At Wednesday’s presser, K-1 announced the first matchups for the upcoming K’Festa 5 event, which will take place April 3rd at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. Fans can expect at least one title fight and a one-night Openweight Tournament also was announced.
K-1 Japan Openweight Tournament
During the opening statement about the Openweight Tournament, K-1 Executive Producer Takumi Nakamura said that K’Festa 5 will take place in Yoyogi part of Tokyo, where the first-ever K-1 event was held in 1993. Back then there was only one weight class, so fighters fought each other despite weight differences. As a throwback to the promotion’s early days, an Openweight Tournament will be held.
The tournament brackets are as follows:
Former Krush and current K-1 Cruiserweight champion, K-Jee will face Mahmoud Sattari, who picked up the Krush Cruiserweight gold after it was vacated by Jee.
Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo and Bellator and PFL veteran Satoshi Ishii vs. Kosuke Jitsukata
Former K-1 Heavyweight champion Kyotaro Fujimoto vs. Hidenori Sakamoto
MMA and Kickboxing veteran Animal Koji vs. fellow kickboxer Seiya Tanigawa
In an alternate bout, Ryo Aitaka will take on Bellator vet Hisaki Kato
K-1 WORLD GP Super Lightweight Title Match
Hideaki Yamazaki is a karateka who made his professional kickboxing debut in Krush in December of 2009. There he became Lightweight champion but vacated the title to go after -65 kg division gold, which he won and was forced to vacate it due to injuries. He made his K – 1 debut in 2016 and won that year K-1 World GP -65kg Japan Tournament. In 2020 he won K-1 World -65kg Championship, which he will defend at K’Festa 5.
Tetsuya Yamato is a 16 years veteran who won the NJKF Lightweight Championship, WMC Intercontinental Class Championship, WBC Muaythai Japan Class Championship, WBC Muaythai Japan Super Lightweight Championship, and WBC Muaythai International Class Championship. Most importantly he won K-1 WORLD MAX -63 kg Japan tournament back in 2010, making him the first champion in this weight class.
This upcoming bout serves as a rematch for their 2013 exhibition fight and a clash between old school and the new breed of K-1.
Super Featherweight Superfight
Former Krush -57.5 kg champion and K-1 World GP -57.5kg Championship Tournament winner Yuki Egawa will return to action after a long year hiatus caused by Covid-19 protocols to take on BigBang lightweight champion Tatsuya Oiwa.
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