As a member of Team Vasileus, junior to former K-1 superstars Takeru Segawa and Masaaki Noiri, Yuki Yoza has long talked about his intention to join ONE Championship to challenge the world's best at 65kg. As a step toward this goal, he fought Petchdam, a former ONE Kickboxing Champion who lost his title to Ilias Ennahachi in 2019. While the Thai's form has deteriorated since then, Yoza's performance was undoubtedly impressive, grinding him down with leg kicks for a comfortable TKO victory. The Japanese star is still on contract with K-1 however, and with Hirotaka Asahisa and the top Chinese kickboxers in the division slated to compete in the Wu Lin Feng 63kg tournament until early 2025, it is hard to see who is next for Yoza.
TEAM VASILEUS DOMINATION, TROUBLE FOR K-1?
In the most exciting bout of the night, one of K-1's most accomplished current champions Taito Gunji would defend his title against the 23-year-old Takumi Terada of Team Vasileus. While Gunji - who's long had a reputation of winning close decisions, - took the first round without much trouble, the next two would be much closer.
The extra round was also close, but Terada ended up taking the decision over Gunji, breaking his lucky streak. While this is an exceptional result for the 23-year-old, as a part of Team Vasileus, he may eventually choose to follow in the footsteps of his seniors and join ONE Championship where he could challenge fighters such as Prajanchai, Jonathan Di Bella, and Zhang Peimian.
YODKHUNPON WINS GRAND PRIX
Yodkhunpon made his first foray into kickboxing at only 19 years old, facing Gabriel Varga - 10 years his senior, resulting in an expected loss. In the following years, due to lack of discipline, the Thai fought almost exclusively at 70kg. It was a shock, then, when it was announced that Yodkhunpon would move back down to 65 kg for the first time in nine years to participate in a relatively weak K-1 tournament. Representing Weerasakreck-Fairtex Gym, Yodkhunpon would run through Can Pinar and Ionuț Popa, winning both within the first round before facing off against top Japanese prospect Shu Inagaki.
Inagaki had blasted Lenny Blasi with a beautiful knee to the head, then dropped Tomas Aguirre en route to a comfortable decision. In the final, both fighters were hesitant but Yodkhunpon landed just a few better shots to eke out a win in a close but uneventful fight. Perhaps he will be the next challenge for Yuki Yoza, as Yoza may want to test himself at 65 kg before moving to ONE Championship.
55 KG ORDER SHAKEN
Before the event, fans had expected a fourth fight between Masashi Kumura and Akihiro Kaneko, but in an unexpected turn of events, the former would lose a decision to 20-year-old Rui Okubo who was moving up from 53 kg.
Kaneko, too, would face major difficulties against Krush Champion Riamu who he had once knocked out in 2022. This time however, the divisional King had to rely on a controversial point deduction due to clinching to take a majority decision. Reminiscent of his fight against Kompet, Kaneko looked gunshy and reluctant to exchange.
The Final was much the same, until Kaneko landed several good leg kicks to win by TKO, hanging to his now fragile position atop the 55 kg throne.
