Watch: “Real Chun‑Li” Mona Kimura Side‑Kicks Her Way to 4–0 in K-1 Debut
Mona Kimura kept her zero and gave K-1 its “real Chun-Li” showcase, moving to 4-0 with a wide unanimous decision over Eun Ji Choi at K-1 GENKI 2026 in Tokyo. All three judges scored it 30-27 as Kimura’s sidekicks and straight left hand shut Choi out over three rounds in their women’s flyweight bout.
Mona Kimura Turns Eun Ji Choi into a Target with Her Signature Sidekick in K-1
Fighting in a southpaw stance with her trademark side-on posture, Mona Kimura went to work with the weapon already known in Japan as the “Mona kick.” From the opening seconds she lifted her right leg and barely put it down, stabbing horizontal front kicks to Choi’s body and face like a jab, often chaining them without lowering her foot. The Korean MAX FC women’s bantamweight champion tried to answer with low kicks, but each step forward was met by another sidekick that froze her in place and kept the range long.
Kimura mixed in her boxing just enough to keep Choi guessing. Early in the first round she suddenly fired a straight left through the middle, then followed with a head‑height sidekick that snapped Choi’s head back and even sent her tumbling to the canvas, a shot TV analyst Masato felt could have been ruled a knockdown.
As Choi tried to find an angle, Kimura simply raised her right leg again, using it as a live barrier before darting in with more straight lefts.
The pattern held in the second. Any time Choi looked to close distance behind looping hooks, Kimura stayed calm, standing on one leg to screen with her lead leg and firing the left hand from that posture.
When Choi pressed, she was met with a double attack, sidekick to the body or face, then the left straight over the top, which discouraged extended exchanges and turned her offense into single, hopeful swings.
By the third round, the distance was Kimura’s territory. Choi’s attempts to walk through the kicks only led to more clean shots to the face, a stream of sidekicks followed by a stiff straight that left the Korean with a bloodied nose. Kimura never had to sell out for a finish; she simply repeated the formula, cycling between body and head with the kicks and punishing any entry with the left straight until the final bell.
The win marked Kimura’s first outing under the K-1 banner after a perfect Krush run, pushing her professional kickboxing record to 4–0 with two stoppages. A decorated former karate prodigy and Japanese national amateur boxing standout, she has quickly become one of K-1’s most talked‑about new faces thanks to viral clips and her Chun‑Li persona, and this shutout of a seasoned champion in Choi underlined why the promotion is already talking about her in future title conversations at flyweight.
