Tatsuya Kawajiri

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Shooto
3 PRIDE
4 DREAM
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri (born May 8, 1978) is a Japanese professional mixed martial artist and former Shooto welterweight champion.

He stands 5 ft. 7 in. (171 cm) tall and fights in the lightweight (154 lbs.) division.

Kawajiri is a PRIDE veteran and was a semi finalist in DREAM's 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix. He currently fights as a lightweight for the DREAM organization.

Shooto

Tatsuya Kawajiri made his professional mixed martial arts debut at a Shooto event held on April 12, 2000 in Tokyo, Japan. He was defeated via rear naked choke at 2:44 of round 1 by opponent, Takumi Nakayama.

He followed that loss with a draw against Yohei Suzuki almost a year later. He rematched Suzuki just over a month later and picked up his first professional victory with a rear naked choke submission in the first round.

Kawajiri won his next six bouts in a variety of manners with all of the bouts coming in the Shooto organization.

In December of 2002, "Crusher" suffered his second professional defeat when he lost a unanimous decision to Brazilian grappler, Vitor Ribeiro.

Kawajiri bounced back from the loss with a TKO over Takumi Nakayama in May of 2003. That win was followed with a decision win over future UFC competitor, Yves Edwards.

After defeating Ryan Bow, fighting to a draw with Caol Uno, and stopping Mindaugus Laurinaltis with punches, Kawajiri was given a shot at the Shooto welterweight title in December of 2004 which was held by Vitor Ribeiro. Kawajiri avenged his earlier loss and gained the championship as he stopped Ribeiro with punches in the second round.

PRIDE

Kawajiri stopped Jani Lax in a non title bout at a Shooto event in April of 2005 before signing with the PRIDE Fighting Championships. He faced and defeated Korean, In Seok Kim in his PRIDE debut at PRIDE: Bushido 7 in May of 2005 via TKO in the first round.

At PRIDE: Bushido 8, Kawajiri defeated tough Brazilian grappler, Luiz Firmino via unanimous decision.

In September of 2005, Kawajiri entered PRIDE's 2005 8-man lightweight tournament where the first two rounds took place at PRIDE: Bushido 9. In the quarter finals, Kawajiri faced former Shooto welterweight champion, Takanori Gomi. In a tough fight, Kawajiri was eventually overwhelmed by Gomi and submitted with a rear naked choke just over 7 minutes into the first round.

Kawajiri headed back to Shooto for a title defense after the loss, which he completed successfully after his opponent Joachim Hansen hit him with a low blow just 8 seconds in, that he could not recover from, awarding him the DQ victory.

Four months later, in June of 2006 at PRIDE: Bushido 11, Kawajiri submitted Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett with a kneebar at 2:30 of the first round. That win was followed with a 29 second TKO over Chris Brennan at PRIDE: Bushido 12 and a non-title fight with Per Eklund at a Shooto event in October of 2006 which he won by TKO.

At PRIDE: Shockwave 2006, in Kawajiri's final appearance for PRIDE, he went down in a unanimous decision to Gilbert Melendez after three rounds.

DREAM

In January of 2007, Kawajiri vacated his Shooto title after he could not defend it due to a thumb injury. He sat out for most of 2007, finally fighting at Yarennoka!, a New Year's Eve event put on by former Dream Stage Entertainment staff as a farewell to PRIDE fans. Kawajiri faced and defeated Luiz Azeredo via unanimous decision after two rounds to push his record to 20-4-2.

In 2008, "Crusher" signed to compete in upstart Japanese promotion, DREAM and more specifically their 16-man lightweight tournament which began at DREAM 1 in March. In the opening round, Kawajiri faced and defeated Kultar Gill via unanimous decision after two rounds.

At DREAM 3, Kawajiri faced off against Luiz Firmino in the quarter final stage. The bout was a rematch of their 2005 PRIDE bout. The result was no different this time, as Kawajiri picked up a unanimous decision after two rounds.

Kawajiri hoped to face Caol Uno in a rematch from their 2004 Shooto draw at the semi finals at DREAM 5. Instead, Kawajiri faced the only non-Japanese fighter left in the tournament, American, Eddie Alvarez. In a bout many believe to have been the "Fight of the Year", Kawajiri was defeated via TKO at 7:35 of round 1. Kawajiri dropped Alvarez early in the round and had him mounted and was dropping down hard punches. He had also messed up Alvarez's face with the punches he had landing, even prompting the ring side officials to check out the damage to see if he could continue. Upon the resumption of the fight, Alvarez dropped Kawajiri heavily with a punch and followed it up with a fight sealing barrage on the ground, which knocked Kawajiri out of the competition.

At DREAM's New Year's Event which was held under the K-1 banner, Kawajiri defeated Kozo Takeda in a K-1 kickboxing bout in the first round. In the bout, Kawajiri was able to showcase his newly improved striking skills and overwhelmed the former muay thai champ with a barrage of punches before landing a flying knee for the knockout.

"Crusher" began 2009 with a first round rear naked choke submission win over Ross Ebanez at DREAM 7 on March 8.