Tenshin Nasukawa

Nasukawa was offered to fight at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He showed interest to fight in the Olympics but he doesn't want to fight his friend and former teammate at Team Teppen, AIBA Youth 2016 World Champion, Hayato Tsutsumi.

Tenshin Nasukawa (那須川 天心 , Nasukawa Tenshin, born August 18, 1998) is a Japanese kickboxer and mixed martial artist, based in Tokyo, Japan. Tenshin is the current Rizin Kickboxing featherweight world champion, former Rizin bantamweight champion, and the 2017 Rizin kickboxing flyweight tournament champion. As of 6 May 2019, he is ranked as the #2 flyweight kickboxer in the world by Combat Press, and is the RISE World featherweight (-57.15kg) champion.

Nasukawa’s training began when he started Kyokushin Karate at just five years old, and he set his sights on joining one of Japan’s premier fight promotions.

“I don't even want to imagine what kind of fighter he will turn out to be in five years,” one of Nasukawa’s opponents, MMA fighter Yusaku Nakamura said in praise. Nasukawa defeated Nakamura in a kickboxing bout by technical knock out after Nasukawa dropped Nakamura three times. In the fight Nasukawa landed a counter spinning drop kick to Nakamura's face, breaking his nose.

On March 3, 2019, Nasukawa fought in the quarterfinal round of the RISE World Series 2019 58 kg tournament. He defeated Argentinian Federico Roma by KO/TKO with a cartwheel kick to the head 1 minute and 53 seconds into the third round. This sets up a rematch with Suakim PK Saenchaimuaythaigym with whom he had a closely contested match in February 2018.

Nasukawa faced the Rizin Bantamweight Champion Kyoji Horiguchi on September 30, 2018, at Rizin 13. The bout was contested under kickboxing rules. Nasukawa won via unanimous decision.

In February 2018, M-1 Sports Media, which operates K-1, filed a lawsuit against Tenshin, his father Hiroyuki, Rise president Takashi Ito and Rizin president Sakakibara. According to the lawsuit, it all started three years ago when Nasukawa called out Takeru to fight. More recently during Rizin's New Year's Eve event when Nasukawa asked the audience who they want him to fight next. They claim that it's an unfair business practice to involve another fighter's name from a different organization. And, they claim that many people has negative image about Takeru run away from Nasukawa, and they lost 6 sponsors. And, they file a damage suit 137,000,000 yen. But, 1 of 6 sponsors told Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Shincho "Our contract of K-1, we distribute Bento 3 times only. We can't understand why K-1 demands too expensive money".

On March 16, 2018, Rise president Takashi Ito, former K-1 fighter Hiroya and his lawyer, accused K-1 Japan Group's exclusive contract, illegal based on the competition law. Hiroya's lawyer told the media, that the way K-1's contract work makes you not fight for a year for your contract to expire. Every fight you make with the organization, extends your contract for another year from your last fight and the only way to get out of the contract is not get paid for a year. Hiroya cites this as the reason why Segawa could not fight Nasukawa as he knows Segawa as a friend and will not back down to a fight.

January 2018, Nasukawa told Japanese sports magazine Sports Graphic, he wants kickboxing as his main sport until he becomes 22 or 23 years old, and after that, he would consider a shift in MMA or pro boxing.

On August 15, 2018, Evolve MMA announced that they have sponsored Nasukawa. Founder, Chairman, and CEO of both Evolve MMA and ONE Championship, Chatri Sityodtong, stated that he is interested in signing Nasukawa after his contract expires.

Nasukawa wants to fight both kickboxing and boxing. However, the Japan Boxing Commission doesn't permit Japanese professional boxers to fight in other professional combat sports. In September 2018, Nasukawa told AbemaTV, that he wants to fight boxing in other countries and stay as a kickboxer in Japan.

On November 5, 2018, it was announced that Nasukawa was expected to face undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. at Rizin 14 on December 31, 2018. The supposed rules for this bout were not determined. However, on 7 November, Mayweather stated that the fight had been announced in error due to a misunderstanding (claiming that he had never even heard of Nasukawa until the press conference), and that he had been booked for an exhibition fight for "a small group of wealthy spectators" that was not meant to be televised. On November 16, 2018, Mayweather announced that the fight is back on. It will be a 3-round exhibition boxing match. “There was a penalty clause in the contract of an undisclosed amount if he is to use any moves of an MMA nature.” In other words, if Tenshin had the urge to throw a kick, he would be heavily fined. In the one-sided fight, Nasukawa was knocked down 3 times in the first round and his corner subsequently threw the towel in. The match was controversial, however, and drew accusations of match-fixing.

On June 18, 2017, after Takeru knocked out Buvaisar Paskhaev, K-1 commentator, Masato, expressed his desire to see Takeru fight Nasukawa but the 2 other commentators ignored his comments. 2 days later, K-1's official YouTube channel uploaded the full fight video of Takeru and Paskhaev but a few hours later it was deleted and re-uploaded with without Masato's comments.

On August 29, 2017, Rizin executive Nobuhiko Takada said on Twitter, "Two of the biggest superstars of kickboxing, Takeru vs Tenshin Nasukawa should be made right now! If this super-fight will not happen due to the (sic) cold war, it is heinous crime! Let's make this! Make miracle!" A few hours later a K-1 broadcaster trolled Takada on Twitter. A few days later, Takada apologized and promised to never talk about a fighter from another organization and deleted every tweet about Nasukawa vs Takeru.

On December 31, 2017, Nasukawa won Rizin's Kickboxing 57 kg tournament. In an attempt to quash the cold war and influence K-1 and Rise to make the Takeru fight, Nasukawa made sure the show was being broadcast live so Rizin was not be able to cut any of his comments. Post-fight, in the ring, Nasukawa engaged the crowd by asking who they want him to fight next and the crowd screamed Takeru's name.

In 2017, MMA agent Shu Hirata, who manages UFC fighters, Francis Ngannou and Takeya Mizugaki, told the media that the UFC has offered Nasukawa with $60,000 (salary:$30,000,win bonus:$30,000) contract.

Tenshin became famous due to his knockout victories over former IBF boxing world champion Amnat Ruenroeng and Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai champion Wanchalong PK Senchaigym. The latter was chosen as the 2016 Knockout of the Year by Combat Press. In 2019, he was named the Male Fighter of the Year by Combat Press.

On December 5, 2016, Nasukawa knocked out Lumpinee Stadium Muay Thai Champion, Wanchalong PKSenchaigym, with a spinning back head kick counter. Such a spectacular result against a former Lumpinee Stadium champion brought him global attention.

In 2016, Nasukawa signed with Rizin to fight on a December event. However, K-1 suddenly ended their partnership with Rizin. K-1 have tried to avoid any mention of the fight.

After his Muay Thai debut on December 5, 2016, Japanese MMA promotion Rizin Fighting Federation offered him to make his MMA debut on their December 29 event. Nasukawa accepted the short notice offer, and began to train MMA for the first time. He won his first fight by TKO in the first round. After the fight, he announced his desire to fight in Rizin's New Year's Eve event in 2 days. Rizin president Nobuyuki Sakakibara granted his wish and he won the fight by guillotine choke in the second round.

On May 31, 2015, Nasukawa fought for the Rise bantamweight title after compiling a 5-0 record. He won his first title fight by TKO in the second round against Yuta Murakoshi. On August 1, 2015, he won the Blade 55 kg tournament.

Nasukawa has been calling out Three-division K-1 champion Takeru Segawa since June 8, 2015. But due to contractual obligations, both fighters were not able to meet in the ring. At that time, K-1 and Rise were in a "Kickboxing Cold War" since 2010.

On August 5, 2015, Takeru told the media that he was interested in fighting Nasukawa if K-1 can organize it. K-1 Japan group producer, Mitsuru Miyata, demanded that Nasukawa sign an exclusive contract with K-1 to be able to make the fight happen. Nasukawa's trainer and RISE president, Takashi Ito, told combat sports magazine Fight & Life, that he will agree to let Nasukawa fight in a K-1 event but he's not willing to give up Nasukawa to an exclusive contract with K-1.

In 2015, K-1 officially made a partnership with the new MMA promotion, Rizin Fighting Federation. Rizin president, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, announced that Rizin is willing to make partnerships with every fighting organization so RISE began to work with Rizin as well. This deal made it more possible for a Nasukawa–Segawa matchup.

November 8, 2015, Nasukawa had a knockout victory over French Muay Thai fighter Mike Alamos. After the match in the ring, Nasukawa announced that he wanted to fight in Rizin.

On November 21, 2015, Takeru made his first defense of his K-1 55 kg world title against Charles Bongiovanni, he won the fight by TKO. After the match, during the in-ring interview, Takeru announced his desire to fight in Rizin, 2 weeks after Nasukawa announced the same. When Takeru returned backstage, Nasukawa approached him and demanded the fight. The fight can happen in Rizin even with the Rise and K-1 cold war. During the press conference, Takeru mentioned that he did not recognize Nasukawa and could not understand what he was saying due to the crowd noise and thought he was just a fan. Takeru confirmed that he is willing to accept the fight if offered. After this event, Nasukawa tweeted that Takeru agreed to fight him on New Year's Eve.

On December 8, 2015, Rizin announced a fight between Takeru and Chinese fighter, Yang Ming, for their New Year's Eve event. At the press conference, Rizin president, Sakakibara, acknowledged requests to make a Nasukawa vs. Takeru fight, however, he said there wasn't enough time to promote the fight and promised to try to make it happen in 2016.