{"id":439363,"date":"2026-01-26T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439363\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:00:08","slug":"chihiro-sawada-hands-natalie-salcedo-first-loss-demands-one-world-title-shot-im-in-the-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439363\/","title":{"rendered":"Chihiro Sawada hands Natalie Salcedo first loss, demands ONE World Title shot: &#8220;I&#8217;m in the position&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chihiro Sawada controlled every phase of her last fight. The Japanese wrestler handed undefeated American Natalie Salcedo her first professional loss with a unanimous decision victory in women\u2019s atomweight MMA.<\/p>\n<p>The former Shooto Champion dominated the action at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onefc.com\/events\/onefightnight39\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ONE Fight Night 39<\/a> on Friday, January 23, inside Bangkok\u2019s Lumpinee Stadium. Sharp left punches backed the BJJ black belt into corners throughout the opening round. Sawada seamlessly transitioned to the clinch, landing punishing knees that set the tone.<\/p>\n<p>Salcedo weathered another early storm in round two. The 28-year-old Tokyo native continued her striking assault while the American\u2019s resilience showed during scrambles hunting for submissions. But the left punch remained Sawada\u2019s primary weapon in round three. She punctuated her performance by pinning Salcedo to the canvas for one final takedown as time expired.<\/p>\n<p>The victory elevated Sawada\u2019s record to 11-1 while maintaining her position among the division\u2019s elite. More importantly, she moved one step closer to challenging Denice Zamboanga for the ONE Women\u2019s Atomweight MMA World Title.<\/p>\n<p>Sawada credited improved striking for neutralizing Salcedo\u2019s dangerous ground game. The wrestler added daily training sessions with Japanese MMA fighter Izawa Seika at JPP gym specifically for this camp. That extra work paid dividends against an opponent she knew would be lethal on the mat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that right now, I am in the position to take the title shot,\u201d she said through an interpreter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Chihiro Sawada rates performance six out of ten<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/chihiro-sawada\/chihiro-sawada-credits-japanese-mma-icon-for-inspiring-rise-i-admired-her\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chihiro Sawada<\/a> recognizes room for improvement despite controlling Natalie Salcedo across three rounds. The Japanese wrestler gave herself a six out of ten rating after the unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking an opponent\u2019s undefeated streak didn\u2019t trigger any special emotions for someone who once carried her own winning streak. The business-like approach reflects a fighter focused on continual evolution rather than singular achievements.<\/p>\n<p>Her striking development over recent camps proved crucial against Salcedo\u2019s BJJ black belt credentials. The game plan centered on keeping the fight standing rather than diving into the American\u2019s world on the canvas. Sawada\u2019s wrestling background typically leads to takedowns and scrambles, but she controlled the entire fight by forcing Salcedo to engage in striking exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old remains open to an interim title fight with Ayaka Miura while champion Denice Zamboanga recovers. A Japanese versus Japanese showdown at a Tokyo event would generate massive attention domestically, especially with proper marketing behind it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, I am feeling sympathy, and I want Denice to recover as fast as possible, and for the title shot, of course I want to do it with Ayaka Miura,\u201d she said. \u201cThank you very much to all my supporters. Thank you very much for all the ONE Championship fans. I will keep improving, keep getting better, be an athlete, be a fighter that deserves the title shot. Keep on supporting me. Thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chihiro Sawada controlled every phase of her last fight. The Japanese wrestler handed undefeated American Natalie Salcedo her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,194584,786,785,2843,194585,85],"class_list":["post-439363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chihiro-sawada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-one-championship","tag-one-fight-night-39","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}