Yesterday, July 12th, I attended the Hoost Cup Spirit 6: Ma. Tsu. Ri. kickboxing event at the KBS Hall in Kyoto. The event was organized by the Hoost Gym, a gym in Nagoya that’s affiliated with legendary Dutch K-1 champion Ernesto Hoost. The event space, KBS Hall, is located across the street from the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was a pretty intimate space and my seat was maybe 10 feet away from the ring, if that. I had tried to get tickets for the event at my local 7-11 the weekend before, but online sales were already finished. I kept checking for updates on the event’s facebook page throughout the week and finally saw a post about day-of ticket sales at midnight on Saturday. So I decided to make the trip up to Kyoto from Nishinomiya Sunday morning to check it out.
I decided to break the bank a little bit and spend 7500 yen on a S-section seat, the second best section. Shortly after I got settled, the Shin-Karate “special fight” matches started. Shin- Karate (新空手), sometimes called “Glove Karate” or “K-2”, is a hybrid style of Knockdown/Kyokushin style Full Contact Karate and K-1 style Pro Kickboxing. Fighters wear 12 oz gloves and are allowed to punch to the face. Everything else is pretty much the same as Kyokushin rules. I believe it used to be a “feeder league” for K-1. Amateur fighters and children would start off doing Glove Karate tournaments (K2-4. K-2 being the highest) to gain experience and then eventually graduate into K-1. The kids in the K-3/4 divisions were super tough. I can’t imagine any of my elementary or middle school students doing that. There was one big knockout in the adult men’s K-2 division, I believe. Overall, I think Shin-Karate is pretty cool and I would love to try it one day.
At about 3pm, the Kickboxing undercard matches started. Most of the fights were fought under K-1 rules, no elbows,sweeps, or clinching with both hands. The referees encouraged fighters to push themselves out of the clinch. I recognized the one fighter in the first match from a Karate seminar I went to back in March led by Dr. F, a sports therapist,doctor, and Karate instructor in Tokyo. The fighter was a 17 year old from Renseikan(錬正館) in Aichi Prefecture who had more of a point sparring base at the seminar. I remembered landing some nice axe and crescent kicks on him in March, so I was interested in seeing his style changed when kickboxing. He did really well and won his match. The next couple of matches flew by and the main card started around 4:30 pm. In the first fight on the main card, a 19 year old got completely knocked out by his opponent. LIKE COMPLETELY STARCHED,DUDE.
The next couple of fights were fought under Hoost Cup EX rules, which were basically Muay Thai rules : elbows and clinching allowed. I was really impressed by a fighter from Brazil, Tom Santos, who got a TKO win after a flurry of punches and kicks against his Japanese opponent. Another fighter I was impressed by was Ryo Takahashi, who is a part of the Takahashi Brothers（高橋三兄弟) fight team.
On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Hoost Cup. I have wanted to go to an event like this for a very long time and have spent countless late nights watching Youtube videos of Japanese Kickboxing and Full Contact Karate events. I think the event could’ve done without the the BABY METAL rip off idol group as the half time performance, though. I definitely want to attend more of these kinds of events while I am here. Osu!
The Budo Journey 