Two of the more notable reactions came from ONE flyweight kickboxing champion Superlek Kiatmoo9, and flyweight Muay Thai champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon, both of whom expressed interest in welcoming the 31-year-old Japanese star to ONE.

“Welcome to my home,” Superlek wrote on Instagram. “I’ll see you in the ring someday.”

“I called, he answered,” Rodtang wrote in his own post, laying out plans to “eat” Takeru after his title defence against Edgar Tabares, set for ONE Fight Night 10 this Friday in Denver, USA.

Takeru could walk right into a title fight with Superlek based on his popularity alone, but his accolades also make him a worthy challenger. He is a former three-division K-1 champion – no other fighter has ever accomplished that feat – and since his countryman Tenshin Nasukawa shifted his focus to boxing, he is considered Japan’s top kickboxer.

A Muay Thai title fight with Rodtang is also a possibility – and a much bigger fight, given the Thai champion’s exploding popularity – but it is unclear whether Takeru intends to jump between disciplines or stick to kickboxing.

Those are not the only options for Takeru. As a fighter who has competed across multiple divisions, he could conceivably fight other ONE stars like bantamweight kickboxing champion Petchtanong Petchfergus, bantamweight Muay Thai champ Jonathan Haggerty, or strawweight kickboxing champion Jonathan Di Bella.

One way or the other, it seems imperative for the Singapore-based promotion to bring a Takeru fight in Japan.

ONE broke ground in the country with two events in Tokyo in 2019 – one in the spring, and another in the autumn. Both were loaded with top combat sports talents, and filled the host Ryogoku Kokugikan arena with excited fight fans.

By the time the year ended, it looked as though Japan would be a central part of ONE’s international expansion plans – then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The promotion briefly planned to make its long-awaited return to Japan last November, and put together an exciting card featuring many of its top Japanese fighters, but ultimately elected to move the event to Singapore in the face of the country’s lingering pandemic-related restrictions.

The delay could turn out to be fortuitous.

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Japan has now removed all of its remaining travel restrictions, meaning ONE should have no difficulty promoting an event in the country. And as of last week, ONE has one of the country’s most popular fighters on its roster.

Takeru has a proven track record in Japan.

In his last fight, he lost a unanimous decision to Nasukawa in a fight billed as “The Match”. It was his first taste of defeat in over 30 fights, but it was proof of his immense popularity in the country, as he and his rival drew 50,000 fight fans to the Tokyo Dome and reportedly sold over 500,000 pay-per-views.

It will not be easy for ONE to exceed those numbers, but it is not impossible.

In a perfect world, Rodtang would first take the kickboxing title from Superlek – the pair have long been linked to a fight – then defend the belt against Takeru in Tokyo. The Muay Thai star is more popular than his countryman, and has a long history of fighting Japanese opponents, famously battling Nasukawa to a contentious decision loss in 2018. He is the marquee foe for Takeru, and the flyweight kickboxing belt is the marquee prize.

Yet even if ONE were to book Takeru against Superlek, or pit him against Rodtang in a non-title kickboxing bout, the result would almost certainly be a financial win for everybody involved.

That looks like even more of a certainty if the promotion is able to leverage its other Japanese stars, such as MMA fighters Yoshihiro Akiyama, Shinya Aoki, and Itsuki Hirata, and former kickboxing champion Hiroki Akimoto.

ONE’s Friday event in Denver – where Rodtang will next defend his belt – will be its first event on American soil. The promotion’s push into the United States has seemingly been its sole focus of late, and fairly so, but once its Denver event is over, its top brass would be wise to shift their focus to building a Tokyo event around Takeru.