2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour title fight moves to Japan this weekend

The 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour will have its first-ever stop in Japan on June 1, when the world’s best freestyle motocross riders perform in Osaka at the fourth stop of this year’s thrilling six-round championship battle.

Paying tribute to the soaring popularity of FMX in eastern Asia, the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour will make its eagerly awaited debut in the land of the rising sun by staging the fourth stop of the 2013 season. The pulsating southern Japanese city of Osaka stages a stunning location in front of the Osaka Castle in the city’s famous Nishinomaru Garden. The FMX aces will be performing their mind-boggling tricks off their bikes while jumping distances of up to 30 meters in distance and 15 meters high in front of a sold-out crowd of 11,000 spectators.

Frenchman Thomas Pagès, the winner of the season opener in Mexico City, is back on top of the World Tour standings with 245 points following his second-place finish in Glen Helen, while Dany Torres of Spain and Australia’s Rob Adelberg are close behind on 210 points. Defending champion, Levi Sherwood of New Zealand also remains in the thick of the battle on 145 points, while Osaka’s very own Taka Higashino scored an impressive third place in Glen Helen, his first Red Bull X-Fighters appearance this year, and could still be in the title hunt with three stops left.

“I’m really looking forward to the stop in Osaka even though I’m a little bit nervous about all this in my home town,” said Higashino. “I’m sure the crowd is going to love seeing this. It’s going to be a great event for Osaka and all of Japan.”

You can watch all of the action from Japan live here.

2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Standings:

1. Pages, 245
2. Torres, 210
3. Adelberg, 210
4. Sherwood, 145
5. Sheehan, 90
6. Rinaldo, 80
7. Higashino, 65
8. Melero, 60
9. Villegas, 60
10. Potter, 50