August 10th

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)

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