Shota Takiya vs Reece Crooke Added to Krush.18

Krush has announced an opponent for 55kg champ Shota Takiya at Krush.18 on May 3rd and it is the UK’s Reece Crooke. According to the Krush release, Crooke is 23-6-2 (9 KO) and has been active for over 10 years. He most recently won the ISKA UK 55kg title against Miguel Arjona earlier this month and last November defeated Kieran McAskill, a past Krush participant, to claim the WBC Muay Thai UK Bantamweight title. He has a draw against Liam Harrison from 2001 and a loss to the last man Takiya fought, Nobuchika Terado back in 2005. His brother is Peter Crooke who has fought the likes of Yoshihiro Sato, Albert Kraus, Takayuki Kohiruimaki, Malaipet and Akeomi Nitta, among others. Takiya (20-4-0, 12 KO) has been on fire the last two years and is currently riding an 8-fight winstreak that saw him claim the Krush title and avenge 2 of his losses to Ryuya Kusakabe and most recently to Nobuchika Terato in a defense of his Krush title.

This is the third time that Krush has brought in a competitor from the UK and each time has been at 55kg, with Nobuchika Terado dominating Kieran McAskill for the ISKA 55kg World title and Shota Takiya knocking out Damien Trainor. Takiya should be favored here as he has looked near unbeatable lately and doesn’t have to travel a few thousand miles for this fight. Takiya stated that if he wins this fight, he expects to get an ISKA World title fight by the end of the year.

Already on the card is 63kg champ Ryuji Kajiwara against K-1 Koshien champ Hiroya, 60kg champ Hirotaka Urabe against a yet to be named opponent and two of the three 3rd round fights in the 63kg WILDRUSH League.

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