After a few poor days in history we've seemingly hit a gold mine for November 10th which has had so much happen over the last 24 years that we didn't even look further back than 1990 and yet we've ended up some cracking fights, some very peculiar defenses as well the debut of a men we truly believe is a superstar in the making. In 1990 we had two bouts of note. One of those came in Indonesia where Abdi Pohan, who was then 3-1 according to boxrec.com, managed to get a shot at WBO Light Flyweight champion Jose De Jesus. Whilst we understand fighters in the lower weights being fast tracked this was a second successive world title shot for Pohan who had failed in IBF title fight against Muangchai Kittikasem just 7 months earlier. Unfortunately for the Indonesian fighter he was to be stopped in the 7th round by Puerto Rico's De Jesus who was stripped a few months later for failing to defend the belt in a timely manner. Pohan would get a third world title shot the following year and come up short against Thailand's Fahlan Sakkreerin before being relegated to regional title fights. He would later retire in 1996 with a record of 9-8 (2), according to boxrec.com. We mention his record here as we believe it's incomplete but we're unsure as to what his actual record should be. It should also be noted that former world champion Elly Pical fought on this card in what was his final bout before a short lived comeback in 2000. On exactly the same day, albeit in South Korea, fans saw the brilliant Myung-Woo Yuh retain his WBA Light Flyweight title with his second successive victory over Leo Gamez. The first fight, 7 months earlier, had resulted in a split decision with Gamez losing his unbeaten record this re-run however wasn't even close with Yuh winning clearly on all 3 cards. Sadly for Yuh he would lose his title just 13 months later losing a very close bout with Hiroki Ioka in what was the only defeat of the Korean fighter's great career. In 1996 Thai fans saw Yokthai Sithoar make the first defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title as he defeated Indonesia's Jack Siahaya. At the time Siahaya was apparently 1-2 though much like Pohan, mentioned above, we suspect his record is incomplete. For Yokthai this was the first of 4 defenses before he lost the title to Satoshi Iida in their second meeting. The Thai would then fail to recapture the title when he was given a chance by Hideki Todaka in 2000, on that occasion he was stopped in the 11th round and it was the beginning of the end for the Thai who failed to score any other notable wins. Just last year we saw Shinsuke Yamanaka retain the WBC Bantamweight title with a 9th round KO against Mexico's Alberto Guevara. This was Yamanaka's 5th defense of the title and came just 3 months after his blow out of the hapless Jose Nieves. Since this win he has added two more defenses of the bout stopping Staphane Jamoye just 5 months later before out pointing Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in a very tough contest. On the same day as the Yamanaka/Guevara bout Japanese boxing fans had another man to be excited about as the then 18 year old Kosei Tanaka beat the then world ranked Oscar Raknafa via decision in what was Tanaka's debut. It was clear from the performance against Raknafa that the youngster was an exceptionally talent fighter and since then he has become one of the leading contenders in the Minimumweight division with his ability being showcased recently in an outstanding win over Ryuji Hara. (Image of Yamanaka courtesy of boxrec.com)
0 Comments
November 9th has been a disappointingly quiet day through Asian boxing history though we have stumbled on 2 fights of interest over the last 45 years.
The first of those bouts was back in 1969 when Japanese great Hiroshi Kobayashi made the 4th defense of his WBA Super Featherweight title and over-came Argentinian veteran Carlos Ruben Canete. Kobayashi had won the title, along with the WBC belt, back in 1967 and although he had been stripped of the WBC belt in 1968 he continued to hold the WBA belt defending it until 1971, when he was stopped by Alfredo Marcano in 10 rounds, and retired after fighting just once more. The second of the bouts happened in 2012 when Indonesian great Chris John defended the WBA Featherweight "super" title against Thailand's Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo and scored what was his final career win. Going into the bout John was unbeaten in 49 fights with a record of 47-0-2 (22) which Chonlatarn was 44-0 (27) and viewed as a dangerous challenger going into the bout, in the end however John dealt with him relatively easily as the Thai struggled with the distance and pace of the contest. Sadly for John he would suffer a technical draw in his following bout against Satoshi Hosono and then suffer a loss to Simpiwe Vetyeka a fight later before retiring from the sport. For Chonlatarn the loss to John was his first world title bout and, in about 2 weeks, he will get his second chance as he takes on Vasyl Lomachenko in a very interesting match up. We've got to be honest November 8th has been a very quiet day through Asian boxing history and going back more than 40 years we've only been able to find a couple of interesting fights.
In 1995 fans saw Japanaese fighter Hiroshi Kawashima successfully defend the WBC Super Flyweight title for the 4th time as he scored a quick win over Indonesian challenger Boy Aruan. Kawashima had won the title 18 months earlier when he had out pointed Jose Luis Bueno and would continue to defend it until 1997 when he lost to Gerry Penalosa and retired. More recently, in 2004, we saw French based Iranian bantamweight Mahyar Monshipour score a 6th round TKO over Thailand's Yoddamrong Sithyodthong in a WBA Super Bantamweight title fight. For Monshipour this was his 3rd title defence and was his first world title bout against a Thai, coming some 16 months before his memorable FOTY with Somsak Sithchatchawal. Yoddamrong was attempting to regain the title he had held back in 2002 before his first career loss, to Osamu Sato. November 7th has been a busy in recent years for Asian boxing with a number of fights in the last 20 years or so, in fact it's been so interesting recently that we didn't even need to go back to the 1970's to find more than enough interesting contests. The furthest back that we went was to 1981 when when Japanese Light Middleweight Tadashi Mihara claimed the WBA Light Middleweight title with a narrow decision win over Rocky Fratto. The bout was for a vacant title and featured two unbeaten men in a genuinely competitive and well fought contest. Sadly for Mihara his reign came to an end up 3 months later as he returned to Japan and was stopped in 6 rounds by the talented but tragic Davey Moore. Despite the loss to Moore we did see Mihara going the rest of his career with out a loss before he retired in 1985 with an excellent record of 24-1 (15). In 1995 Japan's Hideki Todaka made the first defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title as he over-came compatriot Akihiko Nago, who entered the bout unbeaten, with a hard fought 12 round decision. This was the first of two set backs for Nago in world title bouts with the promising Japanese fighter losing a WBC title fight just 13 months later against Masamori Tokuyama. in 2006 we saw the brilliant Katsunari Takayama claim his second world title as he over-came Carlos Melo for the WBA interim Minimumweight crown. The bout was won by 9th round technical decision by Takayama who was in complete control prior to the stoppage exactly 90 seconds into round 9. Sadly for Takayama his reign was short lived and he lost in a WBA unification bout with Yutaka Niida just 5 months later. The loss to Niida was a close one with many feeling Takayama had done more than enough to deserve the win though Niida, fighting at home in Tokyo, took the the split decision to end Takayama's second run as a world title holder. In 2011 Thai fans got proof that Paipharob Kokietgym was the real deal as the Thai out-pointed Jesus Silvestre to claim the WBA Minimumweight title, the very same title Takayama had won 5 years earlier. Paipharob's run as champion was a disappointing one and he failed to defend the title at all. (Image, of Mihara, courtesy of boxrec.com) After a few poor days we appear to be in form in today with a few notable fights coming on November 6th! On this day in 1988 South Korean fans saw one of their greats, Myung-Woo Yuh, record the 10th defense of his WBA Light Flyweight title as he stopped the feather fisted Indonesian Udin Baharudin in the seventh round of their bout. The contest was Yuh's 4th defense of the year and saw him recording his 6th stoppage in world title bouts. For the Indonesian this was just his second stoppage loss and came in his sole world title fight however he would later claim an Indonesian and OPBF title before retiring in the mid 1990's. As for Yuh he would add 7 more defenses before losing the title to Hiroki Ioka in 1991, he would later regain the title and add one extra defense before retiring in the early 1990's with his legacy secured as one of the greatest Korean fighters of all time. It took a further 16 years before we had another November 6th of note, however that came in 2004 when Kostya Tszyu made his final successful defense of the IBF Light Welterweight title. Tszyu was fighting against former foe Sharmba Mitchell and decimated Mitchell in just 3 rounds as he dropped Mitchell for fun before the referee stopped the contest. This was the second meeting between the two men with Tszyu having recorded a 7th round victory over Mitchell in their first meeting in February 2001. Sadly for Tszyu this was to be his final win and in his very next bout he was over-come by Britain's Ricky Hatton and soon afterwards retired from the sport. Tszyu may no longer be active fighter but he does work as a train and has been in the corner for several notable Russian fighters in recent years. More recently, in 2011, we saw 2 world title fights in Japan. One of those was a real struggle for Takahiro Ao who narrowly retained his WBC Super Featherweight title with a split decision win over under-rated Italian Devis Boschiero. The bout was a really narrow one and, had the fight not been in Japan, Boschiero would have taken the title with him back to Italy. The other bout was the birth of a star as Shinsuke Yamanaka took an 11th round stoppage over Mexican Christian Esquivel to claim the WBC Bantamweight title. Yamanaka, who still holds the title, was a relative unknown on the international stage prior to this bout but has quickly become the #1 Bantamweight on the planet with 7 defenses against top tier competition including a recent defense against Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungvisai. (Image of Yuh courtesy of The Orient Boxing Monthly) In 1981 we unfortunately saw Thailand's Netrnoi Sor Vorasingh fail in an attempt to claim the WBC Light Flyweight as he was stopped by the excellent Hilario Zapata of Panama. For the Thai this was an attempt to regain a title he had held in 1978 and sadly it seemed to be the start of the end for the That who would win just one of his following 3 bouts before retired in 1982 follow a loss to the then debuting Samart Payakaroon.
In 1993 Katsuya Onizuka recorded his 4th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight as he over-came Thailand's Thanomsak Sithbaobay, the same man he had beaten for the title back in 1992. Sadly Onizuka would make just one more defense before losing to Hyung Ch Lee via a 9th round TKO and retiring with a record of 24-1 (17). For the Thai this was his third and final shot at a world title, sadly for him it was his third failure in a world title bout. The most recent bout of note came in 1994 when Thailand's Chana Porpaoin recorded the 6th defense of the WBA Minimumweight title with a very narrow decision over Manuel Jesus Herrera. This win saw Chana extending his winning run to 33 and he would add two more defences before being beaten, in December 1995, by Rosendo Alvarez. Chana would later regain the title in 2001 and remained a notable contender until 2005 when he dropped off the radar he retired around 2007 after having won 53 of his 63 career bouts. November 4th is another of the days that has been historically very quiet, in fact going back more than 40 years we could only find 2 fights that we thought were notable. Disappointing to say the least.
The first of those bouts came in 1988 when Filipino fighter Tacy Macalos defeated Jum-Hwan Choi to claim the IBF Light Flyweight title. It was the second meeting between the two menwho had fought some 19 months earlier. In their first meeting Choi had taken a close decision in his native South Kirea this time however it was Macalos who would come out on top in a clear decision win to claim the title. Sadly for the Filipino his reign was a short one and he lost the belt in his first defense against Muangchai Kittikasem in a split decision in Thailand. Sadly whilst the win over Choi was the crowning moment of Macalos's career it was also the start of the end for the Filipino who won just 5 of his subsequent 13 bouts. The second bout was from 2007 when Takafumi Sakata retained the WBA Flyweight title with a very controversial draw again Denkaosan Kaovichit. The bout was ultimately decided by a point deduction from Kaovichit for holding in the last minute of the fight. This was the second defense by Sakata who had won the title 8 months earlier with a stoppage of the previously undefeated Lorenzo Parra, who had completely screwed up his weight. Sakata would defend the title twice more before coming undone to Kaovichit in a rematch in December 2008 when the Thai stopped him in 2 rounds. In 1996 we had a peculiar show in Chiba that featured several notable names, including 2 former Heavyweight champions. One of the bouts saw the legendary George Foreman taking a 12 round decision over Crawford Grimsely, a rare decision win for "Big" George. Another bout saw the great Orlando Canizales defeat Sergio Reyes with a 10th round TKO. The most interesting contest however was the bizarre Heavyweight bout between Tommy Morrison, who had been found HIV positive, and Marcus Rhode, who apparently didn't mind fighting Morrison. The bout is thought to have been the first ever bout featuring a HIV positive fighter. Rhode lasted just 98 seconds. One other notable bout on this cared saw Alonzo Highsmith defeat Mark Gastineau in a bout between two former NFL players completing what truly was an odd show. In 2001 fans saw the hugely talented Kostya Tszyu score his most notable victory as he stopped Zab Judah in the second round of their triple title unification bout. The fight saw Tszyu entering as the WBA and WBC Light Welterweight champion whilst Judah, a then unbeaten and very touted American, entered as the IBF champion. The bout saw Judah being stopped in the second round though the bout is best known for Judah's now infamous "chicken dance" and subsequent 1-man riot which saw him acting like a petulant child in one of the many bizarre moments in Judah's career. Tsyzu would defend the unified crowns just twice before being stripped due to inactivity and eventually he lost the IBF in 2005 losing a very hard fought brawl with the popular Ricky Hatton. Most recently, 2012, we saw a world title double in Japan as Shinsuke Yamanaka defended his WBC Bantamweight crown for the second time and over-came Tomas Rojas, ending the fight in spectacular fashion with a KO of the Year contender. On the same show WBC Flyweight champion Toshiyuki Igarashi made the sole successful defence of his title with a majority decision victory over Nestor Daniel Narvaes, he would lose the belt a fight later to Akira Yaegahsi. (Image courtesy of boxrec.com) We hate doing this section on historically quiet days and November 2nd is sadly one such day with only two really interesting bouts falling on this day in recent years.
The most recent of those two bouts came on November 2nd 2013 in New York City as Kazakh KO King Gennady Golovkin scored and 8th round retirement victory over the supposedly dangerous Curtis Stevens. Golovkin was fighting for the 4th time in the US and many had suspected that this would be a chin check for the supposed iron chinned Kazakh. What we actually found out was that Stevens was a flat track bully and when hit back he went into his shell and the bout ended up being very one sided before the American was eventually saved by his corner. The previous bout came some 17 years earlier, in 1996, when when WBC Featherweight champion Luisito Espinosa traveled to Japan and recorded the 3rd defense of his title as he stopped Japan's Nobutoshi Hiranaka in 8 rounds. Following this win the Filipino fighter would continue to add defenses to his record until eventually being dethroned in 1999 by Cesar Soto. Sadly after the loss to Soto things went down hill for the Filipino who would go 3-4 before retiring in 2005 after successive stoppage losses. For Hiranaka this was his second loss in a world title bout and came less than 15 months after a defeat to Eloy Rojas, sadly it was also to be his last world title bout and he would win just 2 of his following 7 bouts before passing away in 2000 following a car accident. At the time he was just 31. November 1st 2014 seems like one of the years best day's, unfortunately however through history we have had very little fall on this date with only a small handful of interesting or notable bouts. The first came in 1986 when Thai great Khaosai Galaxy made the 4th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title courtesy of a 5th round KO against Israel Contreras in the Caribbean island of Curacao. The venue was certainly an unusual one for Galaxy, who fought much of his career in his native Thailand, however the result was a familar one with Galaxy's power being too much for his foe who entered the bout unbeaten in 25 bouts dating back to 1981. The quality of Contreras was later established in 1990 and 1991 when he won the WBO and then the WBA Bantamweight titles, defeating Luisito Espinosa for the WBA title. Incidentally Espinosa had actually won that title when he stopped Khaokor Galaxy, Khaosai's twin brother, just weeks before Khaosai stopped Contreras. More recently, in 2008, we saw Filipino star Nonito Donaire over-come one of his toughest foes, South African Flyweight Moruti Mthalane, to retain his IBF Flyweight title. This was Donaire's second defense of the title he won when he stopped Vic Darchinyan in 5 rounds and was one of the toughest bouts, by far, of Donaire's career. Sadly for Mthalane however he was stopped on a cut in round 6 and although it seemed likely we would see a rematch Donaire quickly left the division to chase a Super Flyweight title. The rest, as they say, is history and Donaire would subsequently claim titles all the way up to Featherweight in a fantastic career that has made him one of the sports most popular fighters. (Image of Donaire courtesy of boxrec.com) |
Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
|