Over the last few years we've seen a number of Japanese fights become 3-weight world champions, with Hozumi Hasegawa becoming the latest last year when he claimed the WBC Super Bantamweight title. This coming Monday we see one Japanese fighter attempt to become the first 4-weight champion from the country, and secure their legacy as one of the key female figures in Japanese boxing history. That is the brilliantly talented, exciting and aggressive Naoko Fujioka (15-2, 6), who will look to the add the WBA female Flyweight title to her collection, which includes world titles at Minimumweight, Super Flyweight and Bantamweight. In the opposite corner to the 41 year old Fujioka will be 32 year old Mexican fighter Isabel Millan (18-2-1, 8), with the two women fighting for the vacant title. Fujioka has been one of the stars of female boxing, particularly in the East. She was a stand out amateur before turning professional in 2009 and quickly raced to a title, claiming the OPBF female Minimumweight title in just her 4th professional title. She would add the WBC female Minimumweight just 2 fights later, beating Anabel Ortiz for the belt. Having out grown the Minimumweight division Fujioka jumped up to Super Flyweight, battered Naoko Yamaguchi for the WBA female Super Flyweight title and then pursued more titles. Unfortunate she has, twice, lost in bouts for Flyweight gold but did claim the WBO female Bantamweight title in 2015 when she beat Hee Jung Yuh. In the ring Fujioka is an aggressive fighter, who looks for the stoppage but can also box. A bit of a boxer-brawler if you will. She's tough, having take some serious bombs from Shindo Go last year, and determined. Unfortunately she hasn't shown her best outside of Japan, losing 2 of her 3 bouts outside of her homeland. Despite those losses, to Susi Kentikian and Jessica Chavez, Fujioka showed her ability and was competitive with both, and in reality the decision against Chavez was one of the worst in world class female boxing last year. Whilst Fujioka is a proven fighter, with wins against the likes of Naoko Shibata, Anabel Ortiz, Naoko Yamaguchi, Mariana Juarez and Shindo Go the same cannot be said of Millan. In fact the Mexican has yet to score a major win at genuine world level, though has got some notable ones including a victory last year over Amira Hamzaoui. That win netted Millan the WBF female Flyweight title which she has defended once. When it comes to her most notable bout that was loss, with Millan being stopped by Esmeraldo Moreno in 2014. Since her loss to Moreno fans have seen Millan go 8-0 (2), though mostly against very limited opposition. She did score a win in France, as mentioned against Hamzaoui, but fighting in Japan against a fighter like Fujioka is a massive step up. From the footage of Millan she looks like a tall and rangy fighter but one who lacks in terms of skills and ring IQ, rarely setting up her punches and often looking more like a gangly fighter than a trained boxer, throwing looping open shots from outside of range. At the level she's been fighting at that's not been too much of a problem but against a fighter like Fujioka it will be a major issues. Given what's available of both women it's hard to see anything but a win for Fujioka, in fact we'd be going with Fujioka to stop Millan in the middle rounds with the Japanese fighter simply breaking down Millan with her tenacity and power. If she does that, as we're predicting, then Fujioka will mark her name in the history books as the first Japanese fighter to become a 4-weight world chanmpion.
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Last weekend we saw two of the truly elite female fighters face off for a female Flyweight title, as Jessica Chavez and Naoko Fujioka traded blows for the WBC crown. Despite high expectations for that bout it ended up being a stinker with Chavez doing her best to spoil and Fujioka doing her best to look for a 1-punch KO, resulting in a frustrating and messy bout that lacked drama. This coming Sunday, just 8 days after that highly anticipated stinker, we get another female Flyweight title fight, as the once beaten Nana Yoshikawa (6-1, 4) takes on former Light Flyweight champion Eun Hye Lee (8-0, 3). For the 38 year old Yoshikawa this will be her second world title bout, following a loss to Anabel Ortiz last year. Since that kiss Yoshikawa has fought twice, stopping two limited opponents. Although Yoshikawa was embarrassed by Ortiz she has moved up form 105lbs to 112lbs and let her body fill out rather than continue to try and make a lower weight. At 112lbs she is a fully fledged fighter and can rely on her skills, which are really solid courtesy of a very strong amateur background. She's not close to the level of Fujioka, and we dare saw Chaoz Minowa would beat her already, but she's accomplished, confident and has been developing with good training in Mexico. Whilst Yoshikawa is talented we can't ignore than fact she is 38 years old. Yeah she's still younger than Fujioka, who we still view as one of the top female fighters on the planet at 41 years old, At that sort of age fighters do decline and it's fair to say that it's now or never for Yoshikawa, who turned professional when she was 35. A loss here will likely be the end of her dreams of being a champion. That's a double edged sword though, the age may inspire her to put it all out there, refusing to losing with out giving everything, or it could simply be a case of trying too much too late in her career. Aged 33 the Korean visitor is the much younger fighter though she's fighting outside of Korea for the first time and will also be ending a 12 month break from the ring, a break that has seen her career being plagued by financial problems. Those problems have not only left her being inactive but also saw her having to give up the WBO female Light Flyweight title, after seeing a bout with Louisa Hawton fall through multiple times. In fairness Hawton would have been a real handful for Lee but it would still have been nice to have seen that bout happen. Having previously held a world title at 108lbs Lee will be looking to become a 2-weight world champion, however her competition so far hasn't been great and her most notable wins, over Eun Young Huh and Ploynapa Sakrungrueng are hardly outstanding, even for female for boxing. She looked in control of both of those bouts but neither has really proven her as a world class fighter, and both of those notable wins has been stopped by the naturally smaller Momo Koseki, with being stopped quicker by Koseki than by Lee. Don't get us wrong, she's good, but she's not outstanding and she lacks any sort of break out, world class performance. We think, with home advantages and the pressure of needing to perform, Yoshikawa should take this, She won't have it all her own way but should be favoured to sneak a competitive decision. However the winner should be careful with Fujioka making it clear she wants a Flyweight title and likely seeing the winner of this as a better, more suitable target than fighting on the road, especially after last weekend's hugfest. Neither Yoshikawa or Lee would stand a chance against Fujioka and so neither will want to catch her eye, or the beating that the Japanese boxing queen would give them. Th bout will almost certainly be better than last weeks, which was such a huge disappointment, but don't expect to see two world class fighters in the ring, as both are a long way from the divisional elite. As boxing fans we want to see the best fighters facing off, we want to really know who the best is and we love seeing fights between well matched fighters. This coming Saturday we get such a bout as WBC female Flyweight champion Jessica Chavez (27-4-3, 4) defends her belt against 3-weight champion Naoko Fujioka (15-1, 6), who will be attempting to become a 4-weight champion. The two of them are both very highly regarded and are both among the top female boxers, pound-for-pound, on the planet. To fans like ourselves, this is a treat. Of the two fighters the more famous is probably Chavez. The 28 year old “Kika” is a 2-weight world champion who has faced a real who's who of female boxing including Ana Arrazola, Ibeth Zamora Silva, Yesica Yolanda Bopp, Esmeralda Moreno, Irma Sanchez, Tenkai Tsunami, Melissa McMorrow, Arely Mucino and Simona Galassi. Although she has suffered some losses whilst going that that list of names she has secured her place as one of the very best female fighters on the planet and has held titles at both 108lbs and 112lbs. In the ring Chavez is a busy, active fighter who is well schooled and knows how to use the ring. She's not a puncher, or the most physically imposing, but she is very talented and has a great engine, being able to let shots got at a solid pace through out a fight. Not only is she able to up the ante late in a fight but she has every shot in the book, and doesn't mind attacking the body, standing and trading or boxing on the foot. For the champion this will be the 4th defense of the title that she won the title a little over a year ago. She will also be looking to extend a 7 fight winning run and score another major win, further defining her career as one of the truly elite female boxers. Of course whilst Chavez is the champion she's certainly not up against a nobody with Fujioka being a 3-weight world champion who is dropping from Bantamweight to Flyweight in an attempt to become a 4-weight champion. Interestingly her only loss to date came in her only other Flyweight world title fight, a loss to Susi Kentikian back in November 2014 for the WBA title. Aged 41 Fujioka is certainly at the back end of her career, however she is a very young 41 year old with a professional career of just 7 years of professional experience. She was however an excellent amateur before turning professional and has been fast tracked. She claimed her first title, the OPBF female Minimumweight title in her 4th bout and her first world title bout in her 6th bout. In 2013 she jumped from 105lbs to 115lbs and dominated Naoko Yamaguchi to become a 2-weight champion. Since then she tested the water at 112lbs before claiming a world title at 118lbs. Whilst she may not have the depth in numbers of Chavez it's fair to say that Fujioka has a strong resume herself. She holds wins over the likes of Naoko Shibata, Anabel Ortiz, Naoko Yamaguchi and Mariana Juarez and a win over Chavez would cement her standing at one of the best of her generation. Fujioka, like the champion, is a multifacted fighter who has shown an ability to box of fight. At her best she combines both, and knows when to pick up the action, as she showed last year when she defeated Mariana Jaurez with a split decision in her only previous bout in Mexico. What we're expecting here, when these two brilliant fighters get in the ring, is something special. Both should be very even, both are the same high and both are similar fighters in the ring. We suspect the fight will be a very well boxed bout early on though become a progressively rougher and tougher bout as the rounds pass by and the final rounds will be nothing but a high paced war. Sadly for Fujioka the bout being in Mexico will likely see the home fighter being favoured, however the fight should still be something thoroughly exciting and brilliant to watch. Several fighters have had a year they would like to forget this year. One of those, we suspect, is Shindo Go (14-2, 9) who has had a year that hasn't been a terrible one in terms of results but has been a year over-shadowed by out of the ring issues. She'll be hoping to put all those issues behind this coming weekend when she seeks the 3rd defense of her WBC female Flyweight title and attempts to over-come Mexico's very talented Arely Mucino (20-2-2-1, 10). If you've not followed Go's year then you've likely miss out on the drama that has followed her through much of the year and seen her announce that she would be vacating her title, falling out with her former gym and having a bout with Mucino re-arranged several times. Thankfully it does appear that since signing with Green Tsuda her boxing life has begun to get back on track though a loss to Mucino would derail her once again. In the ring Go is a very under-rated fighter who hits hard than most female fighters, is tougher than most female fighters and can bang, brawl or box. We're not going to consider her unbeatable but she's not an easy fighter to beat. On her debut she came up narrowly short against Masae Akitaya, who would later go on to fight in a trio of world title bouts, whilst a little more than 2 years ago she was very unlucky to come up short against Mexican great Mariana Juarez. One of the few flaws with Go is that she's not the most technical. She is skilled but there are technical holes in her game which she can often negate with her power and toughness. Mexico's Mucino is a proven world class fighter who has shared the ring with a relative who's who of female boxing. This has seen her fight to a no contest with Susi Kentikian, score wins over Carolina Alvarez, Melissa McMorrow and Tenkai Tsunami whilst suffering defeats to Ava Knight and Mariana Juarez. Although he level of competition has been spectacular she hasn't looked good against the top foes and her wins over McMorrow and Tsunami have both been incredibly close. Mucino's flaw has been toughness. She was stopped quickly by Knight who took her out in just 2 rounds whilst Juarez also dropped her. We suspect that Go has the power to do just that to Mucino who will almost certainly have to fight carefully, despite fighting at home. We know that Mexico has been a notoriously hard country to win a bout in as a visitor but here we think we have to go with Go who we think has the power to stop Mucino, if she catches her clean. If Go can't hurt Mucino however then this bout promises to be a tough one for the champion. We know that some fight fans really look down on female boxing though we'll admit that a bout between two highly skilled female fighters genuinely excites us. Sadly many female fights are mismatches with one fighter a clear favourite over the other and very few female world title fights can be described as a "super fight". This coming weekend however we get a sensational female bout which really does deserve the tag of being a "super fight".
The bout in question will see Japan's sensational Naoko Fujioka (12-0, 6), one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters on the planet and the current WBA Super Flyweight champion, travelling to Germany to take on the European queen of the lower weights Susi Kentikian (33-2-0-1, 17), the current WBA Flyweight champion. It's a clash of cultures, a clash of two elite fighters, a clash of champions and chance for both fighters to score a genuinely career defining victory. It's as close to to a perfect bout as can be made in female boxing. Fujioka is, to us, the most naturally talented and technically proficient female boxer on the planet. If you're a boxing fan Fujioka is a joy to watch and despite being 39 years old she still appears to be fresh as a daisy. She's a sharp and accurate fighter who has all the tools to impress any fan watching. It was in the amateur ranks that Fujioka first made her name though since turning professional in 2009 she has really been nigh on unbeatable, in fact nobody has even run her close in what has been a sensational career. She claimed her first title, the OPBF Minimumweight title, in just her 4th bout, her first world title, the WBC Minimumweight just 2 fights later and, last year, she jumped from Minimumweight to Super Flyweight to win a second divisional world title. The most impressive thing about Fujioka however isn't her title achievements but her opposition. In just 12 fights she has beaten several world class fighters such as Naoko Shibata, Anabel Ortiz, Victoria Argueta and Naoko Yamaguchi, a phenomenal foursome. The big question for Fujioka isn't her talent, and in fact it's not even her age, it's how she will fight on the road. This will be her first fight outside of Japan and just her second bout outside of the Korakuen Hall. How she will fight in Germany is a really big issue given that German judging has been often been questioned over the years with many suggesting it's the worst in the world. Will Fujioka fight like she'll need a stoppage or will she fight like her usual and box intelligently? More importantly she'll know this is her chance to impress a whole new audience to become a 3-weight world champions, just the second in Japanese history, those may well drive her on and neutralise the crowd. For those who haven't seen Fujioka we have managed to track down the footage of her sensational performance against Yamaguchi, a fight that shows just how talented the Japanese fighter is Germany's popular Kentikian, popularly known as the "Killer Queen" has long been one of the figureheads of German female boxing and is one of the most popular female fighters in Europe. Not only is she popular but she's also talented, hard working and a fighter who often fights at a hectic and exciting pace. She lacks power but more than makes up for it in sheer determination and limitless energy. Aged 27 it does seem like Kentikian has been around for years and in fact she has been. She won her first world title, the WBA female Flyweight title, way back in 2007 and would later unify it with WBO title as she racked up defense after defense after defense. Some of those defenses were genuinely class and came against the likes of Nadia Raoui whilst others were little more than stay busy fights, such as her defense against Nadia Hokmi. Sadly for Kentikian she came a cropper in 2012 losing back to back decisions to Melissa McMorro and Carina Moreno. Since 2013 however she has run 4 successive wins and reclaimed the WBA Flyweight title whilst scoring a revenge victory over Carima Moreno and notable victories over Simona Galassi and Dan Bi Kim. That performance against Kim can be seen in full here for those who haven't got around to see the German in action. In the ring Kentikian is popular, fights like a whirlwind but is diminutive, light hitting and has a lot of miles on the tank for a 27 year old. She's also not the most technically skilled preferring work rate over accuracy and accumulation over sitting on her shots. It's worked for her on the whole but her two losses do stand out to suggest that she's not unbeatable and that she's not the untouchable fighter she once looked. Going in we're viewing this as a boxer against a swarmer. Typically those stylistic matches favour the swarmer, but the boxer here is the bigger fighter, the naturally stronger fighter and the one with more to gain in terms of reputation. On the other hand the swarmer, Kentikian, will be the fan favourite, will have home comforts and will possibly even get the edge with the judges. With those things in mind we are expecting something a little bit special with both looking break down the other fighter in a potential female FOTY. Usually we'd favour a German champion at home but we really think Fujioka is on a different level to Kentikian and we suspect she'll show that class late to wear down a tiring Kentikian in the later rounds of a genuine thriller. If you're a boxing fan we need to advise you not miss this one. This coming weekend is one of the craziest we've known since we first started this site last year. There are so many big fights, so many big shows and so much action that it's easy to forget at least 1 or 2 fights, it's inevitable that when you get too many fights one slips through the net. One fight that almost slipped through was this weekend's WBA female Flyweight title fight between Korea's Dan Bi Kim (9-2-1, 2) and the defending champion Susi Kentikian (32-2-0-1, 16), AKA "The Killer Queen", one of the truly sensational female fighters and one of the most popular in Europe. It's surprising that Kim could ever slip through the net due to her memorable 2009 contest with Nongmuay Kokietgym for the WBC interim female Light Flyweight title. That bout was everything detractors of female boxing point to when trying to make their point. Kim, who looked little more than a street fighter, had 5 points deducted for fouls that included biting her opponent in a contest that was less "boxing" and more a no holds barred fight. In that fight Kim rushed with her head, wrestled, used head locks and every dirty trick in the book. In fact Kim could well have taught the likes of Bernard Hopkins a few new tricks which aren't in the book. Since the first fight between Kim and Nongmuay the two women did fight again, this time in a more orthodox contest which saw an improved Kim giving a decent account of herself, especially compared to her first fight with her first fight against the Thai. Unfortunately though there is nothing to suggest that Kim has become world class, despite the fact she did win the very lightly regarded IFBA Minimumweight title earlier this year with a decisive decision win over Dorkmaipah Kiatpompetch, herself a total novice in the ring. Kim's best opponent so far is Nongmuay, the woman who holds both defeats on Kim's record. To call Nongmuay world class however is really stretching the definition of "world class" and she's not much better than the Korean. Unfortunately for Kim she is going from fighting the likes of Nongmuay and Dorkmaipah to fighting the truly world class Kentikian, a fighter who is on the fringes of being one of the elite female pound-for-pound fighters. Although not a big puncher Kentikian has all the other tools a fighter could wish for. She is fast, intelligent in the ring, has great stamina, fantastic movement, always has a plan B and can box either going forward or going backwards. She's not flawless but she is very, very talented as shown by her very impressive record which includes wins over a notable who's who of female boxing such as Simona Galassi, Carina Moreno, Teeraporn Pannimit, Nadia Raoui and Ana Arrazola. Whilst Kim's style is a nightmare for anyone due to her unpredictability and flat out roughness she's unlikely to be able to intimidate Kentikian who will likely use her accurate punches and movement to great effect as Kim rushes in only to get tagged repeatedly. We'd love to see Kim with a good trainer as she has the toughness to match the likes of Momo Koseki though at this point in her career a good trainer likely doesn't want her and another loss here could see no one in boxing wanting her. She's a real handful for all the wrong reasons and will likely give Kentikian a headache despite losing clearly. (Picture, of Kim, courtesy of http://www.koreaboxing.co.kr/) When we talk about the best female boxers in Japan 2 or 3 fighters stand out. One of those is Naoka Fujioka, arguably the most complete female boxer on the planet and another is Momo Koseki the rough and tough WBC Atomweight champion. Outside of the genuine elite we then get to very good but not elite fights, fighters like Tenkai Tsunami, a proven world class fighter, and Shindo Go (13-2 8) the current WBC female Flyweight champion. Go will be hoping to make the second defence of her title this coming Sunday as she takes on Thailand's baby faced Kledpetch Lookmuangkan (6-2, 1), a fighter fighting in her first "real" world title fight. It's the champion we'll start with and it's the champion who will be strongly favoured here. She is, after all, a proven world class fighter with victories over the likes of Kanittha Kokietgym, Jujeath Nagaowa and Renata Szebeledi as well as a razor thin and highly debateable loss to Mexican goldn girl Mariana Juarez. Although not the most skilled, and certainly not the same level of technical ability as Fujioka, Go is tough, heavy handed, aggressive and a vicious fighter in the ring. She's the sort of fighter who hurts her opponents when she connects cleanly, as shown by her 8 stoppages from 13 wins, and although she's been taken the distance in her 4 most recent fights they were against fights with a combined 3 stoppage losses, at the time, from around 80 bouts! In Kledpetch we have a much less well known fighter and with good reason, her competition hasn't been good enough to really make her famous. From Kledpetch's 8 bouts her most notable opponents have been Hee-Jung Yuh, who stopped the Thai in 8 rounds, and Kanittha Kokietgym, who Kledpetch out pointed. Unfortunately for Kledpetch the win over Kanittha isn't really worth a lot considering Kanittha had lost to every notable name she had fought previously, such as Go, Fujioka, Irma Sanchez and Jessica Chavez. From what we've read about Kledpetch she's a gutsy fighter with nice handspeed but her lack of power is a real issue and one that will be capitalised on by Go who we think will try and force the Thai youngster into a fight. Kledpetch does have skills to make life tough for Go for a round or two but we thing, after 3 or 4 rounds the Japanese fighter will have found her range and will start to gradually break down the Thai who will be lucky to see out the 10 round distance, something she has never accomplished before. (Image courtesy of http://www.kuratokigym.jp/ When it comes to talking about under-rated female fighters it's fair to suggest that Shindo Go (12-2, 8) is one of the most under-rated female fighters on the planet. Although she's the WBC Flyweight champion few really know about Go or her talents. Born in 1987 Go turned professional when she was just 20. Although she lost on debut, a very close decision to Masae Akitaya, her talent was clear and she'd follow up the debut loss with 10 successive victories 8 of which came by KO. Those victories not only saw her building up a reputation for herself in Japan but also claiming the much coveted OPBF Flyweight. Go's winning run came to an end in 2012 when she lost a close and very hard fought decision to Mariana Juarez in California. Since then though she has scored 2 more victories including a decision over Renata Szebeledi, a decision that saw Go claiming the WBC Flyweight title. Go will be defending that title for the first time when she takes on Mexican challenger Judith Rodriguez (6-5, 4). Although Rodriguez's record is less than stellar she has been one of those fighters who has faced stiff test after stiff test. These tests have seen Rodriguez losing to Zulina Munoz, Daniela Romina Bermudez and Naoko Yamaguchi 3 very highly regarded fighters. Although Rodriguez has been losing to top fighters on a regular basis she has proven herself to be tough. She's never been stopped, she's fought well on foreign soil and is one of the few fighters to see out the 10 rounds with Naoko Yamaguchi. With this in mind it's hard to imagine Go stopping her, however with Go's skills, movement and speed it's easy to see a near shut out in favour of the talented Japanese fighter. It may take a while before the world wakes up to the talent of Go but hopefully a good performance here will help speed that process up. |
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