It's rare we get to talk about "bigger" fighters from Japan but Mitsuro Tajima (0-0) is certainly a bigger man, at least for a Japanese boxer, but is also someone worth giving attention to ahead of his debut later this year. Unlike many "bigger" fighters in Japan he's a proven quality, following success in the amateurs, and looks likely to be moved quickly on the domestic scene over the coming year or two.
Tajima is a Japanese-Brazilian, like Cristiano Aoqui, and whilst we won't touch much on the politics of Japanese-Brazilians there is actually more of these than many would assume. In fact around 0.1% to 0.2% of the population of Japan are considered Japanese-Brazilians. Despite the number the Japanese-Brazilian's do still suffer from some prejudice, though thankfully it has become less prevalent than it once was. In the amateurs Tajima made a big mark on the Japanese scene. He fought at 81KG's (around 178.5lbs) in the amateurs, and dominated many of the domestic competitions he entered. He would run up a very impressive 42-9 (20) amateur record and win a number of domestic titles whilst fighting as a university student. His university, the Chuo University, posted several times about his amateur success back in 2015, with Tajima winning the several national amateur titles. As a student Tajima was studying at the faculty of Commerce and impressing in the ring until injury stalled his boxing career, due to a shoulder injury. Prior to turning professional he had been out of the ring since 2018, when accumulated injuries had seen him need to rest his body and recover. Back in February Tajima took part in pro-test, and impressed. He spent his pro-test bout sparring with Yamato Fujinaka at the Kaneko gym in Tokyo. Through out the spar Tajima looked sharp, quick and easily out sped, out boxed, out though and out skilled Fujinaka, who had no answer to the jabs, angles and movement of Tajima. Prior to turning professional Tajima had wanted to fight at the Olympics but it was clear those hopes weren't going to come to anything. Instead of wallowing in what could have been he looked at the offers and decided to turn professional with the Green gym, which has had two world champions and also has a track record, of sorts, with Heavyweights. It was, after all, the Green Gym that had success with Okello Peter, the only fighter to have fought for a world title whilst registered with a Japanese gym. The gym wasn't just selected for it's track record though with Tajima admitting that he also needed one that was close to his mother. His mother isn't the most fluent Japanese speaker, but is his motivation, and he wanted to be close to her. Sadly Tajima's father died when he was young, and the fighter obviously wants to support his mother. Interestingly Tajima expects to put on weight now he has turned professional. He was essentially a big Light Heavyweight, taking his amateur weight, and is going to be fighting as a Heavyweight in the professional ranks. Whether that works or not is yet to be seen, but given the competition in Japan at Heavyweight isn't too stiff we wouldn't be surprised at all if Tajima makes his mark on the domestic scene within just 5 or 6 fights.
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Last week we began a new series, in the wake of the current global issue that has essentially put boxing on a pause, along with everything else. We continue that series this week by looking at the most significant professional wins in the career of Ki Soo Kim (33-2-2, 17), who retired in 1969 having etched his name in the history books.
For this we are again not looking at the biggest, or the best wins, but the ones which have the most significant for Kim and his career. As with the previous article in this series we'll list them chronologically, with the earliest of the five first, and try to shine a light on the most meaningful wins that the Korean legend scored. 1-Sae Chul Kang (October 1961) The start of Kim's career is shrouded in some debate. BoxingM and other Korean sources suggest that Kim debuted in August 1961 with his second bout taking place in October, whilst Boxrec state his debut was in October. Whatever actually happened is unclear, as is the specific date, but what is clear is that in October 1961 Kim beat Sae Chul Kang to become the Korean Middleweight champion. What made this even more impressive is that Kang was the OPBF Light Middleweight champion, making the win a huge one for Kim at this very early stage of his career. 2-Fumio Kaizu (January 10th 1965) Ki Soo Kim twice scored wins over Fumio Kaizu in 1965. The first of those was the more impressive of the two, as he travelled to Japan to stop Kaizu to become the OPBF Middleweight champion, claiming the title for the first time. The win saw Kim become the first Korea to win the title and with 5 defenses of the belt he also set a new bar for champions during his reign, that lasted for more than 2 years. It wouldn't be until Jae Doo Yuh that Kim's record for defenses would be beaten. 3-Nino Benvenuti (June 25th 1966) The significance of a win doesn't really relate to how controversial it was, and Ki Soo Kim's win over Nino Benvenuti is certainly a controversial one, that many who have, and haven't, seen it will have their view on. With that said however the official result is that Kim got the win over the man who had beaten him in the 1960 Olympics, and with the win Kim became the first ever Korean world champion. The win was, by far, the most significant of Kim's career and one of the biggest in Korean boxing history. 4-Freddie Little (October 3rd 1967) Another of Kim's wins that will forever have question marks over it, though again those question marks don't take away from the significance of it, was his 1967 win over Freddie Little. The bout, widely regarded as a full on robbery came against an American who would see controversy strike again a year later, when he was robbed of a win over Sandro Mazzinghi. Little, one of the best 154lb fighters of the late 1960's and early 1970's, would later go on to become a world champion and after retirement served on the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The win over Little really was controversial, but with the decision going his way the win was still a massive one for Kim. A massive one, with a huge asterisk over it. 5-Hisao Minami (March 1st 1969) Picking a 5th fight was quite tricky here, though we've gone with Kim's final professional bout, which came in early 1969 against Hisao Minami. Minami had given Kim his second professional loss, taking a razor thin decision over the Korean in November 1968 to take the OPBF title. Less than 4 months later Kim avenged the loss, reclaiming the OPBF title and closed out his career as an Oriental champion. This win had come after back to back losses for the then 29 year old Korean who seemed to know it was time to walk away from the sport and do other things. Back in March 2019 we cover Yuki Yamauchi as part of our "Introducing..." series, just as he was preparing for his third professional bout. The Shinsei gym youngster hasn't really exploded on the scene since then, but he is well and truly worth keeping on the radar going forward, and did manage to notch a couple of wins in 2019.
When we looked at Yamauchi last year he was 2-0 (1). He'd debuted around 8 months earlier, with a win over Jimboy Rosales and had notched a victory in his second pro bout over Alvin Medura. Those wins saw him head into 2019 with a bit of career momentum and it seemed that that momentum was going to grow through the year. Less than a week after we covered Yamauchi last year he went on to score his third win, defeating the previously unbeaten Claudevan Sese in 3 rounds to move to 3-0 (2). It was a good step forward for Yamauchi, and another good win for the youngster, who was scheduled to go 8 for the first time. He didn't need the 8, but it was good to see his team willing to put him in an in just his third bout. Sadly Yamauchi's career, like that of many young Japanese fighters last years, wasn't really built on through the middle of the year. Whislt we would have loved to have seen him fighting in in the summer at some point we instead had to wait until October to see him back out. Almost 7 months after his win over Sese. It feels very much like a missed opportunity from Yamauchi and his team, one of several we've seen for him since we covered him in "Introducing...". When Yamauchi finally returned to the ring in October 2019 he took on Ryuta Wakamatsu as part of the Knock Out Dynamite tournament. This was Yamauchi's Korakuen Hall debut and saw him stopping Wakamatsu in 3 rounds, taking a decent bonus for the stoppage. For many Yamauchi's bout with Wakamatsu was pretty much the first time they had a chance to see the youngster in action. Not only was it his Korakuen Hall debut, but also his Boxing Raise debut, and the southpaw looked the real deal immediately. He took the center of the ring and controlled the distance with his smart movement, hand speed and patience. It wasn't a flawless performance, but was a calm, mature one, that saw Yamauchi rely on his boxing skills to chip away at Wakamatsu and then burst his face up. Calm, controlling, and impressive. Sadly after stopping Wakamtsu in the Knock Out Dynamite semi final Yamauchi was actually unable to fight in the final this past January, when he was supposed to fight Ren Sasaki. It was another missed opportunity for Yamauchi, who could have built on the win over Wakamatsu. If we're being honest we suspect Yamauchi would have been too skilled for Sasaki, who was lucky to make it past semi-final opponent Morihisa Iju on the same show as Yamauchi's win over Wakamatsu. At the moment it's unclear when Yamauchi will be back in the ring. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later however, with the 24 year old really needing to make a move on with his career sooner rather than later. He's been a professional since July 2018 and has only managed 3 times since then. He's young, but should be a lot more active at this early stage in his career. Whilst everything in sport is pretty much on a world wide lockdown we've decided to try and have a bit of fun. As part of this we've agreed to do a small series on some of the best names in boxing history. Those who follow us on twitter will notice we do share some of these occasionally and thought they would make for a bit of a fun series.
To lay down some ground rules. We will be accepting fighters who either have a strange Ring name, Nickname or Real name. We will also only be accepting fighters who have some form of a link to Asia, be it that they are a citizen of an Asian country or they fought in Asia, or they fought for an OPBF or PABA title. Sadly this rules of the legendary greats like Jukebox Timebomb. Even with those rules we still feel fairly confident we can come up with enough great names to make this a semi-regular series over the coming months. Army Wonder Boy (12-9-5, 7) Filipino fighter Army Wonder Boy is a fighter from the 1950's and 1960's that appears to have never had his real name recorded, though we're open to adding that if someone can inform us of his birth name. Unlike many with great ring names he was a fighter who actually went on to achieve things, and in 1961 he stopped Hisao Kobayashi to become the OPBF Featherweight champion. His reign was a short one, but his name is now etched in history as the 4th ever OPBF Featherweight champion. Clever Tony (2-2, 1) Having mentioned Army Wonder Boy we'll include some of the great names he fought in this article. One of those was Clever Tony, who we again don't have a birth name for. Little is really known about Tony, and his record is likely incomplete, but what we do know is that he fought in the 1950's and lost to Army Wonder Boy in the 1956. It appears that was it for Tony, who may have hung up the gloves before before becoming less clever Tony. Young Terror (24-9, 13) Whilst Clever Tony was unable to defeat Army Wonder Boy "Young Terror", the ring name of Fulgencio Cabangon, was able to defeat him. In fact Young Terror fought a number of notable fighters. He beat Wonder Boy in 1959, future OPBF champion Yukio Katsumata in 1960, Carl Penalosa in 1962, Ric Penalosa in 1963, and twice lost to the excellent Rene Barrientos. Crusher Miura (15-5-1, 10) Heavy handed Toshimi Miura adopted a brilliant name during his career in the 1980's. "Crusher" wasn't a nickname as such, but instead his actual ring name. Like many fighters from the International Gym, which we will feature a lot of, he adopted a fighting name, combining a word that meant something in English with his surname. In the amateurs Miura was a very good fighter, going 43-5, and made a mark on the professional ranks by winning the Japanese Bantamweight title. I M Gentle (6-11-1) We'll finish this with a great one. Australian fighter Charles Costa went by the name "I M Gentle". Typically we wouldn't include Australian fighters but with Gentle having been an early opponent of future OPBF Light Heavyweight champion Gary Hubble we have to include him, and one of the least offensive and least scary ring names of all time. Given his name it may come as no surprise that he failed to pick up a single stoppage win in his 18 fight career. With no fights taking place at the moment we've decided that the show must go on and it'd be foolish to not continue to some of our many running series. With that mind let us bring you the next in our "Who are you?" series...a series that has been on a short hiatus, but really doesn't need to be halted any longer.
Today we'll be looking at heavy handed Filipino puncher All Rivera (21-4, 18), a huge punching fighter who's flawed, but fun to watch, like many punchers. He's never likely to make a mark on the world scene but at the regional level he is danger man and someone who could be involved in a lot of great fights when boxing returns later in the year. Born in March 1993 All De Guia Rivera in Bonbon, North Samar River is certainly not someone we expect many fans to be too aware of. Despite that he's been a professional for close to a decade and has proven to be a bit of a glass cannon, and lots be honest glass cannons are great fun to watch! Rivera debuted in August 2011, aged 18, and he was stopped in just 67 seconds. Despite the loss he was back in the ring just 2 months later, when he stopped Mark Paulo Minguillan in 3 rounds, having been dropped in round 2 before stopping Minguillan the following round. After notching his first win Rivera wouldn't fight against for 7 months. When he did get back in the ring he scored his second win, stopping Avelino Ramos, and started to slowly create some momentum scoring 3 more wins in the following 7 months to end 2012 with a 5-1 (4) record. By then his debut loss was firmly behind him and although he was still fighting at a very low level he was moving in the right direction. The quality of Rivera's opponents began to step up in 2013. They still weren't notable opponents but they went from novices to fighters with experience, like Roselito Campana and Ronals Postrano. Not only were the opponents stepping up, but so to was the scheduled length of his bouts, with Rivera's 8th bout scheduled for 10 rounds. He didn't need the rounds, due to his power, but was obviously expected to be able to manage the rounds if needed. Sadly for Rivera a step up in 2014 proved to be too much as he was stopped in 7 rounds by the often over-looked Leonardo Doronio. Going in to that bout Rivera was 10-1 (8) whilst Doronio was 13-9-2 (8), but Doronio was experienced at a much higher level to Rivera and the result showed that difference. The loss served to be a blessing of sorts for Rivera who moved up in weight in 2015 and scored several notable wins. They included blowing out the experienced Mark Sales and taking the unbeaten record of Adones Cabalquinto, who was 21-0 at the time. Having strung together a couple of good wins Rivera got his biggest bout to date, an OPBF title fight in Japan against Shinya Iwabuchi. On paper this looked like a tough, tough ask for Rivera on his international debut. In reality however he made it look easy, beating up, breaking down and bashing Iwabuchi into submission, stopping the popular Japanese slugger in 7 rounds. Rivera would then go on to defend his title, 9 months later, against Adones Cabalquinto in their second clash. As we entered 2017 Rivera was racing away and had moved to 17-2 (15), he was a regional champion, he was looking exciting and was still only 23 years old. There was a lot to get excited about in regards to the Filipino and his future. He then travelled to Russia and battled Aik Shakhnazaryan, in what turned out to be a thrilling 12 round bout. The action seemed to be dictated, overall, by Rivera, who seemed to do enough for the decision. Sadly though Rivera would go on to lose a razor thin split decision to the Russian. Rivera bounced back from the controversial loss to Shakhnazaryan by winning 3 bouts in a row at home before travelling off to the US last September. Sadly for Rivera he was stopped inside a round on his US debut by Malik Hawkins. The talented Hawkins was far too good, too sharp and too heavy handed for the Filipino, dropping him late in the opening round. It seemed like Rivera beat the count, but the bout was waved off regardless. Since losing to Hawkins we've also seen Rivera fight once, defeating Rodel Wenceslao back in February for the GAB Welterweight title. With potential fights at 140lbs or 147lbs there are some match ups out there for Rivera. Clashes with the likes of Rikki Naito, Alvin Lagumbay, Jayar Inson, Hiroki Okada or Yuki Beppu would also be great to see. Fingers crossed we do see at least one of those potential clashes when the sport returns later in 2020. |
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