{"id":378952,"date":"2021-03-16T00:08:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T07:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=378952"},"modified":"2022-02-04T15:33:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T23:33:54","slug":"ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC expressed interest in Tenshin Nasukawa &#8216;a few years ago&#8217; says longtime Japanese MMA manager Shu Hirata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prodigy kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is already one of the best ever in his sport despite his age. Apparently, there was a point where the world&#8217;s premier MMA promotion wanted to get their hands on the Chiba Prefecture native.<\/p>\n<p>41-0 at just age 22, Nasukawa first stepped foot inside the RIZIN FF ring at RIZIN 9 in 2017. He&#8217;s fought under the banner 13 times overall and looked virtually flawless in all outings \u2013 excluding an exhibition boxing match vs. Floyd Mayweather.<\/p>\n<p>When speaking on his YouTube channel where he&#8217;s begun doing live stream discussions, longtime MMA manager in the Japanese fight scene, Shu Hirata, spoke about past interest promotions have had in the superstar striker.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;RIZIN has a long-term contract with Tenshin, that long-term contract will expire at the end of this year,&#8221; Hirata said on <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/glBKJ0iBZqU?t=2580\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Let&#8217;s Talk JMMA w\/ Charlie Jewett<\/a>. &#8220;A few years ago, both UFC and ONE [Championship] actually wanted to sign Tenshin. You might feel it&#8217;s a surprise for UFC to actually go after him, right? Cause he&#8217;s only had a couple MMA fights. But [UFC Matchmaker] Sean Shelby said that he&#8217;s very impressed with Tenshin&#8217;s fight IQ, and Mick Maynard actually reached out to me and asked me for his manager&#8217;s contact info \u2013 which I gave to him. So I&#8217;m pretty sure they reached out to him but, of course, you know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nasukawa most recently performed on February 28 at RISE: Eldorado 2021 when he picked up a unanimous decision in a rematch with Shiro. Prior to that, &#8220;Teppen&#8221; dispatched of Thailand&#8217;s Kumandoi Petcharoenvit at RIZIN 26 \u2013 what many believed to be a step towards the dream matchup between Nasukawa and Takeru Segawa.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to MMA and the UFC regarding kickboxers, in particular, this wouldn&#8217;t be the first case where they expressed interest. In 2017, the promotion signed legendary kickboxer <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/gokhan-saki\/gokhan-saki-parts-ways-with-ufc-teases-return-to-kickboxing\/\">Gokhan Saki<\/a> who went 1-1 in the promotion. Nasukawa has currently tried his hand in four MMA bouts and won all of them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Meanwhile, I actually heard from his coaches and people around him that Tenshin feels MMA is a sport that you really need many, many years of training to transform yourself into an MMA fighter,&#8221; Hirata said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prodigy kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is already one of the best ever in his sport despite his age. Apparently, there was a point where the world&#8217;s premier MMA promotion wanted to get their hands on the Chiba Prefecture native. 41-0 at just age 22, Nasukawa first stepped foot inside the RIZIN FF ring at RIZIN [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54445,"featured_media":308176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10079,39647,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UFC expressed interest in Tenshin Nasukawa &#039;a few years ago&#039; says longtime Japanese MMA manager Shu Hirata<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prodigy kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is already one of the best ever in his sport despite his age. 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Could he have been UFC bound?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-16T07:08:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-04T23:33:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenshin-Nasukawa-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrakeRiggs_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Drake Riggs\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/cb9453802ca47ce42b30bfa92ade0bc7\"},\"headline\":\"UFC expressed interest in Tenshin Nasukawa &#8216;a few years ago&#8217; says longtime Japanese MMA manager Shu Hirata\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-16T07:08:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-04T23:33:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/\"},\"wordCount\":375,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"RIZIN FF\",\"Tenshin Nasukawa\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/rizin-ff\/ufc-expressed-interest-in-tenshin-nasukawa-a-few-years-ago-says-longtime-japanese-mma-manager\/\",\"name\":\"UFC expressed interest in Tenshin Nasukawa 'a few years ago' says longtime Japanese MMA manager Shu Hirata\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-16T07:08:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-04T23:33:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Prodigy kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is already one of the best ever in his sport despite his age. 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