Genki Yamamoto Announces Retirement

Saturday, 27 August 2011 15:41

Written by Sam Sattler

Coming just a week after Hisanori Maeda announced his retirement, AJKF legend Genki Yamamoto has announced that he is retiring from kickboxing. Genki Yamamoto made a name for himself in All Japan Kickboxing Federation where he became the promotion's 21st Featherweight champion, winning the title against Hisanori Maeda, defending it once against Masahiro Yamamoto by a draw until he lost it to Masahiro a year later. Throughout his career in AJKF, he fought 3+ times with Naoki Ishikawa, Masahiro Yamamoto and Hisanori Maeda, going 1-3-1 against Naokick, 0-2-1 against Yamamoto and 3-0 against Maeda. He also split a pair of fights with Kanongsuk Weerasakreck, went 0-1-1 against Wanlop Weerasakreck and beat Ryuji Kajiwara. He was a participant in the 2009 Krush Lightweight Tournament, beating Hisanori Maeda and Keiji Ozaki before being bested by rival Masahiro Yamamoto in the semifinals. After the loss to Masahiro in 2009, he lost his final 3 fights to NJKF Champion Rashata, Kanongsuk and finally in July at the first It's Showtime Japan in a #1 contender fight for the It's Showtime 61kg Title to Kan Itabashi.

Like I said when Maeda retired, this is seems to be the beginning of the end for the last AJKF legends. Maeda was 32 and Yamamoto is 34. Hiromasa Masuda and Haruaki Otsuki are 38 and 37, respectively, and both have struggled as of late. If Masuda loses his fight to Rashata, I'd say he'd be the next person to put on retirement watch.

Share this story