Masakazu Imanari taps out Kevin Belington in his ONE debut, 2012.
We caught up with the leglock specialist, Masakazu Imanari ahead of his fight in ONE Championship: Call to Greatness fight in Singapore – five years since he last fought for the promotion.
MMA-Japan: Hi, thank you for joining us.
Imanari: Hi.
MMA-Japan: Please tell us how you’ve prepared for this fight.
Imanari: Training for fights, I don’t change the way I train. I do the same as always.
MMA-Japan: One thing we’d like to know is how you got started in the martial arts.
Imanari: I just thought it was something I could do, but I don’t really remember!
MMA-Japan: About what age were you?
Imanari: I think I was about 18 years old.
MMA-Japan: What fighters did you look up to back then?
Imanari: Probably Royce Gracie, Rickson Gracie…but that might’ve been later. I’m not really sure!
MMA-Japan: OK, let’s play a quick word association game…
“MMA”
Imanari: Hard
“Leglocks”
Imanari: Pain!
“ONE Championship”
Imanari: Asia
“Tomorrow’s opponent”
Imanari: Korean
MMA-Japan: Thank you! Please give a message to all the fans watching around the world.
Imanari: I’ll probably take a leg submission – please watch!
So, there you have it. Straightforward and to the point! Join us for ONE Championship: Call to Greatness in Singapore on Friday, 22nd of February – we might see the famous “Imanari Roll”!
