K-1 World GP 2020 in Osaka [22-09] *Results*

[K1power]

Fightcard
Anpo Rukiya vs. Yamazaki Hideaki
Urabe Koya vs. Shinohara Yuto
Mio vs. Takanashi 'knuckle' Miho
Wajima Hiromi vs. Raseasing Weerasakreck
Fukashi vs. Hirayama Jin
Kato Hisaki vs. Sugimoto Hitoshi
Asahisa Taio vs. Hiroki
Kawarada Shuji vs. Seiya
Tetsu vs. Nishimoto Narufumi
Kondo Kensei vs. Taito
Kuroda Yuto vs. Mitsui Hiroki
Takahashi Naoki vs. Ishida Ryota
Yamawaki Kaito vs. Riki
Rioya vs. Nagai Takumi
Yamawaki Tsubasa vs. Toyoda Yuki

Exhibition Fight
Takeru vs. Saiga Kizaemon

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16518/

[K1power]

Event is just a few weeks away.

I'm liking Rukiya/Yamazaki.

If Takeru vs. Saiga will end up like the Takeru/Egawa exhibition fight we're in for a treat.
Either way good to see Saiga back in K-1.

Also Yamawaki Kaito and Yamawaki Tsubasa are brothers..?

[rictor]

Yeah, I think you're right.



Lil' Yamawaki bros.

[shkibb]

Finally a WGP event ! Main events should be good.

[K1power]

Happening this Tuesday!

Probably a Japanese (bank) holiday.

Luckily this coincides with my week off!

[K1power]

[K1power]

Event is live!

Stream: abema.tv/now-on-air/fighting-sports (VPN needed).

Not putting this in the live discussion section due to the wonky timing of the event.

[K1power]

Results
Yamazaki Hideaki defeats Anpo Rukiya by KO R1 (Punches)
Tsubakihara Tatsuya defeats Egawa Yuuki by Majority Decision
Takanashi 'knuckle' Miho defeats Mio by Unanimous Decision
Urabe Koya defeats Shinohara Yuto by Extra Round Unanimous Decision
Wajima Hiromi defeats Raseasing Weerasakreck by KO R2
Hirayama Jin defeat Fukashi by Unanimous Decision
Sugimoto Hitoshi defeats Kato Hisaki by Extra Round Unanimous Decision
Asahisa Taio defeats Hiroki by KO R2 (High Kick)
Kawarada Shuji defeats Seiya by Unanimous Decision
Tetsu defeats Nishimoto Narufumi by Unanimous Decision
Kondo Kensei defeats Taito by TKO R2 (Doctor Stoppage)
Kuroda Yuto defeats Mitsui Hiroki by Unanimous Decision
Takahashi Naoki defeats Ishida Ryota by Unanimous Decision
Riki defeats Yamawaki Kaito by Unanimous Decision
Nagai Takumi defeats Rioya by KO R3
Toyoda Yuki defeats Yamawaki Tsubasa by Unanimous Decision

Exhibition Fight
Takeru vs. Saiga Kizaemon - Draw (No actual scoring)

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16518/

[K1power]

Quick notes:

The Good
+ A great comeback event for K-1.
+ Yamazaki annihilating Anpo like that was crazy. Also very happy to see Yamazaki take the belt as he's given so much for the sport. Aside from being a competitive war with both fighters scoring knockdowns, this is probably the best way this event could have finished. KOTY contender for sure.
+ Tsubakihara edging out Egawa with a great performance. Not sure to which degree this is considered an upset, but Tsubakihara's distance game was on point. Was this at catchweight? Otherwise it should've been for the belt.
+ Takeru vs. Saiga Kizaemon was a fun exhibition. Saiga got to show off his background with the kicks a bit early on, but as the fight progressed he really started getting tagged by Takeru. If the gloves weren't as large we could've seen a knockdown.
+ Fukashi/Hirayama was actually a pretty fun and competitive fight overall which the 30-24 score doesn't reflect at all.
+ Hirayama scoring knockdowns on Fukashi with well-timed left counters in every round. Timing is so important.
+ Sugimoto scoring a really nice knockdown on Kato.
+ Asahisa Taio's high kick KO over Hiroki is another KOTY contender. Fight itself was nice as well.
+ Tetsu/Nishimoto had some wild exchanges.
+ Limited audience, people wearing masks.
+ Over 2 Million views during the main event.

The Bad
- Kato/Sugimoto was frustrating to watch as you could once again clearly see Sugimoto showing glimpses of good kickboxing, but it takes a lot to fire him up and he kinda let himself get bullied by a very out of shape Kato. Not sure if it's a confidence thing or simply a lack of training, but I feel like he can do bigger/better things.
- Kondo/Taito was stopped after two rounds, because Taito had developed a scary looking hole/dent in his face. Probably a fracture of the orbital or jaw bone. Just a scary looking injury, hope it's not too serious.
- I missed their particular fights, but looks like the Yamawaki bros were defeated pretty unceremoniously. Shame, I was hoping for another set of strong siblings in K-1.
- More unforgivable than having missed some of the fights; I've missed Taro-kun!

I've missed Urabe/Shinohara, Wajima/Raseasing and the first four fights so I may have some extra comments after catching up.

Tsubakihara/Egawa was added pretty late so to me it was a welcome surprise when I first looked at the card after waking up this morning.

On a sidenote: There is also some PPV event with Ashizawa on Abema, but I'm not sure what it's exactly about.

[shkibb]

What a great event ! Just what the doctor ordered for me.

I am so glad for Yamazaki. I was thinking that this could be his last shot at a K-1 title due to his age and he produced big time. A very impressive KO and I was surprised he took him out like that. Anpo is still a top guy and young - he will be back. I can see K-1 setting up a rubber match between these two, maybe at K-Festa 4 ? Also, right when they were placing the belt around Yamazaki's waist (something I really wanted to see) my Abema TV stream suddenly cut to "The guy that wants to hit Ashizawa" PPV thing. WTF is up with that BS Abema TV ?

Tsubakihara deserves a title shot against Egawa.

Mio coming to K-1 made a lot of news, but she did not look very good at all. Knuckle Miho consistently beat her to the punch the entire fight despite only having 5 fights under her belt compared to Mio's 42 fights.

Good to see Urabe back, but he looked a little rusty out there after a long layoff.

Congrats to Hirayama on his win over Fukashi scoring several knockdowns in the process.

Kato looked gassed after the first round. He looked slow and sluggish the entire fight and looked like he could barely move in the 3rd round. Was he really in that bad of shape or is it being 38 years old and old age getting to him ?

Asahisa's KO win was impressive, that was a wicked kick to the jaw. He was in some trouble in round 1 after getting dropped, but came back strong to score the win by KKO. He should be considered for a title shot after defeating Hayashi at KFesta.

The injury to Taito was indeed scary looking. What is up with his corner allowing him to go back out in that condition ? They had to have seen it between rounds and still allowing him to fight. Are they blind ?

The Ashizawa PPV thing called "K-1 DX Ashizawa Ryusei o naguritai yatsu, dai boshū" or a rough translation of "The guy who wants to hit Ashizawa Ryusei". K-1 allowed people who hate Ashizawa to apply to do some exhibition fights with him offering them a chance at beating his ass. I didn't watch it and I don't know how it turned out.

[K1power]

Yeah cutting to the Ashizawa PPV when Yamazaki was about to make his speech was a dick move by Abema, they could have waited like one more minute or two and it would've been fine. The Ashizawa program was apparently him fighting some YouTubers and whatnot lol.

As for the women's fight (stole this from KaraevFan's Twitter):


While I'm not a big fan of women fighting, even mediocre fights are now watchable. This was unheard of even just 10 years ago. Women have gotten a LOT better in a very short time.

Kato probably didn't train properly. His body looked to be in decent shape so he must've at least kept up with something, but I doubt he did a lot of cardio. Probably figured he would get by with his power alone. You could see in his face how much he disliked having to go an extra round.

If I was a member of Taito's team as soon as I would've seen that face dent I would've said 'Okay, we're done here'.

[Fox]

Anpo got smoked, feels good as a long time Yamazaki fan. I suppose this makes Yamazaki vs Kaew 3 the logical fight to make.

[K1power]

He looks so happy and accomplished. Good for him.

[K1power]

You can find a few more fights on YT, but most of them were uploaded by someone who put an annoying 'watermark' at the top of the screen.

The full event is available on the mma-tracker, though it's at a whopping 12+ GB.

Probably won't be long before the whole card hits K-1's YouTube channel.

[K1power]

Backstage footage of both Anpo/Yamazaki camps pre-, during and post fight including the victory speech we were denied during the live stream:



Pretty cool!