After a day with out any Japanese action we got the chance to see Yusuke Iju (5-4-1, 2) in action in Australia.
Unfortunately for Iju this wasn't a nice journey down "down under" as he suffered just the second stoppage of his career. Fighting against Jason Cooper (8-1-1, 4), Iju was stopped in the third of a scheduled 6 rounders. Iju wasn't the only Asian to suffer a defeat on this show. In fact Asian fighters went 0-3 on the card with Nuengsiam Kiatsongsang (0-6) losing via majority decision to Mark Ramirez (5-6-1, 1) and Tanyakorn Sor Thammajak (0-3) suffering a decision loss to Sabrina Ostowari (7-0, 1)
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After Monday's trio of cards there was little shock that we had plenty of action again on Tuesday.
At the start of 2013 no one in boxing ever expected a Yemeni born fighter to find their way in to the record books. This past Tuesday however Ali Raymi (19-0, 19) tied history with an historic opening round victory over Ali Salem (10-1, 2). This stoppage victory for Raymi has seen him tying a record previously held by just Tyrone Brunson*. Whilst Raymi is now world ranked by the WBO (#12) and the WBC (#15) there are plenty of online folk criticising the 39 year old and suggesting his fights are fixed. We won't make any comment on this however with Raymi now 15-0 (15) for the year it's fair to say that he is one of the busiest men in the game right now. As well as Raymi's victory in Yemen there were 3 other bouts on the card. These saw just a sole stoppage as Faisal Fittini (4-0, 4) stopped Khaled Abdusalam (1-1) in the third round. The remaining two contests on the Yemen show saw Prince Maz (4-0, 3) taking a decision over Alwan Hawshabi (3-6, 1), ending his own KO run, and Akram Jafwi (5-0, 1) taking a decision over Moxamad Abdu (4-4, 2). In Japan we had Dangan 87, a show that included a Class A tournament contest. Unfortunately in the A class tournament bout Yuta Nakagawa (11-4-1, 7) made very short work of Yosuke Fujihara (14-2, 4). Nakagawa needed just 66 seconds to stop Fujihara. Although the Nakagawa/Fujihara bout was the main event it was one of the shortest bouts on the show and by far the shortest of a trio of 6 round contests. The other two bouts scheduled for 6 all went in to at least the final round. In a Bantamweight contest scheduled for 6 Ryoichi Tamura (1-1) managed to narrowly defeat Keigo Soma (5-9-1, 2) via a split decision. This was the only one of the three bouts scheduled for 6 that went the complete distance. The remaining one featured Takuya Fujii (6-4, 2) who managed to stop Kazuki Kobayashi (4-6) with little more than half a round left. As well as the trio of 6 rounders that we had there were also five bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. Of those only two actually went the distance with Yutaka Ekawa (2-2-1) out pointing Tateo Saito (2-1) and Yuya Nagayoshi (3-5, 1) taking a decision over Kotaro Sasa (1-3). Amazingly the other trio of 4 rounders went just a combined 4 rounds between them. The shortest of those was a 20 second blast out for the debuting Tadashi Nunoya (1-0, 1) who swiftly despatched fellow debutant Takehiro Kojima (0-1). The Nunoya/Kojima bout wasone of two opening round stoppages alongisde that of Kazuma Ishikura (2-1, 1) who stopped Kazuto Nakane (1-1, 1) in 152 seconds. In the sole bout we've not mentioned Yudai Hata (2-1, 1) stopped Ryota Harukawa (1-2, 1) in the second round. *We have been in touch with Guinness to try and get them to recognise this record. We are awaiting a reply. Although Russian boxing is currently under cloud due to the health and unsure future well being of Magomed Abdulsalmov action continued in the country this past Monday (we know we are several days late, sorry).
The Russian action came in two parts on Monday. One show took place in Krasnodar whilst the other was in Saint Petersburg. Of the two shows it was the one in Krasnodar that drew the attention of the wider boxing public, even if that attention was mostly a morbid one due to one of the higher profile bouts on the show. It's this show that we'll start with. The morbid curiosity saw the 44 year old former WBC Heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev (39-7, 28) looking all of his 44 yeard he defeated Britains Danny Williams (44-19-0-1, 33). With both guys being the epitomy of "shot" this bout posed little real relevance to wider Heavyweight division though certainly posed some interest from fans who wanted to see two old men fight. Unfortunately it's likely that both men will continue despite being just one punch from ending up in a similar position to "Mago". Come on folks, hang it up whilst you still have your health! Aside from the rather distasteful main event we had 7 other contests on the show. These included two title fights for the lightly regarded WBC Baltic belts. In the Welterweight division David Avanesyan (16-1-1, 9) claimed the Baltic title with a stoppage of Carlos Leonardo Herrera (24-6, 10) whilst in the Lightweight division Fedor Papazov (14-0, 9) defeated Sergio Javier Escobar (25-20-3, 10) via a decision. Whilst we understand regional belts we've got to admit that the fact Escobar and Herrera managed to compete for Baltic titles has genuinely left us wondering how regional titles really work. The three bouts we've already mentioned were just half of the six bouts scheduled for 10 rounds on the show. The reamining three bouts, all non-title contests, saw Aik Shakhnazaryan (9-0, 2) out pointing Behzod Nabiev (22-6-1, 16) in a Welterweight contest, the unbeaten Sherzod Husanov (18-0-1, 8) managed to overcome Amilcar Edgardo Funes Melian (22-14, 17) via a 6th round technical decision at Middleweight whilst fringe Super Middleweight contender Maxim Vlasov (27-1, 13) dominated Artem Redko (20-1-3, 11) scoring a 6th round TKO. In the other bouts on the card Felix Amoev (7-1, 4) defeated Sergei Melis (22-14, 8) via a clear decision. Melis was down several times though Amoev couldn't force a stoppage as the experienced Melis showed some genuine survival instincts. In the only other bout on the show Ruslan Faifer (2-0, 1) defeated Valentyn Trostyanchuk (0-8). This was rather sadly Trostyanchuk 8th straight stoppage loss. In Saint Petersburg we had just 4 bouts. The show here began two successive third round stoppages for debutants. These saw Maxim Sirota (1-0, 1) stopping thw win-less Ruslan Akhmetzonov (0-16) and Nikolay Kuzmitski (1-0, 1) stopping the experienced Andrey Tylilyuk (2-48-3, 1). Following the two early bouts fans then saw the unbeaten Vladimir Tikhonov (10-0, 5) stop Danny Flores (14-5-1, 8) in round 9 and Andrey Meryasev (15-0, 11) out pointed Sergio Jose Sanders (21-10-2, 12). As well as the two Russian cards there was also a Japanese show at the Shimizu Marine Building in Shizuoka. This show, featuring 8 contests was an easy card to over-look considering the quality of fights on it. In fact the most notable contests on the show were Yuya Miyagi (18-4-3, 7) blasting out Petch Vanchai Or Boonchuay (0-3) in round 4 and Yuki Fujimoto (7-2-1, 2) stopping Pramod Sor Vorapin (0-4) in the fight round. From the 8 contests on the show there were actually 3 opening round stoppages. One was the Fujimoto bout mentioned above, the others were Makoto Kato (8-7, 3) taking out Thai debutant Sittikun Kitprasong (0-0) and Shogo Yamaguchi (2-0-1, 1) stopping Kazuaki Okada (2-1, 2) in just 42 seconds. As well as the shows 4 stoppages we also had 4 bouts complete the schedule. These included Ryunosuke Yamashita (1-2) scoring his first professiona victory as he overcame Shigemi Mori (0-2-1) via unanimous decision and Koichi Nagatsuka (3-1, 1) defeating the debuting Shinichi Yokozato (0-1) also by unanimous decision. Alongside the two unanimous decisions we also had two very close majority decisions as Shinichi Hoshino (1-1) nawworly defeated Sumeeman Shoki (0-3) and Hajime Ikeda (4-3) struggled past Hironoshin Ezaki (3-13, 1). This past Sunday saw two notable Asian cards taking place. One was in Japan, the East Rookie of the Year finals, whilst one was in South Korea with title on the line. It's fair to say that whilst neither really registered on an international basis they were both interesting ourselves, and we assume our loyal (and ever growing) fan base of visitors.
We'll start in South Korea where Bumjin Promotion held a 7 fight show at the Jangyoo Sports Center. In the lowest profile bouts on this show we had 4 all debutant contests scheduled for just 4 rounds. These saw a decision victory for Sang-Hoon Shim (1-0) who over came Tae-Yong Kim (0-1) and a trio of stoppages. These stoppages saw Joon-Ho Moon (1-0, 1) taking out Hyuk-Soo Kwon (0-1) in just 85 seconds, Hyun-Soo Um (1-0, 1) scoring a second round stoppage over Kwon Kim (0-1) and Sung-Hoon Kim (1-0, 1) scoring a final round victory over Yoon-Soo Ahn (0-1). As well as the 4 round contests we had a pair of bouts scheduled for 6 rounds. In one of these Jae-Hoon Lee (5-3-1, 3) took out Isaraphap Sor Varunee (0-2) in just 89 seconds whilst in the other, a female contest, Hee-Jung Yuh (9-2, 3) stopped Maimuang Sitkhurusian (1-4) with just 31 seconds of their contest remaining. In the main event Myung-Goo Yuh (12-4-1, 7) successfully claimed the WBC Asian Boxing Council super flyweight title courtesy of a third round TKO over Thailand's Khunkhiri Wor Wisaruth (10-7-1, 5). On paper this was Yuh's biggest victory ans his thirs successive by stoppage, for Wisaruth however, and rather worryingly, this was his second stoppage defeat in just 8 days and third in the space of 4 months. Over in Tokyo, at the Korakuen Hall, we had the finals of the Rookie of the Year East in 12 weight divisions ranging from Minimumweight all the way up to Middleweight. The show kicked off with a bit of an upset as the unbeaten Kenichi Miyazaki (5-1-1, 1) was stopped in the second round by Yoshinori Wakahara (6-3, 3). After suffering back to back losses in 2012 Wakahara seems to have found his groove this year with a trio of victories including, and most notably, this one. In the Light Flyweight division thinks went as expected with Ryuto Maekawa (7-0, 4) keeping his unbeaten record courtsey of a hard fought decision over Tomoyuki Kaneko (6-2, 3). Kaneko, who lost unanimously, was just a point off claiming a draw on two of the judges score cards. Maekawa wasn't the only unbeaten man who was forced to fight hard to keep his "0" intact as Ryuto Oho (5-0, 2) was pushed all the way by Yuji Okinori (6-1, 1). This was the first of several clashes between unbeaten fighters and although Oho won he knew he had been in a fighter afterwards winning by just a sole round over Okinori in the Flyweight final. At Super Flyweight we had another close one between unbeaten men, in fact we had the closest bout on the show. This contest, which saw Jo Tanooka (7-0-3) taking a split decision over Seiya Fujikita (5-1, 1), saw all three judges scoring it 48-47 showing just how competitive this bout was. In the shortest contest of the day Yukichi Hara (6-2, 3) claimed the Bantamweight title courtesy of a 26 second stoppage over Kazuki Yokoyama (5-2, 3). When a bout lasts just 26 seconds there is little you can say about it though the stoppage was a good one with Yokoyama's legs completely gone. In the Super Bantamweight Gaku Aikawa (4-0-1) struggled over the line by taking a majority decision over Naoto Fujimoto (5-3-1, 2). Although one card had Aikawa a clear winner with a score of 40-37 it was a very close contest and both men fought hard. One of the few decisions the card had was at Featherweight where Shingo Kusano (7-2-1, 3) defeated Yudai Tamagawa (5-4-1, 2) with all of the judges having Kusano as a clear winner. Likewise at Super Featherweight we also had a clear decision with Kazuma Sanpei (8-0, 2) defeating Yoshimichi Matsumoto (4-1, 3) whilst dropping just a sole round. In a battle of Lightweight punchers Ryosuke Takami (4-0, 3) took out Reo Komiyama (6-2-2, 6) in the final round of a scheduled 4 rounder. It's going to be very hard not to get very excited about Takami if he can continue to leave a wake of destruction behind him as he has been doing recently. At Light Welterweight we had another of the shows big upsets as Shingo Yabu (4-2-1) took the power and of Takuya Matsusaka (5-2, 5) and claimed a decision. This was Matsusaka's first loss since a 88 second blow out on his debut and sees a 5 fight KO streak come to an and end. At Welterweight we had a surprising stoppage as the light hitting Ryoji Tanaka (5-2-1, 2) defeated Nobuaki Sakae (2-3-2, 1) via a fourth round KO with a little under a minute of the final round gone. In the Middleweight division we got a very expected stoppage, though we'll admit we were a little surprised that it was southpaw Wataru Seino (4-1, 4) who scored it. Seino defeated the Japanese based Albanian Altin Pepa (2-1, 2) in the second round to take the crown here. Whilst November looks like arguably the busiest month of the year for Asian boxing fans we've got to admit that we were surprised by just how quiet Saturday November 2nd really was. We only had two major cards in Asia and only really one bout outside of Asia worth talking about.
The one, really notable, card we did have was in the Korakuen Hall as Teiken put on a 8 fight card headlined by a former world title challenger. The aforementioned former world title challenger was Ryo Akaho (21-1-2, 14), a man who unsuccessfully challenged Yota Sato just two back. The rebuilding process for Akaho continued today as he defeated Filipino Jecker Buhawe (14-10-1, 9) via sixth round TKO. This was Buhawe's first stoppage loss in over 2 years though it was highly impressive for Akaho considering Buhawe had gone the distance with both Tepparith Kokietgym and Ryosuke Iwasa in his two previous bouts this year. As well the main event we had two more really noteworthy bouts on this Teiken show. In the Super Featherweight division we hard hitters colliding as Kenichi Ogawa (10-1, 8) took on Yuki Miyoshi (11-4-2, 9). Unfortunately for Miyoshi he can't take a punch as well as he can deliver one and he suffered his fourth stoppage defeat as he was stopped after just 134 seconds by Ogawa. In the other of those notable bouts Tetsuma Hayashi (23-2-1, 7) was forced to work extremely hard to overcome Shuji Hamada (12-6-3, 2). Although on paper this looked like a bit of a mismatch Hamada was highly competitive en route to dropping a unanimous decision. Although not as notable as the previously mentioned contests we did see a somewhat high profile debutant defeated in the show's sole 6 round contest. Kensuke Sasaki (0-1), a former amateur standout who won 43 of 52 bouts in the unpaid ranks, was upset by Kenta Okumura (11-1-1, 2). Sasaki started well though was out boxed over the latter half of the fight as Okumura took a well earned majority decision. Sasaki, whilst the highest profile debutant on the card, wasn't only man making his debut and both Teppei Kayanuma (1-0, 1) and Naoki Mochizuki (1-0, 1) had more memorable days. Kayanuma defeated Nobuya Sugimoto (1-3-1) in the second round of their bout whilst Mochizuki needed just 21 seconds to take out Yuta Oda (0-2). The two remaining bouts both went to decision. These saw Kenta Taguchi (2-5-1) scoring his first win in over 2 years courtesy of a unanimous decision over Tatsuya Matsumoto (2-3) and Takaki Sakurai (4-4-1, 1) balancing off his record with a narrow victory over Yu Kinjo (3-3, 3) who incidentally also saw his record balancing as a result of the contest. The second show we had was in Russia where the headline bout saw Gennady Martirosyan (23-3, 11) out point novice Omar Marabayev (1-1). Unfortunately this mismatch was probably the only noteworthy bout on the show. The rest of the card, which featured four other contests, was all debutant actio and saw Sergey Martirosyan (1-0) taking a decision victory over Artem Zorin (0-1), Vitaly Aleshin (1-0) out pointing Vasily Tyan (0-1), Sergey Goryainov (1-0) defeating Sergey Arbuzov (0-1) and Evgeny Tsukanov (1-0, 1), the only man on the show to score a stoppage, defeating Vagif Mekhraliev (0-1). The highest profile bout of the day however wasn't in Asia, though did feature an Asian as the hard hitting Middleweight Gennady Golovkin (28-0, 25) successfully retained his WBA Middleweight title. Golovkin, fighting in America for the fourth time, was given a trickier than expected bout by American Curtis Stevens (25-4, 18). Although tricker than expected Stevens was retired by his corner after the eighth round with Golovkin just beginning to pound him. On the same card as Golovkin's victory over Stevens there was also successful return to action for Cruiserweight hopeful Isa Akberbayev (11-0-0-1, 7) who overcame Brian Clookey (4-1-2, 2) via a very wide decision. Whilst Akberbayev is technically unbeaten he won't have felt like an unbeaten man following his previous contest, a 10th round No Contest with Anthony Ferrante, a man who left Akberbayev out cold on the canvas in one of the early KO of the year contenders. It wasn't all great for Asian fighters in the US unfortunately as big hitting Heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov (18-1, 18) suffered his first defeat. Matched against talented Cuban Mike Perez (20-0, 12), "Mago" was simply too slow and clumsy allowing the Cuban to tag him with various eye catching shots. Although Perez was marked under the eye by the end of the bout he looked like a clear winner with "Mago's" face showing signs of serious damage. This bout, for the USNBC Heavyweight title, will have been a a very sore loss for "Mago" who showed his toughness though was a clear loser. It's not too often that we have genuine Asian wide action but that's exactly what we had to start the month of Novemember with show's in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Yemen. All of which had some sort of notable bout that was worth knowing about.
We'll start with the Thai show, the highest profile of the 4 shows. This show, which was televised by Thai Channel 7, was headlined by a PABA Bantamweight title fight as Thailand's very own Tabtimdaeng Na Rachawat (50-2, 33) retained his title with a sixth round stoppage of Filipino challenger Edison Berwela (12-27-6, 3). On the Thai undercard there were four other contests. These included Pankorn Mor Poowana (1-0, 1) scoring a debut stoppaged over fellow debutant Rakangthong Sithkrusaeng (0-1) in a bout that lasted just 3 rounds. The remaining trio of contests all went the scheduled 6 rounds as Thong Sithluangphophun (5-0, 2) out pointed the debuting Saksri Twinsgym debut (0-1), Yodsingdaeng Jor Chaijinda (2-0) defeated Cheroenchai Sithsaithong (4-5, 3) and Phalangchai Sithsaithong (1-1) overcame debutant Veerachai Manopkarnchang (0-1). The PABA Bantamweight title wasn't the only title bout of the day as the Interbulgo Hotel in Wonju played host to a Korean national title fight. On a 6 fight show in Korea Bong-Joon Suk (7-1-2, 2) managed to retain his Korean Featherweight title thanks to an 8th round KO over the over-matched Chul-Hyun Lim (5-12-2, 3). Unfortunately for Lim this was his fifth failed national title challenge and we think think it will likely be his last. As well as the Korean national title fight we also got one of the upsets of the day in Korea as the previously unbeaten Joo-Hyun Kim (4-1-2, 1) was out pointed by Sung-Baek Noh (3-6-2) over 8 rounds. This was the co-feature and a notable loss for Kim. It was also a good day for Chinese visitor Ma Yi Ming (10-5, 6) who scored his most notable victory to date. Mind, fighting for just the second time in Korea stopped Jin-Man Jeon (13-5-1, 3) at the start of the third round. Whilst this was the third successive loss for Jeon it's by far the worst with the other two both coming to men who went on to fight for world titles. The remaining 3 contests on this card all went to decision. These saw Seung-Yong Lee (7-0, 1) taking a split decision over Ji Tao (7-4, 2) to maintain his unbeaten record, Jae-Hwan In (3-2) taking a 6 round unanimous decision over the more experienced Ryota Yamami (4-9-2, 2) of Japan and Bum-Hyun Kim (2-1) taking a decision over the debuting Sun-Yoo Lee (0-1). In Japan we had "Dangan 86", part of an A Class tournament. This show, whilst far from a title show was a major one in Japan and featured 9 contests. This show began with three bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. These saw an unexpected victory for Kosuke Miura (1-5-1) who managed to out point the debuting Mitsukazu Oshita (0-1), an opening round stoppage for Kimihiro Nakagawa (1-0, 1) over fellow denutat Akihiro Shimogaki (0-1) and a draw between unbeaten pair Ippei Azuma (2-0-1, 1) and Ken Kodama (1-0-1, 1). Following the early bouts there was then 6 bouts as part of the tournament. These featured bouts from Flyweight to Super Featherweight. In the Flyweight contest Musashi Suzuki (10-1, 4) defeated the previously unbeaten and highly regarded Yuta Matsuo (5-1, 3). This was a step up for Matsuo and one that he failed to pass. At Super Flyweight there was two bouts. These saw Hayato Kimura (20-5, 15) forcing the retirement of Junichiro Sugita (16-9, 7) and Kohei Kubo (16-4-1, 11) stopping Shohei Kikuzato (9-2, 4). Both of these bouts went into the fourth round rather interestingly but Sugita was stopped at the very end of the round as opposed to the middle of it like Kikuzato. In the sole Bantamweight bout of the tournament Hiroaki Teshigawara (8-1-1, 4) over came Kota Sato (9-5-1, 4) taking a clear 6 round decision in what looked like a competitive bout on paper. It wasn't just the Super Flyweight division that had double action but also the Super Featherweight division. In the bouts at 130 we saw Takaomi Abe (15-2-2, 1) over coming the very experienced Akihiko Nago (31-8-2, 15) and the very hard hitting Kazuya Nakano (6-2, 6) stopping Ribo Takahata (9-4-1, 2). We expect this to be Nago's final bout seeing off a long career that dates all the way back to 1995. In Yemen we had a further six contests, though of course it was just one man who stole the headlines. Ali Raymi (18-0, 18) did it again scoring his 18th straight opening round stoppage against an unbeaten fighter. This time matched against Mustafa Humaidi (6-1, 2) it took Raymi just 47 seconds to continue his rampage through the Yemeni scene. As well as Raymi's victory there was also three over stoppages. These saw Prince Maz (3-0, 3) stopping Luway Jaber (2-5, 2) in the second round, Faisal Fittini (3-0, 3) stopping Hamoody Jubran 1-2) and Ali Salem (10-0, 2) stopping the debuting Ahmed Matari (0-1). From these results we wouldn't be shocked to see Raymi meeting Salem next time out as Raymi looks to tie a world record for most successive opening round stoppages. In the two remaining contests on this show we went to decision as Akram Jafwi (4-0, 1) overcame Esayas Dagim (2-3, 1) and Khaled Abdusalam (1-0) defeated Saif Khedher (0-1) in an all debutant contest, In international action Syrian Youssef Al Hamidi (12-61-3, 1) suffered his tenth loss of the year as he was out pointed by Atif Shafiq (6-0). Thursday may not be a normal boxing day but Thai fans got treat to two separate cards this past Thursday.
The most notable of those shows was at the MBK Center in Bangkok with 4 contests on the show. The main event on the MBK Center show saw PABA Super Featherweight champion Padjai Yongyuthgym (17-1-2, 12) defending his title in just 166 seconds as he wiped out the over-matched Filipino challenger Ricardo Roa (11-9-2, 3). In the remaining contests on this show Sukkasem Kietyongyuth (12-2, 7) out pointed Jun Piacidad (3-16-4) over 6 rounds with the debuting Sammok Momomak (1-0) doing the same over Lamnamkorn Kwanjaisrikod (0-7). In fact only one of the three undercard bouts saw a stoppage with Kongsuk Patanakan Gym (2-1, 1) stopping Dechrith PK Gym (0-2) in the second round. As well as the show in Bangkok there was also one in Hat Yai in the south of the country. Unfortunately the Hat Yai card has been difficult to get many results from and in fact the only one we are sure about is that former world champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (51-1-1, 17) defended his WBC International Super Flyweight title defeating Giovanni Escaner (10-2, 6) via decision. In Japan this past Monday fans were treat to an explosive night of action at Dangan 85 the final Japanese show this October.
The show began with two bouts scheduled for the 4 round distance. These saw the previously win-less Shintaro Hirohama (1-1-1, 1) inflicting the first defeat on to the record of Takeshi Yamagata (1-1-1) courtesy of a second round TKO and Tatsuya Tsuge (2-2, 1) leveling off his record with a decision of the still win-less Naoya Ota (0-2-1). Following the two short bouts we then moved into the 6 round distance as the hard hitting Yusaku Kuga (7-1-1, 4) was taken close by the tough but light hitting Taishi Torimoto (10-5-3, 1). The bout, which was scored 58-57 by two of the three judges, was probably a fight that should have gotten a draw though few will expect much major to come from these two men. Amazingly after two decisions from the first three contests the rest of the card lasted just 13 rounds, with almost half of those coming in the bout between Tatsuya Yanagi (10-0, 4) and Kazuhiro Miura (7-3). The unbeaten Yanagi took 6 rounds to stop Miura, who had never previously been stopped though had admittedly only been beyond 4 rounds twice. Whilst Yanagi took 6 rounds to stop Miura, Hiroki Sato (7-4, 5) took just 155 seconds to see off Yuzuru Koizumi (8-7, 2) in what was the shortest contest of the show. Although Sato took out Koizumi in a round he wasn't that much quicker than Masahiro Ishida (13-5-2, 7) who stopped Ryosuke Kinoshita (9-9-1, 3) in the second round. In the main event the very talented Shinya Iwabuchi (22-4, 18) stopped the over-matched Koichi Ogawa (9-4-1, 4). Iwabuchi, fighting for the first time since losing in an OPBF title to Min-Wook Kim, did drop down several levels for this bout but will be very happy to get back to winning ways. Just a day after a memorable day of Filipino Action fights again returned to the country thanks to a show at The Flash Grand Ballroom of the Elorde Sports Complex.
The show's lesser profile bouts were over 4 rounds as the wonderfully named Robin Ding Dong (0-0-1) scored a debut draw with Jordan Estrada (0-2-1). The Ding Dong/Estrada bout was one of two bouts scheduled for 4 rounds with Joe Misako (2-0) taking a narrow split decision over Jerwin Dela Rosa (1-3) in the other. Following the two 4 round bouts we then had six bouts scheduled for the 8 round distance. Surprisingly for those 6 bouts only 2 actually went the distance as Cris Paulino (12-1, 3) took a unanimous decision over Pit Anacaya (8-22-2, 1) and Kenjie Monenio (5-3-3) took a majority decision over Junjie Lauza (4-9-1, 1). The decision bouts over the 8 rounds were joined by four stoppages. The quickest of those saw Bebong Manalo (7-1, 3) taking out Jomar Borbon (3-15-2, 1) in just 90 seconds. Whilst Manalo's was surprisingly quick two of the other stoppages were just surprisingly as both Jonathan Ligas (6-5-1, 1) and JC Francisco (5-6-1, 1) scored their first stoppages. Ligas managed to take stop Rolando Niones (4-15-2, 2) in the third round whilst Francisco managed to knock out Rey Morano (8-38-1, 1) in the fifth stoppage. The only expected stoppage that actually happened was that scored by the hard hitting Lightweight Al Rivera (7-1, 6) who defeated Roselito Campana (18-18-3, 5) via 6th round KO. Stepping up from the 8 round distance to the 10 round distance we had another pair of bouts. These saw recent world title challenger Silvester Lopez (21-6-2, 15) scoring just his second victory in 6 bouts. Lopez managed to out point journeyman Prell Tupaz (8-22-4, 1) courtesy of an 8th round technical decision. Lopez was joined by recent OPBF Bantamweight title challenger Dennis Tubieron (16-2-1, 7) who jumped up to Featherweight and stopped the usually tough Rufino Mante (8-17-2, 4). After having failed to make weight in his OPBF Bantamweight it appears that Tubieron has made the right move to head up a division, or rather two here. In the shows sole title bout on the show Cris Alfante (10-1, 3) over-came Oliver Gregorio (8-2-1, 5) via a 12 round decision. With the WBC Asian Boxing Council Minimumweight title on the line it's probably fair to say that this was the biggest victory by far in the career of Alfante who has now won 8 straight. As well as the card in the Philippines there was also action in Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. Of those three cards the most noteworthy was in South Korea as we got interesting action. The headline bout saw the highly ranked Jaesung Lee (16-3-2, 9) fighting to a draw with Japanese rival Akihiko Katagiri (13-7-2, 4). The contest, for the vacant WBO Oriental Super Bantamweight title, was marred pre-fight due to Lee struggling to make the weight, an issue that seemed to effect him in the bout as he struggled with Katagiri throughout. Of course as a result of the draw the title remains vacant. The Lee/Katagiri bout was one of several bouts that saw Japanese fighters taking on a South Korean. One of those saw Ja-Ik Goo (2-0, 2) wiping out Kazuki Hayashi (7-5-1, 6) in 140 seconds. Korean success continued through much of the card as Tae-Il Kim (3-0) defeated Hikaru Nagai (3-1, 2) and Sung-Tak Joo (4-0-2, 1) overcame Kentaro Endo (3-4, 3). It wasn't all good for South Korean fighters however as Akira Ono (4-2, 3) stopped Myung-Soo Jung (1-1, 1) in the third of a scheduled 4 rounds. As well as the 5 South Korea v Japan bouts there was also 5 all Korean bouts. These saw Jin-Wook Lim (6-3-4, 1) narrowly defeating Hyun Sunwoo (2-3-1, 1); Hyun-Kyum Park (5-0, 3) out pointing Joo-Young Lee (1-1); Hyuk-Tak Joo (1-1) coming out on top against the debuting Sung-Jin Huh (0-1); Byung-Ha Kim (1-0) taking a decision over Gang-Hoon Lee (1-1, 1) and Jae-Hoon Lee (1-0, 1) kicked off his career with a debut knock out victory over Joon-Il Choi (0-1). In Japan, at the Nakagusuku Gym, we had the Japan, Orient Pacific Ocean and global prelude, a 7 fight show from Ryukyu Promotions. This show started with four bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. These included a draw between Nobuhiro Oshiro (1-0-1, 1) and Daikichi Miyagi (1-2-2, 1); Aiko Yamagishi (2-0-1) defeating the debuting Minayo Kei (0-1); Kazuyuki Hirayama (4-2-1, 3) defeating debutant Taiki Kinjo (0-1) and Morihisa Iju (2-0, 2) wiping out Takanari Hamamura (2-2, 2) in just 157 seconds. After the 4 round bouts we then had a trio of main events scheduled for 8 rounds. The most competitive of the main events saw Filipino Dado Cabintoy (12-4-2, 6) narrowly out pointing Thailand's Rungniran Korat Sport School (0-7). Cabintoy's victory was joined by swift wipe outs for Koseki Nakama (17-4, 8), who over came the debuting Kritsada Sithsaithong (0-1) and Masatoshi Kotani (13-2, 10) who defeated Veerapol Sor Chantasith (3-5) in the second round. In Indonesia Espinos Sabu (10-0-1, 4) defeated domestic rival Frans Damur Palue (7-2-2, 3) to claim the Indonesia Professional Boxing Commission (KTPI/IBPC) Flyweight title. Palue was stopped in round 7 due to a cut around the left eye that had been getting progressively worse since round 5. Sabu was joined by the experienced Heri Amol (32-12-4, 13) as a winner. Although Amol wasn't in a title fight he was successful as he out pointed the very limited Safwan Lombok (1-20-1) over the course of 6 rounds. Saturday October 26th 2013 may be one of the most memorable days in Filipino boxing this year. Really it had everything.
The most notable match up of the day was an IBF Light Flyweight title bout that saw John Riel Casimero (19-2, 11) defeating tough Mexican challenger Felipe Salguero (18-5-1, 13). Salguero, who had given Donnie Nietes a really hard nights work back in 2012, was dealt with very easily by Casimero who dropped him three times to retain his title on a show promoted by MP Promotions, the company spearheaded by Manny Pacquiao. As well as Casimero's victory on the MP Promotions card there was also notable victories for several other top fighters. One of those was recent world title challenger Michael Farenas (36-4-4, 28) who stopped Thailand's Kosol Sor Vorapin (17-17-1, 11) in chilling fashion. Farenas, who is a hadnful for most, left Kosol on his back for several minutes following a vicious left hand. The highly regarded Froilan Saludar (18-0-1, 11) remained unbeaten on the same card as he defeated Tawanrung Eausampan (5-3, 2). Although Saludar was in charge of the bout his opponent proved to be tough and survived the distance despite being almost whitewashed on the score cards. There was also a victory for the talented Mark Anthony Geraldo (29-4-3, 13) who defended his WBO Asia Pacific Youth Super Flyweight title with a stoppage over Inthanon Sithchamuang (19-6, 10). Geraldo was stung at one point but quickly turned things around to stop his Thai foe. As well as Gerlado and Casimero both fighting in title fights there was also a national title fight as Adones Cabalquinto (15-0, 8) defended his GAB Light Welterweight against RJ Ano-os (8-5-1, 2) via a decision. As well as the 5 bouts mentioned above the card had a further 7 bouts on it! These included a victory for the highly touted Jack Tepora (8-0, 5) who out pointed Danilo Gabisay (5-1, 3) over 8 rounds and a victory for Jessie Cris Rosales (13-0-1, 5) who narrowly over-came Jerry Nardo (17-4, 8) in probably the show's most controversial contest of the card. The card also featured 2 upsets. These included a loss for Jose Ocampo (17-7-1, 12), a man who was lined up for a WBO Lightweight title fight last year, who was beaten by Leonardo Doronio (12-8-2, 7) and a loss for the hard hitting Anthony Marcial (19-3, 18) who was retired against Rodel Wenceslao (7-6-1, 2). Making their debuts there was also wins for both Joneil Dapidran (1-0) and Rence Brian Magarce (1-0, 1). Dapidran over came Jonnie Villacrusis (0-2) via 4 round decision whilst Magarce stopped Diomedes Semella (0-2) in the second of a scheduled 4. In the remaining contest Jessie Espina (5-1, 3) out pointed Louie Arlos (8-3, 2) in what is his biggest win to date. On a separate Filipino card, promoted by ALA Promotions, we got yet more action, including another pair of title bouts. The most stunning of the title fights on this show saw the highly talented Genesis Servania (23-0, 9) leaving a nasty impression on Rafael Concepcion (18-7-1, 8). We expected Concepcion, who defeated AJ Banal and gave Nonito Donaire a very hard test a few years ago, to give Servania a hard time but a chilling right hand left Concepcion flat on his back for the full count. This victory saw Servania picking up the WBO Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title and further enhancing his position as one of the top contenders at 122lbs. Servania wasn't the only fighter to claima new title as fellow unbeaten fighter Arthur Villanueva (24-0, 14) won the WBO International Super Flyweight title thanks to an opening KO over Edgar Martinez (16-8, 10), Wedidn't expect Villanueva to struggle here though we didn't expect such a quick finish from the usually calculating Villanueva who looked sensational. In all honesty this was a great card for unbeaten fighters. Not only did Servania and Villanueva maintain their unbeaten records but so to did three promising prospects. Richard Barrios (6-0, 3) scored his most notable victory out pointing Rocky Incepido (5-2-1, 3) over the 6 round distance. This was the first time Barrios had been 6 rounds though he did the schedule with easy almost scoring a shut out. The promising Mark Vincent Bernaldez (12-0, 8) added to his impressive record with a fifth round TKO over Thailand's Khunkhiri Wor Wisaruth (10-6-1, 5). And the excellent Jessel Mark Magsayo (4-0, 3) stopped Hagibis Quinones (3-11-1, 2) in just 160 seconds. Despite the victories for 5 unbeaten men on the show they weren't the only men in action. The most notable of the "beaten men" was Roli Gasca (21-4-1, 6) who himself scored a rare stoppage taking out Lande Olin (11-5, 7) in the second round. He was joined by victories for Elmo Traya (3-1, 2), who out pointed Gabby Siempo (5-2-1, 1) in an upset, and Filipino based Japanese fighter Kazuma Ejiri (2-3, 2), who over came debutant Dodong Catigan (0-1). As well as the Filipino action there was also a card in Russia. This Russian action was headlined by Cruiserweight sensation Dmitry Kudryashov (11-0, 11) who took just 2 rounds to stop former world title challenger Shawn Cox (17-4, 16). As a result of his victory Kudryashov is now the holder of the lightly regarded Global Boxing Union Cruiserweight title belt. Kudryashov wasn't the only newly crowned champion as his compatriot Movsur Yusupov (5-0, 3) claimed the Global Boxing Union Light Heavyweight title courtesy of an 8 round technical decision over Josef Obeslo (4-13-1, 2). This was the longest fight of Yusupov's career so far though he'll be gla to have the victory. In a female contest Natalia Smirnova (7-0, 4) out pointed the over matched but tough Hana Horakova (3-10) over 10 rounds. The bout was a clear mismatch in favour of Smirnova who hardly dropped a round in the contest. Three other bouts on the show went the distance as Aliklych Kanbolatov (5-2, 2) took the unbeaten record of Leri Tedeev (1-1) over 8 rounds, Apti Ustarkhanov (3-1-1, 1) defeated the still winless Gor Akopyan (0-4) over 6 rounds and Vladyslav Yeromenko (1-0) defeated Zubair Suleymanov (0-1) in a battle of debutants. The rest of the card lasted a combined 3 rounds with a trio of opening round stoppages. These saw Viskhan Murzabekov (6-0, 3) stopping Dmitry Lavrinenko (2-8, 1), Gasan Gasanov (6-2, 5) taking out Mikhail Smurygin (0-2) and Heavyweight Apti Davtaev (3-0, 3) defeating Vyacheslav Shcherbakov (3-16-1, 2). Over in Mexico the tough Yuki Murai (21-18-5, 7) showed off his genuine toughness as he became just the second man to survive the scheduled with destructive Mexican Rey Vargas (17-0, 15). Although Murai didn't come close to defeating his explosive opponent he did give Vargas one of his tougher bouts in a contest for the WBC Youth World Super Bantamweight title. |
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