Tetsuya Yamato


Tetsuya Yamato is a Japanese Lightweight kickboxer. He won the Japanese national K-1 tournament as a Lightweight in 2010.

Background

Yamato was born in Chita, Aichi, Japan on December 10, 1987 as Tetsuya Iwashita. He took the name Yamato in honour of his gym, Yamato Kickboxing Gym. After graduating from high school he started working in construction, and became a painter to coat buildings with coloured acrylic resin.

Kickboxing career

Early career

On July 31, 2005, he made his debut as a professional kickboxer in the R.I.S.E. organization, and he knocked out Eiji Ogawa in the 1st round with left low kick. After this bout he became a member of NJKF and started fighting under the NJKF banner. His second fight was on September 24 against Takuya Minekawa, in which he won by TKO.
On January 15, 2006, Yamato was chosen and awarded the 2005 Rookie Award by NJKF.

Winning national titles

After Yamato's career of three years with NJKF, he was asked to compete for the vacant NJKF Lightweight title in 2008, and he fought against Hiromi Nakayama in the Semi-final. He won by a TKO in the 4th round because of a cut by an elbow strike. On July 27, 2008, he fought against Hanawa in the final for the title, and he knocked out Hanawa in the 1st round with a left hook.
On January 25, 2009, Yamato was chosen and awarded 2008 MVP by NJKF, and also awarded GBR award because he won the NJKF title, and he had 3 bouts on NJKF and won 3 times with 2 knockouts in 2008.
In the middle of 2009, he was asked to participate in the "WBC Muaythai Rule Japanese unified Championship Decision Tournament" as a lightweight as NJKF, MAJKF and JPMC announced that they were going to establish the unified championships sanctioned by WBC Muaythai.
On September 23, he fought against Kazuya Oe in the semi-final, and he knocked him out with body shot in the 2nd round. In the tournament final on December 4, he fought against Yūdai Kono for the vacant first Japanese title of WBC, and he won by a TKO with cut as the bout was stopped by a doctor in the 4th round. For this bout, he won his second national title.
On January 24, 2010, he was awarded the 2009 Outstanding Performance Award by NJKF as he had 7 bouts with 6 wins 6 Knock outs and 1 loss.
On March 14, 2010, Yamato fought against Saenchai Sor Kingstar from Thailand in Los Angeles, USA to challenge the vacant world lightweight title sanctioned by Muay Thai Association of America. He was knocked out by left high kick at 1R.

Wins K-1 tournament

In 2010, Yamato was offered by K-1 for K-1 Japanese national tournament at lightweight. On May 2, he fought against Masahiro Yamamoto, and although he was expected to lose, he won by unanimous decision in the extra round. On July 5, he won the Japanese national tournament of K-1 at Lightweight.
On December 9, 2011, Yamato fought Ryuji Kajiwara for the Krush -63 kg Championship but lost via unanimous decision.
Yamato knocked out former Lumpinee Stadium champion Densiam Lookprabaht in the first round on February 18, 2012.
He was scheduled to face Leo Monteiro for the vacant WBC Muaythai International Super Lightweight Championship on September 22, 2012 at NJKF's Kick to the Future 6 in Tokyo, Japan. Monteiro was replaced by Paul Karpowicz, however. Yamato defeated Karpowicz via unanimous decision to win the title.
He challenged Sagetdao Petpayathai for the WBC super lightweight world title at M-One: Reborn in Highland, California, USA on May 16, 2013 and lost via TKO due to a cut in round four.
He defeated Kevin Ross by split decision at Lion Fight 11 in Las Vegas on September 20, 2013.
He retained his WBC Muaythai International Super Lightweight Championship with a unanimous decision win over Masaaki Noiri at an NJKF event in Tokyo on February 16, 2014.
Tetsuya will be fighting at the K-1 Japan Bantamweight World GP on April 22 against Hiroya.

Titles