He faced
Hiromi Amada at the
K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 in Tokyo final 16 on October 14, 2012 and won via unanimous decision. Despite qualifying for the
K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 Final, Uehara was left out in the cold when the event rolled around and was replaced by the higher-ranked
Pavel Zhuravlev. Uehara defeated Kengo Shimizu by way of split decision at
RISE 92 in Tokyo on March 17, 2013 to win the RISE 90 kg title. He was set to fight
Dustin Jacoby at
Glory 12: New York - Lightweight World Championship Tournament in
New York City on November 23, 2013 but the match was switched to
Glory 13: Tokyo - Welterweight World Championship Tournament in Tokyo, Japan on December 21, 2013. He defeated Jacoby by split decision. ==Titles==