The K-1 Group announced the final fight card for the K-1 Festa.1 event which takes place on Wednesday, March 21 from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
Despite turmoil following a falling out with the TRY HARD gym, which featured fighters like K-1 60-kilogram champion Taiga, his brother and former prodigy Hiroya, and highlight-reel producing prospect Rukiya, K-1 is moving on with plans for a super featherweight championship tournament. Takeru, the current featherweight and former super bantamweight titleholder was looking for a title in a third weight division when he was scheduled to meet Taiga for a third time. Instead, Taiga has been pulled from the card and the last man to beat the champion, Stauros Exakoustidis, will now face Takeru in the opening round of the super featherweight championship tourney.
In the other semifinals, Krush champion Masanobu Goshu takes on W5 60-kilogram titleholder Timur Nadrov, REBELS Muay Thai champion Suarek Rukkukamui meets former RISE champ Kosuke Komiyama, and former K-1 and Krush champion Hirotaka Urabe fights former ISKA belt holder Koji.
Every other champion is competing on the card, including lightweight champion Wei Rui against former super featherweight titleholder Koya Urabe, super lightweight king Masaaki Noiri battles former Lion Fight and K-1 MAX champion Tetsuya Yamato, welterweight champ Yuta Kubo takes on Wu Lin Feng champion Melsik Baghdasaryan, super welterweight titleholder Chingiz Allazov defends against top Japanese kickboxer Hinata Watanabe, super bantamweight king Yoshiki Takei fights Kenji Kubo, and heavyweight champ Antonio Plazibat meets Roel Mannaart.
Elsewhere on the card, the No. 1-ranked featherweight in the world, Kaew Weerasakreck, takes on 19-year-old phenom Rin Hiramoto, K-1 65-kilogram tournament runner-up Yasuomi Soda fights Krush champion Jun Nakazawa, Krush champ Taito Gunji meets Takumi Tosaka, former Krush and K-1 super welterweight tourney runner-up Yasuhiro Kido fights Glory of Heroes and Superkombat tourney winner Issam Chadid, former top-10 featherweight Minoru Kimura battles Jin Hirayama, and Krush women’s champion KANA meets Polina Petukhova.