August 11th was the day in which 3 world champions were born, some 17 years apart. The first of those was South Korea's Chong Pal Park who was born in 1960 in Seoul. Park was one of the numerous South Koreans who came to prominence in the 1970's and 1980's. He won his first title in 1978, stopping fellow Korean Chang-Baek Choi for the South Korean Middleweight title, a year later he stopped Cassius Naito, the father of Rikki Naito, for the OPBF Middleweight belt. He would later claim the OPBF Light Heavyweight title before reigning supreme as one of the truly elite Super Middleweights. Firstly he would win the IBF title in 1974 and then the WBA belt in 1987 before retiring after back-to-back losses in the late 1980's. Exactly 9 years after Park's birthday we welcomed Japan's Satoshi Iida into the world. Born in 1969 in Nagoya we saw Iida make his name in the 1990's when he became a world leader in the Super Flyweight division. Iida's first title was the Japanese Super Flyweight title that he claimed in 1994. Although he came up short in his first 2 world title attempts Iida won a the WBA Super Flyweight title in his third shot at the belt and made 2 defences before losing the belt, in 1998 to Jesus Rojas. The third birthday was in 1977 when Thai great Pongsaklek Wonjongkam was born in Nakhon Ratchasima. The Thai great was one of the best Flyweights of recent memory and was a 2-time WBC champion who reigned for the better part of a decade between 2001 and 2012 with his 2 reigns. Although he lost the title in 2007, losing to nemesis Daisuke Naito in their 3rd meeting, he would regain the belt in 2010 by beating Koki Kameda. With more than 90 fights under his belt Wonjongkam was a throw back in many ways as he kept his career active by staying busy and fighting regularly. Although often criticised for his opposition he did tend to fight notable fighters every few fights and beat the likes of Malcolm Tunacao, Luis Alberto Lazarte, Daisuke Naito, Hidenobu Honda, Hussein Hussein, Gilbero Keb Baas, Tomonobu Shimizu, Julio Cesar Miranda, Koki Kameda, Suriyan Sor Rungvisaim Takuya Kogawa and Edgar Sosa in a career that is almost certainly Hall of Fame worthy. As well as the birthdays the date has been a relevant one in recent years for 2 separate cards. In 2007 we saw Filipino great Gerry Penalosa defeat Mexican power puncher Jhonny Gonzalez, to claim the WBO Bantamweight title and become a 2-weight world champion. Sadly on the same card Rey Bautista was wiped out by former Penalosa foe Daniel Ponce De Leon. The following year Momo Koseki began her reign of terror at Atomweight as she claimed the WBC title, a title she still holds 6 years later! On this very same show we also saw the debut of the always fun to watch Koki Eto. Eto has, of course, become one of the sports must exciting fighters despite his limitations whilst Koseki has set a Japanese national record of 14 world title defences! (Image, of Satoshi Iida, courtesy of boxrec.com)
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On August 10th 1987 Japanese fans in Nagoya had the chance to see the professional debut of Yasuei Yakushiji who out pointed Hiroyuki Murayama. Less than 4 years later Yakushiji had claimed the Japanese Bantamweight title and in 1993 he claimed the WBC world Bantamweight title. He is however best know for his extremely hard fought victory over popular countryman Joichiro Tatsuyoshi in 1994. He lost the title in 1995 to Wayne McCullough and soon afterwards he retired. August 10th 2011, some 24 years after Yakushiji's debut, another Japanese fighter defended a WBC world title. That was the then WBC Minimumweight champion Kazuto Ioka who defended his title for the first time, defeating Juan Hernandez via decision. Between those two significant years for Japan was a major date for Thailand. That was August 10th 1996 when Sirimongkol Singwancha defeated Jose Luis Bueno for the WBC interim Bantamweight title and Saman Sorjaturong defended his WBC Light Flyweight title, stopping Shiro Yahiro. For Samam it was his 4th defence and he would continue holding the title until before losing it in 1999 to South Korean Yo-Sam Choi. As for Sirimongkol his title was soon upgraded from the interim belt. Sirmimongkol would later lose the belt, in a thriller, to the previously mentioned Tatsuyoshi in what was one of the best fights of 1997. As for birthday's, South Korea's former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Eun-Sik Lee was born on August 10th 1970 and currently active Indonesian Hendrik Barongsay was born exactly 10 years later! (Image courtesy of boxrec.com) On August 9th 1978 Japan's Masashi Kudo took a split decision over Nicaragua's Eddie Gazo to claim the WBA Light Middleweight title thus ending Gazo's 17 month reign as champion. For Kudo this was the crowning moment of his career and he would go on to defend the title 3 times. For Japan however there was more to it than just Kudo's win, there was nationalist revenge. Prior to the fight Gazo had beaten both Koichi Wajima and Kenji Shibata in defenses of his belt. On boxrec.com Kudo is regarded as the second best Japanese Light Middleweight of all time. Incidentally he is ranked behind Kojima who had some notable fights of his on August 9th, albeit August 9th 1970 when he successfully defended the Japanese Light Middleweight title against Muneo Mizoguchi. For Korean fans August 9th 1987 may stand out as it was the day that Jum-Hwan Choi defeated Azadin Anhar in Indonesia to record his 3rd and final defence of the IBF Light Flyweight title. Interestingly this was Choi's only win outside of South Korea. If you're a Filipino you may be interested to note that on August 9th 1981 Rodel Mayol came in to the world, being born in Mandaue City. Mayol was a staple on the scene at 108lbs for much of the late 00's and claimed the WBC Light Flyweight title in 2009, aged 28. Sadly he lost that belt in his first defence. In 1998 Thailand's Thanomsak Sithbaobay, a 3-time world title challenger, fought for the final time, suffering a 4 round defeat at the hands of Tetsutora Senrima in Japan, it was his 4th loss in Japan where he never managed to pick up a win. (Image, of Kudo, courtesy of www.boxrec.com) |
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