By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
Very sensational and speedy, Japanese southpaw prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa, 24, passed the JBC’s examination and officially became professional under Teiken Gym on Thursday. Nasukawa, formerly a tremendously popular kickboxer whose mark was 42-0, participated in three-round sparring sessions with Japan’s top ranked 118-pounder Jin Minamide and displayed surprising hand speed to impress press people as well as JBC officials at the Korakuen Hall. Teiken’s influential promoter Akihiko Honda said, “Nasukawa is the treasure in the Japanese boxing fraternity, and will become a real thing very soon. He’ll make a pro debut in April.”
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Who cares
Was probably THE best kickboxer in the world for the last year or two. No way at all he has similar success in boxing, but he does have good hands and it’ll be interesting to see how he does.
not even close hes very very carefully matched by the Japanese promoters who have known ties with the Yakuza
Obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the outlets that I frequented,such as CombatPress, routinely had him ranked at the top until his retirement. He won THE fight and he also beat Rodtang and several top Japanese fighters. If they were matching him carefully, they were doing a bad job of it imo.
yea because combat press like top rank which is owned by ESPN is biased and since you didnt watch the fight with Rodtang ill tell you the controversy…. Natsugawa never fights outside of japan unless its japanese promoted event and against Rodtang he called his own time outs and fouls plus ALL of todays kickboxing title fights are ONLY 5 rounds and ONLY in Japan is there a last minute “extra” round added usually because the score cards are either even or NOT in their fighters favor there has been many documented incidents and complaints and this was part of the reason that the original K1 and why Pride folded up many of Natsugawas ooponents especially the Thai fighters are moving up in weight to fight him so with ALL this being said and there is more yea hes being moved more carefully than Golden Boy does Ryan “superhype” aka “Glass chin” Garcia
Oh no, I did actually did watch the fight with Rodtang.I’ve become quite the fan of Rodtang’s, I’ve seen almost all of his recent fights. I’ve just never been one for conspiracy theories or namecalling.
Was hoping this would be on the undercard for Inoue v Fulton, but that looks like it will be May/June.
Isn’t this the same guy who cried after exhbition with Mayweather? Everytime he got hit with the big gloves he fell down he got hit by Mike Tyson.
yes because Floyd was not going to “lose” like many others are told to do hes more like a spoiled kid in japan wait and see how many fights he has outside of japan and if he does especially in the USA his protection will be off and im willing to bet he gets KOd easily
Isn’t he the one that a retired Mayweather slapped around handily?