On February 9 (Sunday) at K-1 WORLD MAX 2025, Takumi Terada (Japan/team VASILEUS) will defend his K-1 WORLD GP Featherweight Championship against challenger Takahito Niimi (Nagoya JK Factory) at Yoyogi National Gymnasium Second Stadium. Ahead of his first title defense, Terada shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight.

Terada became the ISKA World Super Featherweight Champion in November 2023, defeating Mirko Fulmeri by TKO at OKTAGON in Italy. In February 2024, he competed at RIZIN LANDMARK 8 in SAGA, securing a first-round TKO victory over Takekiyo Tominaga. After transferring to team VASILEUS, he defeated Shoki Kaneda by decision in July, called out Kaito Gunji, and secured a title shot. In September, he challenged Gunji for the K-1 title, winning via extra-round decision to claim the belt. Now, he faces Niimi, the only fighter who has defeated him, in a long-awaited rematch.

Niimi participated in the 5th Krush Featherweight Championship Tournament in September 2020, emerging victorious. In February 2021, he faced Toma, avenging a previous loss and successfully defending his title for the first time. Although he was defeated by Taito Gunji at K-1 in September, he secured his third title defense in December at Krush by knocking out Tatsuki Shinotsuka. In May 2022, he lost the Krush Featherweight title to Shuhei Kumura. In March 2023, he participated in the K-1 vs. RISE event at RISE Ariake, where he lost by decision to Keisuke Monguchi. In June, he secured a victory over Takumi Terada, but suffered a defeat to Rei Inagaki in October. He bounced back with knockout wins over Masaki Takeuchi in July 2024 and Takeru Owaki in November.

-Your gym, VASILEUS GYM, will have its grand opening on February 15, and at a recent press conference, Mason Usami and Shoa Arii were announced as new members. Has that motivated you?

Both of them are younger than me. I was always the youngest at the gym before, so now I feel like I can’t afford to slack off.

-They are teammates, and also rivals. Have you sparred with them yet?
Not yet. Right now, we’re just observing each other’s pad work and getting a feel for each other’s styles.

-How is the atmosphere at the gym?
Training is tough, but we’re all having fun.

-Yuuki Yoza mentioned that you always walk into the gym looking miserable before training.
Listen, training is brutal. I could take it easy, but given my position, that’s not an option. If I’m not completely exhausted, I can’t sleep at night. So, I’m constantly fatigued, and honestly every day feels like a grind (laughs).

-With fighters like Takeru, Noiri, Shintaro Matsukura, and Yoza, training must be intense.

Yeah, but the hardest part is one-on-one mitt work with (Masakazu) Watanabe.

-Because of the workload?
No. The pressure. Watanabe doesn’t just hold the mitts—he applies real fight pressure and comes at me full force. Most trainers wouldn’t go that far because they don’t want to risk breaking their fighters, but he doesn’t hold back. If I let my guard down, he’ll hit me from anywhere. It’s basically a live fight. Honestly, I could go into a real match without sparring, just off these sessions.

-We’ve seen footage of your crescent kicks breaking training gear. It looks like Watanabe takes just as much punishment…?
I can’t afford to slack off.

-It’s your first title defense against the only fighter who has beaten you.
Even after beating guys like Gunji and Kaneda, people still bring up my loss to Niimi. I feel like I’m on a different level now, but the fact remains that I lost to him, so I took the offer.

-Do you feel the loss stuck with you?
No, not really. When the fight was offered, I honestly accepted because I didn’t have any other opponents lined up.

-Last time, Niimi knocked you down twice. Any lingering doubts?
I was undefeated back then, and, honestly, I got cocky. I wasn’t training seriously. But that loss made me buckle down, and now I train harder than ever. In a way, Niimi made me a better fighter.

-How does the rematch play out?
I have to win. No other option.

-Do you expect a dominant performance?
I’ll dominate him.

-No doubts?
None. I know it’s going to be a tough fight—he’s going to be desperate, and no one goes down easily. I expect a war, but I’m not losing.

-Niimi is known for applying nonstop pressure.
Yeah, that’s his style, but I’ll win this fight somewhere else. He only has one approach, and I’ve got plenty of ways to beat him.

-You mentioned taking this fight because there weren’t other opponents. Kaito Gunji has been pushing for a rematch on social media.
He’s just bitter. I don’t care—I won, that’s all that matters. Even if we fought again, I don’t think the fans would even notice.

-You did respond to him online, though.
I just said, “I’m open to it.” But I never said, “Let’s do it now.” It’ll happen when the time is right.

-Gunji seemed ready to go in December.
Yeah, because he didn’t want to fight Kaneda (laughs).

-You think he’s avoiding Kaneda?
He’s not great against southpaws who pick their shots. That’s just my guess. Kaneda is dangerous, and he’s the type of guy you don’t want to deal with.

-Is Kaneda a tough style matchup?
When I fought him, he didn’t come forward as much as I expected. I had a lot of things prepared for him, but I didn’t even need to use half of them.

-Kaneda fights Shuhei Kumura at this event. How do you see that going?
Kaneda wins 9.5 times out of 10.

-And the 0.5?
Anything can happen in a fight. But, skill-wise, Kaneda is levels above.

-If he wins, he might call for a title shot.
That depends. If the fans want to see it and K-1 pushes for it, I’ll consider it. But I’m also thinking about moving up in weight.

-Are you struggling to make 57.5kg?
I cut 12–13kg, with about 5kg coming from water weight. By fight week, I’m down to 7% body fat, so I drop weight fast. But if there’s no one left to fight at featherweight, I’ll move up when the time is right.

-Would you be interested in fighting international opponents?
I’d like to, but at 60kg and below, K-1 is already the strongest organization. That means most of my competition will still be Japanese.

-Lastly, what kind of champion do you want to be?
I want to be undeniably strong. Right now, people still wonder if I’d win a rematch with Gunji. I don’t want there to be any doubt. At VASILEUS GYM, we’re all striving to be champions who leave no questions, and I need to reach that level.