September 26th

Whilst looking for notable events on we didn't come across a lot, but we did stumble on some very interesting bouts and 3 bouts in total that we felt deserved to be included in our "On this Day" segment.

The first of the bouts was the most shocking and should possibly be remembered as one of the biggest upsets on Asian soil, a real contender to actually being a bigger upset than Buster Douglas's win in Japan against Mike Tyson. This bout came in 1973 and saw Korean Yong Kang Kim lose his WBA Flyweight title to Aquiles Guzman via a unanimous decision. What made this bout very notable wasn't just that a Korean lost a clear decision at home but that Aquiles's record at the time was somewhat odd. According to boxrec Aquiles entered the bout with a record of 6-5-3 (4) and thus had one of the worst records of a world champion on the day that he won the belt. It's fair to suggest however that boxrec.com doesn't have the complete record for Guzman.

In 2003 we saw the start of Chris John's long reign as a world title holder. It was on this day that John over-came Oscar Leon via split decision to claim the WBA interim Featherweight title. That title would later be upgraded and John would hold one variant or another of the WBA belt until 2013 when he was beaten by Simpiwe Vetyeka and soon afterwards retired. Although many do slate John's reign as champion he did beat numerous well known or respectable fighters such as Derrick Gainer, Juan Manuel Marquez, Rocky Juarez, Daud Cino Yordan and Hiroyuki Enoki with the Enoki bout certainly being a highlight in terms of action.

More recently fans saw Thailand's Poonsawat Kratingdeanggym travel over to Ireland to put away Bernard Dunne and claim the WBA Super Bantamweight title in a memorable victory for the Thai. Dunne, a hugely popular Irish fighter, was stopped in 3 by the Thai who sadly only had a short reign as champion though did, on his day, look a tremendous fighter.

(Image, or Poonsawat stopping Dunne, courtesy of boxrec.com 

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