November 18th

For November 18th we've gone back 25 years and fought 3 fights that we thought were notable enough to include here. One of which features a man in action this coming weekend.

We'll start with the most recent bout which came in 2006 and saw Filipino fan favourite Manny Pacquiao defend his WBC International Super Featherweight title against Mexican legend Erik Morales. This was the third meeting between the two men,who were 1-1 going into this bout, and saw the series between them ending in clinical fashion as Pacquiao beat the fight out of Morales in just 3 rounds. The loss for Morales was, in some ways, his most humiliating as he appeared to be beating into retirement and shook his head on the canvas as if to suggest he didn't want to continue. Amazingly several years later Morales would manage to carve out a small second run winning the WBC Light Welterweight title though was essentially a wreck of his former self after this bout. For Pacquiao this win further strengthened his claim as one of the best fighters on the planet and helped enhance his reputation as Mexecutioner. This coming weekend we will again see Pacquiao attempting to show his ability as he attempts to defend his WBO Welterweight title against unbeaten American Chris Algieri.

In 1993 we saw Hiroaki Yakota fail in his attempt to claim the WBA Super Bantamweight title, then held by Wilfredo Vazquez. Yokota had previously held the Japanese national title and put a good account against "El Orgullo de Puerto Rico" though was unable to beat the Puerto Rican power puncher. Yakota would continue to fight on, somewhat irregularly, until 2007 with out losing another bout though this was his sole world title bout.

The first of our 3 bouts was from 1992 when South Korean great Myung-Woo Yuh reclaimed the WBA Light Flyweight title and avenged his sole loss as he took a majority decision against Hiroki Ioka. Ioka had beaten Yuh the previous December but the Japanese fighter was unable to do the same as Yuh seemed to clear beat the Japanese fighter, despite one judge some how viewing the bout as an even contest. Yuh would defend the belt once more before retiring. As for Ioka he would come up short in 4 subsequent world title bouts before retiring at the turn of the century. Ioka now runs the gym that promotes his nephew Kazuto Ioka.

(Image courtesy of boxrec.com)

---