We finally have a date and venue for the fight between Tenshin Nasukawa and Takeru but there hasn’t been a formal announcement. Instead the latter decided to break the news on his personal Instagram account yesterday:
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Multiple promotions.
The fight will take place on the 19th of June at the Tokyo Dome. There are multiple promotions involved so we don’t even have a name for the event which was already confirmed for June but with no date or venue..
But the 55,000 capacity venue used to regularly host the K-1 Grand Prix. Other notable events to take place there included Mike Tyson’s 1990 fight with Buster Douglas.
Tenshin has some business to attend to before this blockbuster fight can take place. He is booked to face Kazami at Rise World Series on April 2nd in his final fight for the kickboxing promotion.
Rizin
Historical significance
It also hosted some of the biggest MMA cards of the century including Pride: ‘Final Conflict’ 2003 which reportedly reportedly had 67,450 fans in attendance. While this seems like significantly over the indoor stadium’s maximum capacity to it must have been standing room only.
It remains to be seen what effect Covid-19 restrictions will have on the attendance. Japan recently re-opened its borders with numerous fights booked including a rematch between Nonito Donaire and Naoye Inoue.
We also have no idea what the fight card will look like on June 19th. With Rizin involved there could be some MMA fights, and K-1 and Rise will surely put on some kickboxing bouts.
K-1
Lots of questions
In the absence of an official announcement about the event there are more questions than answers. But at least the show finally has a date and a venue.
In the past K-1 and Pride combined to put on some huge fight cards. The various promotions involved in this event will be hoping it can be as successful.
A fight between Takeru and Tenshin has been the subject of intense speculation for several years. Adding to the intrigue surrounding this contest is the latter’s imminent retirement from the sport of kickboxing.
Tenshin wants to focus full time on his boxing career. But before he makes the transition there is one more fight and it promises to be a big one.
