Keiji Ozaki

Keiji Ozaki is a Japanese former professional kickboxer and taekwondo-in. He won the tournament of R.I.S.E. at welterweight in 2006. As a martial artist, he practices the full-contact version of taekwondo, and has competed in numerous competitions.

Early life

Ozaki was born April 24, 1980, in the prefecture of Kanagawa. He spent part of his upbringing in the United States, in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. He attended Keio Academy of New York and Kanagawa Prefectural Tsuruma High School, where he practiced finswimming. He participated in the Japanese national championship of swimming for 5 different disciplines in 1999, and he won 5 gold medals at 5 disciplines. After graduation of high school, he entered Kanagawa University to study business administration, and he joined its taekwondo team.

Taekwondo competitor

In 2000, he won the gold medal of Japanese national championship for undergraduates in full contact taekwondo at open weight. In 2002 and 2003, he won the national championships for adults.
His he is a 2nd dan black belt certified by the Japan Taekwondo Association.

Kickboxing career

In March 2000, he joined Team Dragon and started practicing kickboxing. On September 28, 2003, he debuted on R.I.S.E., one of the kickboxing promoting and sanctioning body, as a professional kickboxer. He fought against Tomoaki Suehiro, and won by unanimous decision.
On December 17, 2006, he won the "R.I.S.E. Dead or Alive tournament '06".

K-1

Ozaki was offered by K-1, and he participated K-1 to prove the strength of taekwondo.
He defeated Masanobu Goto by a clear unanimous decision at Krush-EX 2012 vol.5 on October 21, 2012, at Shinjuki Face in Tokyo. He floored Goto four times in the fight.
He lost to Jessy Petit-Jean in a fight for the WKN World Lightweight Kickboxing Championship on November 17, 2012, in Liège, Belgium.
He lost a majority decision to Hiroya in a non-tournament bout at Krush Grand Prix 2013 ~67kg Tournament First Round~ on January 14, 2013, in Tokyo.
Ozaki faced fellow taekwondo stylist Seiji Takahashi at NJKF: 2013 3rd in Tokyo on April 29, 2013.
Since retiring, Ozaki has worked as a trainer for K-1.

Titles

Professional
*2006 R.I.S.E. Dead Or Alive Tournament '06 champion
Amateur
*11th Kanagawa Prefecture Taekwondo Championship winner
*12th Kanagawa Prefecture Taekwondo Championship Full contact Openweight winner
*4th Tokyo Taekwondo Championship Full contact Openweight winner
*Chubu Taekwondo Championship winner
*12th All Japan University Taekwondo Championship Full contact Openweight winner
*13th All Japan University Taekwondo Championship Full contact Openweight winner
*14th All Japan University Taekwondo Championship Kumite Openweight winner
*All Japan Taekwondo Championship 3rd place
*13th All Japan Full contact Taekwondo Championship Kumite Openweight winner
*14th All Japan Full contact Taekwondo Championship winner

Kickboxing record