The Loss That Haunts Yuya Wakamatsu Heading Into ONE SAMURAI 3
The night Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu lost 26 pounds of gold to Avazbek Kholmirzaev still stings, and that wound has quietly reshaped how the former ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion trains, thinks, and fights.
He returns to home soil in the co-main event of ONE SAMURAI 3, facing Willie “White Lion” van Rooyen this Saturday, September 12, live from Yokohama Buntai in Japan.
Far from a closed chapter, the defeat haunts him daily, forcing a reckoning with uncomfortable questions about his own ability and desire.
“If I had to say what I changed based on the last fight, it’d be that hungry mentality,” Wakamatsu admitted. “Up until now, my fights felt like I was trying to protect my position. But this time, I’m bringing that hunger that Kholmirzaev showed when he beat me.”
That hunger has become an obsession he cannot switch off.
“I am completely obsessed with getting that ONE belt back,” he said. “Literally the day after that loss, it became a daily battle against the fear of, ‘Do I still have what it takes to get there?'”
Wakamatsu has turned even his opponent’s setbacks into fuel. Reigning champion Kholmirzaev dismantled Van Rooyen in his ONE debut, the same man who stripped Wakamatsu of his belt at ONE SAMURAI 1 in April.
“The footage of his face at the exact moment he realizes he’s losing – I use that to build my mental image of breaking him,” Wakamatsu said. “It’s valuable material. I use it to fuel my visualization.”
That mental shift comes with a physical one. The veteran plans to unleash chain wrestling and suffocating top pressure, a departure from the killer instinct fans have come to expect.
“Everyone expects Wakamatsu to fight a certain way. But on fight night, I want them to go, ‘What the hell is this style?!'” he said. “I want to look like a completely different animal compared to my last fight.”
Van Rooyen is only the first step on that climb, and Wakamatsu has pushed his body into uncharted territory throughout camp to make sure he clears it.
“I want to wrap that belt around my waist again, and I’ve decided to push myself to the absolute physical limits of what I can do,” he said. “My goal going forward – first, on September 12th, I’m going to brutally finish Willie Van Rooyen.”
He is not stopping there.
“Whether it’s later this year or next year, I want that rematch and I want to put him out.”
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