ONE Championship: Itsuki Hirata sees submission win vs Alyse Anderson in atomweight grand prix
- Japanese fighter stays positive through tournament delays with quarter-final against Alyse Anderson finally set to go down on September 3
- ‘I definitely won’t let it go to a decision or the judges, and I’ll make sure to end it,’ says 24-year-old Hirata
Itsuki Hirata has had to bide her time while one setback after another befell ONE Championship’s seemingly-cursed atomweight grand prix.
But the Japanese “Strong Heart Fighter” (4-0) never gave up hope she would eventually be given the chance to compete on the biggest stage of her fledgling career.
“I stayed positive, I was training the whole time,” Hirata told the Post. “I kinda looked at it as a way to keep training and I just had more time to train, so I didn’t really see it in a negative way necessarily.
“I just kept wondering when it will happen, but I knew it wouldn’t be cancelled – it was too big of an event. So in the back of my mind I knew it was going to happen someday it just kept getting delayed.”
That day is finally here, with the all-female ONE: Empower card set to finally go down on September 3 in Singapore (barring any more unforeseen disasters, of course).