Most fighters arrive at a major bout with months of camp behind them. Kaito Ono arrives at ONE SAMURAI 1 on April 29 with closer to a year of preparation, because the fight with Marat Grigorian was first announced in 2024 before falling apart over a weight dispute. The father-son coaching team never stopped working.

That detail matters because of who the coach is. Kaito’s head trainer is his father — a man who had no background in combat sports when his son first discovered Glove Karate as a child, and who has spent the years since teaching himself the sport from scratch through obsessive film study. The extended timeline on this particular matchup gave him an unusual depth of preparation on Grigorian specifically, building a blueprint across months rather than weeks.

“When I was young, my mother wanted me to be involved in sports, and I took up Glove Karate,” Kaito said. “My dad also learned along with me. When we started, we both didn’t know much about fighting. My dad never did any martial arts. But my dad was very determined to learn so that he can help me train, and he is still my coach to this day. He is a very valuable voice in my corner.”

Grigorian is among the most dangerous featherweight kickboxers in the world — relentless in his forward pressure, heavy-handed, and experienced enough to make adjustments mid-fight when an initial approach is not landing. A self-taught coach working from footage could in theory be underprepared for that kind of opponent. Kaito believes the opposite is true.

“Since my fight with Marat Grigorian was first announced last year, my father studied my opponent’s style extensively. Then it was cancelled, but since then, we knew we would face Grigorian some time in the future, so my dad continued to study his style relentlessly,” he said. “We know what his strengths and weaknesses are, and my dad has made a strong game plan for me to fight him.”

The trust that comes from being trained by your own father, who built his entire coaching knowledge around you specifically, produces a kind of alignment that is difficult to manufacture in a conventional gym. Every technical habit Kaito has, every default reaction under pressure, was shaped by a man who has watched him train since childhood. Kaito makes no attempt to separate his identity as a fighter from that relationship.

“I believe my father is the one who shaped me into the fighter I am, so he’s everything to me,” he said. “My fighting is entirely shaped by my father. He’s someone I truly respect, and I’d say he’s a one-of-a-kind trainer.”

Outside the gym, Kaito keeps the same singular focus. He does not use hobbies or downtime to decompress — martial arts simply never switches off. The one concession he makes to life beyond training is the thought of what he owes his family when this chapter is done.

“My entire life is just all about fighting and training. It’s all I do,” he said. “I think my family has sacrificed a lot for me to reach my dreams in martial arts. So, I think I would want to take them on vacation and spend some time with them outside of martial arts.”

Before any of that, there is Grigorian in Tokyo, in front of a home crowd, with his father in the corner. Kaito’s closing message carries the weight of everything that has been built.

“It is a very important fight in my career. Of course, I want to make my dad proud,” he said. “It will not be easy, but I am going to finish him. I think this will be a very exciting fight, and I think it’s not going to go the distance. It’s going to be a good fight for the fans. But I see myself beating him and knocking him out.”

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