Masaaki Noiri has carried the interim championship for eight months while watching the lineal title belong to someone else, creating frustration that fuels his November 16 promise to leave no doubt about featherweight kickboxing supremacy through a decisive knockout finish.

The Japanese interim titleholder unifies his belt with ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon in the ONE 173 main event at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena, where hometown pressure transforms into motivation for the 32-year-old striker who has studied his Thai opponent since joining the promotion.

Noiri’s promotional journey began disastrously through an 0-2 start that threatened to label him unworthy of elite competition. His March comeback knockout of Tawanchai PK Saenchai to capture interim gold validated the grinding rehabilitation process, yet that temporary championship status continues gnawing at his competitive pride.

“Right now, I’m holding the belt as an interim champion, but it’s not the official belt,” Noiri said. “Since it’s a temporary one, I want to win decisively and be able to proudly proclaim myself as the undisputed World Champion.”

The Team Vasileus athlete has dissected Superbon’s legendary highlight-reel knockouts of Giorgio Petrosyan and Tayfun Ozcan, identifying the impeccable timing and devastating high kicks that make the 35-year-old Thai veteran dangerous from any range. Those signature weapons demand constant defensive awareness throughout five rounds inside the Circle.

But Noiri sees exploitable patterns in Superbon’s reactive brilliance. The Thai maestro thrives against aggressive opponents who rush forward carelessly, yet struggles when facing patient strikers who match his tempo while eliminating his airspace. Tawanchai demonstrated that blueprint twice through victories that revealed strategic vulnerabilities Noiri plans to exploit.

The Japanese star refuses to entertain scenarios where judges determine his destiny. Decision victories feel like scraping by rather than definitive conquest, creating unwanted ambiguity about divisional supremacy that interim status has already imposed on his reign.

Leading Japan’s best martial artists at the star-studded Tokyo card carries immense responsibility that lesser fighters would find suffocating. Noiri thrives under that pressure, viewing the main event spotlight as opportunity rather than burden.

“I believe that it is crucial for me to knock him out,” he said. “I have absolutely no intention of scraping by with a decision victory. I’m confident I can finish him decisively.”

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