The Patient Pressure of Yuki Egawa

Photo Credit: ISKA Europe

While Glory is preparing to make Petchpanomrung fight his 20th consecutive fight against a man he’s already beat, and ONE is kindly providing a retirement home for the kickboxing greats of yesteryear, K-1 has been quietly turning it up.

Far from the K-1 of its heyday in the late 1990’s to mid 2000’s, the new iteration focuses almost exclusively on the smaller, and frankly, far more interesting weights. K-1 certainly isn’t free from the matchmaking annoyances that plague every organization in kickboxing today, but it has managed to build some genuinely captivating starts while consistently putting on fresh, exciting cards.

One of K-1’s brightest stars is also its most nascent. 2019 was a coming of age tale for Yuki Egawa, as the young star announced himself as a must-watch, before quickly thrusting himself to the top of the Strawweight division (57.5kg). Then only 21 years of age, Egawa won a close fight over top 10 opponent, Haruma Saikyo, in the first few months of the year. Three months later, he battered fellow young prospect, TETSU within a round.

Impressive as those performances were, they aren’t what turned Egawa into a must-watch sensation. Egawa capped off the year by running through K-1’s 57.5kg Grand-Prix with a grand total of 5 minutes and 38 seconds of fight time. Three opponents in one night, all felled within minutes. Egawa was equal parts whirling dervish and clinical technician - slicing his man up with flurries on the inside, taking their will to fight with devastating body shots, while remaining clean and precise. He fenced on the outside until he found his opportunity to go in for the kill, and the result was a stunningly clean run that saw him deal all the damage himself, robbing his opponents of the chance to give back.

It was, to that date, the fastest Grand-Prix win in K-1 history. Egawa wasn’t exactly faced with a star studded lineup, the only important win being a solid Nak Muay and recent Kickboxing convert in Jawsuayai Sor.Dechaphan, who had earlier that night beaten the quality Hirotaka Urabe. If his run lacked anything in competition, it more than made up for it in efficiency and brutality.

Egawa’s dominant GP run was enough to merit a #2 ranking worldwide below 60kg. However, it had done something even more important, and that was to put him on a collision course with the top seed in the lighter divisions - the excellent Yoshiki Takei. One of the best fights that can be made in kickboxing right now, this clash of tiny titans seemed inevitable, especially as the flagship K’festa event would take place early in 2020.

Instead, K-1 predictably chose to throw Takei Dansiam Ayothaya, another solid but not-especially-noteworthy Thai making his debut in high level kickboxing against the division’s number one talent, while Egawa was supposed to feast on Facu Suarez.

Like I said, kickboxing matchmaking, what are you gonna do?

Fortunately, as skilled as Egawa is, it is easy to forget that he’s just getting started in his career and will no doubt have many opportunities to fight the best his weight has to offer. So without further ado, let’s stop moaning about the state of Kickboxing and look at what makes Egawa so special.

A Thoughtful Swarmer

If you watch a highlight of Egawa, you might get the impression that he’s a bulldozer. An inevitable presence that walks forward, undeterred by any response, destroying everything in his path. Although he’s known for breaking opponents down on the inside, his approach is far more measured.

Egawa’s pressure is a slow burn. He works his way into range methodically, maneuvers his opponent to the ropes with long-range kicks and feints, and then opens up fully once they find themselves in a compromised position. When he does open up, he’s a terror. His combination punching is as merciless as it is sharp, and his brilliant body work provides him a consistent route to finishes.

There are strengths and weaknesses to Egawa’s patient approach to pressure. He doesn’t take the kind of damage many other pressure fighters must face in order to get themselves into favorable positions. Egawa’s composure on the outside allows him to remain defensively sound, spending much of his time at a relatively safe distance. Waiting until his opponent’s back hits the ropes allows him to create lopsided exchanges, where he can easily counter or reset, but his opponent is stuck in his distance. On the other hand, because he isn’t the overwhelming force that many of the sport’s other elite pressure fighters are, there’s greater opportunity for opponents to avoid those undesirable positions.

Rather than opening up on the lead and giving opponents a chance to counter or escape, Egawa will stalk patiently until an opening presents itself. He likes to use his opponent’s strikes as entries into his own combos. By waiting until his opponent strikes to collapse the distance, he can find a safe entry into his rapid, committed flurries.

By letting his opponent throw the first strike, Egawa forces them to do a lot of his work for him. He can ensure that his flurries come when the opponent is planted, throwing or recovering from a strike, rather than risk whiffing at a circling opponent. He can also pay more attention to his defense, knowing he needs only block or slip a strike on the outside in order to find a safe entry into his combos.

Egawa’s pressure is by no means purely reactive, however. Like any good tactic that relies on the opponent’s actions, Egawa has ways to seize the initiative and force his man to throw strikes in ways that he wants. He’ll feint in and out of range to draw a reaction before pouncing as soon as one is given to him.

Egawa feints his way in, backing Shoya Masumoto up to the ropes, and lets go a non-committal leg kick meant to provoke a response. Egawa takes the counter on his guard and hops back, before immediately resuming his stance and advancing once again. Masumoto, drawn forward by Egawa’s reset, feels the need to lash out with a jab, but the punch is anticipated and countered by Egawa, who then takes the opportunity to swarm.

Since Egawa conserves the full use of his arsenal for uneven exchanges along the ropes, he needs to use other tools to force his opponent backwards. Like fellow light-weight swarmer, Takeru, Egawa harasses his opponents with quick, non-committal lead-leg kicks to occupy them at range and force them onto the back-foot.

Inside leg kicks distract the opponent and allow Egawa to walk forward, while the lead-leg snap kick forces them back, threatening to spear the body if they advance. The beauty of these kicks is that Egawa can remain outside punching or clean kicking range while throwing them, so that he’s too far to hit until he’s suddenly on top of his opponent swarming.

The kicks serve as a perfect tool to set up entries as well. The forward step on the snap kick mirrors the forward step on a punching entry, allowing Egawa to sneak into range undetected. He’ll also enter directly off the kicks, stepping his lead foot down in front of the opponent after landing the kick and transitioning right into a punching combination. Egawa will also occasionally mirror the tactic with his rear leg, using the snap kick to step into southpaw or a squared stance and open up with punches.

The active lead leg works perfectly for feinting into range as well. By picking up his lead leg slightly, Egawa can show a kick and encourage his opponent to move back, before filling the space.

There’s two general ways to go about this - you can pick up the lead leg and put it down in front of you, allowing for a safe entry into punches, or hop in behind the raised leg to cover more distance. Egawa uses both proficiently. The kick feint acts as a bait too, as opponents will sometimes try to hit while he’s on one leg, only for him to immediately plant and counter.

Egawa generally throws out his lead leg from far enough away that stepping in to punch is difficult, but he has built-in responses to when his opponents try to crowd his kicks as well.

While he isn’t a particularly hard kicker, he’s skilled at landing his kicks on the counter, either with leg kicks as an opponent steps in, or the lead-leg body kicks when they throw the right hand. Egawa uses his kicks to rack up point at range and push opponents back, but they also keep him at his preferred distance on the outside by stopping an aggressive opponent from comfortably crowding him.

Of course, the threat of Egawa’s heavy hands is a constant factor encouraging his opponents to accept his distance as well. If they try to close distance and regain ground, Egawa is ready with counters.

Just as he can kick right into his stance on the front-foot, Egawa snaps right back into his stance at range, ready to punish opponents trying to crowd him.

A Quiet Storm

As soon as Egawa puts his man on the ropes, his demeanor shifts. Patience gives way to fury as he puts dazzlingly quick combinations together, breaking down every part of his opponent’s body. Part of what makes Egawa’s burst-style pressure so effective is that he makes sure to maximize each favorable position. He may be slower to put his opponent on the ropes than the prototypical pressure-tank, but once there, he attacks with unrelenting savagery.

Egawa’s combinations are as complex as they are dangerous. He plays all kinds of tricks to deceive his opponent and fluster their reactions. He doubles up on each hand, picks his shots based on where his man is covering, manipulates their guard with hooks, uppercuts, and overhands, and varies his rhythm and timing.

The body shots are the true lynchpin in Egawa’s combinations, however. As threatening as his upstairs work is, much of those punches serve as a distraction to open up the body. As soon as his opponent inevitably gives into the tsunami of punches and covers up blindly, Egawa smashes the body with brutal lead hooks, which then open up the head for more work. The body shots are not only a brilliant attritional tactic for someone who doesn’t push a constant pace, but they’re so strong that they allow him to score consistent early finishes.

The body shots also aid his pressure, helping to herd opponents and stand them still for his combinations. Throwing hard to the head of a circling opponent risks giving them an out if the punch misses, but where the head can bob and weave, the body remains. Opponents circling on the ropes risk running into a devastating body shot.

Egawa doubles up on the lead hook to the body and head, manipulating the guard by mixing high/low and inside/outside. When his opponent briefly fires back amidst the flurry, he’s immediately clipped by a clean left hook and taught to remain defensive.

Egawa consistently uses a choppy, high angle overhand on the inside. The overhand comes over the top of the guard and allows him to hit with power at distances and angles too close to get off more conventional punches with his rear hand.

Once he has his man on the back-foot, Egawa rarely lets them out. He has excellent pressure footwork marked by small, deliberate steps which allow him to stay in position to attack and counter while methodically eating up his opponent’s space. He cuts the cage in diagonals, stepping to track lateral movement and taking short hop-steps to close distance while maintaining a balanced stance.

Egawa displays the depth of his footwork against TETSU, using cross-steps to quickly follow the lateral movement of his fellow Japanese prospect, before adopting a solid stance as soon as he finds himself in hitting range. When Egawa enters with a jab, TETSU tries to circle again in a large, committed motion. Egawa simply takes a quick L-step to track him and slides into range with a combination. TETSU spins and circles once again, but Egawa follows him with short hop-steps. TETSU’s large motions leave him often out of position, but Egawa’s short, deliberate steps keep him perfectly balanced and positioned to attack and respond.

While Egawa is relentless when he sticks his opponent on the ropes, he’s not always going full tilt. Just as he knows how to induce panic and smother with flurries, he knows when taking his foot off the gas can benefit his pressure.

Think of it this way - if someone is holding your head underwater, threatening to suffocate you, would you leap at the first opportunity to take a breath of fresh air, or carefully pick your spot? Egawa can play with his opponent’s expectations by setting traps, giving ground for a brief moment amidst furious pressure in order to lure them into a counter, or to avoid a return salvo and pick up where he left off.

Egawa lands an overhand on TETSU and pushes forward, before TETSU shoves him away. Egawa hops back and takes a short bounce to his right, immediately resuming his stance. TETSU sees a brief moment of space and takes the opportunity to further strike his way off the ropes, only to run straight onto Egawa’s fist as he bounces in with an uppercut.

This sequence perfectly encapsulates the value of resetting when you have an opponent on the ropes. Egawa shows a jab entry and Jawsuayai tries to counter. Egawa slides just out of range and takes a quick L-step to immediately resume his pressure. Feeling the threat, Jawsuayai lashes out as soon as Egawa steps into range, which Egawa blocks and uses as a trigger into his own entry. Egawa steps back briefly and resets with another L-step, but this time Jawsuayai’s reactions have been dulled and Egawa’s jab forces him to cover up and sit still.

As a fighter who does most of his work kicking on the outside or swarming on the inside, Egawa doesn’t rely on his jab too much. He doesn’t do much sticking and moving with the jab, but he’s crafty about using it to set up his entries into the pocket.

Egawa’s jab serves mostly as a distraction. He’s use non-committal, pawing jabs to push his opponent back, draw counters, and pin their hands in a high guard while he hits elsewhere. Occasionally, he’ll throw a quicker, jolting jab to cover a step into the pocket, always ready to move slip and counter off it.

He prefers to work his way into range methodically behind his long kicks, but Egawa is also capable of closing large amounts of distance with surprising speed. He’s able to effectively feint opponents back without putting himself into their immediate punching range and has a knack for setting up crafty entries to the pocket.

Egawa makes excellent use of shifting to close distance. He’ll often plant his rear foot forward into southpaw directly after kicking to drive his opponent back and initiate a combination. He also uses long right hands to cover a step into southpaw - note how he shifts directly into the outside angle against the southpaw TETSU and clocks him with a shortened left hook.

Every so often, Egawa will cover distance with a leaping straight before opening up with combinations on the inside. While it requires large motions and a lot of commitment, it works because he uses it sparingly and sets it up well. Entry feints dull the opponent’s senses, and Egawa will manipulate the timing on his bounces to catch them by surprise as he leaps in.

While much of Egawa’s risk management relies on keeping a buffer of distance between himself and his opponent, the young prospect is very solid defensively on the inside as well. Opponents looking to time counters while he’s swarming have to deal with the disadvantages of being on the ropes, but hitting Egawa clean is no easy task either. With no ability to give ground, opponent’s attacks become more predictable and Egawa can anticipate and respond to their actions.

Egawa has a responsive high guard which he uses to defuse his opponent’s hooks on the inside. He incorporates proactive defense into attacks as well, dipping and weaving off his hooks, and folding below his shoulders and elbows when coming out of a level change.

Throwing shots at Egawa’s guard not only expends energy, but it’s dangerous as he uses it as a trigger for catch-and-pitch counters. The beauty of these counters is that they don’t require reactive defense. Egawa is more than capable of adjusting his guard based on the threat his opponent offers, but he’ll also cover automatically as part of his standard attack patterns, and punches on his guard reveal an opening. When he feels a right hook hit his forearm, he instinctively knows that side is open for a counter.

Note the combination of reactive and proactive defense here as Egawa batters TETSU with catch-and-pitch counters. He sees an initial right hand coming and raises his arm to block it, then automatically shifts his weight and brings the other arm forward to cover the left hook. He weaves proactively off his punches, dodging the returns, firing back as soon as he feels a shot on his forearms.

This sequence is so slick it deserves its own clip. Egawa throws away two hooks to the head to draw the guard up, before sending a heavy hook to the body. He follows the body hooks with a short right that misses, but it crosses a short lead hook from his opponent. Feeling the opponent’s hook, Egawa knows the next shot is likely to come off the rear hand, so he transfers weight to his rear leg and catches it on the guard. He anticipates a lead hook next and transfers weight to his lead leg with his guard up, setting up his own big counter hook. A brilliant combination of anticipation and reaction, pigeonholing his opponent into attacking on his pattern through controlling the initiative, and punishing him for doing so.

While Egawa isn’t as consistent with simultaneous counters and prefers catching them on the guard first, he’s capable of countering off his head movement while moving in. Egawa’s opponents tend to have more success meeting him in open space than accepting his pressure, but he has ways to punish them for it as well.

Egawa’s form on his slip counters is very tight. The weight transfer is slight and smooth, taking his head off-line just enough to make the punch miss while keeping him balanced to deliver power. The hooks are tight and controlled, allowing him to get off quick combinations before the opponent can recover.

Conclusion

Only 22 years old, Egawa is a fighter mature beyond his years. He’s not without his faults, however, and hasn’t yet faced a diversity of styles at the elite level. The upside of that inexperience is consistent improvement, and Egawa continues to look better each time he steps in the ring.

Since he waits until his opponent is on the ropes to unleash his full arsenal, Egawa has had a tougher time time fighters who are prepared to engage him in open space, before their back hits the ropes.

His fight with Haruma Saikyo in early 2019 was one of the tougher ones in recent memory, as Saikyo was able to make Egawa work to get him into favorable positions. Egawa had to contend with kicks on the outside and mid-range counterpunches when he moved in. The slick destroyer couldn’t run through Saikyo like he has with so many, and was forced to adjust, getting craftier about his entries and drawing counters.

Like most pressure fighters, Egawa is also considerably less comfortable off the back-foot. If he’s unable to control distance with his long kicks or put an opponent off with his counter punches, there’s opportunities for a hard-nosed, heavy handed fighter to force him back and open him up. Pushing Egawa back is no easy task, however, and few in the weight class are equipped to do it.

Another tactic that has proven to give Egawa some trouble is open-side body kicks and knees. As he leaves a lot of space when pressuring, some of the better kickers he’s fought have been able to time kicks as he’s moving in, extending the distance and disrupting his entries or combinations. They can also dissuade Egawa from entering the pocket with his head movement, and TETSU was able to catch him dipping onto knees a couple times despite getting battered. Egawa lacks the consistent counters to strong body kicks on the outside that he has for most other attacks.

The obvious next step for Egawa is a fight with Yoshiki Takei. With both men securing minutes-long Grand Prix runs last year, the fight has a ton of momentum. While Takei is more experienced at a high level, he’d be moving up from 55kg to fight an Egawa who’s already comfortable at 57.5kg. Both fighters rely on their pressure, which is sure to produce fireworks whether they meet in the middle and trade or take a more patient approach.