Tape Delay Kickboxing 25: Krush.149 - 2023-05-20
Many entertaining fights as Krush crowns a new Flyweight champion with a one-night, four-man tournament.
Volume 25
This series shall, where possible, allow you to watch the shows in order as if you were watching live, without spoilers.
Beyond Kickboxing event calendar: https://beyondkick.com/schedule
Krush.149 - 2023-05-20
Korakuen Hall, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan
Inaugural Krush Fly champion Rui Okubo defeated Daina in September 2022 to win the title, then vacated it 7 months later in April 2023 to move up in weight. Daina is one of the four entrants to this one-night tournament to crown the next champion. All four competitors in the tournament are 21 years old or younger. In the tournament reserve bout, the doctor prevented Keito Ishigo from fighting, so Yuya Hashimoto qualified as the reserve fighter without having to fight.
K-1 Basics: Most fights are 3 3-minute rounds with a single 3-minute extra round if it’s a draw. 3 knockdowns in a round is a TKO, or 2 if it’s a one-night tournament fight. Judges are fairly liberal with 10-10 round scoring, so you will often see fights scored 30-30 or 30-29. Official rules state that the judges must pick a winner at the end of the extra round, including looking back on the earlier rounds of the fight if necessary. Kickboxing rules: knees are legal, elbows are not. Clinch must be broken with an immediate strike or the ref will separate, and fighters are not allowed to pull the neck of the opponent down to deliver a strike.
Fights highlighted in bold were ones that I found particularly entertaining. Tournament final linked instead of embedded to prevent spoilers.
Preliminary Fight
Haruki Mizukami (0-5-1) vs. OCathain Barra (0-3) (149)
Kazuki Matsumoto (3-2, 3 KO) vs. Taihei Shimomura (2-2, 0 KO) (132)
Main Card
2nd Krush Fly Champion Tournament Semi-Final 1: Tsubasa Yamawaki (3-2-1, 2 KO) vs. Toki Oshika (6-0, 0 KO) (112)
2nd Krush Fly Champion Tournament Semi-Final 2: Daina (8-2, 4 KO) vs. Kakeru Nagano (3-0, 0 KO) (112)
Riki (4-3, 0 KO) vs. Shinpei Hayashi (6-5, 1 KO) (129)
Yusuke (16-8, 7 KO) vs. Yuki Miyazaki (12-12-3, 0 KO) (127)
Naoto Maruyama (14-1-1, 8 KO) vs. Daichi Kimura (2-1, 2 KO) (>220)
Tsubasa Horii (8-7-3, 6 KO) vs. SEIYA (9-6, 3 KO) (138)
Yuki Masui (22-10-3, 7 KO) vs. Kazuki Sagegami (5-4, 2 KO) (134)
Semi-Final: Keito Okajima (6-4, 1 KO) vs. Yuta Matsuyama (4-1, 3 KO) (132)
Main Event: 2nd Krush Fly Champion Tournament Final (112) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Lq5p1p9FM