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The story
TV Tokyo announced on September 14 that it will broadcast the third “GOAT” kickboxing festival event live nationwide from Tennozu Studio in Tokyo on October 25. The card includes three bouts, among them a title match between ISKA World Super Featherweight Champion Ryusei and Rodrigo Bogado, marking Japan’s first terrestrial kickboxing broadcast in roughly 16 years, since 2010. On 5ch, ironic jabs about TV Tokyo’s abrupt cancellation of its pro baseball night-game broadcast in late August mixed with nostalgic reminiscing about the old kickboxing boom epitomized by Tadashi Sawamura’s “vacuum flying knee,” and the discussion spread into a debate over the ratings battle with baseball and soccer.
ENCOUNT Editorial Team, 2026.09.14
Three bouts announced, including Ryusei vs. Rodrigo Bogado
The kickboxing festival “GOAT” held a press conference in Tokyo on the 14th, announcing that its third event will take place on October 25 at TV Tokyo’s Tennozu Studio. Three bouts were confirmed, including a title match between ISKA K-1 Rules World Super Featherweight Champion Ryusei (25, BRAID/TEAM SUERTE) and Rodrigo Bogado (26, Argentina). A live broadcast across the TV Tokyo network was also announced — the first live terrestrial kickboxing broadcast in Japan in about 16 years, since 2010.
Source: encount.press / Original article here
What people said
G-O-A-T
Kind of a mouthful.
I'm pushing 50 and I never even watched it live back in the day.
Humanity landed on the moon in 1969 and there was a whole space boom going on.
Back then a lot of things got space-themed names.
Apollo chocolate, the "moon somersault" in gymnastics…
The "vacuum flying knee" was the same kind of thing.
I watched old footage of the former "Demon of Kickboxing," Tadashi Sawamura, on YouTube.
I used to go nuts for that "vacuum flying knee" as a kid — watching it again after all these years, it doesn't land.
The knee never actually makes contact. Was it staged the whole time?
That opening with "Cobalt no Sora" playing right after the title call still gets me.
Was that the one with the "Kiiiick Boxin'!" chant?
I used to go to the public bathhouse with my dad on Mondays and watch it there.
He's a kickboxer too, right? Why isn't he on the card?
He's probably the most famous kickboxer out there.
Maybe there's some messy inter-promotion politics going on.
He's a Muay Thai fighter.
The rules are a bit different from kickboxing.
Well, he's on the god-tier level of Buakaw and Saenchai, so he'd probably dominate under kickboxing rules too.
Yeah, he's a Muay Thai fighter.
He fought under kickboxing rules for the first time recently, but he's really a guy who shines under Muay Thai rules.
That's the one! ^ ^
I remember it was sponsored by YKK even back then.
It's for real — TV Tokyo suddenly axed its baseball broadcast.
And now they're airing kickboxing instead lolololol
https://rio2016.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/base/1786533689/137
137 Pinch Hitter Nameless@commentary happens on the baseball board (Wacchoi 475f-UN9N [240f:f0:1621:1:*]) sage 2026/08/12 (Wed) 21:38:20.13 ID:d1oT3gbO0
This month's last terrestrial night-game broadcast is on TV Tokyo
Jingu Stadium
Yakult vs. Giants
2026.8.27, first pitch 18:00
TV Tokyo
19:00-20:54
138 Pinch Hitter Nameless@commentary happens on the baseball board (Wacchoi 475f-UN9N [240f:f0:1621:1:*]) sage 2026/08/12 (Wed) 21:40:02.30 ID:d1oT3gbO0
This might even challenge the all-time lowest ratings record.
August 27 could go down in ratings-thread history.
Oh please, soccer ("ball-kicking") hasn't even been broadcast on BS once.
Lol, sounds bitter.
Kickboxing >>>> Giants-Yakult game lol
Nagahashi — who'd later play for the Japan national soccer team — was even introduced on TV back then as Tatsushima's friend.
That's the only era I really know.
I liked Joe Tsuchiya.
I had the backpack, but by then the boom and the show had long ended, so my friends made fun of me for it.
He passed away 5 years ago.
Basically countless, if you count all the little indie promotions running shows out in the regions.
Isn't he more of a general "martial arts" guy?
Just make everything Muay Thai rules.
If anything, it's pretty well established by now that Muay Thai and kickboxing are treated as separate sports.
He's confirmed to be the "Demon of Fixed Fights" lol.
Same type as [sumo yokozuna] Chiyonofuji — genuinely strong, but somehow racked up win after win through rigged matches anyway.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Japanese kickboxing was once a massively popular Showa-era phenomenon, with TBS’s “Kickboxing Broadcast” pulling in huge ratings, but terrestrial broadcasts had been absent since 2010. The thread’s talk of Tadashi Sawamura’s “vacuum flying knee” touches on a long-standing claim — that the knee never actually made contact and the move was essentially staged — an anecdote that has repeatedly resurfaced as a point of skepticism about the overheated media coverage of that era, and it came up again in this thread. Meanwhile, TV Tokyo abruptly canceled its professional baseball night-game broadcast in August 2026, and posters connected that cancellation to the new kickboxing broadcast, with many comments mocking what looked like terrestrial TV turning its back on baseball in favor of a minor sport. That said, this isn’t simply a ratings-driven programming swap — TV Tokyo has its own long track record of investing in combat-sports broadcasts, so the simple “dropped baseball for kickboxing” narrative deserves some caution. The thread’s questions also reflect the reality that Japan’s kickboxing scene today has a proliferation of competing promotions, meaning well-known fighters don’t necessarily all end up on the same card.
*This article is an excerpt and summary based on the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[TV Tokyo] Kickboxing returns to live terrestrial broadcast after 16 years — TV Tokyo to air it… announcing 3 major world title matches with “the future on the line”.”
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