Takahashi, Kenta, Miyakoshi Brothers Headline NJKF: Kick to the Future 9

NJKF has announced the 9th installment of its Kick to the Future series for November 25th, featuring two of their promotional champions in super fights, a title fight and three NEW JAPAN WARS 2012 finals, one of which is for a vacant title, with the other two determining the next challenger to the title at their respective weights.

Headlining the card is NJKF Super Lightweight champion Seiji Takahashi taking on Naoki. Takahashi (12-7-0, 7 KO) lost his WBC Japan Super Lightweight title to Tetsuya Yamato earlier this year, but bounced back with a huge head kick KO of Atsushi Ogata in Krush. Naoki started the year with a big upset win over HIROYA, but has followed that up with a pair of losses to Hiroshi Mizumachi in RISE and MASAYA in Shootboxing.

NJKF Lightweight champion Keijiro Miyakoshi also makes an appearance on the card, taking on former Rajadamnern Stadium ranker Mongkoldet Sithubon. Miyakoshi had a good 4-fight streak going with wins over Ikki and Akihiro Kuroda to claim the NJKF and WBC Japan Lightweight titles, respectively, then fought fellow prospect Hikaru Machida to a draw before scoring a career best win over Koya Urabe at Kick to the Future 2. His most recent fight snapped that streak, as he lost his WBC Japan title to Yosuke Mizuochi.

NJKF Super Welterweight champion Kenta looks to get back on track with a defense of his NJKF title against NEW JAPAN WARS 2012 Super Welterweight winner Takenaka Shirakami. Kenta (24-11-3, 9 KO) is just 1-3 this year with a win over Shu Kiire and losses to TOMOYUKI, Yasuhiro Kido and Soichiro Miyakoshi, however Shirakami doesn't pose that big of a threat to him. That being said, Kenta doesn't seem to be the same fighter he was at this time last year and will need to put forth his best here. Shirakami beat Hiroki Yamamoto at Kick to the Future 6 in the Super Welterweight finals to get this fight.

The next NJKF title fight sees NEW JAPAN WARS Super Featherweight finalists KEI and Daichi Yamato square off for the vacant Super Featherweight title. KEI took out Nobuhiro Iwai at Kick to the Future 3 while Yamato defeated Shoya Suzuki at Kick to the Future 6.

In the NEW JAPAN WARS 2012 Welterweight finals, WBC Japan Super Welterweight champion Soichiro Miyakoshi takes on Tae-yong. Miyakoshi (19-9-1, 10 KO) was seeded into the finals by virtue of being ranked #1 and defending his WBC Japan title. He is 3-1 in his last 4 with wins over Yutaro Yamauchi, Kenta and Masato Otake. Tae-yong defeated Baku Senchaigym at Kick to the Future 6 to get this fight. The winner will go on to face current Welterweight champion Yuya Yamato.

In the final NEW JAPAN WARS 2012 final, Marimo battles Kazushige Sugama at Super Lightweight for the right to take on current champ Seiji Takahashi. Both fought and won at Kick to the Future 6 with Sugama defeating Noriyuki Miyajima by KO and Marimo taking a decision off of Akira.

Finally, in a NEW JAPAN WARS 2012 Flyweight semifinal, former WBC Japan champion Naoki Otsuki takes on undefeated prospect Nimo. Otsuki is winless in his last 3 fights, losing a split decision to Hiroyuki Yamano before losing his WBC Japan Flyweight title to Ryuji Kato last October. His only fight this year was a draw against Sazanami Satsuma. Nimo (5-0-2, 2 KO) has started his career undefeated, but didn't pick up a significant win until earlier this month when he upset Shuichi Wentz, who was fresh off of a big head kick KO of Romie Adanza in K-1. These two are the only fighters that regularly fight in the NJKF Flyweight division, so I assume someone like Ryuji Kato, Hiroyuki Yamano or Sazanami Satsuma will be brought in for the finals to crown a NJKF Flyweight champion.

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