Tape Delay Kickboxing 27: AZABU PRESENTS K-1 WORLD GP 2023 ~First Middleweight Championship Tournament~
The traditional eight-man one-night Grand Prix format returns to create a new title, plus three champions in non-title action. TWENTY free fights!
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
AZABU PRESENTS K-1 WORLD GP 2023 ~First Middleweight Championship Tournament~
Yokohama Budokan, Kanagawa, Japan
One-night eight-man tournament to crown the first K-1 middleweight (165 lb) champion. An old-fashioned K-1 Grand Prix just like you wish they’d run more often. Both K-1 and Krush have previously only had titles up to Super Welter (154 lb) until you get to Cruiserweight (198 lb), and most of the best fighters in this weight division are in GLORY (champion Endy Semeleer) or ONE (champion Regian Eersel).
Supporting the tournament are three K-1 champions in superfight action… with none of their titles on the line.
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 semi-finals and final linked instead of embedded to prevent spoilers.
Preliminary Fights
Raita Hashimoto (4-0-1, 1 KO) vs. Kokoro Terashima (2-1, 1 KO) (127)
Yashazaru (4-4, 1 KO) vs. Masaki Oishi (1-0, 1 KO) (165)
Main Card
Middle Title Tournament Reserve Fight: Aqil Bukhari (5-2-1, 4 KO) vs. Tomoki Yoshino (7-2, 5 KO) (165)
Middle Title Tournament First Round (1): Katsuya Jinbo (15-7-1, 8 KO) vs. Li Hui (18-5, 5 KO) (165)
Middle Title Tournament First Round (2): Danilo Zanolini (44-13, 24 KO) vs. Hasan Toy (44-12, 8 KO) (165)
Middle Title Tournament First Round (3): Shintaro Matsukura (34-17, 18 KO) vs. Vinicius Dionizio (15-5, 9 KO) (165)
Middle Title Tournament First Round (4): Mustapha Haida (54-11-2, 25 KO) vs. MIKE JOE (10-6-5, 5 KO) (165)
Rui Okubo (4-0, 0 KO) vs. Ryunosuke Saito (4-1, 2 KO) (117)
Kazuki Miburo (14-4, 2 KO) vs. Yusei Shirahata (13-4-1, 1 KO) (117)
Superfight: Tatsuya Tsubakihara (13-6-1, 3 KO) vs. Riku Morisaka (17-12-2, 3 KO) (127)
Daizo Sasaki (32-19-1, 7 KO) vs. Pakorn P.K. Saenchai Muaythaigym (191-45-5, 7 KO) (143)
Middle Title Tournament Semi-Final (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC1UjMOBxgA
Middle Title Tournament Semi-Final (2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM1-d7mv_xQ
Chihiro Nakajima (7-3, 4 KO) vs. Han Kyungmin (17-5, 0 KO) (132)
Tatsuya Oiwa (23-9, 8 KO) vs. Tomoya Yokoyama (14-4, 7 KO) (132)
Koji Ikeda (10-4, 6 KO) vs. Petchmongkol Soonkilahuaytom (59-12-2, 11 KO) (117)
Superfight: (C) Toma Kuroda (11-3-1, 4 KO) vs. Ramadan Ondash (3-0, 2 KO) (117 Non-Title)
Superfight: (C) Yuki Yoza (14-2, 6 KO) vs. Aaron Clarke (15-3, 6 KO) (138 Non-Title)
Superfight: (C-121) Akihiro Kaneko (17-2, 10 KO) vs. Emre Karaca (10-0, 2 KO) (123)
Middle Title Tournament Final https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLGJKqINxY