensions may have seemingly settled with the beef between Chatri Sityodton and Shoot boxing, there is still a seeming anti-Japanese bias at times, as many of the top Japanese talent get the hardest match-ups possible in their debuts. Chatri even pointed out the losses of Japanese fighters at a press conference.
With his match-up against Team Mehdi Zatout, Mohammad Siasarani stands out. He is talented not just as a Muay Thai fighter but also as a kickboxer. Ono has his hands full. But should the Japanese fighter win, this would be a big feather in his cap and put him in a fantastic position to compete against the top of ONE’s featherweight division and even a rematch with old foe Masaaki Noiri.
