Ryuji Kajiwara vs Thomas Adamandopoulos Set for Krush 63kg Title at Krush.21

Krush has solidified their commitment to bringing in foreign competition, announcing that 63kg champ Ryuji Kajiwara will attempt to defend his title for the second time against Frenchman Thomas Adamandopoulos at Krush.21 on August 12th. Kajiwara’s (22-10-1, 6 KO) last 8 fights have looked more or less the same, with Kajiwara sitting back and using his excellent counter-punching to find the flaws in his opponents, going 7-1 over those 8 fights, scoring a knockdown in almost every one of his wins over the likes of Koya Urabe, Kizaemon Saiga, Hiroya, Tetsuya Yamato and Naoki Ishikawa. His first title defense was a fun fight against Tetsuya Yamato which saw Kajiwara drop Yamato in the closing minute to secure a victory in an otherwise close fight. His most recent win was a decision over Hiroya at Krush.18 last month. Adamandopoulos (40-8-1, 23 KO) has fought in Krush once before, winning the ISKA World 62.3kg title over Keiji Ozaki by unanimous decision. However, since that win, Adamandopoulos has dropped two in a row, first losing his ISKA World title to Karim Bennoui by split decision at Nuit De Champions last November and most recently being KO’d by the heavy-handed Yetkin Ozkul for the same ISKA World title that he lost to Bennoui, who likely vacated it. Adamandopoulos is the better fighter and 10 years younger than Kajiwara, however the Krush champ should not be counted out. He has found a style that fits him well at this stage in his career and training with the Urabe brothers every day has done wonders for his boxing. I favor Adamandopoulos in this fight, but I favored Naokick, Saiga, Urabe and Yamato over Kajiwara and he found a way to score knockdowns on all of them, so Adamandopoulos better be on his game.

Another fight announced for the card is ISKA World 55kg champ Nobuchika Terado defending his title for the first time against former ISKA World title holder Andy Howson. The two were originally set to fight back at Krush.5 in January of 2010, but a foot injury forced Howson out of the bout. Terado (28-8-1, 12 KO) won the ISKA World 55kg title back at Krush.11 last August with a one-sided victory over the UK’s Kieran McAskill, sending McAskill to the mat several times throughout the fight with leg kicks. He is 3-1 in his last 4, with the loss coming in just 71 seconds at the hands of Krush 55kg champ Shota Takiya in a challenge for Takiya’s belt. He most recently defeated Team Dragon prospect Namito Izawa at Krush-EX 2012 vol.1 back in April. Howson held the ISKA World 55kg title under Muay Thai rules (Terado’s is the Oriental rules title) until last May when he was unable to defend it against fellow Brit Dean James. I do not believe he has fought since then, but considering it was over a year ago, it is possible that he has. I don’t know what ISKA has planned, but it would be nice to see the winner of this face off with James, though I am not sure what ruleset would be used.

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