Hyu Wants To Prove His First Loss Was Just A Blip
A single defeat can either rattle a fighter’s identity or sharpen it further. Everything about Hyu’s next assignment suggests the latter.
“Mister Pepper” meets ONE Championship newcomer Hyuma “Star Of The Shibuya” Hitachi in a flyweight kickboxing matchup at ONE SAMURAI 3, touching down at Yokohama Buntai in Yokohama, Japan, on Saturday, September 12. The 23-year-old tore through his first five ONE Championship appearances, four of them knockouts, before countryman Taiki Naito handed him his first professional setback in a hard-fought three-round battle at ONE SAMURAI 1.
That loss has done nothing to shake the confidence that has defined his career from the start. If anything, it has sharpened his focus heading into a fresh test against another dangerous Japanese striker.
Hitachi arrives for his own promotional debut carrying a reputation built almost entirely on relentless boxing combinations, a skill he deliberately added to complement his kickboxing background. A knockout of Yuki Kasahara stands as the clearest proof of how effective that decision has been, and the 28-year-old likes to press forward from the opening bell without ever easing into a fight.
The stylistic contrast sets up a genuinely fascinating puzzle. Hyu has always thrived on improvisation, finding creative angles the moment an opening presents itself, while Hitachi prefers to close distance immediately and let his hands dictate the entire pace.
Different approaches, same relentless intent, and only one walks out of Yokohama Buntai with his unbeaten ONE record restored.
The pair’s flyweight kickboxing clash joins a stacked third edition of ONE Championship’s Japanese series, one that also features reigning ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Champion Nadaka making his own kickboxing debut, alongside a flyweight Muay Thai showdown between Shimon Yoshinari and Suablack Tor Pran49.
For Hyu, the setting carries extra weight. Yokohama Buntai gives the young slugger a fresh stage to answer the one lingering question about his career, whether that Naito loss was simply a bad night or the first sign of a real gap for opponents to exploit. Everything about his run to this point suggests he intends to make that question disappear quickly.
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