Rukiya Anpo Admits He Nearly Walked Away From Kickboxing
It takes immense courage to conquer the world’s most dangerous strikers, but confronting one’s own shortcomings demands a different kind of bravery.
The Japanese striking star channels newfound vulnerability into his crucial return in a new weight class at ONE SAMURAI 4 on Saturday, October 17, at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena, where he faces dangerous Bulgarian striker Bogdan Shumarov in lightweight kickboxing.
Anpo walked into his promotional debut against former ONE World Title challenger Marat Grigorian at ONE 173 carrying real bravado, only for that confidence to collide with reality before the opening round even started. He could not meet the demands of the scaledespite drastic last-minute measures, and the fight pushed through regardless, leaving him physically compromised in front of his own home crowd.
“What I feel most is that I couldn’t put out my best performance. That is the one thing I really regret,” he said. “Everything I had built up over a long time with my coaches, I could barely show any of it in the actual match.”
Anpo has always lived by an unbending personal code, once maintaining that missing weight was the ultimate betrayal of professional standards. Falling short of his own metric sent him into genuine psychological distress, and he withdrew from training completelyin the aftermath.
“After that match, since I missed weight, I thought about quitting fighting altogether. I had been saying for a while that anyone who misses weight isn’t a real pro,” he said. “I didn’t train at all for about half a year. During that time, my mental state wasn’tgreat.”
Time slowly allowed those mental scars to heal, granting Anpo the space needed to reshape his perspective. A genuine sense of peace now radiates from the 30-year-old as he embarks on a fresh chapter.
“I did a lot of different things, and now I am in a pretty solid place mentally. I can head into this fight in really good shape,” he said.
Moving up to lightweight represents a different animal, but Anpo draws comfort from a proven history of holding his own against bigger opponents.
“Fighting bigger guys is not scary. In the past I fought Cyril Abidi, Tsuyoshi Sudario in Rizin, and Sina Karimian, the former K-1 Cruiserweight Champion. I don’t have any fear about fighting bigger guys,” he said.
What still terrifies him runs deeper than raw power ever could.
“What I am actually afraid of is stepping into the ring unable to put out my best performance. Being in less-than-best shape and fighting in front of the fans like that is the thing that is really hard for me.”
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