The Match 2022 - Tenshin vs. Takeru [19-06] Results

[K1power]

Important question: Is there a 100% reliable way to watch this live outside of Japan?

I wanna get the PPV for this one, but not if there's no guarantee I'll get to properly see it live.

[karaevfan]

Jun 17, 2022 17:15:31 GMT 1 K1power said:

Important question: Is there a 100% reliable way to watch this live outside of Japan?

I wanna get the PPV for this one, but not if there's no guarantee I'll get to properly see it live.

No, Abema PPV is the only thing available and theres no guarantee it works with VPN day of

[K1power]

Was afraid of that. In that case I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet.

[K1power]

Hype!!!

[Shadess]

[K1power]

Nice.

Any streams available?

Edit: NVM, got the hook up on Discord.

[K1power]

Results
Nasukawa Tenshin defeats Takeru by Unanimous Decision
Kaito defeats Noiri Masaaki by Extra Round Unanimous Decision
Haraguchi Kento defeats Yamazaki Hideaki by TKO R2
Anpo Rukiya defeats Yamada Kosei by Unanimous Decision
Gonnapar Weerasakreck defeats Shiratori Taiju by KO R1
Nakamura Kan defeats Leona Pettas by Majority Decision
Ya-man defeats Ashizawa Ryusei by KO R1
Wajima Hiromi defeats Blackpanther Beynoah by Unanimous Decision
Sina Karimian defeats Yamashita Rikiya by Unanimous Decision
Mahmoud Sattari defeats Uchida Yuta by KO R1
Kasahara Yuki defeats Nakajima Chihiro by Unanimous Decision
Kazane defeats Kuroda Toma by Unanimous Decision
Ebata Mutsuki defeats Riamu by Split Decision
Kumura Masashi defeats Shiro by Unanimous Decision
Suzuki Masahiko defeats Kaneko Akihiro by Majority Decision
Okubo Rui defeats Nasukawa Ryujin by Unanimous Decision

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16578/

[K1power]

My thoughts:

The Good
+ Overall a fantastic event, even if Takeru didn't win the big fight. Regardless of who you favor, it's hard to hate on either of them.
+ HUGE event feel in Japan again. Probably the biggest stage for J-Kick since K-1's golden era.
+ An event with an actual RIVALS feel to it. Enjoyed keeping score just for fun. I hope they do more of these. Not sure any fighters outside of Takeru and Tenshin come close to being as big of a draw in Japan. At least not at the moment.
+ Lenne Hardt! At least that's who I think the screaming lady was.
+ A very lively crowd for Japanese standards.
+ Takeru/Tenshin - A very high level fight with an electric tension throughout. The fight was a bit dirty at times, but that's what happens with the stakes being what they are. At the end of the day Tenshin was just too fast for Takeru to catch. That extra weight, muscle mass does come at a price and Takeru paid it. I wonder if this is truly the end for him. As for Tenshin, he truly had a fantastic kickboxing career and this is the best send-off imaginable. It's hard not to be happy for Tenshin, while also feeling crushed seeing Takeru after the fight. Either way, the kickboxing landscape will be worse off without those two.
+ Takeru's and Tenshin's entrances.
+ The VTR for Tenshin vs. Takeru.
+ Kaito/Noiri - A high-paced war of attrition. It did have some clinchy moments, but that's to be expected given the pace.
+ Noiri's I AM K-1 / THIS IS K-1 robe.
+ Haraguchi/Yamazaki - While it was unfortunate my man Yamazaki lost, the fight was action packed. Great performance by Kento. That loss to Petch made him come back stronger.
+ Anpo/Yamada - While it wasn't my favorite fight of the night, the fact that Yamada was able to keep up with Anpo impressed me.
+ Gonnapar/Shiratori - Great KO and it was competitive until it happened.
+ Nakamura/Leona - Fun fight with some wild exchanges. Nakamura's unorthodox style makes him hard to catch.
+ Ya-man/Ashizawa - Short, but sweet, wild fun. Ashizawa's pattented "get knocked down first, but end up winning by KO" strategy didn't work this time.
+ Beynoah vs. Wajima - Wajima was better, but Beynoah kept coming for more. Even tagged Wajima a few times.
+ Beynoah's entrance.
+ Sattari's KO over Uchida.

The Bad
- As much as I commend all parties involved for making this event happen, it's a travesty that viewers outside of Japan have to jump through hoops to watch. Work out the rights and remove the geo-block. I'm willing to pay for high quality events, but only if it's readily available.
- It sucks that Sakakibara's BS made the TV deal fall through as this would have been perfect and could've opened a lot of doors.
- If they were gonna do it for one fight, Tenshin/Takeru should have been a five rounder.
- Not sure I agree with Kaito/Noiri being a draw after three rounds. While Noiri ended R2 strongly, Kaito scored better throughout. I won't complain about the extra round, though. Especially because the right man won in the end.
- Karimian/Yamashita - Karimian's performance in particular. He couldn't put Yamashita down, then got hurt by lowkicks and boringly coasted to a safe decision. Not a good look for the division which despite its flaws tends to be entertaining.

I missed the first few fights and have to catch up on those, so can't really comment on that front yet. From what I've read they've been a bit of a mixed bag.

General Notes
* The Rise/Shootbox alliance did beat K-1, but it was pretty close: 9-7.
* I still hope the TV deal eventually happens for all involved promotions and that this was just a setback.
* As much as I like sticking up for the Japanese HW and Cruiser divisions, it's unfortunate that it's so far removed from K-1's golden era. With the borders reopening I'm hoping we'll get some more international talent to upgrade those divisions. 4-5 solid, but affordable fighters would be a good start.
* A bit surprised that this got virtually no coverage in Dutch media. Not even the horrible clickbait sites. So called fandom over here really only cares about Rico, Badr and local heroes.
* Definitely hope we get some K-1 Backstage Pass style videos for this.
* Wondering if/how/when this legitimately ends up on YouTube. I mean, it should be an eventuality, but who knows.

[K1power]

[K1power]

[K1power]

[K1power]

[Fox]

Fun event. Would love to see Takeru and Tenshin run it back at 60kg with 5 rounds. I Feel kinda bad Takeru ate like 600 calories a day for 4 months and jumped through all those other hoops but that all got erased with one KD. Perhaps the worst part about it is Takeru defined an era and was a 3 division champion yet will probably be remembered by non-hardcore fans as the guy who lost to Tenshin.

[K1power]

It's unfortunate.

To be fair, non-hardcore fans in Europe don't even know this happened or who Takeru and Tenshin are.

Even a lot of self-proclaimed hardcore fans have no clue. They may have been following the sport for years, but really only care about Europe or when European fighters compete overseas.

Hell, even the media over here doesn't give this any attention. The only snippet related to THE MATCH I've seen mentioned Karimian challenging Badr and Overeem after he barely beat that out of shape kid yesterday, lol. And that was on the worst clickbait site ever. Dutch media has been paying more attention to Kickboxing and MMA these past few years, but a lot of it is stuff they can somehow connect back to Rico or Badr.

That's not to say there's anything wrong with being a casual fan, but they do make up the majority of the fandom and tend to turn misinformed opinions into accepted 'fact'. But I digress..

Good point about Takeru BTW, his road to make weight was probably a lot rougher and at 60+kg and/or 5 rounds this fight could've played out differently.

I wonder how K-1 management looks at this event. Do they consider it a success, because of the money and attention it brought? Or do they see it as a crushing loss, because they lost against 'the alliance', with namely Takeru and Noiri losing? If I had to guess I'd say it's a bit of both, with unfortunately the latter being the main concern.

[K1power]