Tape Delay Kickboxing 8: Krush.145 - 2023-01-21
Krush Lightweight title match, plus the four first-round matches in the tournament to determine the new Krush Super Lightweight champion. No spoilers, free on Youtube!
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.145 - 2023-01-21
Korakuen Hall, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan
The first Krush event of 2023 features the first round of the Super Light tournament for the vacant title, to crown the 9th champion. Previous champion Daizo Sasaki relinquished the belt to focus on winning the K-1 title currently held by Tetsuya Yamato. Today’s four winners will do the semi-finals and finals at Krush.148 on April 28.
In the main event, Krush Light champion Fumiya “Bad Guy” Osawa is making the first defense of his title since he won it via decision over Shuji Kawarada in April. Osawa previously defeated today’s challenger “Stardust Lefty” Yuzuki Satomi by decision in June 2019 in a close fight that all 3 judges scored 30-29. Osawa also defeated Dansiam Ayothaya Fight Gym at the K-1 show in August. Satomi won two fights on big K-1 shows in 2022, over Ryuka and Yuma Saikyo.
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.
Preliminary Fights
Yuki Sakamoto (2-0, 2 KO) vs. Kano (2-0, 2 KO) (143)
Kazuma Kubo (4-7, 1 KO) vs. Takaya Komatsu (3-2, 0 KO) (127)
Main Card
Yutaka (16-8, 9 KO) vs. Daiki Nagumo (3-9, 0 KO) (132)
Yuya Miyake (5-1, 2 KO) vs. Taihei Shimomura (2-1, 0 KO) (137)
Riku Matsumoto (4-0-1, 1 KO) vs. Ryunosuke Saito (3-1, 2 KO) (117)
Masami (10-5, 3 KO) vs. Yuka☆ (4-2, 0 KO) (106)
ANIMAL☆KOJI (3-3, 1 KO) vs. Nakahira Takumi (9-7, 9 KO) (198)
Yujiro Ono (22-12, 10 KO) vs. Takuma Tsukamoto (5-3-2, 2 KO) (143 Super Light Title Tournament #1)
Ruku Kojima (8-6, 4 KO) vs. Atsuto Matsumoto (8-4-1, 0 KO) (143 Super Light Title Tournament #2)
Hisaki Higashimoto (15-19, 8 KO) vs. Shu Inagaki (7-1, 3 KO) (143 Super Light Title Tournament #3)
Hikaru Terashima (6-3, 3 KO) vs. Hikaru Hasumi (5-8, 3 KO) (143 Super Light Title Tournament #4)
(C) Fumiya Osawa (29-19, 3 KO) vs. Yuzuki Satomi (18-10-1, 8 KO) (138 Light Title)