Stefer Rahardian hopes to become a national inspiration

Like most professional martial arts athletes, Stefer Rahardian dreamed of becoming a world champion. But for him, becoming Indonesia’s first-ever world champ was a particular focus.

He’s now setting his sights on shorter-term goals as he looks to climb the ladder in ONE Championship, and work his way towards the top of the organisation’s flyweight division.

“I need to be good,” he said. “I just need to keep training hard with my team. My opponents are tough.”

Rahardian captured the 2016 Flyweight Indonesian Tournament Championship earlier in his career and has a career record of 7-0, with five of those victories coming under the ONE Championship banner. 

His latest outing takes place on 20 January against Pakistani athlete Muhammad “The Spider’ Imran at ONE: KINGS OF COURAGE in Jakarta.

His successes inside the cage have led to him becoming a recognisable figure in his home country. It’s something he’s struggled to comprehend.

“I never thought about being a sort of celebrity,” said the 31-year-old.

“I still think that I am an ordinary guy.”

He may be an ordinary guy, but his performances inside the ONE Championship cage have been anything but. At ONE: TOTAL VICTORY in September 2017, Rahardian scored a spectacular victory, submitting Cambodian Sim Bunsrun via rear-naked choke in just 67 seconds.

Despite his impressive performance, Rahardian still wasn’t fully content with his display.

“I needed to be more aggressive,” Rahardian said.

“I worked on my striking. This is martial arts, you need to use everything — striking, grappling, wrestling.”

Rahardian expects his grappling to come into play again when he faces Imran, who is known for his grappling-first approach to contests.

The Indonesian star has been preparing accordingly, drilling his techniques at both Bali MMA and Jakarta Muay Thai & MMA to ensure that his game is on point ahead of the contest.

“Imran is good at grappling,” Rahardian explained.

“He is good on the ground. That is where he wins, and if you get sloppy, anything can happen.”

Victory will give Rahardian the biggest chance of his career, as the winner was announced to be next in line for the ONE Flyweight World Championship.

It’ll also grow his fame back home, and he hopes that any success he has in the cage can be used to help inspire his fellow countrymen to try martial arts and change their lives.

“I am happy people recognise my matches,” he said.

“My goal is to inspire other Indonesians to join martial arts and train. I am very grateful and blessed.”