Yuji Nashiro is a Japanese

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 kickboxer

Kickboxing

Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....

 who competes in the welterweight

Welterweight

Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...

 division.

Biography and career

Nashiro was born in Nara City

Nara, Nara

is the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...

 and is the brother of world champion boxer Nobuo Nashiro

Nobuo Nashiro

Nobuo Nashiro is a professional boxer in the Super flyweight division as well as the WBA super flyweight champion.- Childhood :...

. He began his martial arts career in Kyokushin

Kyokushin

is a style of stand-up, full contact karate, founded in 1964 by Korean-Japanese karate master, who was born under the name Choi Young-Eui . Kyokushinkai is Japanese for "the society of the ultimate truth". Kyokushin is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline and hard training...

 karate

Karate

is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

, in which he was the Japanese and Asian champion in the middleweight division. He was also the amateur Muay Thai

Muay Thai

Muay Thai is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. It is similar to other Indochinese kickboxing systems, namely pradal serey from Cambodia, tomoi from Malaysia, lethwei from Myanmar and muay Lao from Laos...

 champion of Japan.

He made his professional kickboxing

Kickboxing

Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....

 debut in 2006 and won his first three fights by knockout before taking a break from the sport for almost three years. He returned at the K-1 World MAX 2010 -70kg Japan Tournament where he was knocked out by Yuichiro Nagashima

Yuichiro Nagashima

is a Japanese welterweight kickboxer, and a Cosplayer, fighting out of Nishinomiya, Hyogo, currently competing at K-1. His rank is black belt of 2nd dan of Nippon Kempo.-Early life:...

 in the quarter-finals. Following this, he went on to compete in the Krush promotion where he won his first two fights before losing to Yoshihiro Sato

Yoshihiro Sato

is a Japanese kickboxer competing in K-1 at middleweight . He is the former world champion of Muay Thai in WKA and WPKC, and he won the Japanese national tournament of K-1 twice in 2006 and 2007. His official nickname is "Mugen Sniper" which means Infinite Sniper.- Amateur era :He was born in...

.

He returned to the Japan MAX Tournament at K-1 World MAX 2011 -70kg Japan Tournament Final where he caused an upset by winning the tournament. He defeated 2002 World MAX champion Albert Kraus

Albert Kraus

Albert “The Hurricane” Kraus is a Dutch welterweight kickboxer. He was the first K-1 World MAX 2002 champion and has also held four separate world titles in kickboxing and Muay Thai...

 in the quarter-finals and Takafumi Morita in the semis, both by decision, before going on to knock out Yuya Yamamoto

Yuya Yamamoto

Yuya Yamamoto is a Japanese kickboxer competing in K-1 at middleweight . He is the former Japanese national champion of kickboxing sanctioned by All Japan Kickboxing Federation at welterweight.-Amateur era:...

 in the first round of the final.

Titles

• All Japan Kyokushin Open Middle Weight Class Knockdown Karate Champion 2002
• Middle Asian Kyokushin Middle Weight Class Knockdown Karate Champion 2003
• K-2 Gloved Karate Kansai Tournament Champion 2006
• All Japan Glove Karate Competition Champion 2006
• WMFJ Japanese Amateur Muay Thai Champion
• All Japan Glove Karate Tournament Champion
• 2011 K-1 -70kg Japan Tournament Champion

Kickboxing record

Kickboxing record
Legend:

External links

• K-1 Profile