Taiga Kawabe

[1] Taiga is the younger brother of Hiroya, who inspired him along with the two time K-1 Max World Champion Masato to start practicing Karate in his childhood, becoming a Black Belt at the fifth grade.

He won his next three fights by unanimous decision, before participating in the Krush Youth Super Bantamweight Grand Prix.

[7] Immediately following this loss, Taiga was scheduled to take part in the K-1 Super Bantamweight Grand Prix, to crown the inaugural champion.

[8] He defeated Soufiane El Haji by unanimous decision in the quarterfinals and Nobuchika Terado by a third-round knockout in the semifinals.

[9] At K-1 World GP 2015 The Championship, Taiga fought the future Krush Super Featherweight champion Leona Pettas.

[10] Returning to Krush, Taiga bounced back from this losing skid with a second-round knockout of Taishi Hiratsuka.

He won his quarterfinal bout against Javier Hernández by TKO, after his opponent retired at the end of the second round.

Taiga fought a rematch with Koya Urabe in the tournament finals, and lost by TKO, after being knocked down three times inside of the first 90 seconds.

[13] After beating Chen Wende at the Wu Lin Feng 2016: WLF x Krush - China vs Japan event, Taiga was given the chance to challenge Hirotaka Urabe for the K-1 Super Featherweight title.

[25] After his first victory in over two years, Taiga was scheduled to fight the former RISE Lightweight champion Taiju Shiratori at Rizin 19.

[28] Shiratori once again won, this time by TKO, as Taiga was unable to continue after the second round due to a cut.

[29] Taiga was next scheduled to fight the reigning RISE Lightweight champion Kento Haraguchi at Rizin 23.

[38] Taiga faced Shota Okudeira in a super featherweight (-60 kg) bout at RISE World Series 2022 on October 15, 2022.

[49] Taiga vacated the RISE Super Featherweight title on January 21, 2025, in order to focus on his mixed martial arts career.