Hiroki Akimoto could have kicked his way back into contention. He chose to stand in front of John Lineker instead, and that decision is a big part of why he’s headlining ONE SAMURAI 4 against Jonathan Haggerty for the ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Title.
The 33-year-old Japanese striker described the rebuild to BJPenn.com ahead of Saturday, October 17, when he meets Haggerty in the main event at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Akimoto said that against Lineker, the former ONE Bantamweight MMA World Champion with famously heavy hands, he picked the uncomfortable route on purpose.
“But I felt I had to properly tackle my own weaknesses, or I wouldn’t be able to become champion again. In that sense, it was a really important fight in my career,” Akimoto said.
He’d hit bottom before that. Akimoto made history at ONE X as Japan’s first ONE Kickboxing World Champion, then dropped the belt to Petchtanong Petchfergus in his first defense in 2022. Losses to Wei Rui and Ilias Ennahachi followed. Three in a row, no wins since the title went away.
The Lineker fight at ONE 172 in March 2025 ended that run with a split decision, fought largely in punching range. Then came the rematch with Wei at ONE 173, a completely different puzzle. Wei had beaten him the first time with a careful, points-first approach, and Akimoto’s job was to take that tool away. He did, winning a unanimous decision. A split-decision win over 20-year-old Taimu Hisai at ONE SAMURAI 1 made it three straight.
“Technically speaking, those two fights were completely different. In the Lineker fight, it was more about exchanging punches and fighting at close range. And in the Wei Rui fight, the key was the battle for points. Those two fights were really a big plus for me,” he said.
The Haggerty problem
Haggerty arrives as a two-sport champion, and BJPenn.com noted he plans to lean on hard-earned experience in this defense. That experience runs back to January 2019, when a 21-year-old Haggerty made his first walk in Jakarta. Akimoto, for his part, has said patience is his answer to Haggerty’s stance switches, pointing out that most opponents have charged straight into them. Yahoo Sports has also laid out four keys to victory for the matchup, so expect plenty of tactical chatter before the opening bell.
The rest of the ONE SAMURAI 4 card adds weight to the night. Former K-1 king Yuki Yoza meets Nabil Anane in bantamweight kickboxing, and Shozo Isojima vs. Kota Abe leads three all-Japan additions.
My take: Akimoto’s comeback reads like a guy sitting his own exams, one subject at a time. Brawl with Lineker, outpoint a points fighter in Wei, survive a hungry 20-year-old. None of those wins were blowouts (two were split decisions), and that matters against someone as sharp as Haggerty. If Akimoto rushes the stance switches like everyone else, this goes badly. If he actually waits, in front of a Tokyo crowd that watched him become the first, Ariake Arena could get very loud on October 17.
