Hiroba Minowa Finds A Fresh Puzzle In Yuta Miyazawa At ONE SAMURAI 3
Hiroba Minowa has quietly built one of the more understated résumés in ONE Championship’s strawweight MMA division, and his next test at ONE SAMURAI 3 inside Yokohama Buntai on Saturday, September 12, arrives against a man who has never lost his grip on confidence.
The STF product has strung together four wins inside the promotion, a run that includes a hard-fought split decision over former ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Alex Silva. His most recent outing added another layer to that story, a ninth career submission victory via rear-naked choke over previously unbeaten Karen Ghazaryan at ONE Fight Night 42 in April, one that earned him a US$50,000 performance bonus.
Standing across from him is Yuta Miyazawa, a 32-year-old out of RESURGO MMA who steps into his ONE Championship debut on the back of a career-defining moment of his own. He captured the Pancrase Strawweight Championship this past March, extending his personal winning streak to three fights.
Miyazawa brings 17 career wins built largely on concussive hands, a style that could make his first night under the ONE spotlight anything but ordinary for Minowa. The grappling pedigree that carried Minowa past Ghazaryan is precisely what makes this pairing so intriguing, since Miyazawa will look to make every takedown attempt a fight of its own.
Elsewhere on the card, another pair of fighters brings a very different kind of story to Yokohama. Kosei Yoshida, only 20 years old and fighting out of Team Teppen, chases his tenth career win after a four-fight surge that included a thunderous third-round knockout of Hoang Gia Dai.
That run hit a snag against Liu Junchao last time out, but Yoshida returns home to Japan for the first time under the ONE banner still carrying the same conviction that carried him to a 9-1 record. His opponent, Zhao Zhengdong of Sheng Li Ren He, has been just as sharp in his own right, riding a perfect 3-0 promotional slate that includes wins over Yonis Anane and Eduard Markarian.
Zhao’s overall mark sits at an imposing 29-5, built on a willingness to shift angles and deny opponents any comfortable rhythm. Two fighters chasing very different kinds of validation will share the same ring when ONE SAMURAI 3 lands in Yokohama, and neither shows any sign of slowing down.
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