From the outside, reigning ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Champion Nadaka Yoshinari‘s seven-year unbeaten run looks effortless. Up close, it was built on a struggle few ever saw.
The 25-year-old is out to extend his 42-fight winning streak when he defends his crown against Malaysia’s Rifdean “Magic Boy” Masdor in the co-main event of ONE SAMURAI 4 inside Tokyo’s Ariake Arena on Saturday, October 17.
Well before the wins started piling up, the Japanese star was just a teenager chasing glory in the world-famous stadium Muay Thai scene in Thailand. While some of his schoolmates enjoyed the luxury of having free time, he stayed dedicated to his craft, balancing between his career and homework.
As the years passed by, the World Titles followed. Nadaka became only the second non-Thai to win gold in both the Lumpinee and Rajadamnern Stadium. Still, success inside the ring did not translate into the life he imagined outside it.
Nadaka told onefc.com:
“Before I was a champion, I was actually fighting at a loss. Even after becoming champion, the purse money wasn’t [enough]. The travel costs for fights ate into it. So, even with a win, I basically broke even.
“Around then, I was watching friends who’d finished high school and gone straight into blue-collar jobs around 18 to 19, and I noticed a lot of them were making more money than me.”
Work like that is no easy ride either, but the comparison weighed on him all the same. He had given up club activities and time with friends to pour everything into fighting, and the rewards never reflected the sacrifice. It was a stretch that tested him more than he let on.
Through those years, the Kanagawa native leaned on his mentor, Eiwa Sports Gym Chairman Natsuo Nakagawa, but the biggest shift had to come from within. What kept him going was a different way of measuring himself, one that had little to do with the easy markers of success.
Nadaka added:
“At the time, I think my own recognition was still at the level of ‘people into fighting may already know me, but if you don’t watch this stuff at all, you have no idea who I am.’ So within that, I felt like I needed something more. There was even a period where I thought winning belts alone would help and make me more famous.
“But I was wrong. I really struggled with that and talked it through with Chairman Nakagawa a lot. There was definitely inner conflict through all of that, but I think all of that is connected to where I am now.”
That belief has carried him through more than seven years without a loss and multiple Muay Thai World Title wins, and it has never turned into complacency.
In ONE, the results have been just as emphatic: he claimed the inaugural atomweight Muay Thai crown against Numsurin Chor Ketwina at ONE 173, then turned back Songchainoi “Mini-Hulk” Kiatsongrit across five rounds at ONE SAMURAI 1.
He is now perfect across six promotional appearances, which include a successful kickboxing debut at ONE SAMURAI 3 last month. With Rifdean next in line, Nadaka brings the same mindset he has carried into every fight before this one.
The 25-year-old said:
“I don’t walk around with some rock-solid confidence in myself. I always treat the opponent as a serious threat, and my only job is to prepare without a single gap, without any regrets, and build the best version of myself.
“I go into the fight with all of that. And that’s why I can train the way I do now. Of course I hate losing, but I go in with the mindset that if I lose after training at 100 percent, then that’s just how it is.”
ONE Championship Turned Nadaka’s Struggle Into Stardom
Training with no regrets was always going to pay off somewhere. For Nadaka Yoshinari, it was in the world’s largest martial arts organization, where the grind few fans ever saw gave way to something far bigger.
ONE Championship did not enter his world all at once. Back then, it was barely on his radar, and Muay Thai had yet to be showcased on anything like that scale. Yet for a fighter who already felt he needed something more, the sport’s biggest platform was never going to stay off it for long.
The Japanese star said:
“Once ONE Friday Fights started and more and more Muay Thai fighters began competing in ONE, I started paying more attention to ONE as well. Before that, of course, you had all these stars like Rodtang, Tawanchai, and Superlek emerging.
“Most of those fighters had won titles at either Rajadamnern or Lumpinee Stadium, and now that I’ve won those titles myself, I [always dreamed of wanting] to compete on that kind of stage. I wanted to make a name for myself and become a star too.”
He got that stage, and the recognition he had been missing came with it.
Even as a World Champion across multiple weight classes in the stadium circuits, something shifted for Nadaka once the ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Title was around his waist. After years of wondering whether the sacrifice would pay off, that shift means plenty.
Nadaka said:
“After becoming a ONE World Champion, I feel like more people started calling me the best Muay Thai fighter in the world.
“For me personally, winning the ONE belt also gave me the confidence to say without hesitation that I’m the best in Muay Thai. That’s something I’m extremely proud of.”
From a teenager balancing homework with stadium fights in Thailand to Japan’s leading Muay Thai force, the road has been a long one, and the numbers show how far it has gone.
When fight night arrives at Ariake Arena on Saturday, October 17, it will have been 2,648 days, or more than seven years, since Nadaka last tasted defeat.
Given his form, the Japanese Muay Thai specialist could well stretch that run even further on the blockbuster ONE SAMURAI 4 card in Tokyo, Japan.