This year has been a great one for boxing fans form Kyoto who have seen a number of fighters from their prefecture claim Japanese titles. One of those is Japanese Lightweight champion Kota Tokunaga (16-2, 11) who seeks the second defense of his title on December 16th when he faces first time challenger Kazuhiro Nishitani (15-3-1, 7). For Tokunaga it's a perfect way to cap off a career defining year whilst Nishitani could complete a remarkable 12 months of his own and announce himself a genuine name on the domestic scene. Of the two men it's Tokunaga who impressed us the most. He first made a mark by stopping Yuki Miyoshi in 2 rounds back in 2012 and then, sadly, was stopped in a round by Ronald Pontillas in a result that saw Tokunaga really need to re-invent himself. Prior to the Pontillas fight Tokunaga was an aggressively minded boxer-puncher who looked for wins and looked for them early. Since then however he has been happy to go rounds whilst still being a boxer-puncher, and as a result has gone unbeaten running up 8 wins, with 4 stoppage. Having started 8-2 (7) it would have been easy for Tokunaga to never develop his skills beyond being a puncher. Sadly for him the loss to Pontillas was his second opening round stoppage loss and whilst he could have remained a wild swinger he seemed to realise that he had to change if he was going to really progress to becoming a title holder. By developing he has become one of the stars of the WOZ gym and the Kyoto boxing scene. Whilst he can be hurt Tokunaga has developed a style that tends to protect his weaknesses. He uses his long and lanky frame to fight at range, uses his jab excellently and allows himself to ease into bouts. He's not a quick starter but has made a habit, in recent bouts at least, of coming on strong, this has resulted in late stoppages in his last two bouts. Notably however he's not world class and was relatively lucky to retain his title last time out, when he scored a stoppage with just 70 seconds left whilst behind on the cards. On one hard he was lucky, on the other hand he showed a real will to win no matter how far behind he was. It's fair to say that Nishitani is a much less well known fighter, despite having fought more times than the champion. The challenger, who debuted back in 2009, ran off a 7 fight winning streak before losing bouts to Tetsuya Nishinaga and Yuhei Suzuki, who was incidentally the last challenge to Tokunaga's throne. Since those losses Nishitani has gone 8-1-1 (5) whilst mixing in solid, but unspectacular domestic competition. Those bouts have seen fail to shine, despite being on a good run on paper. Sadly for Nishitani his most recent set backs have come in recent bouts. Last December he was held to a draw by the limited Yushi Fujita whilst this past June he was beaten by Yusuke Tsukada. Since those set backs he has won once, claiming a narrow win over Junki Oura. Those results don't bode well for Nishitani given that they have all come against opponents much worse than Tokunaga, though the bouts will certainly have helped him develop as a fighter. Whilst not a spectacular fighter Nishitani has shown an ability to go 10 rounds, he is tough and could well be a handful for Tokunaga, if the champion isn't completely on his game. Saying that however we do favour the champion to retain his title, despite some sticky moments.
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The Lightweight scene in Japan isn't one of the hottest at the moment. Sadly the top domestic fighters in the country have no interest in mixing with domestic level competition and as a result the likes of Masayoshi Nakatani, Yoshitako Kato and Takahiro Ao will not be chasing the Japanese national title. That has left us with a relatively poor list of contenders domestically. Despite the relative lack of talent, both coming through and established, we do still have some intriguing domestic match ups. One of which will take place on September 16th in Kyoto as national champion Kota Tokunaga (15-2, 10) defends his belt against fellow puncher Yuhei Suzuki (16-4, 12). Between the two of them hey have seen the final bell in 11 of 37 bouts and proven that whilst they can bang both can also be hurt. Not only can they be hurt, but they can also be hurt early with 3 of their 4 combined stoppage loses coming in the first 4 rounds. On paper the bout is an intriguing one, though it's made even better by the fact that not only is a title on the line but there is also local bragging rights up for grabs with both men living on the island of Honshu. As mentioned above, Tokunaga is the champion. He won the title earlier this year when he stopped Yuya Sugizaki in the 8th round for the previously vacant title. Prior to the stoppage Tokunaga was in a narrow lead though had really began to surge after taking his time to settle into the bout. It was his first title bout and he showed enough to get excited about as he showed he could box at range and deliver on the inside, with some lovely uppercuts. The win over Sugizaki was, by far, the most meaningful of Tokunaga's career and continued a winning streak that now stands at 7 fights, with 3 by KO, following an opening round loss to upset minded Filipino Ronald Pontillas. The loss to Pontillas has been a major turning point in Tokunaga's career and since then he has developed significantly whilst starting to show signs of being more than just a heavy handed fighter. Aged 26 and stood at 5'10” Tokunaga is a young fighter who tends to have notable size advantages over most opponents. He can use that size very well with his sharp jab and, as mentioned, he does have a lovely uppercut. Sadly however he has been blown out inside a round in both of his losses and has got serious question marks, still, over his chin. It does seem that he now boxes a bit to protect himself, though that has lead to him looking like a slow starter at times and 6 of his last 7 have gone 7 rounds or more. Aged 25 Suzuki will be hoping it's third time lucky after two title fight defeats to former champion Yoshitaka Kato. Whilst those losses aren't shameful by any means, given that Kato is a really good fighter, they have joined by defeats to Daiki Koide and domestic journeyman Kosuke Iwashita. The loss to Iwashita really being one that stands out like a sore thumb. With 4 losses against his name Suzuki maybe doesn't look that great on paper though he does hold a number of notable victories. These include a 2nd round KO win against Hiroshi Nakamori and a 5th round TKO win against Accel Sumiyoshi. He, like Tokunaga, is a puncher however he certainly has the edge in experience and has also had the chance to spar with OPBF champion Nakatani, a man who is very similar in terms of build to Tokunaga, albeit on a totally different level in terms of skill. Dubbed the “Wonder Boy” Suzuki is described as a boxer-fighter on the Shinsei gym website, though we'd describe him more of a fighter. He'll come forward and look to drag Tokunaga into a fight. That would be a smart tactic given that the challenger will be giving about around 3” in height. He will have to neutralise the jab, reach and movement of Tokunaga to have any chance, though if he can land his power on the inside he could well stop the champion. Though isn't most appealing title fight on paper but we're genuinely excited about it given the style, and flaws, of the two men involved. It's fair to say that both men can hit hard enough to stop the other and as a result we could have a shoot out. On the other hand both could be cautious knowing the other has the power to hurt them. We're hoping for a shoot out, and if that happens it could be a question of who lands first. If it ends up being boxing contest however, it's hard to see how the title changes hands here. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) The Lightweight division is currently regarded as one of the weakest division's in the sport with some people wondering where the next divisional star is hiding. Whilst we certainly don't know the answer to that we do have to mentioned that OPBF champion Masayoshi Nakatani (10-0, 5) does appear to be a genuine contender in the making. He's looking to continue his rise at the end of August as he seeks the 4th defense of his title and a continuation of his development. In the opposite corner will be the little known Kazuya Murata (11-4, 5), who will be seeking the biggest win of his career, so far. In the ring the champion is a lanky, rangy boxer-puncher who showed real power early in his career, stopping 5 of his first 6 foes, but has since shown more boxing ability taking 4 straight wins, including his title win over Yoshitaka Kato and all 3 of his title defenses. Whilst that sounds like his power hasn't carried up he has been matched with some solid opposition, including the aforementioned Kato, the experienced Ricky Sismundo and the tough Futoshi Usami. As a puncher Nakatani looked really exciting. His dominant display in July 2013 against Shuhei Tsuchiya appeared to be the break out win of a true future contender. Since then however he has reverted to being an outside fighter, boxing and moving. Whilst he has become “less” exciting he has shown genuinely good skills and scarcely dropped more than a round in hist last 3 bouts due to his movement, engine and skillset. At 26 years old Nakatani is still a work in progress though having trained with the likes of Sho Ishida, Ryo Miyazaki and Kazuto Ioka he has developed very quickly and appears to be a fighter who will compete at world level in the next 18-24 months. As for Murata little is really available in terms of the challenger though the little bit of footage we have managed to track down made him look like a defensively tight and aggressively minded fighter who will come forward with a busy jab. Although he looks aggressively minded the general view from watching him is that not the busiest fighter. Also, unfortunately, he looks very predictable with a pressure fighters mentality but not quite the ability of real pressure fighter. Whilst footage of Murata is hard to find there is some details that are available. Firstly at 27 he's in his prime physically and at 5'9” he's a relatively taller fighter for the division however he will be dwarfed in the ring by Nakatanai who will try and keep Murata at range. Also with just 5 (T)KO's in 15 fights it's clear he's not a puncher. What we also know about the challenger is that he's in the form of his live with 6 straight wins, dating back well over 2 years. That's the longest winning streak of his career by some margin, and includes a win over recent Nakatani foe Futoshi Usami. That is, by far, the best win on his record. Unfortunately that was a struggle whilst Nakatani easily dominated Usami who really struggled to claim more than a round or two against the champion. Having seen what we have of the two men involved in this one we can only see one result, a wide, and easy, decision win for Nakatani who should be too good, too skilled, too fast and too long for the challenger. Murata could cause some issue due to his physical strength but it's hard to see him really questioning the very talented Ioka gym fighter. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) Although April ends with a trio of Japanese title title fights one really sticks out like a sore thumb. That's the Lightweight title bout between Kota Tokunaga (14-2, 9) and Yuya Sugizaki (20-9-1, 6), for a title that was vacated earlier this year by Yoshitaka Kato. This is, unfortunately, the one bout of the 3 that lacks any major interest and is one that is clearly between fighters who aren't the best in Japan. In fact it's hard to even describe them as being #3 and #4 in the country. Saying that however it is a contest that will mean the world to both men who know that this is their chance to become a champion, their chance to make a name for themselves and their chance to get some attention. Of the two men involved in the bout it's Tokunaga who enters as the JBC #1 ranked contender. It's a ranking that is hard to explain considering his competition which has been poor for much of his career. The one notable opponent that he has faced, Ronald Pontillas, has actually stopped him in just 154 seconds. Admittedly part of the reason for Tokunaga's ranking is that a number of other fighters in Japan have decided to look elsewhere for bouts. That includes former champion Kato, who is said to be looking for a world title fight, Takahiro Ao, who has just signed for a world title fight, and Masayoshi Nakatani, the current OPBF champion. On the other hand however he is a very weak #1 ranked fighter based on his record. What Tokunaga has going for him is “form”. He has won his last 6, following the loss to Pontillas, and 9 of his last 10. That sort of form has been helped by the level of his competition but it's something that few others in Japan at 135lbs can actually claim. Unfortunately for them a lot have come up short against former champion Kato in recent years. It's also worth noting that he's not 25 years old and coming into his prime and at 5'10” he's a giant for the weight. Sadly footage of Tokunaga is scarce, other than his loss to Pontillas. In the little bit of footage we do have of Tokunaga he's a fighter who looks like he has promise. He seems to be able to use his reach and height and does show a nice jab and a good right hand. Sadly however he also shows his inexperience and a number of defensive issues that eventually forced his demise. If he can tighten up defensively he could well go on to win titles, though even there will always be questions hanging over him about his punch resistance. Sugizaki is the #2 ranked contender for the title, and unlike his opponent he has been in with several notable fighters. The most notable of those was Jomthong Chuwatana who stopped him in 3 rounds back in 2011, prior to then he had also been stopped by Daiki Kaneko and had also lost to Koji Kawamura, who later went on to claim the OPBF Super Featherweight title. In more recent times we've seen Sugizaki come up short against Kentaro Yamada, Hiroyasu Matsuzaki and Keiichi Izumi, good but not outstanding fighters. Whilst Sugizaki has, mostly, lost to the biggest names that he has fought he does have a couple of interesting wins on his ledger, the biggest of which came almost 3 years ago when he stopped Mitsuya Omura. This wins have come at a lower level than title level but we suspect that there some real talent there. Unfortunately footage of him is limited with the best being just a round of his bout with Keiichi Izumi. From that footage Sugizaki looked very poor and was out hustled and out fought with relative ease. At 28 years old Sugizaki is experienced and mature though he's going to be much smaller than Tokunaga when the men get in the ring together. In fact Sugizaki is going to be giving away close to 5” in height and unless he cut the distance that is going to be very notable, especially given that Tokunaga is a very rangy and long fighter. Of course he has got experience against fighters with good jabs, such as Jomthong, but Tokunaga's is especially long and poses a host of different questions to Jomgthong's thudding and accurate one. Looking at the little footage of both that we managed to get we have to go with Tokunaga to win. We don't think either “should” be fighting for a Japanese title on merit but given the size and style of Tokunaga he could well become a very difficult fighter to beat. If he uses his size and speed here he should be able to take a decision over Sugizaki. The one fear for the lanky youngster will be his defence though thankfully for him Sugizaki isn't likely to have the power to really bother him here. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) Masayoshi Nakatani looks to keep his unbeaten record and OPBF title as he battles Sumiyoshi3/29/2015 Last year we saw Japanese Lightweight Masayoshi Nakatani (9-0, 5) break through in a big way. He began the year with a win over Yoshitaka Kato to claim the OPBF Lightweight title and later went on to climb into the world rankings whilst defending his belt twice. We won't pretend that Nakatani set the world on fire but he did impress as he easily out pointed Ricky Sismundo in his first defence and then almost shut out Futoshi Usami in his second defense. The 3 wins for Nakatani last year took him from “Ioka prospect” to “world ranked contender” it was as good a break through year as the Osaka native could have wished for. Whilst he hasn't stopped an opponent in his 3 bouts he had earned 36 rounds of valuable experience, matured as a fighter and developed his skills massively. When we first saw Nakatani he looked like a tall, rangy Lightweight who gave up his height to beat people up. Despite being almost 6' he was a fighter who loved tagging the body and completely destroyed Shuhei Tsuchiya with body shots alone. Since then he has developed his skills become a more pure boxer-puncher who now uses his reach and uses his height to fight on the outside where he can establish his jab and move around the ring. In many his style has helped set the groundwork for other Ioka fighters such as Sho Ishida and Takeru Kamikubo who fight in a similar manner to Nakatani, using their height and speed. Although not yet a big name in regards to where he stands at the Ioka gym we suspect Nakatani will have the ability to become a world champion and follow in the footsteps of Kazuto Ioka and Ryo Miyazaki. It may not be soon but his intentions are to reach that level. His next to world title fights will be his 3rd defence of the OPBF title and will see him battle against the little known Accel Sumiyoshi (4-3-1, 1) on April 5th Sumiyoshi isn't a big name fighter, his record isn't flawless and he isn't a sensational Lightweight. He is however a fighter who has been matched incredibly hard since his debut back in 2012. To date his opponents have had a combined record of 95-43-9 and it's little wonder he has lost a few bouts considering he has gone up against fighters like Kento Matsushita, a former multi-time Japanese and former OPBF title challenger, Yuhei Suzuki, a 2-time Japanese title challenger, and Kota Tokunaga, who battles for the Japanese title later this month. Footage of Sumiyoshi is certainly not easy to come by but ringside reports of his bout with Leonardo Doronio, who he fought to a draw last December, suggest the bout was a slugfest with both showing fantastic work rate. Also in his past he has gone up against tall fighters, notably Kota Tokunaga who managed to take a split decision win over Sumiyoshi last year. That experience will help Sumiyoshi however we have Tokunaga being a level, if not two, below Nakatani. Coming into this fight the pressure is on the champion not to just win but to shine and that's what we're expecting with Nakatani easing himself into the fight behind his jab before making a statement later in the fight with a stoppage. If he can do that then we expect to see him move on to a world ranked foe later in the year and then work his way towards a world title fight in either late 2015 or early 2016. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) At the beginning of this year the unbeaten Masayoshi Nakatani (8-0, 5) made a statement as he won the OPBF Lightweight title and out pointed the much more experienced Yoshitaka Kato. The performance wasn't a dominating one, in fact it was a serious struggle for Nakatani, though it was impressive considering the youngster was fighting in just his 7th professional contest and was fighting in a title fight for the first time and it was against a world ranked fighter. Since winning the title Nakatani has defended the belt once, winning a hard fought bout with the tough Filipino Ricky Sismundo. That was Nakatani's second successive 12 round bout and it saw him completing the full distance for the second time. This coming week will see Nakatani defending his belt for the second time as he takes on fellow Japanese fighter Futoshi Usami (12-1-1, 9) a man whose record indicates has serious power. If you've never seen Nakatani you've been missing out. He's a lanky, lanky Lightweight who usually uses his reach well and delivers shots with real power to both the head and body of an opponent. He's not the most skilled but does have a nice variety of shots and his body uppercuts particularly stood out in his first break out win, a stoppage victory over Shuhei Tsuchiya. Unfortunately since the win over Tsuchiya, more than a year ago, we've not seen Nakatani record a stoppage and as a result there is the possibility that his power isn't as telling as his record indicates, however both Sismundo and Kato are very tough guys. As well as his skills, power and size Nakatani also has a strong team behind him at the Ioka gym. This has lead to Nakatani getting a lot of opportunities to spend time in the gym with world class fighters like former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka and former Minimumweight title holder Ryo Miyazaki as well as the very promising Sho Ishida. Although not a proven world class fighter yet Nakatani is going to improve just on the basis of having guys like that in the gym with him helping to push him with their experiences and skills rubbing off on him and he will learn a lot of things other fighters could only dream of. We've got to admit that when it comes to Usami we don't know much about the challenger despite seeing one or two of his early fights, such as his win over Tetsuya Muraki from back in 2011. What we have seen does make it clear that Usami does have a bit of skill about him, a nice and relatively busy jab and solid defense that he applies good pressure behind. He also appears to have solid and hurtful power in his straight right hand and his left hook though early on in his career he did get over-excited when he had his man hurt and did throw some very wrong shots from out of range. Usami's opponents so far haven't been the best and they have made it hard to gauge how good he is. His draw, with Masayuki Wakimoto, came 3 years ago however he sole loss came just 2 fights back, back in December 2013, when he was narrowly out pointed by Kazuya Murata in about made above the Lightweight limit. On paper they are bad results but in reality they aren't as bad as they look on paper and will have helped Usami improve despite not winning either of them. What we suspect to see here, at least early on, is a jab fest between two men who do like to use their jab. Usami will likely be the one coming forward whilst Nakatani will be landing the heavier and sharper blows, and probably the more numerous given his edge in height and reach. As the fight goes on we suspect that Usami will become ragged, chasing Nakatani who will begin landing sharp clean counters, as he did so effectively against Tsuchiya. Those counters will take their toll on the challenger who we suspect will be stopped in the second half of the contest as Nakatani looks to reestablish himself as puncher to be feared. If he does win, as expected, we'd assume Nakatani will remain at the OPBF level defending his belt for another year. He needs more experience before moving up a level and competing on, or near, the world stage. Given a year and another 3 defenses we suspect he'll be ready for a world ranked foe. For now though this is the sort of bout he needs. On the other hand for Usami a win here would be career changing and would certainly announce him as a man to watch but we tend to feel that his long term potential is much less than that of Nakatani and a win for Usami would likely be a flash in the pan rather than the emergence of a new future world champion. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) It's hard to think of a title level fighter with a busier scheduled than Japanese Lightweight champion Yoshitaka Kato (27-5-1, 8). The shaven Kato has already fought twice this year and has actually fought thrice in the last 10 months but that isn't stopping him for looking another fight, and on July 23rd he returns to defend his national title for the 7th time in less than 3 years. In the opposite corner to the tough and exciting Kato will be the big punching Tsukasa Saito (19-2, 14) who will be looking to score his most notable win to date and claim his second professional title, having previously been a WBC Youth champion. Although the men are very different they do each share some trains, notably the excitement they bring to the ring. In Saito's case it's from his power and slight recklessness whilst with Kato the excitement comes from his toughness and his willingness to get into a war despite lacking single punch power. With that in mind the two men seem almost certain to deliver a thriller as they clash in the ring. Kato is, by far, the more proven man having been a unified Japanese and OPBF champion, prior to losing the OPBF title to Masayoshi Nakatani, and having shared the ring with a relative who's who of Japanese opponents including Nihito Arakawa and Akihiro Honda, who fight in the main event on the same show, Shoji Kawase, Yuhei Suzuki, Motoko Sasaki and the aforementioned Nakatani. In his 33 fight career he has only been stopped once and has tested himself against the best Japan has to offer, often giving a fantastic account of himself. As for Saito his competition has been much less testing though at just 24 years old he is younger, fresher, less damaged and slightly taller than Kato which could well neutralise the clear disadvantage in lack of experience. Of the two men we're expecting Kato to be the more comfortable in the ring come fight night. He has proven that he enjoys fighting "punchers" and that they don't intimidate him, in fact if anything he shown an innate ability to turn their aggression back on them with clever counter-punching and timing. We're expecting to see him do just that on Saito who will come out, like so many others, with the intention of taking Kato out but finding him to be a very stubborn foe. The more Saito tries the more he'll get hit before eventually being broken down in the middle-to-late rounds. If the bout goes as we think it will we wouldn't be shocked to see Kato scoring a second successive 7th round TKO. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) This coming week is, lets be honest, all about Kazuto Ioka's attempt to become a 3-weight world champion a he battle IBF Flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand. With such a big and significant fight however it's easy to forget that there are two other title bouts on the show, one of which includes Ioka's stable-mate Masayoshi Nakatani (7-0, 5). Nakatani is widely viewed as one of the best prospects at the Ioka gym, run by Kazuto's uncle and former world champion Hiroki Ioka. He has shown his skills, power, speed and development in his last 2 bouts which have seen him upset both Shuhei Tsuchiya (KO3) and Yoshitaka Kato (MD12), with the Kato victory being one which saw Nakatani claiming the OPBF Lightweight title. The victory over Kato was tough. He was the "away" fighter and he was fighting in his first bout scheduled for more than 8 rounds, in fact his career up to that point had consisted of just 21 combined rounds. Despite the difficult of the bout Nakatani showed the traits that have got those at the Ioka gym so excited about him. He showed his skills, his guts, his toughness and his ability to adapt. It was hard but it was rewarding and didn't just net Nakatani the OBPF title but also developed him as a fighter. He had now proven he could do 12 rounds, he had proven that could take a shot and he had proven that he knew what to do when hurt. Nakatani will perhaps need to call on those lessons in his first defence as he battles the OPBF #7 ranked Lightweight Mondo Harada (26-7-1, 12). Harada is a Filipino fighter who is, perhaps, better known by his real name of Ricky Sismundo. Like many foreign fighters in Japan he has been given a change of name for either sponsorship reasons or to try and make him more marketable to a Japanese audience. The challenger has fought 2 of his last 3 bouts in Japan, winning both of those by stoppage, in fact he has won 4 of his last 5 stoppage indicating that he does hit harder than his record shows. His record is skewed in that respect as his career began when he was just a 19 year old kid and he was put in with some decent Filipino domestic opponents, as a result he scored just 2 stoppages in his first 14 bouts whilst going 11-3. Despite the less than stellar start to his career the Filipino managed to turn things around excellently and found his punching form over the following few years, despite picking up losses to Daud Cino Yordan, Terdsak Kokietgym, Billy Dib and Dante Jardon adding further to the experience of Sismundo/Harada. Aged 27 the Filipino challenger will know that this is his biggest chance so far though will also know what he's up against. Nakatani's perfect record and last 2 big wins should suggest that's talented but the stand out feature about him is his build. He is tall, rangy and lanky. Stood at 5'11" he's a Lightweight monster who loves to use his rangy features to his advantage with crisp body uppercuts and lovely straight shots up stairs all of which have real venom on them. If you let Nakatani control distance you really give yourself no chance. At 5'5" the challenger is going to really have grit his teeth to get inside the champion, he's going to have to take some vicious shots to the mid-section, some concussive shots up top and prove his toughness just to stay in the fight. In all honesty we can't see him doing that for 12 rounds and with the experience of the Kato fight we can't see any way in which Nakatani loses unless he gets reckless. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) At the beginning of 2014 Yoshitaka Kato (26-5-1, 7) was the unified Japanese and OPBF Lightweight champion. He went in to the year on an unbeaten run of 9 fights over the previous 3 years, a run that saw him not just unifying the titles but beating the likes of Akihiro Kondo-avenging an old defeat, Motoki Sasai and Rey Labao. He was in the form of his life. Kato's solid run came to an end in January when he lost the OPBF title the very highly regarded Masayoshi Nakatani who really came of age in that bout. Although Kato lost his OPBF belt he managed to keep a hold of the Japanese title which wasn't on the line for the contest, though it will be on April 30th as he defends the nation title against former rival Yuhei Suzuki (14-3, 11). The men first fought just over a year ago with Kato taking a very hard fought decision to defend the Japanese title. Since then the champion has gone 2-1 with the loss to Nakatani being the most recent. For Suzuki things have been a little bit better with the challenger going 3-0 (3), albeit against limited opposition. On paper Kato holds a lot of advantages. He is more experienced than Suzuki, he has fought almost twice as many bouts, three times as many rounds and has mixed it in OPBF title bouts. For Suzuki, who lost to Kato in his only previous title fight of any kinda, this is a step back up from what he has been fighting in recent bouts. Although Kato has the obvious edge in experience the power certainly lies with Suzuki who has stopped 4 of his last 5, the only man to see out the distance in that time is the defending champion. At 24 Suzuki is also younger than the 29 year old champion and is just beginning to mature fully, of course Kato isn't an old man but he is arguably getting to the point where a hard career can catch up with him. Just as interestingly for Suzuki is the fact that, the loss to Kato aside, he hasn't been beaten since his was 21. His career since then has been 7-1 and he's certainly become a better fighter than he was. Although an improved fighter Suzuki is still flawed and depends a lot on his power. If Kato, as he did last time, can take it then we see the champion taking another very tough decision victory. If however the miles on his clock are catching up with him, and he has plenty of miles having been in with Nakatani, Nihito Arakawa and Suzuki in the past, then Suzuki's punches might just have that bit of an extra effect and take their toll. From where we're sat we think Kato retains, though has to dig very deep to keep his title on a bout that effectively serves as the co-feature to the very interest Heavyweight fight between Nobuhiro Ishida and Kyotaro Fujimoto, a bout that we think is a much more interesting contest. The Heavyweight bout may not have a title on the line but it certainly seems to have attracted the attention of fans around the world, something we can't imagine this national title fight managing to do despite it being a very interesting contest in it's own right. (Image courtesy of www.kadoebi.com/boxing/) In the sport of boxing it's usually the main event that looks like the best and most interesting contest on a show. On March 8th however we think the best fight on offer is actually buried well down the card yet gives us everything we could possibly want in a fight, despite their being no title, of any type, on the line. Whilst the main event is an interesting contest and sees Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-1-1, 30) fighting Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18) in an all Mexican affair their is a sense of of inevitability about it. It just feels like a bout set up to get Canelo another win on his record and put his sole loss, a decision at the hands of Floyd Mayweather, behind him. This feeling is shown in the betting with Canelo priced as a 1/7 favourite in a bout many feel is a mismatch, albeit it one with potential fireworks. For us the better bout is the one that features the wonderfully skilled Jorge Linares (35-3, 23) taking on the teak tough and ridiculously brave Nihito Arakawa (24-3-1, 16). Whilst some have commented that this is a mismatch we have to admit that we view this as very close to a 50-50 match up and potentially a fight of the year. Talking about fight of the year, it wouldn't be the first time either man has been on the losing side in bout of that quality. In 2011 Linares was on the losing end of a sensational come from behind stoppage against Antonio DeMarco in a bout he had dominated for the vast part. Last year it was Arakawa's turn to be involved in a barn burner as he took on the massive punching Omar Figueroa and although he lost widely on the cards he put up a great effort and pushed Figueroa harder than any other fighter. With what we saw in those fight of the year candidates we can safely say that these two men are completely different. Linares was a gorgeous silky combination puncher who was in and out with sharp shots, though unfortunately for him his face seemed to damage very easily and he eventually ran out of steam before being stopped in round 11. As for Arakawa he was crude, limited in terms of his boxing though refused to ever take a step backwards and walked through an torrent of abuse in an attempt to grind down Figueroa. Both men found themselves coming up short but both had impressed for different reasons. Of course it wasn't just their fight of the year candidates that showed how different they were, it's actually been their whole careers. Linares, born in Venezuela though fighting out of the Teiken Gym in Japan, was tipped for the top from an early age. This was due to his excellent success in the amateurs where he ran up a reported record of 151-5 (100)* and won various national titles. The amateur success of Linares's was followed by success early in his professional career. He made his debut when he was just 17 and by the age of 21 he had already won the WBC Featherweight title by stopping Oscar Larios. Just 16 months after winning his first world title Linares added a second, claiming the WBA Super Featherweight title with a stoppage over Whyber Garcia. This victory had moved Linares's to 26-0 (17), he was just 23 years old and deserved the nickname "El Niño de Oro" or "The Golden Boy". Unfortunately though Linares's career would quickly come tumbling down and just 2 fights later he suffered his first loss, being stopped in a round by Juan Carlos Salgado. The loss, a major upset, really told us a lot more about Linares than we really expected. It was suppose to be an easy win though he was stopped in just 73 seconds and the loss provoked some to ask questions about just how tough, both physically and mentally, Linares was. Since the loss to Salgado we've seen Linares's career resemble a roller coaster with some notable ups and some major downs. Unfortunately for Linares, who has won 8 of 10 bouts since the Salgado contest, it's the lows that stand out with stoppages coming to both DeMarco, as mentioned above, and Sergio Thompson. He's still as talented in terms of pure boxing as anyone else on the planet but his lack of durability has been a major downfall and prevented him from having the Hall of Fame career it seemed he was destined for. Whilst Linares was always expected to have success the same couldn't quite be said for Arakawa who really struggled to make much of a name as an amateur and went professional without much expectation on his shoulders. Amazingly Arakawa managed to quickly become an over-achiever in the professional ranks and within 9 fights he had become the All-Japan Rookie of the year in the Lightweight division. Arakawa early career success had a minor blip as he dropped a close decision to Yoshitaka Kato in his 11th bout. It really was a blip and just 2 years later Arakawa would come close to claiming the OPBF title, scoring a majority draw with Randy Suico. It wasn't until 2010 that Arakawa would claim his first title, the Japanese title, as he narrowly over-came Akihiro Kondo. After defending it thrice he would vacate to instead fight for, and win, the OPBF title with a victory over Jay Solmiano. After several defenses of that title Arakawa again stepped up and travelled to Mexico to fight the very highly ranked Daniel Estrada. Unfortunately Arakawa found himself on the wrong of a technical decision against Estrada after Estrada's eye was swollen shut. Although Arakawa lost the bout was shrouded in controversy with many feeling the swelling had come from punches and not the accidental fouls which were blamed for the damage. A rematch was ordered though Estrada decided not to fight Arakawa who instead got to fight Figueroa in their memorable contest. Although Arakawa wasn't expected to have major success he has done incredibly well for himself and become a staple in the world rankings. In fact going in to this bout he is higher ranked by the WBC than Linares, though he is unranked by any of the other organisations. Of course what makes this so interesting isn't the history of the two men, it's the styles and mentality of the men involved. Linares is a pure stylist who relies on speed, skills and movement to win bouts. He does have respectable power when he sits on punches though seems happier to box and move which he does in a wonderful and very pleasing manner. As for Arakawa he's a bullish fighter who lacks the well refined skills of Linares though makes up for that with a true "never say die" attitude. Arakawa could be 11 rounds down though would still believe he could win and will not stop trying until the final bell. It's that that really makes this bout so great. On paper it should be a shut out to Linares, his skills are that much better than those of Arakawa that it should be a mismatch though the frailties of Linares and the desire of Arakawa means that this bout isn't clear cut at all and infact it could swing at any moment. We can't deny that Linares will be expected to to open up a big lead on the cards. He will almost certainly take the first 7 or 8 rounds without any problems at all, though the final rounds are where we expect to see things get very interesting. The pressure and toughness of Arakawa could well grind down Linares as DeMarco did in 2011, it may not be the "expected" result by many experts but it's certainly a big possibility and it's the outcome we're going for. We think that Linares, after winning the first 8 or 9 rounds will slow, tire and eventually be stopped either in round 11 or 12 by Arakawa who will likely book himself a rematch with Omar Figueroa in the process. *Record taken from Teiken's website, boxrec however report an 89-5 amateur record for Linares (Image courtesy of http://boxingnews.jp) |
Previews
Having canned the old "Full Schedule" of Asianboxing we have instead decided to concentrate more on the major bouts. This section, the "Preview" section will look at major bouts involving OPBF and national titles. Hopefully leading to a more informative style for, you the reader. Archives
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