Fiery White Talk! Koji Miyata and Mitsuru Miyata: “What was happening behind the scenes of the “merger” with K-1 and what will happen in the future”.

I’m probably the first fighter to leave K-1 after paying a penalty.

Koji (34), who says so proudly, moved to RIZIN after leaving K-1 and had a big match with Tenshin Nasukawa (25), the ace fighter at that time. Although the result was a decision loss, he said, “I know because I fought both of them. Takepon (Takemoto, 32) is stronger than Tenshin. It is still fresh in our memories that he pulled Takeson out of the “closed country” of K-1 and paved the way for a standing match with Tenshin at the top of the stand-up competition.

Now, Koji has decided to “merge” with K-1, his old stomping ground.

When it was decided that NARIAGARI, a martial arts event presided over by Koji, and K-1 would hold a rivalry match ( December 2, “NARIAGARI vol. 3” at 176 Box in Osaka, and December 9, “K-1 ReBIRTH 2” at the Edion Arena Osaka ), K-1 fans and current champions reacted furiously.

Koji himself said , “Let’s make a lot of noise. I am the black ship. I’m a black ship , and I’m going to break down all these stupid obstacles in order to revitalize the martial arts world,” said producer Mitsuru Miyata, the man behind K-1.　 Fans and fighters alike are having an allergic reaction to ……,” he laughed.

Why did they accept the “Koji Virus” despite the criticism?　What was going on behind the scenes?　The two people who were involved in the event talked it all out.

–What was the impetus for holding the competition?

Koji: Mr. Miyata is a well-known producer, but he left K-1 around the same time as I did. At that time, Mr. Miyata posted on SNS. He said, “I have to fill up the venue.” I was indebted to Mr. Miyata during my K-1 days, so I took advantage of that and posted something like, “I need to do something to help. That was the beginning. Are you going to get involved in some way?” And then Mr. Miyata came to NARIAGARI’s press conference.

Miyata: That was in September, right? He was about 90 kg, right? There was a karate fighter from the Kansai region who had no scheduled fights, so I asked him if he would be interested in participating in NARIAGARI, and he agreed. I was told, “We’ll have the fighter from Osaka come, but Miyata, please show up too.” It is quite unusual for a producer of …… to appear at a press conference of another organization, but I’m not averse to such things (laughs), so I took advantage of the opportunity and went along. (Laughs.) So I took advantage of the opportunity and went along.

Koji At the press conference, it was mentioned that we were going to hold a K-1 tournament in Osaka on December 9, and that we needed to bring in more people. I said to him, “If you can use my name to bring in even a little more people, please use it as much as possible. Mr. Miyata then paid lip service to me by saying, “Please come back to K-1,” and the media wrote articles like, “Koji is coming back to K-1,” which, well, caused a firestorm (laughs).

Miyata There was quite a backlash within K-1.

Koji Was he booed?

Miyata It was an allergy to Koji. Just the mention of Koji’s name would bring an outpouring of approval or disapproval from fans and fighters.

Koji: Really, my charisma is amazing (laughs). (Laughs.) I never said I would fight in K-1, but everyone around me started making a fuss about it on their own. I didn’t say anything about fighting in K-1, but people started to get excited about it. I didn’t do anything.

MiyataMr. Sak akibara (Nobuyuki Sakakibara, CEO of RIZIN organizer) seemed to be a little concerned about it.

Koji: “What are you up to? He asked me (laughs).

Miyata When we had the press conference, Koji gave me a list of players in NARIAGARI, and asked me if I could talk about …….

Koji I can tell you all about them.

Miyata I have never seen NARIAGARI. The upcoming tournament on December 2 will be my first time to watch NARIAGARI on site. …… I wondered if the NARIAGARI players had tattoos and I thought they were “just your average older brothers”. But when I looked at the list, I found that some of the fighters had quite a few professional careers and some had proven themselves in K-1 amateur tournaments. Hiroki Ito (26) has about 20 fights?

Koji: That’s right.

Miyata: Ito beat a kick champion by decision. In their own way, they are trying to make it on the NARIAGARI stage. They are trying to compete. There were two fighters on the list that made me wonder why they chose NARIAGARI as a stage among K-1, Krush, and RISE. One of them trains at a gym in Tokyo, but goes all the way to Osaka for NARIAGARI. I moved on to matchmaking, saying, “It would be interesting to have this fighter compete in a three-minute, three-round match (against a K-1 fighter).”

Kouji: We are often compared to BreakingDown, but our concept is really “upstart. I would like to see us use this as a stepping stone to K-1, RISE, and RIZIN. This is a big difference from BreakingDown, which is a complete entertainment content separate from martial arts. It took me 11 years to get into the K-1 ring. This is the third NARIAGARI tournament, and I am very happy to be able to bring a fighter to the K-1 stage for the third time. I think it was meaningful for us to start NARIAGARI.

–I think it was worthwhile to start NARIAGARI, and I think it was worthwhile to start K-1.

Kouji: Instead, K-1 is using me to no end. If you look at the PR video for the K-1 tournament, the three current champions (who are competing) appear in a really good-looking way. They should have just left it at that, but at the very end, I come out with a big bang, saying “NARIAGARI CEO. They used my image in a way that I don’t understand (laughs). Then, the antagonists would say, “Why is Koji on the screen? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything, but I’m under fire!

Miyata The K-1 video team took care of it (laughs). I was also surprised when I saw the finished video.

Koji: “Do we need this? ” You didn’t think, “Do you need this? 　 Poor me, I was beaten to the punch. …… (laughs).

Miyata: At the end of the end roll credits, the most important people like Koji Tsuruta and Tetsuro Tanba appear. Special appearances.

KojiI think I contributed a lot to the film. And I don’t get paid anything. I also received a video from ABEMA (which broadcasts K-1 tournaments). They are also bad. They have a kid named Hayato Suzuki (33), who fights with our Toyoki (30), talking bad about me. He’s not my opponent, but he’s saying things like, “If we were in the same weight class, I wouldn’t lose to Koji. I have nothing to do with that (laughs). To put it simply, it’s like one of our fighters is selling fights to Mr. Miyata. You don’t understand what I mean.

MiyataThat’s a chemical reaction in a good sense. An exhibition is not interesting only for the main title match. K-1 started the Osaka event in 2006, and this year is the sixth time it has been held. In that memorable first tournament in ’18, Koji-kun stirred things up and pulled out Takeson-kun, and the place was packed to capacity. At first, no one thought such a title match would ever happen. One year before the tournament, we decided that if we were going to have the tournament in Osaka, the symbol of the tournament would be Koji, and we decided to make a poster with a pin of Koji, saying that he had brought K-1 to Osaka.

Koji: “I brought K-1 back to Osaka.

Miyata We released tickets without announcing any other card. The only thing we said was, “The confirmed fighter, Koji” (laughs). (Laughs.) Somehow, Takekoto must have had a bad feeling, because he said, “You’re not going to make me fight for the title, are you? At first, everyone around him was like, “No, it’s not going to happen. However, from that point on, Koji built up his record, won the preliminary match against a strong opponent from Greece, and created the mood for the match by himself.It was great of you to accept the match, but it was also great of Koji to make the match happen. We had a reasonably good undercard, but when the main event is strong, it’s a one-off match and it’s super packed. I have such a strong attachment to six years ago, and even now he is shining in RIZIN, but I thought that “K-1 in Osaka with Koji” would resonate with the fans. In fact, it did.

Koji: The reason I was able to make it in K-1 was because of Mr. Miyata. As I said before, even after 11 years of martial arts, I could not get into the K-1 ring, which was my goal. I knew it was wrong to contact the president of my gym directly, but I sent a DM to Mr. Miyata saying, “If I don’t do anything, my life is over. I’m going to sell the most tickets in Japan, and I’m going to give the most interesting fights in Japan, so please let me fight. Mr. Miyata contacted my gym, and the president was very angry with me, saying, “Don’t do what you want,” “I’ll fire you,” but I was able to participate in Krush, a K-1 group.

Miyata I checked and found that the DM came on November 23, 2003. Nowadays, people contact me via X, Facebook, or Instagram, but at that time it was a novel approach. It was an outrageous approach, but I thought, “But it sounds interesting. I was going to set up a match for an event in early February of the following year, but since it was an approach that violated the rules, I reported it to the head of the gym and said, “I don’t like this kind of approach. I said, “Please keep your complaints to yourself. But I will offer you a match.

Koji: At that time, I was a champion of another organization, and my poster was for the main division, but when I looked at the Krush poster, the picture was very small. I thought to myself, “Even if I continue to fight, I will definitely be buried. So I asked K-1 to hold a press conference. It was impossible for a novice like me to hold a press conference, but for some reason they did it.

MiyataTogether with other players.

KojiThere were about four of us. At that time, I raised my middle finger to the camera and was heavily criticized. At that time, there were no fighters who trash-talked, so it was like, “A guy who is a champion of another organization did something embarrassing. But after I won the match by KO with a single high kick, everything changed completely.

MiyataAfter the high-kick KO win at Krush in February, I was selected to participate in the K-1 tournament in April.

KojiThere, I was selected by the world champion at the time, Urabe (Isaya Urabe, 33), who had an older brother, Hirotaka (34), who was more famous. The younger brother was also a technician and strong, but I wanted to fight the older brother. In the end, I lost my first K-1 match, but I beat a fighter named Toshi (40), who had also beaten Leona Pettus (31), and I ended up with Hirotaka Urabe. Then I won. It was through Mr. Miyata that I began to shine in K-1.

Miyata: Koji-kun is the very real NARIAGAR (laughs). Koji makes the news by doing outlandish things at press conferences. When you have one like that, it makes it easier for the media to write about him. And he bites the top player. I thought that was great. Hirotaka Urabe was the top fighter in the 60kg class at that time, not second or third. He said, “No, wait a minute. You and Urabe are so far apart! He said, “No, wait a minute. The same thing happened to Takeson-kun after that, and he fought Tenshin-kun in RIZIN. He is still trying to get Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s (46) head, you know (laughs).

Koji: The lack of that in today’s fighters is what makes them so interesting. It was fun to challenge someone who said I was already reckless.

MiyataMayweather is in a different weight class, right? （Miyata: Mayweather is in a different weight class (super welterweight. Koji is super featherweight).

Koji: But that’s okay.

Miyata It’s okay (laughs).

Koji: I’m a persistent fighter, you know. But that’s how I caught Takeon, too.

Miyata When I saw you fighting Mayweather’s cronies in Dubai or something, I thought, “Koji, you have crossed the ocean” (laughs).

MiyataOn December 9, I’m thinking of having Koji do something in the K-1 ring. I’m going to discuss it with him now.

Koji: With no fee?

Miyata I’m asking for a no-fee deal (laughs).

Kouji: Since we left, the K-1 group’s matches have been empty, but now that you have returned, there has been a huge turnout, hasn’t there?

Miyata: We are at a point in time when we are replacing players, or rather, we are in a period when we need to create new stars. I think the key point was that Takeru lost to Tenshin at last year’sTHE MATCH. We will see the members of NARIAGARI for the first time at this year’s tournament, but this kind of thing will lead to the next one, won’t it? Even if you can’t enter this time, there is always next year. There may be fighters from the majors who will be aiming for the NARIAGARI stage. I have a feeling that what we are doing now will be useful next year and the year after that. It’s not easy to keep going. There will definitely come a time when I wonder why I keep doing it.

Koji: It ‘s already here (laughs). (Laughs.) Players today are more selfish than in our time. We were happy just to be allowed to compete. Until we achieved results and became top class, we couldn’t even think of giving our own conditions. But nowadays, kids don’t care about the fight money or the contracted weight. They are like, “You say that at your level? I mean, it’s a little bit rude to say that. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but if it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t be able to compete in K-1. But they don’t have the guts to say, “I’m going to take this chance I’ve been given, and I’m going to make it blossom! There are many unfortunate fighters who are satisfied with being showered with praise after participating in NARIAGARI.

–There is a chemical reaction going on that could lead to the next stage, such as when K-1 champion Leona bites Koji.

Miyata: Leona-kun, you are really angry.

Koji: If Leona-kun becomes a worthy fighter, I will show interest, but honestly, I’m not interested at all. I would like to have the belt he has, the belt he won by beating Takeru, but Leona won the belt after Takeru was gone, after Takeru knocked him down. He has the K-1 belt, but he doesn’t have the money or the name recognition that I do. I’m not making fun of the K-1 champion. I’m not making fun of the K-1 champion, I’m just saying, “Leona, you’re not where I want to be. If you are angry with me, you can come and get me; you can come to RIZIN. When I said, “Well, shall we fight on New Year’s Eve? He said, “Why should I go, I’m not interested in you. If it were you, you would have come to RIZIN. Leona, you don’t have the courage to take action; you are protected by the magnificent cage of K-1, and you just bark and howl inside.

Miyata…….

Koji: When Mr. Miyata and I were talking at the press conference, Leona was right in front of me. If I were in her shoes, I would have demanded a match right then and there. There was no way she could escape, right?　But she didn’t show up, and after I left, she went on SNS to talk about Koji. That’s the level of it. It was a lack of guidance from you, wasn’t it?

Miyata: No, no (laughs). (Laughs.) It’s not easy to do something out of the ordinary. I think to some extent you think you get an opportunity to do something out of the ordinary. Even if we wave a flag and say, “Set up the character like this and go for it,” whether or not he can go for it depends on his sense of humor. I think it’s okay to have fighters with characters other than biting. The fighters who are good at finding characters that suit them and are still strong will become stars.

Kouji: NARIAGARI players are treated like snot. They are treated like delinquents. This match gave me hope that K-1 will watch me even if I’m like that, and it’s really important to see how well NARIAGARI fighters can do against K-1 fighters. If they win, they must be thinking that they can go to K-1 with a bang, and they must be thinking that they will do their best in front of producer Miyata. K-1 came down to NARIAGARI this time and showed young people their dreams, andcreated a route for them to experience K-1 fighters firsthand. I think, “You did a great job, Miya-chan.

Miyata: This time, we have a messy barter going on (laughs). I hope there will be a player like the second Koji, a player who will create an era. But really, he is a challenger no matter how old he gets…challenging MMA, starting up NARIAGARI…… I can’t imagine what he will be doing this time next year.

Kouji: He’s a fantasista, you know.

–He sent a love call to Minoru Kimura (30), whose match with Rukiya Anbo (28) was cancelled after he tested positive for doping again, saying, “Come to NARIAGARI.

KoujiKimura, you are an idiot.

MiyataSteroid-free, he said (laughs). I wonder where that truth is. I wonder if it is an angle or what. Whatever it is, RIZIN will make Minoru shine next year somehow. ……

Kouji If this is the third consecutive time I’m disqualified for a positive doping test, I’ll laugh my ass off.

–Mr. Miyata, you promised that you would shave your head if the K-1 fighters lose more than three fights at NARIAGARI on December 2.

Miyata: I had forgotten about that until just now. You did say that in public.

Kouji: On the 9th, it was decided that I would be in the ring. It’s your hair-breaking ceremony.

MiyataThat’s exactly what the fans would say. They would say, “Hurry up and start the match! (laughs).

Will a star emerge from the chaos created by the “messy barter” to lead the next generation of martial arts?