Tenshin Nasukawa moved one fight closer to his final kickboxing  super fight on Saturday, when he faced Kazane Nagai in the main event of the Rise Eldorado card at the Yoyogi gymnasium in Tokyo.

This was to be Tenshin’s last fight for Rise before his final kickboxing match against Takeru. He was expected to win this easily with Kazane coming into the fight as a clear underdog with 16 wins and six losses to his name.

But Kazane quickly soon showed he had come to try and cause an upset, as he opened up with some heavy punches early in the opening round. Tenshin pushed forward at first, but the underdog showed some slick footwork as he managed to avoid his famous opponent’s attacks.

Spinning kick

Tenshin launched in a fast jumping, spinning kick, but Kazane read it well, moving back half a step and sending the Rizin veteran crashing to the canvas. He followed up with some hard hooks and straight punches, but nothing troubled the kickboxing superstar too much.

Near the end of the round Kazane landed a fast low kick, but got caught with a hard encounter left from Tenshin that seemed to stun him a little.

In the second Kazan pushed forward a little more and looked to try and catch his opponent with more heavy hands. Tenshin sat back more and looked to respond with fast counter punches and knees.

Kazane kept up his aggressive attacks, but Tenshin moved well and landed with some fast counter punches. Mid -round the superstar complained of a clash of heads, before missing with a fast spinning back fist.

Trading shots

Kazane landed with a good straight right, which seemed to spur Tenshin to life and he started to push forward, opening up with power shots. Both looked happy to trade hard shots, before the man who once boxed Floyd Mayweather landed with another heavy straight left near the end of the round.

In the final round Kazane looked to push forward and force the action again. Tenshin looked composed and soaked up the attacks, countering with some fast shots to the head and body.

Kazane showed a lot of heart as he planted his feet and tried to make it a war. Midway through the round Tenshin connected with a fast spinning back hook kick and both stumbled to the canvas but Kazane wasn’t hurt by the shot.

With 20 seconds to go in the fight both men planted their feet and traded shots. Tenshin started to sink in his shots, but was unable to hurt Kazane.

At the end of the fight the first judge scored in favor of Tenshin, the second scored the fight a draw and the final judge scored for Tenshin, giving him the win by majority decision.

Rise Eldorado, Tokyo, March 2nd
Tenshin Nakusawa def. Shiro Matsumoto by Decision (Majority)
Kento Haraguchi fef. Lompetch via TKO (Three Knockdown Rule) at 1:56 of Round 1
Masahiko Suzuki def. Mutsuki Ebata via Decision (Unanimous)
Shiro Matsumotoshiro def. Rui Ebata via KO (Head Kick) at 1:39 of Round 2
Kaito Ono def. Noah Bey via KO (Punch) at 0:40 of Round 1
Kosei Yamadakosei Yamada def. Naoki Tanaka via KO (Punch) at 0:23 of Round 3 Of 3
Taiju Shiratori def. Hideki Sasaki via Decision (Unanimous)
Ya-Man def. Sumiya Ito via TKO (Three knockdowns) at 2:33 of Round 1
Kan Nakamura def.Tomohiro Kitai via KO (Punch) at 2:13 of Round 1
Cally Gibrainn De Oliveira def. Kenta Nanbara via KO (Three Knockdown Rule) at 2:06 of Round 1