How Superlek Beat Takeru

The main event of ONE 165 featured an elite level bout for their Flyweight Kickboxing Title, pitting defending champion Superlek Kiatmuu9, who is also a former Lumpinee Stadium champion against Japanese superstar and multiple time K-1 champion Takeru Segawa. Takeru was originally scheduled to fight Thai crossover star Rodtang, but some sketchy circumstances led us to this fight that might just have been even better. Politics and shadiness aside, this fight featured two of the greatest strikers on earth and was highly anticipated for good reason.

‘The Kicking Machine’ Superlek faced the aforementioned Rodtang in September in a ONE Muay Thai rules bout, in which he sadly missed weight, but put on a great performance to defeat his countryman. Takeru ‘The Natural Born Crusher’ was involved in one of the biggest kickboxing fights of all time in 2022 when he faced fellow generational talent and compatriot Tenshin Nasukawa, and rebounded from that loss last year when he defeated the British Bradley Sugden. Despite a sketchy lead up, this was a superfight through and through.

The Fight

This ended up being a big week for Thais and their leg kicks in ONE, as earlier in the week, in the main event of ONE Friday Fights 49 in Thailand, Nakrob won a leg kick filled performance against Pettonglor (check this twitter thread if you wanna check some analysis about it).

I say this because it was clear from the get-go that Superlek gameplan revolved around kicking the leg of the Japanese striker.

The first clean strike of the fight was this leg kick that Superlek set-up with the threat of his lead leg lift, making Takeru think about the teep.

And immediately after that he started scouting for reactions with the threat of the rear hip feint.

The Thai quickly employed the classic tactic of feinting upstairs to hide his leg kicks. Shoulder feints, throwaway shots, non-committal jabs, all of them while advancing to either make Takeru back up or plant his feet, both work as a way to make the lead leg vulnerable, and in any case that Takeru went for a preemptive check he would actually put his punches together, making effective use of his jab, a spearing right hand to the body, and also head kicks that kept him honest. And all of this only to kick him in the leg anyway when he put his leg down to try and counter.

‘The Kicking Machine’ also put his counter leg kicking skills on display, kicking at the same time as the Japanese fighter when he read his kicks and immediately returning fire when he was on the receiving end of kicks. The timing and power of Superlek’s kicks disuaded Takeru from closing range behind his jab to find combinations inside the pocket, as this meant having to plant his already damaged leg, and the Thai fighter made sure to take advantage of every counter leg kick to regain initiative and front foot whenever it was possible, as it was clear that Takeru was looking to pressure him to the ropes to put his lightning fast hands together.

We already mentioned Superlek’s keeping busy on top to land at the bottom, but I wanted to mention his jab separately. In the words of Ryan Wagner, it was the glue that allowed him to put his leg kicks together. What made Takeru respect the feints and throwaway strikes was in great part Superlek’s jab, not only is it mechanically a sharp punch with and efficient path and good pop, but Superlek is also adept at manipulating the rhythm and expectation of exchanges with it, varying his speed and throwing it from different shoulder positions and distance. ‘Lek’ is also good at using the brief moments his jab is blinding the vision of his opponent to collapse distance and find leg kicks from up close, and reposition himself when he needs to.

Takeru trying to find his cross counter over Superlek’s jab and pressuring him against the ropes. Superlek is keeping busy with his lead hand, making his timing hard to read, has the option of pulling because of his good form and is using any defensive reaction he is given to either move or offer a new threat.

Using the jab to reposition himself, disrupt entries and reset exchanges was becoming a necessity more and more as the fight progressed and Takeru became more insistent on marching forwards and pushing the Thai against the ring corners to find his spots…

…And when he did find a spot he took full advantage.

After upping the aggression a couple of times, marching forwards just walking through the fire and taking more chances with his jab and closing distance with hooks, Takeru finally gets his hands onSuperlek.

After blocking a high kick from up close, Takeru finds his trademark left hook to the body and from there unleashes a combination on Superlek that would have for sure put any lesser men down.

After getting badly hurt midway through the third round, it was clear that Takeru didn’t have any intentions of stopping his pressure. Superlek put on one hell of a poker face, but his hunched stance revealed he was feeling the effects of the monstrous body punching of ‘The Natural Born Crusher’. So how did the Thai regain control of the fight?

Maybe it was in this moment, as Takeru is stalking the hurt Nak Muay, and insisting with his body attack.

Superlek intercepts him with a well timed teep that puts him down and wins him a few valuable seconds to regain his composure and recover.

But also made him aware of a new target.

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Superlek went right back at his jab and leg kicks, he didn’t forget what was carrying him to that moment but instead started building more offense on top of it.

After having some success with the teep to control distance and disrupt entries earlier in the fight, Superlek changes things up and starts battering the Japanese with brutal snap kicks to the body from both legs.

Early in the fourth round, Superlek is already layering his previous tactics with the jab and the leg kicks with more frequent teeps and snap kicks, depending on what he wants to accomplish at the moment. This put a new barrier in the way of Takeru and it went a long way in terms of alleviating the pressure.

Takeru was not going to be denied so easily, and he was still looking to find his punishing combinations, but he was getting damaged to the body (on top of the legs) in the process and this also made it easier for Superlek to push him off to regain the center of the ring or grab defensive clinches.

Straight kicks to the body pair well with leg kicks, a fighter looking to check will often expose the body, especially to the lead side of the kicker, and at the same time a fighter hunching and bracing in reaction to a front kick will usually plant his feet exposing themselves to leg kicks. To add insult to injury, Superlek layered one more tool into his damaging output, punishing Takeru’s high guard with big stepping knees. While these knees might attack the same target as the straight kicks, they sneak in from different angles, can land effectively from closer distances and have repositioning purposes thank to their in-built clinch grab.

Supelek immediately starts mixing in the knees with his jab, leg kicks and front kicks, and beautifully using the threats and feints of each other to change ranges, control exchanges and land damaging attritional shots.

The fifth round of the fight is basically just more of Superlek’s brilliancy against a dangerous and tough opponent who just couldn’t find the answers. There are many cool sequences and I could basically clip the whole thing if we’re honest here, but I don’t wanna spoil every exchange and I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t watched it yet to just do that. It wasn’t only a tremendous performance, but also a very exciting and high level fight between two pound-for-pound talents. Despite all the bullshit that goes on in the world of combat sports (and there’s way too much of that) sometimes we get to sit down and enjoy an elite fight that delivers on all fronts.

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