Former K-1 World Champion KANA Joins ONE Championship, Reveals Preferred Opponents

Kana Morimoto, or simply KANA, is now part of the planet’s most elite striking roster in ONE Championship. The former k-1 champ will now be fighting under the biggest MMA organization in the world.

The star was present during the Japanese broadcast of ONE 168: Denver this past weekend, where she dropped the news. Let us have a look at what the fighter is thinking about.

KANA sets her sights on ONE Championship glory after dominating the Kickboxing world

While having a conversation with the media, the fighter roared as she announced her inclusion in One Championship, “From today, I am KANA, a ONE Championship athlete. […] I am excited. After all, the opponents I want to fight in my kickboxing career are in ONE Championship.”

She further added, “I want to challenge myself to see how far I can go in the end as a culmination of my career, so I will do my best to win the belt in ONE,” she said, as reported by Beyond Kick.”

After a successful amateur run, KANA carried over her success into the professional ranks in 2015. She quickly rose to prominence, and her incredible skill and power helped her win four of her first six fights via knockout.

The Japanese athlete would test her skills against some of the finest strikers in the world in the coming years, and she became a two-time K-1 Women’s Flyweight World Champion, a K-1 Women’s Flyweight World Grand Prix winner, and a two-time Krush Flyweight Champion in that time.

KANA eyes a high-stakes ONE Championship debut against Anissa Meksen

KANA is the latest star from K-1 to jump ship to ONE, with this year having already featured the promotional debuts of Takeru Segawa and Masaaki Noiri. The 32-year-old will soon have her chance to make the walk in the world’s largest martial arts organization, and she already has a couple of opponents in mind.

“My target has always been Anissa Meksen. I want to fight well and win,” she said. “My goal in ONE is to be a champion, so in the end, I want to fight against Phetjeeja.” KANA and Anissa “C18” Meksen have been calling each other out for some time, with the latter offering a clash in ONE. Now, it seems they are one step closer to meeting.

With atomweight kickboxing queen Phetjeeja mentioned, it also appears that KANA has picked a weight bracket. If so, she’ll have plenty of options when it comes to who to face in her promotional debut. Who do you want to see her take on first in ONE Championship?