For today's "On this day" we're glad to be able to celebrate a birth of a current world champion and look at fights from 3 difference decades. The first of the fights is from 1981 and is from South Korea where Hwan Jin Kim made his only successful defense of the WBA Light Flyweight title. Kim had won title 3 months earlier stopping Pedro Flores in 13 rounds though found the challenge of Alfonso Lopez to be much tougher. Kim scraped a majority decision Lopez to retain his belt before losing his title, just 2 months later, to Katsuo Tokashiki in Japan. In 1992 we saw the sensational Ricardo Lopez returning to Japan to defend the WBC Minimumweight title against Taiwanese challenger Rocky Lin. Lin went into the bout as an unbeaten challenger and Japanese champion, he ended the bout flat on his his back courtesy of Lopez's frightening left hand. For Lopez it was his second defense in Japan and saw him return to the Korakuen Hall, the venue where he had won the title 2 years earlier against Hideyuki Ohashi. For Lin this was unfortunately his his first crack at a world title and it would be almost 6 years before he would get another, coming up short against Wandee Singwancha in an interim WBC Minimumweight title fight. The third fight is from 2000 when Takanori Hatakeyama made the first defense of his WBA Lightweight title and stopped compatriot Hiroyuki Sakamoto in 10 rounds. Hatakeyama had won the title exactly 4 months earlier, stopping Gilberto Serrano in the 8th, to become a 2-weight world champion though his reign was relatively short with only 2 successful defenses before losing a clear decision to Julien Lorcy. For Sakamoto this was his 4th failed world title bid, and second successive one having also come up short against Serrano for this very same title. As the birthday boy, that's WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka who was born on this day in 1982 and turned 32 today. He'll be hoping to celebrate his birthday with a win over Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in the coming weeks. (Image, of Yamanaka, courtesy of boxrec.com)
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When we've been doing our research for "On this Day" there has been some days very much void of action whilst others could have had essays done on them. October 10th is an example of the latter with something like a dozen possibility for us to consider, of which we have selected just 3 and even these may not actually be the best 3 fights involving Asian fighters on this day. On this day in 1962 we saw a collision of legends as Fighting Harada, a Japanese boxing icon, took on Pone Kingpetch, the first ever world champion from Thailand. The bout, in Japan, saw Harada claiming the WBA Flyweight title with an 11th round stoppage of the Thai legend. Sadly for Harada however his reign was short lived and he'd lose a return match in Thailand just a few months later as Kingpetch regained the title from Harada and became the first 2-time world champion from Thailand. Although Harada's reign as a Flyweight champion was short lived he did have a memorable reign as the unified Bantamweight champion and was of course well known for his 2 wins over Brazilian great Eder Jofre. As for Kingpetch he would go on to become a 3-time world champion losing the belts then winning them back from the great Hiroyuki Ebihara. Talking about great fighters there are few from Asia as great as Yoko Gushiken who won the WBA Light Flyweight world title on this day in 1976 by stopping Juan Antonio Guzman in he 7th round. Gushiken's reign as champion was amazing and he set a Japanese national record for most defenses, a record that has only been broken by female boxing star Momo Koseki, at 13 successful defenses. What made Gushiken's reign, and career as whole, so great was that he fit a lot into a short time span and from winning the title in 1976 he was insanely active racking up his 13 defences in less than 4.5 years! Unfortunately Gushiken's career ended after he suffered his sole loss, a stoppage to Pedro Flores in early 1981. For a man as well remembered and loved by fans it's hard to believe Gushiken was only 25 when he last fought. Sadly not all has been rosey on this day and in 1971, exactly 5 years before Gushiken's title reign began, we saw the end of Yoshiaki Numata's reign as the WBC Super Featherweight champion, and soon afterwards his career. Numata, one of the more forgotten Japanese world champions had won the title in April 1970 and had defended it 3 times in in little over a year, inclduing scoring a notable win over Lionel Rose. Sadly however he was unable to defeat Ricardo Arredondo who took the title from Numata with a 10th round KO. Incidentally the title was returned back to Japanese hands in 1974 when Kuniaki Shibata out pointed Arredondo for the title. (Image, from the Kingpetch/Harada fight, courtesy of boxrec.com) October 9th has been a recurring day on the Asian fight scene with a huge number of notable fights falling on this day over the last half a century. In 1977 Japanese legend of the ring Yoko Gushiken recorded the 3rd defense of his WBA Light Flyweight title. Gushiken, who had won the title almost a year previous against Juan Antonio Guzman, took out Montsayarm Haw Mahachai in 4 rounds to record his first stoppage win as champion and kick off a Japanese record of 7 successive world title defenses by stoppage. Gushiken would set a Japanese record of 13 total defenses before losing his crown in 1981 to Pedro Flores and retiring as a national boxing hero. In 1985 we saw the third defense of the IBF Super Bantamweight title by South Korean Ji Won Kim. Kim, one of the few fighters to retire unbeaten, took on old foe Sung In Suh and stopped him in just 66 seconds to retire the man he had beaten for the title just 9 months earlier. This was to be the penultimate defense of Kim's reign with the champion retiring after recording a 2nd round TKO over Rudy Casicas some 8 months later. Staying on the theme of title defenses it was on this day in 1988 that Korean legend Khaosai Galaxy stopped Chang-Ho Choi to record his 8th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title in less than 4 years. Galaxy's fantastic reign as champion would continue on a further 3 years and see him racking up a total of 18 total defenses as he etched his name into the books as one of, if not the, greatest ever Super Flyweight. Galaxy is in the record books for numerous reasons and whilst his reign as a world champion was highly impressive he was also also one of the first sets of twins to win world titles with his twin brother Khaokor Galaxy, a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion. In 2000 Hideki Todaka lost the WBA Super Flyweight title to Leo Gamez. Todaka was attempting to make the 3rd defense of his title though was stopped in 7 rounds by the Venezeulan. Whilst this was a major set back for Japanese fighter he did get revenge for the loss almost 3 years later when he took a split decision over Gamez to claim the interim WBA Bantamweight title, unfortunately he lost that in his first defense to Julio Zarate and then retired in 2004. More recently, in in 2002 Osamu Sato lost the WBA Super Bantamweight title to Salim Medjkoune. Sato, defending the belt for the first time, was widely out pointed by the French visitor who successfully defended the blet just once before losing to Mahyar Monshipour, a man famous for his war with Somsak Sithchatchawal. Sadly for Sato he would fail to become a 2-weight world champion after challenging Chris John in 2004 for the Featherweight title and then retire with a 32 fight ledger including 26 wins. (Image, of Galaxy, courtesy of boxrec.com) October 8th has been an interesting day through Asian boxing history with several contests of note, 4 of which are mentioned below. The first of the 4 bouts we'd like to mention comes from 1978 when Sung-In Suh was beaten, on debut, by Mun-Pyo Chang in a 4 round decision bout. At the time neither man was known, in fact both were making their debuts and strangely the men actually fought 3 times, with Chang winning the first 2 of their meetings. Chang's career was relatively uninteresting, other than his trio with Suh however Suh would go on to become the second ever IBF Super Bantamweight champion beating Bobby Berna for the title in 1984, avenging a loss to Berna from 4 months earlier. Sadly Suh's reign was a short one losing the title 9 months after winning it to Ji Won Kim who twice defeated Sun and forced him into retirement in the mid 1980's. In 1984 Sot Chitalada, fighting for just the 8th time as a professional, claimed the WBC Flyweight title as he narrowly over-came Gabriel Bernal with a split decision. Chitalada's rise to a world title had taken around 17 months and had included a notable set back around 6 months earlier when he was defeated by Korean great Jung-Koo Chang. Chitalada would fight Bernal twice more, scoring a very tight and controversial draw in 1985 and a clear win in 1986 as he continued to hold the title until 1988. In 1989 Chitalada avenged his loss, to Yong-Kang Kim, to reclaim the title and his second reign lasted until 1991 when he was stopped by Muangchai Kittikasem. From then on his career at the top level was over though he had left a serious impression on the lower weights. From the little guy to a big guy. It was on this day in 1989 that the monster punching In Chul Baek made the first defense of his WBA Super Middleweight title. Baek, who had won the title in May, stopped American Ron Essett in 11 rounds to defend the title and give Essett his first of 3 world title set backs with the American later losing to Mauro Galvano in a WBC title fight and to Chris Eubank in a WBO world title fight. Sadly for Baek his reign would last just 5 months longer with him making just one other defense of the belt. More recently, 2011, Filipino fans saw the popular Donnie Nietes claim the WBO Light Flyweight title with a 12 round decision over Ramon Garcia Hirales. This saw Nietes becoming a 2-weight world champion and he has defended the title consistently since winning it 3 years ago! (Image, of Baek, courtesy of boxrec.com) Whilst October 6th had a number of amazing bouts that we had to miss out sadly October 7th hasn't really got much of note for us to talk about. It's not been actionless but it's not a great day. The first of the notable bouts comes from 1975 when Susumu Hanagata, the mentor of rising star Kosei Tanaka, lost his second successive bout to Erbito Salavarria. Hanagata had lost his WBA Flyweight title to Salavarria in their first meeting and was unable to regain it this rematch, notably the Japanese fighter lost both fights, at home, by split decision. In 1978 South Korean fans saw the professional debut of Chul Ho Kim. Kim, then a 17 yeah old form Osan City, kicked off his career with a 4 round points win over Jae Kyu Bae he would later become the Sotuh Korean and WBC Super Flyweight champion. Chul won the WBC title in 1981 by beating Rafael Orono and would defend the belt 5 times before losing it back to Orono in a rematch in 1982. Interestingly Kim would later manager the great Sung-Kil Moon. In 2006 fans in the US saw the little known Glenn Donaire battle against the hard hitting Vic Darchinyan. Donaire lost a clear technical decision, and was likely going to be stopped if the bout was ended due to a clash of heads. Donaire was challenging for the IBF Flyweight and although he lost he set the stage, albeit inadvertently, for his brother, Nonito Donaire, to become a star. Just 9 months after this fight Nonito stopped Darchinyan in frightening fashion to announce himself on the world stage and the rest, as they say, is history. (Image, of Glenn Donaire, courteys of boxrec.com) Strangely one of the busiest days in Asian boxing has been October 6th, a day which has been particularly notable in recent years with a number of high profile bouts falling on this day. We've had to come up with a short list from the all the bouts and other notable events to fall on this day and hope that we've picked some that will be interesting to all fans. On this day in 1973 the world welcomed Katsushige Kawashima who was born in Chiba. Kawashima would later become the Japanese and WBC Super Flyweight champion with his stand out win being a very notable win over Masamori Tokuyama, stopping Toluyama inside a round back in 2006. Notably Kawashima was the first world champion from the now thriving Ohashi Gym stable, a stable that currently manages Naoya Inoue and Akira Yaegashi. In 1983 Japan's Jiro Watanabe successfully defended the WBA Flyweight title against South Korean challenger Soon-Chun Kwon. The bout, which saw Watanabe winning an 11th round technical decision to record the 5th defence of his world title. Watanabe would continue to hold the title until 1986 when he was eventually dethroned by Gilberto Roman. Interestingly Kwon would win the inaugural IBS Flyweight title just 2 months later as he stopped Rene Busayong and he would retain that title until 1985 when he lost his 3rd meeting with Jong Kwan Chung. Exactly 6 years after Watanabe's win over Kwon we saw Thailand's excellent Muangchai Kittikasem successfully defend his IBF Light Flyweight title with a 7th round stoppage over former champion Tacy Macalos. This was the second meeting between the two with the previous meeting coming 5 months earlier when the Thai won the title with a split decision over Macalos, in this second meeting there was doubt about the winner, despite Macalos being in the lead prior to the stoppage . In 2007 Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao secured his second win over future hall of famer Marco Antonio Barrera. Pacquiao was defending the WBC International Super Featherweight title going in to this fight and took a clear decision, unfortunately he was unable to stop Barrera like he had in their first meeting less than 2 years earlier. Continuing with rematches we had the first of 2 bouts between Daiki Kameda and Denkaosan Kaovichit come on this day in 2009. In that bout Kaovichit narrowly retained the WBA Flyweight title with a majority decision win. A rematch 4 months later saw Kameda winning and becoming a world champion for the first time in his career. In 2012 we saw the second bout between Kompayak Porpramook and Adrian Hernandez. Porpramook had won their first meeting, a thriller the previous year, though was unable to repeat the performance over in Mexico as Hernandez reclaimed the WBC Light Flyweight, a title he recently lost to Naoya Inoue via a 6th round TKO. (Image, of Kawashima, courtesy of boxrec.com) October 5th usn't a particularly memorable day in the boxing calendar but it has played host to numerous interest bouts, 3 of which can be found below. On this day in 1968 Japanese fans saw the fantastic Hiroshi Kobayashi successfully defend his unified Super Featherweight crown for the second time with a wide decision over the experienced Ecuadorian Jaime Valladares. For Kobayashi this was the last time he had a unified crown with the WBC stripping him before his next title defence just 6 months later. Kobayashi would continue to defend the WBA belt until losing it in 1971 to Alfredo Marcano. In 1991 South Korean fans saw Yong Kang Kim make the first defense of his WBA Flyweight title with a 12 round decision win over the great Leo Gamez. Kim had won the title just 4 months earlier with a decision over Elvis Avarez and would defend it just twice, defeating Gamez in the first and then adding a stoppage of John Penalosa the following year, sadly however his reign came to an end at the hands of Aquiles Guzman in a notable upset in late 1992. In 1997 Yong-Soo Choi successfully defended his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 12 round draw against Japan's talented Takanori Hatakeyama. This bout was one of two between the men who would meet again 11 months later, that time Hatakeyama would come out on top to become the world champion. Choi For Choi this was his 6th defense of the title whilst Hatakeyama was fighting in his first world title fight. (Image, of Choi, courtesy of boxrec.com) October 4th isn't an historic day in Asian boxing but it is a thoroughly interesting one, especially for fans who remember 2003. Before we get to 2003 lets just remember that back in 1975 South Korea's Jae Doo Yuh successfully defended the OPBF Middleweight title as he stopped Nobuyoshi Ozaki. On paper that doesn't sound amazingly impressive but it needs to be noted that Yuh was actually the WBA Light Middleweight world champion whilst also holding the OPBF belt at 160lbs and for a while switched between the two with notable success showing that he was genuinely talented at both 154lbs and 160lbs. In 2003 we had 3 bouts of note on the same show as Teiken put on a stacked card. One of those bouts saw Hideki Todaka defeat Leo Gamez by very narrow split decision to claim the WBA interim Bantamweight title. This bout was the second meeting between the two and saw Todaka avenging a loss from 3 years earlier though his reign as champion was short lived and he lost the belt in his very next fight as he was defeated, via split decision, by Julio Zarate. Another bout on the same card saw Hidenobu Honda come up short in a WBA Super Flyweight title challenge as he dropped a decision to the monstrously hard hitting Alexander Munoz. Munoz had come into this biout with a eprfect 23-0 (23) record though couldn't get rid of the tough Honda. This was the second world title challenge by Honda and although he was tough he was unable to capture anything more than a Japanese title, something he did way back in 1996 at Light Flyweight. Arguably the most interesting of the three bouts ended in a draw as Veeraphol Sahaprom and Toshiaki Nishioka fought to their second draw. The bout was the 3rd meeting between the two great fighters and as with their previous 2 meeting Sahaprom managed to defend the WBC Bantamweight title. These two would fight again just 5 months later and Sahaprom would show his dominance over Nishioka with a decision win in their 4th and final encounter, that win left Sahaprom as the series winner with a record of 2-0-2. (Image, of Todaka, courtesy of boxrec.com) Our "On this day" for October 3rd is bit of an old school one with none of our 3 selected bouts coming in the last 20 years and in fact none of the Asian fighters mentioned has fought in over a decade, in fact only 1 of the 6 men mentioned all together has fought since 2001. The first bout of note took place way back in 1967 when South Korean great Ki Soo Kim had to pick himself off the canver to defeat Freddie Littles in a very controversial win to defend his WBA and WBC Light Middleweight titles. Littles, an American fighter who would later win the belts, was scored a clear winner by fellow American John Fitzpatrick though was over-ruled by two Korean judges who both felt Kim won the bout, albeit narrowly. For Kim, the first Korean world champion, this would be his final successful defense of the world titles and he'd lose them just 7 months later to Sandro Mazzinghi before retiring in 1969. The second bout of note was in 1979 when another South Korean, Sang Hyun Kim successfully defended the WBC Light Welterweight title for the second time. Kim was well ahead of Japanese challenger Masahiro Yogai before scoring an 11th round stoppage in what was to be Kim's final successful defense of the title, and his sole defense outside of South Korea. For Yogai this was this was his penultimate bout as a professional and his sole world title shot. In 1993 Thai legend Pichit Sithbanprachan recorded the 3rd defense of his IBF Flyweight title. The Thai would stop Miguel Martinez in the 9th round of a tough bout to retain the title though from then on he never looked the same fight and his subsequent defenses were both hard fought and close decision wins. Although the Thai isn't a highly remembered name in boxing circles he was one of the very few world champions to retire undefeated with a record of 24-0 (18). (Image of Sithbanprachan courtesy of boxrec.com) October 2nd won't go down as an historic day in Asian boxing but it's certainly not the worst day in history. Born on this day back in 1978 was 2-time world champion Yutaka Niida. Niida was one of the top Minimumweights through much of the 00's with wins over Chana Porpaoin, Noel Arambulet, Eriberto Gejon and Katsunari Takayama. Although he is best known by international fans for his 2008 loss to Roman Gonzalez, who claimed his first world title by stopping Niida in 4 rounds, he was actually an exceptional boxer himself and is sadly forgotten by many fans due to the fact he was a Minimumweight. As well as Niida's birthday this date holds significance for Tha fans watching the sport in 2002, sadly however it was a day of double setbacks. The first of those setbacks came in Japan as Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym narrowly lost his WBA Super Bantamweight title to Japan's Ryol Li Lee via unanimous decision. The bout was a genuinely enjoyable one with both fighters giving their all though for the Japanese fighter home advantage likely helped him just see his way to the decision in a very close and well fought contest. Interestingly on the same Japanese card fans also saw Takashi Miura retain his Japanese title for the final time before he challenged WBA world champion Takashi Uchiyama some 3 months later. In Panama on the same day fans saw Thai veteran Denkaosan Kaovichit being beaten in just 90 seconds by Luis Concepcion. Kaovichit was hoping to bring home the WBA inerim Flyweight title but simply couldn't cope with the power of Concepcion who seemed to hurt the Thai every time he connected. Amazingly Kaovichit would remain relevant for a further 4 years and move up with success to claim the WBA interim Super Flyweight title. (Image of Ryol Lee Li courtesy of boxrec.com) |
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