Kickboxing Crossover – Marat Grigorian to face Kato Ono at ONE 172
ONE Championship veteran and former Glory and K-1 World champion Marat Grigorian will face off against Shoot boxing champion and for RISE kickboxing champion Kaito Ono at ONE 172, which is already an incredibly stacked card featuring many kickboxing stars, such as Nadaka Yoshinari, Masaaki Nori, Tawanchai, and the headliner, the much anticipated super fight between Takeru and Rodtang.
On the lower portion of this card will be two kickboxing stars who have made their name in Europe and East Asia. Marat Grigorian was a lightweight champion in Glory Kickboxing and K-1 WGP champion at Super-welterweight. He has now been a staple of ONE championship’s stacked featherweight division, defeating legends of the sport such as Andy Souwer and Sitthichai, both by knockout and giving the two best featherweights in the division in Superbon and Chingiz Allazov good fights despite losing.
On the other side, Japanese kickboxer Katio Ono has fought and won many Japanese kickboxing titles, such as the RISE Middleweight kickboxing title and Shootboxing superlightweight title; Kaito Ono has also ventured to Europe in a cross-promotional fight between RISE and Glory Kickboxing where he lost a one side decision to Glory kickboxing lightweight champion Tyjani Beztati. However, Kaito did not let this loss in Glory define him.
He has gone on to defeat the likes of former Glory champion Davit Kiria, Former ONE Muay Thai champion Petchmorakot, former ISKA champion Gueric Billet, and even the 2024 k-1 MAX Champion Stoyan Koprivlenski.
Marat Grigorian and Kaito Ono’s battle could set up the next title contender.
Marat Grigorian has competed for the featherweight gold in ONE Championship three times, with him losing all 3 of those fights. The same is true for Ono is Glory, clearly losing to Tyjani Bztati. This doesn’t remove them from title contention, as fighters fight each other many times; that’s what makes this sport great. The best fight the best, and the best rematch the best, and they do it quite often.
So although a victory for Griogian may not set him up to face Superbon again, Kaito Ono may as well be. He would be fresh blood for the promotion to help out the featherweight division, which is in great need of prolific kickboxers. The promotions lean toward Muay Thai, leaving kickboxing’s talent pool much more shallow.
However, those outside factors don’t hamper this match, as this fight could very well headline any kickboxing event. This shows how much of a super card ONE 172 really is.
