Cornerman's pre-fight slap backfires as Kei suffers knockout loss at Krush Tokyo

Soma Kondo handed Kei a knockout defeat at a Krush kickboxing event in Tokyo, but it was the actions of Kei’s own corner that drew the most attention — his coach delivered an aggressive slap to the fighter’s head in an apparent attempt to psyche him up, only for Kondo to follow up with a kick that ended the night.

The sequence, which circulated widely on social media, carries an unavoidable dark comedy. Kei absorbed a rattling blow from the man in his corner, and while the edited clip compresses the timeline — making the two strikes appear closer together than they were — the visual of a fighter being rocked by his coach and then knocked out in the same bout is difficult to shake.

Kondo himself was amused. Taking to social media after the fight, the winner wrote, “Wait, wasn’t it me who KO’d them?” according to a Twitter auto-translation, acknowledging the confusion over who did the most damage.

UFC veteran Cub Swanson also weighed in on the clip, making clear his distaste for that kind of physical “motivation” from a corner.

Elsewhere on the regional circuit, two finishes stood out from the weekend’s action. Tyjani Beztati, a former Glory lightweight champion who is now 4-0 since making his MMA debut in 2025, produced a clinical intercept knee at Levels Fight League 24, timing the strike perfectly as Daniel Kolasinski’s head dipped off an overhand right and sending him crashing in the opposite direction.

On the amateur side, Miguel Soares delivered a emphatic finish over Heitor Santos at Martial Arts Championship 17, his post-knockout celebration capturing the kind of raw emotion that makes grassroots MMA worth watching.