K-1 WORLD GP 2022 in Yokohama [11-09] Results

[K1power]

Fightcard

Super Lightweight (65kg) Title Fight
Yamato Tetsuya (c) vs. Sasaki Daizo

Super Featherweight (60kg) Championship Tournament
Yokoyama Tomoya vs. Stauros Exakoustidis
Asahisa Hirotaka vs. Nakrob Fairtex
Leono Pettas vs. Ayoub Segiri
Oiwa Tatsuya vs. Adama Bouarourou

Tournament Reserve Bout
Yamamoto Naoki vs. Nishimoto Narufumi

Superfights
Kaneko Akihiro vs. Jordan Swinton
Sina Karimian vs. Jitsukata Kosuke
Abiral Himalayan Cheetah vs. Jomthong Strikergym
Saikyo Haruma vs. Morisaka Riku
Wajima Hiromi vs. Meletis Kakoubavas
Hayashi Kenta vs. Kojima Ruku
Kumura Masashi vs. Komphet Sitsarawatser
Matsukura Shintaro vs. Jinbo Katsuya
Fukashi vs. Ono Yujiro

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16580/

[K1power]

This tournament decides Takeru's successor. Good mix of talent with some foreign fighters.

Wonder if Sattari gets to fight for the title and if Wajima will have to defend his.

[K1power]

We have a full card for this one as well (OP updated).

A somewhat more digestible card at 18 fights, but they still might add some more seeing how this one's bit further away.

Looks like Sattari and Sugden are out, but then Exakoustidis is in so I can't complain. He ran into a couple of close and perhaps somewhat questionable losses in the past, so it's cool to see K-1 bringing him back.

[K1power]

Happening this Sunday.

[lero]

Rooting for Asahisa, if he wins we will have the second simultaneus two times major org champion this year after Petch.

I love how Kumura and Kaneko are very active recently

[K1power]

Results

Super Lightweight (65kg) Title Fight
Yamato Tetsuya (c) defeats Sasaki Daizo by Unanimous Decision

Super Featherweight (60kg) Championship Tournament
Leona Pettas defeats Asahisa Hirotaka by Unanimous Decision
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Asahisa Hirotaka defeats Yokoyama Tomoya by KO R1
Leona Pettas defeats Oiwa Tatsuya by KO R3
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Yokoyama Tomoya defeats Stauros Exakoustidis KO R3
Asahisa Hirotaka defeats Nakrob Fairtex by KO R1
Leona Pettas defeats Ayoub Segiri by KO R2
Oiwa Tatsuya defeats Adama Bouarourou by Unanimous Decision

Tournament Reserve Bout
Nishimoto Narufumi defeats Yamamoto Naoki by Unanimous Decision

Superfights
Kaneko Akihiro defeats Jordan Swinton by KO R1
Komphet Sitsarawatser defeats Kumura Masashi by Split Decision
Wajima Hiromi defeats Meletis Kakoubavas by KO R1
Jomthong Strikergym defeats Abiral Himalayan Cheetah by KO R1
Sina Karimian defeats Jitsukata Kosuke by KO R1
Morisaka Riku defeats Saikyo Haruma by Extra Round Split Decision
Hayashi Kenta defeats Kojima Ruku by KO R1
Fukashi defeats Ono Yujiro by KO R3
Jinbo Katsuya defeats Matsukura Shintaro by Extra Round KO
Danilo Zanolini defeats Park Yohan by Majority Decision

Opening Fights
Shimomura Tahei defeats Miyakawa Taiyo by Unanimous Decision
Nakazawa Seiya and Kurokawa Eito fight to a Split Draw

www.k-1.co.jp/schedule/16580/

[K1power]

Unfortunately I didn't see any of it yet, but it'll probably be on YouTube soon.

I see a lot of KO's though, so hopefully this was a notable step up from their previous event.

[K1power]

The fights are now on K-1's YouTube channel.

[K1power]

Finally watched this card!

Quick thoughts:

The Good
+ Great card top to bottom and easily the best K-1 event to come after 'The Match'.
+ Lots of competitive action, great KO's and knockdowns.
+ Great tournament overall. If I had one gripe it would be that none of the foreign participants were able to win their fights, but you can't really put blame on anyone for that.
+ Pettas clearly wasn't as fresh as Asahisa going into the final, but as the fight progressed the gap closed and Pettas landed more visible damage and even rocked Asahisa near the end. A fine performance.
+ Asahisa made even quicker work of Yokoyama than he did Nakrob. To be fair, Yokoyama had a tough first fight that almost went the full length.
+ Awesome performance and KO by Pettas over Oiwa. Some great use of his reach with the outside boxing and then that knee was just the cherry on top.
+ Stunning highkick KO by Yokoyama over Exakoustidis. Too bad it happened to Stauros, though.
+ Great early body shot KO by Asahisa over Nakrob.
+ Fun competitive fight between Pettas and Segiri.
+ Yamato/Sasaki R3 was awesome.
+ Jinbo/Matsukura was decent throughout and got really exciting in the last round. Jinbo has grown as a fighter and it was just as cool to see Matsukura catch a second wind to squeeze out an extra round. Jinbo turned it around in the extra round though with that explosive finish.
+ Positively surprised Komphet actually got the nod over Kumura. I would have guessed him fighting mostly on the backpedal in an otherwise competitive fight would have lost him the fight. Good, fast-paced fight aswell.
+ Swinton had absolutely no chance against Kaneko, whose grazing shots were enough to end things in under a minute.
+ Kenta finished Kojima - who looked good before he got hit - with a well-timed left hook. No sweat.
+ Fun, albeit somewhat sloppy brawl between Fukashi and Ono.
+ Jomthong's performance. It's crazy that Abiral got up from that highkick. He then went on to get tagged a scary amount of times, before going down again, this time for good. It's impossible not to respect Abiral's heart as well.
+ Zanolini/Yohan was actually not half bad.

The Bad
- My recurring complaint really, but even at 'only' 21 fights, this event was too long. I will never stop bringing this up. Cards shouldn't have more than 15 fights on them.
- Karimian/Jitsukata - Easily the weakest fight on the card that stuck out like a sore thumb. A bit of a pointless match-up from the get go, but at least it didn't drag on.
- That groin shot Wajima landed on Kakoubavas really killed the momentum of that fight and definitely didn't help Kakoubavas' performance after. I know it was accidental, but I hate when it happens.

There's surprisingly little for me to bitch about this time lol.

Some additional notes:

* Looking at the quality of the event, I should have made time to watch this much sooner.
* Since I was also doing work, some fights got less of my attention than others.
* Can't say much about the pacing of the event since I watched out of order; first the tournament, then the superfights with prelims sprinkled in between.
* LOL @ the drag ring girl during Fukashi/Ono.
* Just feeling bad for Exakoustidis. He's a fun fighter and a nice guy, but just can't find success in K-1. Hopefully he'll be back and have a better 2023.