Krush Annonces -60kg Tournament Begining April 22ND

Krush-EX vol. 1 and 2 are set to take place on April 22nd with vol.1 happening in the day and vol.2 happening at night. Krush has announced participants for the day show and the opening round of a 60kg tournament to determine current champ Hirotaka Urabe's next challenger.

For the afternoon portion of the show, Krush has announced that ISKA World Bantamweight champ Nobuchika Terado would participate in his first fight since his devastating KO loss to Krush 55kg champ Shota Takiya back in January. I expect a bounce-back fight for Terado as he is expected to defend his ISKA title sometime during the summer. Also announced for the afternoon portion are Haruya and Akari. Haruya fought at a Krush-EX event last year, scoring a KO win over WMAF Welterweight champ Ikki (not to be confused with former NJKF Lightweight champ Ikki) and most recently took a decision win at Big Bang 8. Female pro wrestler Akari will look to pick up her second straight win in Krush as she most recently defeated Mitsuhori "SMILE" Miyako back at Krush.15 in January.

For the night portion, the quarterfinals and semifinals of the 60kg tournament will take place on the 22nd while the finals are set for June 8th (likely Krush.19) and the title fight with Urabe will take place on July 21st (likely Krush.20). So far, only 4 participants have been announced and they are Junpei Aotsu, Yuta DYNAMITE, Yuya Fujii and Yuzo Suzuki.

Aotsu (18-8-2, 2 KO) is probably the most well-known of the group as he has faced the likes of Yuta Kubo, Masahiro Yamamoto, Masaaki Noiri, Akihiro Kuroda and TaCa, though he has failed to score a win against any of them. He went on a 4-fight skid at the end of 2010, but rebounded with 3 straight wins over Katsuya Goto, Turbo and fellow tournament participant Yuta DYNAMITE in 2011.

Yuta DYNAMITE (8-11-1, 6 KO), aka Yuta Takahashi, found great success in Krush in 2010 as he scored a decision win over Daizo Sasaki, then scored a major upset by KOing Daisuke Uematsu in the quarterfinals of the first Krush 60kg tournament. However, he followed that up by going 0-3 in 2011 with losses to Makoto Morishige and Junpei Aotsu in J-Network and a loss to Hirotaka Urabe in the semifinals of the Krush 60kg tourney.

Suzuki (3-0-1, 1 KO) is someone I see as a bit of a darkhorse in this current field. Despite only 4 pro fights, Suzuki has an extensive background in Kyokushin Karate, winning the All-Japan Juniors and adult tournaments in his weight class several times and taking 1st at the 2009 World Championships after a 2nd place finish in 2005. He made his Krush debut in February at Krush.16 with a decision win over Supernova Tournament participant Fumiya Osawa.

Fujii (9-1-3, 4 KO), who goes by just his given name Yuya, is the youngest of the group by 4 years, but has been active as a fighter since 2008 and was one of Masaaki Noiri's first opponents. He's fought most of his career for Nagoya Kick, but made his Krush debut at Krush.16 in February with a decision win over Takashi Nakajima.

Personally, I'd like to see Yuji Takeuchi, Masaaki Noiri, Yosuke Mizuochi and maybe even an outsider like Kosuke Komiyama, who has been clamoring for a fight with Urabe for about half a year now, added to beef up the tournament a bit. This is no knock against the announced participants, but I don't feel like any of them would be able to take out Urabe. Stay tuned to Liverkick for the announcement of the final four competitors when they are announced.

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