Krush-EX 2012 vol.4 Results: Urabe Cruises, Ogata Upsets Taniyama

With Krush.20 just a week away, Krush held the 4th installment of its 2012 Krush-EX series, headlined by Koya Urabe and also featuring Krush regulars Toshiki Taniyama and Yu Hirono, among others.

In the night's main event, Koya Urabe took a commanding unanimous decision over the heavy-handed Ryukei on scores of 30-25(x3). Urabe dominated the entirety of the fight, scoring downs in the 1st and 3rd rounds on a head kick and spinning back fist, respectively. The win is the second straight for Urabe (20-4-0, 2 KO) after dropping a decision to Keijiro Miyakoshi in NJKF back in April. His most recent win came at Big Bang 9 where he dominated the fight and remained aggressive throughout the entire fight and it seems to be a repeated effort here. I believe Urabe is still eligible for this year's Krush Youth tournament, and if he is I'd imagine he wants to participate and avenge his loss to Masaaki Noiri if he can. If not, I'd expect him to be first in line should Thomas Adamandopoulos take the Krush 63kg belt from Ryuji Kajiwara in August. Ryukei (7-3-0, 7 KO) only had a puncher's chance, which seemed pretty good considering Urabe's lack of defense, but wasn't able to come through. Aside from this loss to Urabe, he has a pair of losses to DEEP*KICK 60kg champ Hiroto Yamaguchi. He isn't a bad fighter by any means, but he won't be making any waves at 60-63kg. Still, it'd be nice for Krush to keep him around as he can always provide a good knockout.

In the co-main event, Atsushi Ogata pulled off an upset, knocking out Toshiki Taniyama in the 2nd round at 3:00. Ogata came out aggressively and was able to use pressure to fold Taniyama with a left hook in the closing seconds of the 2nd round. This was Ogata's third fight in Krush, going 1-1 with a knockout loss to Ryukei and most recently a decision win over Daizo Sasaki back at Krush.19. From here he could possibly rematch Ryukei, though he could also leverage himself for a shot at Urabe as Krush was likely trying to set up a fight between Urabe and Taniyama. Taniyama (13-2-0, 5 KO) takes a big step back here as he was on a probable collision course with Koya Urabe and a possible title shot. This loss snaps a 5-fight winning streak which included 3 straight knockouts, most recently at Big Bang 9. A rematch with Keiji Ozaki would be fun, but I'd like to see him against Ryukei to see if he folds from the pressure of a heavy-handed striker.

Quick results after the break

63kg Fight: Koya Urabe def. Ryukei by 3rd round Unanimous Decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-25)

63kg Fight: Atsushi Ogata def. Toshiki Taniyama by 2nd round KO (left hook) at 3:00

70kg Fight: Yu Hirono def. JungleKoki by 3rd round TKO (cut) at 2:41

57kg Fight: Kimiko Sasaki def. Yukimi Kamikaze by 3rd round Unanimous Decision (30-29, 30-29, 30-28)

60kg Fight: Koji Tanaka def. Takashi Nakajima by 3rd round Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

70kg Fight: Taisei Kondo def. Fred Matos by 2nd round KO (right cross) at 1:53

60kg Fight: TAISUKE def. Masahiro Suzuki by 3rd round Unanimous Decision (27-25, 27-25, 27-25)

55kg Fight: Kazuki Okawa def. Shingo Tsukada by 3rd round Unanimous Decision (30-28, 30-28, 30-27)

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