main event due to the cancellation of a previously scheduled main event. On March 17, 1999, he fought against Tomoharu Chiba for the vacant national AJKF title at welterweight, when he was only 20 years old. He knocked out Chiba in the third round and became the new champion. After this victory, he began receiving offers for international matches. On November 22, he fought against Eval Denton from United States, and won by decision at 5R. When Paul Ingram, the president of WKA, watched this bout, he evaluated Masato highly and considered rating him for world rating, but this was to be Masato's last bout in the AJKF. After this bout, he was rated as #13 welterweight by World Kickboxing Association (WKA), but he announced that he was going to part with AJKF in December. Masato was offered to fight against Mohamed Ouali from Morocco on January 21 by AJKF to improve his WKA rating, but he refused the fight because he did not give agree on the conditions of the bout. He sent his manager to AJKF for negotiation on January 14, but it broke down. For this reason, the bout was canceled. He handed in a notice of withdrawal to AJKF and Fuji gym on March 14 and returned his title on that same day. According to the announcement from AJKF, the contract between AJKF, Fuji gym, and Masato was until for 2002. Because of this withdrawal, he lost his training area, so he asked some martial arts gyms to rent some space for training. Silver Wolf As Masato left AJKF, he started managing himself with his team "Silver Wolf". On April 16, 2000, Masato went to Thailand, and fought against Kongnapa Sor.Chalermsak. He knocked out Kongnapa cold with a swift left uppercut. On November 1, he was offered to join K-1 to challenge Morad Sari from France. He knocked out Sari in the 2R with a left hook, and took Sari's world International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) oriental rules title. Takashi Ito, the Japanese veteran kickboxer, decided to retire when he saw this fight. For this reason, he had a retirement bout (Exhibition) with Masato on March 30, 2001. On December 5, Masato took part in the King's Birthday event and fought against Suriya Sor. Ploenchit, a highly ranked southpaw, who would later go on to compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics and win a bronze medal