Siasarani's Long Road From Iran Leads to ONE SAMURAI 4 Semifinal
The short version
- Siasarani faces Masaaki Noiri in the ONE SAMURAI 4 featherweight kickboxing semifinals on October 17 in Tokyo.
- The tournament winner earns a shot at ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon.
- Siasarani left Iran for Thailand at 16 to train, after earlier winning WMF World Championships gold with an Iranian youth team.
- He debuted for ONE Championship in January 2023 and has beaten Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong among others.
The 24-year-old Iranian kickboxer meets Masaaki Noiri on October 17 in Tokyo, with a tournament title shot on the line.
Mohammad Siasarani will meet former ONE Interim Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Masaaki Noiri at ONE SAMURAI 4 on October 17 in Tokyo, competing in the semifinals of the ONE SAMURAI Featherweight Kickboxing Tournament. Whoever comes through the bracket earns a shot at ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon.
Born the youngest of four children, Siasarani was raised mostly by his mother in Iran after his parents split when he was six, splitting his childhood between the mountain town of Kojur and Tehran. Football was his first sporting passion — he even played for powerhouse club Persepolis — but a bout of rheumatism at around age 12 left him barely able to walk for a year. Once he recovered, his older brother Reza steered him toward Muay Thai as a pastime, and he soon reached the final of a national-team selection event, where he suffered a defeat that haunted him.
Determined to train in the sport's homeland, Siasarani first visited Thailand with an Iranian youth squad and won gold at the WMF World Championships. At 16 he relocated permanently after a Family Muay Thai gym offered training, food, and lodging, with his uncle covering the airfare. Money was so tight he stretched buffet breakfast into all-day meals; his only personal purchase on that first stay was a McDonald's ice cream. A later return trip, backed by his father, saw him pocket roughly 6,000 baht after four or five bouts.
A training video shot during the pandemic at Venum Training Camp in Pattaya changed everything. Because he fights southpaw, he was invited to spar with Superbon for about a month ahead of Superbon's bout with Giorgio Petrosyan, and former ONE athlete Mehdi Zatout later became his mentor. After debuting for ONE Championship in January 2023, Siasarani beat Avatar PK Saenchai, Mohammed Boutasaa, and Satanfah Sitsongpeenong before a major decision victory over Thai great Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong.