Beijing News (Chief Reporter Sun Haiguang) In the "ONE: Invincible" large-scale fighting event on January 28, it was originally planned for Cinziaz Arazov and his old rival Marat Grigoryan to play the semi-finals of the kickboxing and featherweight eight-man competition, which is also widely regarded as the most anticipated match of the entire tournament. However, just before the start of the tournament, the champion Marate unfortunately contracted the new crown virus and had to withdraw from the competition.
Natavut (left) came off the bench for the eight-man game. Photo/ONE Championship
After this turn, Arazov's opponents were changed to Lion Fight from Thailand's top team and WMC Muay Thai world champion Joe Natavut. Natavut has a strong physique rarely seen in Thai boxers, weighing 77 kilograms a day. Due to the long-term training in the United States, Natavut pays more attention to the strength confrontation training of European and American players, excellent combination of boxing, developed a set of strength-type playing styles, quickly adapted to the European and American rings, and dominated the two levels of Lion Fight. In recent years, Natavut has been absent from the field for a long time due to the epidemic, so he is not one of the top five players in the ONE ranking and is not in the lineup of this year's Kickboxing Featherweight Eight.
But boxing fans who know Natavut know that this long-term development of the heavy boxer in the United States, the strength can not be underestimated. Not only did he beat "AK47" Sammy Sana by point, but he also punched TKO Ukrainian Muay Thai famous Sasha Mossa in the first round of the 2019 Featherweight Eight. At that time, he had won four consecutive games, and it was likely to impact the championship, unfortunately, Natavut lost to the current champion "Doctor" George Petosio in the following semi-finals.
This time, as an alternative player, Natavut once again ushered in the opportunity to impact the featherweight eight, however, facing Arazov, who performed the most amazing performance in "ONE: One Strike into the Soul" not long ago, the difficulty of this duel is really not small.
Arazov (left) is the favourite to win the eight-man race. Photo/ONE Championship
Arazov is the K-1 WGP 70KG Champion and the WAKO Champion in both classes. World-class players such as Jade Wolf, Nichita, Dazhanba Ascolo, and Yasuhiro Jodo were all defeated by his fist.
After coming to the ONE Championship, Arazov tasted the bitterness of defeat in his debut. In "ONE: Shocking" in April 2021, Arazov did not show his best against his former defeater "Hurricane" Enrique Cole, and the game was lost by a divergent judgment.
This game made Arazov realize the strength and cruelty of the ONE Championship, and also made him firm in his heart to continue to walk in ONE. Six months later, in "ONE: One Hit into the Soul", Arazov koed Sami Sana in just 39 seconds, shocking the audience, which also made him a favorite player to win the eight-man competition.
In the semi-finals of the eight-man tournament on 28 January, Arazov's opponent changed from the familiar Marat to the explosive heavy gunner Natavut. Strategically, Arazov has a very high-frequency combination of punches and legs, much like Marat, who are very good at finding holes in their opponents in a continuous attack to defeat the enemy with one blow, and this high-explosive heavy gunner's encounter with a high-frequency terminator has attracted much attention.
Sun Haiguang, chief reporter of the Beijing News
Edited by Zhang Yunfeng Proofreader Li Lijun