By:  | April 24, 2022 8:02 am

The Match 2022 will be headlined by the eagerly anticipated fight between Tenshin Nasukawa and Takeru Segawa. The event is set for the Tokyo dome on 19th and 80,000 people are reported to have registered for advanced tickets and there was a press conference on Friday.

The card looks set to consist exclusively of kickboxing bouts with stars from two of Japan’s biggest promotions facing off. Rise bantamweight champion Suzuki Masahiko faces K-1  super bantamweight champion Akihiro Kaneko and both fighters claimed they will get the knockout win.

Promotional rivalry

Shiro faces  Masashi Kumura in another bout pitting a Rise star against a K-1 star. The former said he was proud to have been chosen to represent his promotion on the show and had his eye on Kumura for a while,

“I think between us we can put on the most high level match, so I hope to prove Rise’s strength,” he said.

Former Takeru opponent Leona Pettas faces the heavy hitting Kan Nakamura. The latter sounded extremely confident,

“If I do what I normally do, I’ll win. I’ll show K-1 is just stronger”.

Rise representative Nakamura came in with a more relaxed approach,

“I haven’t put that much thought into things, but I’ll try to have fun. Then I know I’ll stand out the most and win,” he said.

The final announced fight proved to be the most explosive announcement of the day with Ya-Man and Ryusei Ashizawa almost coming to blows and having to be separated by security. Both fighters agreed on small open fingered gloves for the contest.

Biggest match

Shiratori Taiju faces Konnapar Weerasaklek, with the experienced Thai fighter describing the match as,

“The biggest match I have ever had”.”

Beynoah squares off against Hiromi Wajima. The latter has been fighting for Rizin recently and said that,

“As a team we can’t lose. I know I can’t let my team down. So I’ll win no matter what.”

Former Rise lightweight champion Kento Haraguchi faces Hideaki Yamazaki, who is coming off a loss that cost him his former K-1 super lightweight title. He sounded apologetic,

“Sorry for messing up in my last fight. I still intend to be the best at this weight class, I’ll put on a show only and crush him”.

By contrast Haraguchi was full of respect and admitted to being a big Yamazaki fan,

“He was my favorite fighter, even before I debuted. Despite his loss, I wanted to fight him”.

The Match, Tokyo, June 19th
Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Takeru Segawa (Catchweight)
Ya-Man vs. Ryusei Ashizawa (Bantamweight)
Kento Haraguchi vs. Hideaki Yamazaki (Super featherweight)
Taiju Shiratori vs. Kongnapa Weerasakreck (Super featherweight)
Kan Nakamura vs. Leona Pettas (Super bantamweight)
Noah Bey vs. Hiromi Wajima (Super Bantamweight)
Toma Kuroda vs. Toma Kuroda (Super Lightweight)
Shiro Matsumoto vs. Masashi Kumura (Lightweight)
Masahiko Suzuki vs. Akihiro Kaneko (Super Welterweight)