Welcome to part 2 of my 10 all Japanese bouts I would like to see for this year and if you missed part 1 then click here to read it.
Masayuki Ito 20-1-1 9 KOs v Kenichi Ogawa 20-1 16 Kos. Over the last couple of years we’ve seen a number of competitive and well matched super featherweight contests involving the domestic and OPBF titles and in a sense the 2 men to have emerged from the pack are Ito and Ogawa. There would also be an intriguing style clash with Ito’s smooth skills and excellent movement versus Ogawa’s power and bull like strength. On current form you would have to favour Ito but there’s a reason why the fights take place in the ring and with both highly ranked by the WBO an eliminator could feasibly be arranged. After losing a razor thin majority decision to Rikki Naito for the national crown in February 2015 Ito rebounded excellently to claim the vacant OPBF strap 6 months later, stopping Dai Iwai in 10 rounds. 4 months later the 26-year-old won a unanimous decision against Shingo Eto. Ito’s 2016 campaign consisted of an 11th round stoppage of Ernie Sanchez in July and on New Year’s Eve he scored a wide points victory over Takuya Watanabe on the undercard of Takashi Uchiyama’s rematch with Jezreel Corrales. The win over Watanabe saw Ito add the WBO Asia Pacific bauble to his OPBF title and 2017 should be a big year for the Tokyo man. After an early career set back Ogawa regrouped and in December 2015 he snatched the Japanese super featherweight strap from Rikki Naito taking a 5th round technical decision. Naito was down early and Ogawa’s strength simply was too much for the then champion and it looked like we had another hard hitting exciting 130 pounder from the land of the rising sun. There was much expectation going in to 2016 and despite scoring stoppages against Satora Sujita and Kento Matsushita some glaring flaws were being exposed with a leaky defence and slow feet being obvious to viewers. Ogawa then took on Naito for a 2nd time in December 2016 and won a unanimous decision with all 3 cards reading 96-94 in a very tight contest. The 28-year-old rematches Sugita on April 1st and was recenlty in a training camp in Okinawa with Teiken stablemates Jorge Linares and Shinsuke Yamanaka and will hope for improved performances in 2017. Shun Kubo 11-0 8 KOs v Kazuki Tanaka 6-0 5 Kos. These 2 unbeaten prospects are a little way off challenging for world titles but both are highly gifted and are part of the new wave of exceptional young fighters coming out of Japan. Unfortunately Kubo only fought twice in 2016, pounding out a hard-fought unanimous decision against Benji Suganob in May and easily dispatching the overmatched Jin Wook Lin in 4 rounds 6 months later. The 26-year-old captured the OPBF 122 lb title scoring a 5th round knockout over Lloyd Jardeliza in December 2015. With the retirement of Hozumi Hasegawa Kubo is now the spearhead of the Shinsei Gym and will have to carry that expectation on his shoulders. More activity should be the aim in 2017 for the promising southpaw as he aims to work his way up the rankings. Tanaka endured a frustrating 2016 only having 2 ring appearances with the most significant being a 2nd round stoppage versus Denkaosan Kaovichit in April. The Thai was well passed his best but the way the Osakan dealt with the former world champion was impressive all the same. The 24-year-old was forced to pull out of a scheduled August 2016 clash with Hideo Sakamoto which would have been a good step up for the Green Tsuda Gym fighter. An 8 round decision win over the durable Monico Laurente in December 2015 showed Tanaka’s quality and if he can stay injury free then this year should be a break out one for the youngster. Hinata Maruta 4-0 3 KOs v Kentaro Masuda 26-7 14 Kos. This would be the ultimate youth versus experience contest and would show us where both men are in their respective careers. Japanese boxers being fast tracked through the ranks at an insanely rapid pace has become the norm with Kazuto Ioka, Naoya Inoue and Kosei Tanaka being examples in recent times and teenager Maruta looks to be the next one to follow. Professional debuts only usually receive much attention if it is an elite amateur or a big ticket seller but Maruta’s November 2015 debut against tough Filipino Jason Camoy caused more than a few ripples amongst Japanese boxing circles. Canoy have never been stopped, was world ranked and was coming off a 1st round KO of Drian Francisco but he was no match for the 19-year-old who won a unanimous 6 round decision also scoring a knockdown along the way. In just his 3rd bout in July 2016 Maruta captured the WBC Youth bantamweight strap stopping the unbeaten Wilbert Berondo in 6 rounds and 4 months later he took care of his first southpaw opponent Joe Tejones in 7 rounds. Maruta is a terrific body puncher and possesses huge height and reach for a bantamweight and will inevitably go through the weights as he matures. Masuda has been a great servant on the Japanese circuit but as shown in his loss in 7 rounds to Ryosuke Iwasa and his crushing 3rd round defeat to Shohei Omori he has never managed to make it past domestic level. A 2 time national bantamweight champion Masuda has notched up wins over the likes of Tatsuya Takahashi, Konosuke Tomiyama and Yu Kawaguchi and has been in plenty of entertaining scraps. In his 2nd stint as Japanese champion he impressively beat the unbeaten Yushi Tanaka, stopping him in 8 rounds in March 2016 to take the vacant crown. 3 months later he won a split decision over Yu Kawaguchi and in December 2016 he knocked out Satoshi Ozawa in 2 rounds. In a slightly surprising announcement Masuda vacated his title and the 33-year-old is now in search of opportunities at the regional and world level. Riku Kano 11-2-1 6 KOs v Ryuya Yamanaka 13-2 3 KOs. In slightly different ways both these 2 stepped up to the plate in 2016 and will have their eyes set on world glory this year and with both being world ranked this could be made as an eliminator as well as for the OPBF belt. Neither has KO power but this shouldn’t take away from what would be an intriguing high speed chess match of 2 skilful operators. Having turned pro at just 16 Kano’s first 7 bouts were on the road in Thailand and the Philippines with the young southpaw running up a record of 5-1-1. His Japanese debut finally came in June 2015 and in December of that year he scored his most significant victory, an 8 round decision over forma world title challenger Pigmy Kokietgym. Kano stepped up to title level in May 2016, earning a 12 round split decision over forma world champion Merlito Sabillo to grab the interim OPBF bauble at 105 lb. By now his desires of becoming the youngest ever world champion from Japan were looking more of a distinct possibility and in August 2016 he took on Katsunari Takayama for the vacant WBO minimumweight belt. Despite securing home advantage in Hyogo it wasn’t to be for Kano as Takayama prevailed via a 6th round technical decision. Although the loss would have been disappointing the 19-year-old certainly wasn’t out of his depth and should only grow from sharing the ring with a quality veteran like Takayama. Yamanaka suffered an early career setback in just his 5th bout with Kenta Shimizu stopping him in a round back in April 2013. The 21-year-old was beaten again in August 2014 losing a split decision over 8 rounds to Roque Lauro. Thankfully Yamanaka persevered and in November 2016 he was granted a shot at the vacant OPBF strawweight strap against Merlito Sabillo. Yamanaka used his speed and movement expertly to leave the Filipino floundering and despite being cut in the 2nd half of the contest he remained composed and calm to take a wide unanimous decision. With only 3 KOs power could be an issue going forward but Yamanaka will have to rely on his boxing skills if he’s to succeed in capturing a world title. Masayoshi Hashizume 12-0 9 KOs v Katsunori Nagomine 13-1 9 KOs. I’ll admit this final selection is a little out of left field but for pure action I think this would be a guaranteed war and would produce fireworks in abundance. Hashizume won the all Japan rookie of the year final at super flyweight in 2014 and looked to be a serious prospect. Since then he has for some reason been matched softly facing a number of modest Thai imports and his career has really stagnated. Fighting out of the Ioka Gym Hashizume isn’t short of quality sparring and has fought on many high profile shows which is a valuable experience. At times he has showed some defensive flaws but unless there’s something glaringly obvious in regards to his chin and has been spotted whilst in the gym it really is time to let the 23-year-old off the leash. Nagomine was stopped in 7 rounds by the outstanding Ken Shiro in March 2015 and sustained some bad injuries during the contest. After taking some much needed time out of the ring he returned in February 2016 to face Kenya Yamashita. The pair produced an unforgettable up and down thriller with Nagomine eventually prevailing in round 3. The 25-year-old scored 2 more stoppage wins in 2016 over Yuki Yonaha and Mako Matsuyama and is more than deserving of some sort of title tilt at either domestic or regional level. A huge thanks to Marcus Bellinger for this, and for the first part, and for those interested in following Marcus his twitter can be reached at @marcusknockout
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