Video: Tenshin wins Rise World Series Tournament, calls out Takeru

Check out Tenshin and his teammate Taiju Shiratori’s tournament wins and more highlights from Rise’s latest kickboxing card.

Rise, K-1’s rival on the Japanese kickboxing scene held the finals of its 58kg and 61kg World Series tournaments on Monday, September 16^th at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. The 58kg final pitted the star of the organization, Tenshin Nasukawa (34-0, 27 KOs) against Shiro (38-11-4, 14 KOs) while his teammate Taiju Shiratori (16-5-1, 7 KOs) faced Muay Thai veteran Genji Umeno (44-10-3) for the 61kg title.

Nasukawa, who revealed afterwards that he went into the fight with a hand injury, won a rather easy decision but the performance was understandably a bit below his standards. Shiro didn’t have much to trouble Tenshin with and Tenshin seemed content to ride the fight out without looking too hard for a finish. There really isn’t much doubt that Rungkit Wor Sangprapai, the former Rajadamnern champion who lost a very debatable decision (and by very debatable, I mean he was robbed) to Shiro in the semifinals would have posed a more interesting challenge to Tenshin.

Mild disappointment in the fight aside, Tenshin was and remains the world’s top fighter at 58kg. And the actual fight was quickly forgotten when Tenshin called out 60kg K-1 champion Takeru, refueling speculation about one of the most anticipated potential fights in kickboxing. Rise brass seemed to leave the door open to it, only for K-1 to pretty much slam it shut a few days later at their presser announcing Takeru’s fight with Yuta Murakoshi. Just another chapter in the Mayweather vs Pacquiao saga of Japanese kickboxing. The fight doesn’t seem likely to materialize anytime soon, and apart from an outside chance of Abema TV (the streaming platform airing both promotions) pushing for it might never happen as Takeru probably won’t stick around the sport for much longer than a couple of years.

In the other final, Taiju Shiratori capped off a great tournament run with a first round KO win over Genji Umeno. After a middling 8-5-1 start to his kickboxing career back when he was a teenager, Shiratori left for boxing where he compiled a 8-3 record. The experience seems to have done him a lot of good, he is undefeated since coming back to kickboxing and has established himself as an elite fighter in large part thanks to his excellent hands.

The fight of the night took place between 17-year-old 53kg champion Toki Tamaru (10-0) and 55kg champion Masahiko Suzuki (23-3, 14 KOs). Tamaru was extremely impressive and gave the much bigger Suzuki a lot of trouble with his counters and footwork. The fight went to an extra round where Suzuki was finally able to capitalize on his size advantage to bully Tamaru and take a hard fought decision. An excellent fight that proved that whether it is in K-1 or Rise, Japan has a golden generation of fighters in the lower weight classes.

Elsewhere on the card, promising prospect Kento Haraguchi schooled 61kg semifinalist Chanhyeong Lee and has me very interested in a potential matchup with Taiju Shiratori. Lumpinee champion Suakim PK Saenchaimuaythaigym predictably crushed Nikita Sapun most (and only to be perfectly honest) notable for being Tenshin’s debut opponent in MMA.

A decent event, particularly thanks to Tamaru vs Suzuki and Shiratori’s final performance, but the relatively subpar Nasukawa vs Shiro conclusion meant Rise’s very good, high level tournaments didn’t end with quite the bang they deserved.

Full results:

Tenshin Nasukawa def. Shiro by unanimous decision (30-28, 30-29, 30-28) – 58-kg tournament final

Taiju Shiratori def. Genji Umeno by knockout (left straight). Round 1 – 61-kg tournament final

Masahiko Suzuki def. Toki Tamaru by extra round unanimous decision (10-9×3)

Kento Haraguchi def. Chanhyeong Lee by unanimous decision (30-27×3)

Suakim PK Saenchaimuaythaigym def. Nikita Sapun by knockout (left body kick). Round 1, 2:30

Thalisson Gomes Ferreira def. Yoshihisa Marimoto by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 29-28)

Black Panther Beynoah def. Tapruwan Hadesworkout by extra round unanimous decision (10-8×3)

Hideki def. Tatsuya Inaishi by unanimous decision (29-28×3)

Naoki def. Yoshimichi Matsumoto by unanimous decision (29-28)

Yuki Kyotani def. Azusa Kaneko by knockout (punches). Round 2, 2:09

Koto Hiraoka def. Momoka by extra round split decision (10-9, 9-10, 10-9)

Riri Nasukawa def. Mari Kamikariya by knockout (right high kick). Round 2

Kakushi Takagi vs. Hirokatsu Miyagi ends in a draw (29-29, 29-30, 29-29)

Shoji Saito def. Kensaku Oishi by unanimous decision (30-28×3)

Hiroki Arai def. Kenta Tanoue by knockout (body kick). Round 2, 1:45