Willie Van Rooyen Credits Spider-Man for Inspiring Him Ahead of ONE SAMURAI 3 Clash
South African MMA fighter Willie "White Lion" van Rooyen has a superhero in his corner, even if he can't see him.
The 23-year-old from Pretoria takes on former ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion Yuya "Little Piranha" Wakamatsu at ONE SAMURAI 3, live from Yokohama Buntai in Japan on Saturday, September 12. Fans can watch that flyweight MMA match and the rest of the fights on ONE SAMURAI 3 exclusively via live.onefc.com.
Since transitioning to MMA from kickboxing, Van Rooyen has built an 8-1 professional record with six finishes.
Van Rooyen's ONE Championship journey has had its ups and downs. First, he suffered his lone career blemish in his promotional debut last November, and then he bounced back with a third-round TKO of Filipino veteran Jeremy Miado.
But through it all, one constant has remained: he has been a Marvel fan since childhood, and Spider-Man sits at the center of it all.
Van Rooyen Has Loved Spider-Man, Marvel Since He Was Little
The passion Van Rooyen carries into ONE SAMURAI 3 has a superhero-shaped foundation. The South African MMA fighter did not stumble into his Marvel fandom as an adult. It has been part of his identity since childhood.
“Ever since I was little, I've always been a fan of Spider-Man, any Spider-Man movies. I like Spider-Man a lot. Actually, Marvel movies. I could say Marvel is one of my favorites. All of their movies are some of the best movies that I like," Van Rooyen said.
The A-Team Stars product brings that same enthusiasm into his fighting career, where six finishes from eight victories reflect an all-action approach that Marvel fans would probably describe as superhero energy. A 23-year-old from Pretoria stepping into a potential flyweight title eliminator against a former ONE World Champion in Japan is its own kind of origin story.
Van Rooyen Was Mind-Blown by Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man
Van Rooyen's relationship with Spider-Man goes back to the earliest Tobey Maguire films, and the perspective he now brings to watching them reflects a fighter who thinks analytically about performance improvement whether he is studying film in the gym or at the cinema.
"Looking back at it now, if you look at Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man compared to the new Spider-Man, Tom Holland, the technology improved. Even looking at it now, the CGI is actually not bad, but it's not at the quality that it is now. But for me, it looked so realistic, and I was just mind-blown by how they made the movie and everything. I've just been a fan ever since," he explained.
His opponent, Wakamatsu from Tribe Tokyo MMA, saw his five-fight winning streak snapped and his ONE Flyweight MMA World Title taken by Avazbek Kholmirzaev this past April. The Japanese striker will be motivated to get back into the win column and get his 21st victory at ONE SAMURAI 3.
Spider-Man Inspired Van Rooyen to Be a Better Person
The deeper connection Van Rooyen has with the Spider-Man character goes beyond box office entertainment. The values embedded in the franchise shaped how the young South African thought about the person he wanted to become.
"When I was young, the Spider-Man movies inspired me a lot to be a better person, to help people around me when they need me or when they are in need. Even when you have a hard time, just be the best possible version of yourself and still do good," he said.
With great power comes great responsibility, as the saying goes, and Van Rooyen's internalization of that philosophy gives his fighting career a purpose that extends beyond personal ambition.
Facing a former ONE Flyweight MMA World Champion in Japan on September 12 is the kind of hard time the character he grew up watching would face head-on, and the “White Lion” from Pretoria plans to do exactly the same.
