"That's what I needed to counter" - Superlek says Takeru's 'dangerous hands' forced him to go berserk with his kicks
If you want to know why they call Superlek Kiatmoo9 'The Kicking Machine', you can pretty much watch back any of his fights under the ONE Championship banner.
This was once again true for his latest fight where the seemingly unstoppable ONE flyweight kickboxing world champion succesfully defended his title.
His kicking game was key to defeating Japanese superstar Takeru Segawa, who he faced off with in the challenger's home country of Japan.
The fight became competitive in the later rounds but the gap between the two competitors was caused by the specialist skillset of the champion.
In an interview with GSL Global Media, Superlek spoke about how he used his kicks in this fight and attacked specific targets in order to take away the boxing skills of his opponent:
"He has good punch combinations [and] slick movements and that's what I needed to counter. I tried to hit where he was feeling hurt repeatedly becuase I know he has really dangerous hands."
Watch the full interview below:
Superlek and his kicks are a difficult appraoch to try and counter
Any hope that Takeru had of taking away the kicks of Superlek to turn their fight into a boxing contest became unlikely in the opening rounds.
Throughout the first half of the fight, the champion absolutely smashed away at the legs of his opponent to try and take away the base and movement of the former K-1 star.
Though Takeru may have found a way back into the fight later on when he was able to let his hands go more, the kicks had already done the damage.
It was another kicking clinic from the Thai world champion and it only speaks to the toughness and heart of his opponent that the fight made it all the way to the final bell.