Tokyo, Japan The only Asian show this past Wednesday was the Misako Gym Meet at the Korakuen Hall. The show, certainly a "domestic level" card at best featured 9 bouts in total though none were all that notable to finds outside Japan. The most notable bouts took the form of 8 rounders, which really should tell you everything. One of those 8 rounders saw the Japanese ranked Hyobu Nakagama (17-11-4, 12) prove, once again, that his record is incredibly misleading. We know Nakagama isn't a world beat but he's better than one would think and he showed that by stopping Mikiya Ishikawa (8-6, 1) in round 6. The other 8 round contest saw Shiro Saito (7-4-1, 2) narrowly over-come the limited but heavy handed Yudai Ueno (7-6-2, 6) over the distance. Another well matched bout took place in the only 6 rounder on the card as Keigo Soma (6-9-1, 3) took a 6th round TKO over Ryosuke Ono (5-9-2) who had previously been stopped. This victory for Soma sees him ending a 3 fight losing run whilst Ono's losing streak continues to to 3 fights. The lower part of the card was made up of 6 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. These featured either debutants or novices and made for some interesting results. In an all novice affair Joe Nakanishi (2-0) narrowly over-came Yuki Miyoshi (2-2) via the narrowest of unanimous decisions. The only other bout which featured two men with previous experience saw Hokuto Sakata (3-3-1, 2) stop Satoshi Hongo (1-2) in 2 rounds. In an impressive debut Naoki Morooka (1-0, 1) stopped the previously unbeaten Shuri Hasebe (1-1) in 2 rounds whilst in a second debutant Vs novice fight Jin Miura (1-0) took home a decision defeating Taiyo Gunjima (1-4, 1) in a very competitive bout. The show also featured two all debutant bouts which both went the distance and saw Yusuke Ishikawa (1-0) defeat Kazuki Aso (0-1) at Welterweight and Yusuke Moriya (1-0) scored a debut win at Super Bantamweight by defeating Taisei Hayashi (0-1). (Picture, of Nakagama landing a right down the pipe, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Tokyo, Japan This past Monday didn't see an awful lot of Asian fights, in fact we had just 6 bouts, but the show it's self was one of major significance to both Japanese boxing and the Asian boxing scene in general. With two title bouts and a world ranked fighter this was one of those very strong but yet easily over-looked shows that the hardcore fans take note of whilst the less tuned fans over-look it as "another domestic show". The show began with a C Class tournament bout that saw the 17 year old Satohiko Haga (1-0) claim a split decision victory over Takuya Muto (0-1). This bout, a lowly 4 rounder, of course had significance due to the C Class tournament. The least significant bout on the show was one of a trio of 8 round bouts. The least important saw Takumi Koyama (8-2-1, 6) take a 5th round TKO over Yasuyuki Masuda (8-6, 1) who had never previously been stopped. We're not going to say Masuda was anything special but he did come into this bout on the back of a victory over Yuta Nagai. One of the other 8 rounders saw the very promising Masayuki Ito (14-0-1, 6) score a 7th round KO over the big punching Kazuya Nakano (7-3, 6). For Nakano this was the end of a 3 fight winning streak which had seen him beat Ribo Takahata and Takaomi Abe for Ito however it was a 10th successive victory and we'd not be shocked by seeing him head towards a world ranking by the end of this year. The remaining 8 rounder saw Shingo Eto (13-2-1, 8) take the most notable victory of his career so far as he defeated the world ranked Filipino Ryan Sermona (16-5, 9) via 6th round technical decision. Eto may not be rewarded with Sermona's world ranking but he'll be on the verges of getting a ranking with this victory. Following the 8 rounders we then get the first title bout as Shingo Eto's older brother Taiki Eto (12-3, 9) fought for the Japanese Super Flyweight title against Yohei Tobe (8-1-1, 5). The bout turned out to be great though was relatively one sided with Tobe just have a bit too much of everything for Eto who was eventually stopped in round 9 by Tobe who claims the title recently vacated by Teiru Kinoshita who will be fighting for a world title later this year. The second title fight, and the shows main event, saw former Japanese Light Welterweight champion Keita Obara (11-1, 10) claim the OPBF title at 140lbs as he stopped Filipino Jay Solmiano (17-3-1, 13) in 4 rounds. Solmiano gave it a good go though was simply unable to hurt Obara whilst Obara, who lowly opened up, had the power to hurt and drop Solmiano. Although not widely recognised by many outside of Asia Obara may well be one of the solid punching fighters at 140lbs and fight with him and Min Wook Kim would be great. It seems likely though that Obara will be moving up to 147lbs to fight Yoshihiro Kamegai later this year. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and shows Obara and Solmiano in action) This past Sunday was a crazy day in Japan with 5 separate shows run across the country. Unfortunately with so much action it has taken us a few days to get all the results together but here they are. Osaka, Japan The biggest show of the day was in the IMP Hall in Osaka as Green Tsuda put on a 10 bout show, headlined by a Japanese Bantamweight title fight. This show began with 6 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. These 4 rounders included just 2 stoppages with the quickest of those being an first round retirement scored by the debuting Naotoshi Nakatani (1-0, 1) who saw his foe Takafumi Yamada (4-4, 1) pull out at the end of the opener. In the other stoppage bout scheduled for 4 rounds it didn't take much of round 2 for the unbeaten Yuki Nagashima (5-0, 2) to stop Hiroto Sugai (1-3, 1). A third of the 4 rounders here failed to go the distance as the previously win-less Shosuke Jo (1-1) took a third technical decision over the debuting Kewpie Tsubasa (0-1). In the other 4 rounders Shohei Kawashima (5-0-1, 1 nigh on shut out Hikaru Matsumine (3-1), the unbeaten Michitaka Muto (2-0-1) was given a great run for his money by fellow novice Hirohide Murakami (1-2) and Kazuma Fukuyama (3-2-2) struggled past Ryota Yada (3-3, 2). The sole 6 rounder on this card lasted just 166 seconds as Tomonori Ota (5-4, 3) swiftly took care of Hisashi Kawanishi (4-6, 1). In a pair of 8 rounder we saw very competitive action. The most competitive, on the score cards, saw Yoshihito Ishizaki (9-6-1, 4) take a split decision over Ryota Kihara (6-8-4, 5) whilst in the other bout Takayuki Okumoto (11-6-2, 5) took a hard fought victory over the previously perfect Yuki Yonaha (3-1, 3). We had feared, going in to Okumoto/Yonaha, that the novice's lack of decent level competition would bite him in the backside though he put up a valiant fight and we'd not complain at seeing him at this level again. In the main event we got Japanese title action as Kentaro Masuda (19-6, 10) defeated Yu Kawaguchi (20-6, 9) via technical decision to claim the Japanese Bantamweight title. The belt, which had been vacated by Kohei Oba prior to his fight with Randy Caballero, now belongs in the the arms of Masuda who had previously failed in a Japanese title fight against the excellent Ryosuke Iwasa back in 2012. Ishikawa, Japan We got a second title bout on a card in Ishikawa which had a certain international feel to it with visitors from Thailand, the Philippines, China and South Korea. The only all-Japanese bout on this card saw Katsuteru Yoshifusa (1-0) claim a 4 round decision over the previously undefeated Kazuyuki Tomita (2-1). Following the all-Japanese bout we then had a trio of bouts pitting Chinese fighters against Japanese fighters, this 3 fight series ended at a very even 1-1-1. The Japanese win came in a female bout as the debuting Miki Matsumoto (1-0) out pointed China's poor Li Yun Ting (1-5, 1), who incidentally recorded her first distance fight. The Chinese win came as Xu Chan (2-0) over-came a 7lb weight disadvantage to defeat the debuting Kota Hamamoto (0-1). The series found no winner as Yukiya Hanabusa (5-2-2) was held to a 6 round majority draw by Xiang Jing (7-3-1, 1). After the undercard bouts we then got down to real action with a pair of well regarded Filipino's in action. These saw bouts went 2-0 for the Filipino fighter with Marlon Tapales (25-2, 9) taking a 5th round technical decision over Japan's Hayato Kimura (21-6, 15) and Mark Gil Melligen (18-4-1, 9) stopped the previously unbeaten Thai Bualuang OnesongchaiGym (12-1, 4) midway through the 5th round. The main event was the title bout as South Korean Ye-Joon Kim (8-1-2, 3) scored a 9th round TKO over Akihiro Matsumoto (12-5-1, 6) to claim the WBC Youth Super Bantamweight title. An interesting side note to this card is despite there being 7 Japanese fighters on this show only 2 actually won. Gifu, Japan Although there were no titles on the line at the Industrial Hall in Gifu we did see some very notable debutant action. The show began with 3 nondescript bouts which began with Yuya Shimakura (2-0) who outpointed Shinnosuke Yonekawa (1-3) over 4 rounds before Reiko Sugiyama (3-5-2, 2) stopped Hajime Ikeda (4-4) in 2 rounds and Hajime Kawase (5-7-2) took a competitive 6 round victory over Yujiro Nakamura (4-7-1, 2). It was after those undercard bouts that we got the debutant action. The second of the bouts involving debutants was an expected win for the very highly regarded former amateur stand out Genki Hanai (1-0, 1) who easily saw off fellow debutant Atiwit Munyapho (0-1) in 159 seconds. Hanai is seen as one of the potential stars of the future and made headlines in Japan when he announced his intention to turn professional. Although Hanai's victory is a good one it really pales in significance to the upset we saw in the other bout featuring a debutant as Thailand's Saranyu Intakaew (1-0, 1) scored a 48 second blow out of Japan's very own Toshihiko Adachi (13-7, 6). Although Adachi isn't one of the best Light Welterweight's in Japan this has certainly been a result that could leave Intakaew as one to watch. The main even on this show saw Futoshi Usami (12-1-1, 9) make light work of Akira Shono (7-6-2, 4) scoring a stoppage at the very end of round 2. Osaka, Japan A second show at the IMP Hall, though one with much less significance than the Japanese title bout spoken about above tough a lot more competitiveness, took place courtesy of Taiho Promotions. This show featured 8 bouts and began with some extremely competitive bouts as Ryosuke Morioka (0-0-1) was held to a split decision draw with Daiki Miyayama (2-2-1, 1), a split decision was also seen when Keisuke Tabuchi (4-1-2, 3) narrowly took a win over Noboru Osato (2-2-2, 1). Another competitive contest saw Chocoboy Oizumi (2-2-2, 1) take a slim unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Naoki Taniwa (1-1, 1) whilst another 3 rounder saw the stoppage run of Takuma Hayashi (4-0, 3) come to an end with majority decision over the tough Yukitaka Nishida (4-8-2, 1). It wasn't just the 4 rounders that were well matched with both 6 rounders also being very narrow victories. These saw Takahito Osaka (6-0-2, 4) keep his unbeaten record with a razor thin unanimous decision over Hideo Mikan (6-6-1, 2) whilst Ken Osato (5-1, 3) only just beat Katsuhiko Kanno (8-8-7, 3) who is now win-less in 7. Even the main bouts were competitive as So Takenaka (20-7-2, 8) was given a hard work out by Thai debutant Wanchana Wilaiphut (0-1) and Satoru Sugita (8-2-1, 5) could only take a split decision over the more experienced Ryota Kajiki (22-9, 14). This may not have been the headline card but in terms of value for money this genuinely great, competitive and the sort of well matched bout that will bring people back to boxing! Well done Taiho. Hiroshima, Japan The remaining show took place at the Green Arena in Hiroshima and featured 10 bouts in total. For those wanting to see quick finishes this was the show for them with 7 bouts finishing inside the distance. Of the 3 bouts to go the distance one was the main event as Takashi Omae (12-3-5, 1) took a majority decision over Koji Itagaki (12-9-2, 5) in what turned out to be more competitive than we had expected. Another of the distance bouts saw the debuting Kazuya Okubo (1-0) taking a majority victory over the more experienced Teruyuki Kobashi (2-9-1, 1) whilst the other saw a shut out by Morihisa Iju (4-0, 3) who over-came Takuya Fujio (1-2-1) with ease. The quickest of the 7 stoppages on the card came after just 2 minutes as Toshiki Yanari (2-0, 2) won a battle of unbeaten Minimumweights stopping Takahiro Morisaki (1-1, 1). The only other opening round KO saw the debuting Takahiro Maeda (1-0, 1) score a stoppage at 3:09 of the opening round as he took out Makoto Yoshimura (0-2). The second round brought us 3 stoppages. The quickest of those saw Taiyo Inoue (1-1, 1) take out Garyu Takuma (1-5, 1) in just 63 seconds. Inoue's win was 8 seconds quicker than the one scored by Daigo Nakahiro (24-4-2, 10) over Thai novice Phetsaifar Lukmaelamperigym (0-3) which it's self was 9 seconds quicker than the one scored by Yuya Okazaki (9-7-1, 3), who took out another Thai novice in the form of Kittisak Sithsaithong (0-2). Both of the remaining stoppages came in round 4 with exactly the same time recorded, 1:00. These saw Shisato Okuma (6-1-2, 5) score a KO over Ryusuke Hoashi (1-4, 1) whilst Taichi Yoshizato (1-1, 1) scored his first pro victory with a TKO over Junya Akitake (0-2). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Nevada, USA The major action concerning Asian fighters this past weekend wasn't in Asia though did involve an Asian boxing superstar and one of the most recognisable faces in not just boxing but sport world wide. That was of course Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38) the Filipino boxing star-turned actor, singer and politician. Pacquiao, who hadn't fought in the US since a 2012 knock out defeat to nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez, returned to action state side to avenge the most controversial defeat of his career, a decision loss to American Timothy Bradley (31-1-0-1, 12). Bradley had, 2 years ago, taken the WBO Welterweight crown from Pacquiao in a widely condemned decision and this time both me were out to their point. Bradley started well though in the end there was only one winner, Pacquiao had dominated vast swathes of the bout through the middle rounds and the later rounds as he reclaimed is title, retook his place amongst boxing elite and proved, once again, that he is a fighter first and foremost. Our full write up of the Pacquiao/Bradley fight can be found here. Unfortunately whilst Pacquiao was successful the same couldn't be said of Russian Light Welterweight Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-1, 9) who lost both the WBA Light Welterweight title and his unbeaten record in a decision loss to unbeaten American Jessie Vargas (24-0, 9). The bout was competitive through out though at times Khabib was out sped as Vargas stole some rounds in what was a competitive and interesting technical bout between good secondary tier fighters. Neither man would compare well with Danny Garcia or Lucas Matthysse but both can hold their heads high and know that against almost anyone else in the division they'd be competitive. A third Asian fighter was on the card, Afghanistan born Arash Usmanee (20-2-1, 10) who was unfortunately out powered, out fought and out muscled by Raymundo Beltran (29-6-1, 17) in a Lightweight encounter. Usmanee, who took the bout with a weeks notice, showed his toughness and bravery though he was a clear loser on the cards and we'd not expect him back at Lightweight any time soon. It was game effect from Usmanee who will likely be hoping for another world title bout in his natural Super Featherweight division later this year. Misamis Oriental, Philippines As for action actually in Asia we can only find 2 bouts, both on the same show in the Philippines. These saw the hard hitting former amateur star Vic Saludar (4-1, 4) taking out the experienced Rey Morano (8-40-1, 1) in just 119 seconds and the unbeaten Rence Bryan Magarce (2-0, 1) out pointing the debuting Mace Talido (0-1). (Photo courtesy of Sumio Yamada) Whilst the entire boxing world was getting excited about Saturday's big show from the US, including the return of the Pacman, there was actually some fighters take part in their job across Asia. Nonthaburi, Thailand Arguably the most significant fight of the day was in Thailand as the highly ranked Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (50-1, 32) had to avoid a potential banana skin. With a WBO world title eliminator on the books Chonlatarn had to make sure he got the win and he did just that as he stopped Nouldy Manakane (25-15-1, 15) in 6 rounds. We now expect Chonlatarn to be meeting Joel Brunker next, possibly as soon as May for a fight to decide the mandatory challenger. Chonlatarn wasn't the only ranked fighter in action as the unbeaten Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym (26-0-2, 11) stopped Khunpol Chaiyonggym (0-1) and defended his own world rankings in the process. We're not sold on Kwanpichit being world class but he knows a slip up could cost him big time. Other stoppages on the card included Yodkhunsuk Mor Poowana (3-1, 1) stopping the debuting Korporn Sithpornsak (0-1) in 3 rounds and female fighter Napaporn Superchamps (8-8, 2) stopping Ploynapa Sakrungrueng (10-5-1) in 4 rounds. This Thai card also had one of the oddest bouts as Denis Castle (1-0, 1) scored a debut stoppage over Dorkmaipah Kiatpompetch (0-3). From what we understand Castle is a 42 year old British Minimumweight. The only bout that actually went the distance in Thailand saw Thewa Tor Surat (5-0, 1) take a 6 round decision over Jen Yu Jia (1-8-1). Southern Leyte, Philippines The only Filipino card of the day was one that may not have has a lot of fights but it did have a couple of very interesting fighters on it. The show began with 10 amateur bouts before we moved on to professional action. At the lower end of the interest spectrum fans got to see Jess Rhey Waminal (2-0, 1) out point the win-less Dondon Amparado (0-4), Richard Barrios (7-0, 3) take a close decision over Lito Dante (7-4-3, 4), Whilst Brian Lobetania (8-0-2, 6) stopped Boyce Sultan (8-4, 5) and Elmo Traya (4-1, 3) stopped Rey dela Cruz (2-6, 2). Although the under-card was relatively deep those in attendance were there for the Pagara brothers and neither of them failed to deliver. The unbeaten Albert Pagara (20-0, 14) made late work of limited Indonesian Skak Max (6-14, 6), scoring a third round stoppage, whilst Jason Pagara (33-2, 20) broke up and then stopped Rusmin Kie Raha (12-5-2, 2) who was forced to take a 10 count. Tokyo, Japan One of the more interesting cards was in Japan where we had a 7 bout show at the Korakuen Hall. The most interesting bout from Japan, in our opinion, saw a minor upset as Jo Tanooka (8-1-4) narrowly out pointed the previously Japanese ranked Ryuto Oho (6-1, 2). We had backed Oho to win this one though will admit that these two are both likely to be competing for Japanese titles some where down the line. Although the Tanooka/Oho bout was the one that interested us the most the main event as actually a bout between Ryuji Yokoyama (11-1, 3) and Koya Sato (7-1-1, 1). This saw Sato suffering his first professional defeat via a razor thing 6 round technical decision that was effectively decided by a point on 2 of the scorecards. Most of the bouts in Tokyo were highly competitive and we actually got just a sole KO as Masajiro Honda (5-4, 4) took out Takashi Sakamoto (4-3, 1) in 2 rounds to inflict the first stoppage loss on to the record of Sakamoto. As well as the single stopped we also only had one clear decision as Yuto Sasamori (7-4, 3) almost shut out the limited Hideki Suzuki (4-4-1) over 6 rounds. The close decision on the undercard saw Koji Okubo (2-1-1) take a majority decision over Kenji Motegi (2-3-1) and likewise Shuntaro Ouchi (1-0) also took a majority decision as he overcame Ryusuke Arai (0-1). The closest bout on the show however was a draw as Tomoki Takada (0-0-1) was held on debut by Tomotsune Mitsuyasu (1-1-1, 1). Suwannakhet, Laos There were also recognisable Thai's in action in Laos as former world title challenger Terdsak Kokietgym (53-4-1, 33) was in action for his second bout of the year. Terdsak recorded his third straight decision victory as he out pointed Filipino Rene Bestudio (16-7-4, 5) and claimed the previously vacant WBO Oriental Super Featherweight title in the process. Although Terdsak has failed in previous world title bits he does seem to be wanting another and he'll be hoping that this WBO regional title will help him get a fight with current WBO champion Mikey Garcia. On the same card in Laos was a victory for Petchbarngborn Kokietgym (25-7-1, 10) who out pointed the debuting Gasper Empolo (0-1). This was Petchbarngborn's third straight victory since being stopped by the fact rising Sho Ishida last September. California, USA Finally fans in the US got the chance to see the return to the ring of former Lightweight world title challenger Mercito Gesta (27-1-1, 15) who showed no mercy as he stopped Edgar Riovalle (37-18-2, 26) in the final round of a bout scheduled for 8. This was Gesta's first fight in over a year following his loss to Miguel Vazquez in an IBF title fight that unfortunately saw Gesta being over-awed by the big stage. On the same show as Mercito was his younger brother Anecito Gesta (2-3) who was unfortunately on the wrong end of a close decision losing to the debuting Riccy Hood (1-0). Nevada, USARussian Light Heavyweight prospect Egor Mekhontsev (3-0, 3) continued the very impressive start to his career as he stopped Dwayne Williams (5-2, 2) and it now seems like Mekhontsev is ready for a big step up. Unfortunately he's just too good for this level of fight to learn anything and he could well be sped up significantly in his development. New South Wales, Australia Filipino journeyman Michael Correa (3-12-3, 1) was surprisingly blown away inside a round as he took on unbeaten Australian Kye MacKenzie (8-0, 6). Correa is usually tough and went 8 rounds with MacKenzie last year so this blow away loss really was a surprise despite Correa's less than impressive record. (Picture, of Chonlatarn, courtesy of Onesongchai) This past Thursday saw just a single show of Asian interest with a card at the Korakuen Hall but whilst it was only a single show it was pretty significant one for Japanese boxing on the domestic stage with ranked fighters and a national title fight. Tokyo, Japan The show in question was an 8 bout card with interest from numerous parties. Firstly the undercard which began with began with a foursome of 4 rounders. These 4 rounders including a battle between unbeaten fighters as Takunari Yokoyama (3-0, 2) took his first decision win and over-came the previously perfect Tadashi Nunoya (1-1, 1) in a very competitive bout that had all 3 judges scoring 38-37 to Yokoyama. The Yokoyama/Nunoya bout was easily the most competitive contest on the show. Another one of the early bouts that went to a decision saw Yuma Kudo (3-0-1) maintain his unbeaten record as he out pointed Akihiro Yamanaka (1-3) in another thoroughly competitive match up. Don't let Yamanaka's record make you believe he's a bum because he's a "bum" because he isn't though he's never going to be a world class fighter he is the sort of guy who could give some novices a real test. A third, male, 4 rounder saw an early conclusion as Kenji Fujiyama (4-3, 3) took out Mikio Kage (3-4-1, 3) in the third round. Arguably the talking point of the under-card wasn't the male fights but was instead the beautiful Riyako Goshi (1-2) who fought for the first time in 5 years and beat Thailand's Thanawan Sithsaithong (0-1). Although Goshi is never going to be a boxing star she is still a notable name from her modelling career and has almost certainly been inspired back in to the ring following the success of Tomomi Takano who is quickly making a name for herself. We had a second female bout on the show as the well regarded Kimika Miyoshi (9-7-1, 4) took care of Thailand's debuting Tantip Sithsaithong (0-1) in the third of a scheduled 8 rounds. This was one of 3 bouts scheduled for the 8 round distance with the others seeing Daisuke Furuhashi (16-5, 6) take a clear decision over Keita Nakano (10-9-3, 2) and the Japanese ranked Shamgar Koichi (18-5-1, 11) scored an opening round KO over Takashi Inagaki (17-12-1, 7). The main event was a Japanese Flyweight title fight that saw reigning champion Suguru Muranaka (20-2-1, 6) make the first defence of his title as he scored a 10th round stoppage over former world title challenger Masayuki Kuroda (21-5-3, 13). This loss is bad news for Kuroda who is now 0-2-3 in his last 5 bouts and desperately needs a win. Kuroda is a former Japanese Light Flyweight champion but those days are starting to seem like a distance memory right now. (Photo, of Muranaka landing a straight right, is courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Wednesday was a somewhat busy one across the Asian boxing world with fights taking place in Thailand and Japan as well as Asian's competing in Australia. Some of the bouts of course has little real significance, otherwise however were important bouts or featured somewhat important fighters. Ang Thong, Thailand For us the key show was in Thailand and was televised on Thai Channel 9. Although it was only a small card it had on 3 of the bigger names that were in action including veteran former world champion Sirimongkol Singwancha (77-2, 49). Although Sirimongkol is set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his debut he isn't letting up on collecting wins and scored his latest with a second round KO over the debuting Barak Sithyodthong (0-1). Barak wasn't the only debutant on the card as Oddneo Puptista (0-1) also had a losing debut. Oddneo took on the promising Ratchasak Kokietgym (21-2-1, 10) and although he went the distance with Ratchasak he didn't come close to winning. The best fight on the card, by some margin, was the 12 round affair between fast rising Welterweight KO artist Chalermpol Singwancha (6-0, 5) and tough Filipino Dan Nazareno Jr (19-11, 15). Nazareno managed to take the power of Chalermpol and fire back in some great exchanges though few would debate the winner with Chalermpol really deserving the W. Whilst some will look at Nazareno's record and dismiss him as a "bum" he's an incredibly tough fighter and in the last 7 years he has only been stopped once, by the then OPBF champion Min Wook Kim. That's despite fighting Aslanbek Kozaev, Prawet Singwancha, Teerachai Kratingdaenggym-twice and Adones Cabalquinto. Might not mean a lot to some but this was a genuinely great win for the Thai puncher. Tokyo, Japan Whilst the Thai card was certainly notable so too was the Japanese card that took place at the Korakuen Hall. This card was headlined by Ryuichi Funai (21-6, 14) who narrowly over-came the upset minded Akinori Hoshino (11-6-1, 8). Hoshino gave as good as he got and had a round swung the opposite way this bout would have been a split decision draw showing just how competitive the action was despite that fact Funai was heavily favoured. Another notable bout on this card saw Hiroki Sato (8-4, 5) take a very good decision over Ryutaro Taira (8-4-1, 3). Although Sato doesn't have the greatest of records on paper he is a very capable fighter and we'd be very shocked if he doesn't claim a notable title of some sort in the next few years. In an 8 rounder we saw the hard hitting Taiki Minamoto (9-3, 8) take out the more experienced Seizo Kono (14-6-1, 9) in 6 rounds. This loss for Kono was his third in just 4 fights and may well spell the end of his dreams of picking up a title of any variety. A fourth notable bout, at least domestically in Japan, on this show saw Yusuke Tsukada (6-4, 3) take a very narrow and extremely hard fought decision over the more experienced Masaki Saito (10-10-3, 2). The other bouts on this show all ended inside the distance. These included a 5th round victory for Gaku Aikawa (5-1-1, 1), who stopped Hyuma Fujioka (4-3-1), to claim his first stoppage victory. The other stoppages on the show saw Daiki Chinen (2-1, 1) take out Yutaka Motoyoshi (3-8, 3) in 3 rounds and Shogo Yonenaga (3-1, 2) stopping Kazuma Ishikura (2-3, 1) in 4 rounds. New South Wales, Australia In Australia things weren't for Asian's as a foursome of Thai all suffered defeats. The quickest of the defeats was for Thongthai Rajanondh (16-18, 4) who failed to last a round with the unbeaten George Kambosos Jr (5-0, 2). It was a little surprising to see the Thai stopped so quickly. It didn't take Ahmed Dib (13-0, 8) too much longer to stop journeyman Dennapa Bigshotcamp (12-31, 4) who was stopped in round 2. It wasn't great for Dechapon Suwunnalird (6-27, 2) either as he was stopped in 4 by Renold Quinland (8-0, 4) The only Thai to survive the distance was Pramool Boonpok (0-4) who went 6 rounds with the unbeaten Cameron Hammond (9-0, 4) in a second meeting between the two men. (Picture is courtesy of boxingnews.jp and is from the Sato-Taira bout) This past Tuesday saw a card under-the radar in Thailand despite having some of the biggest Thai names of it. Unfortunately we weren't made aware of it until afterwards though thankfully we do have the result from it. Pathum Thani, Thailand The main event on the show saw the very promising and still unbeaten Nawaphon Por Chokchai (21-0, 15), pictured, successfully defend his WBC Asian Boxing Council Flyweight title as he over-came former OPBF Minimumweight champion Michael Landero (16-12-4, 5) in 3 rounds. Landero was once a very good fighter though at the moment those memories are rather distance and he has now lost 8 of his last 9 including 3 stoppages. Whilst Nawaphon was the main event he probably wasn't the main attraction, that honour seems to have fallen to current WBC Super Flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (27-3-1, 25) who scored his 4th win of the year as he stopped the over-matched Ngaotawan Sithsaithong (10-14-1, 5) in 4 rounds. This bout was little more than a stay busy contest for Srisaket who has a world title fight arranged for next month with Carlos Cuadras, a bout we're more than licking our lips in anticipation of. That should be special. Former world champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (35-5-1, 15) was surprisingly taken the 6 round distance by the over-matched, but tough, Samuel Tehuayo (17-20-2, 3). Suriyan seems to be staying active but not going anywhere with his career at the moment. Hopefully promotional outfit Nakornluang can move him into a meaningful fight soon. Also on the card was the unbeaten Kongfah Nakornluang (12-0, 6) who quickly got rid of the debuting Yutthana Sor Ratidech (0-1), inside a round, whilst stable-mate Namphol Sithsaithong (5-7, 5) was extended into the second round by Nanfah Saksamrong (0-1). (Image courtesy of boxrec.com) Again we've got to apologise for being extremely late to update results with it now being Thursday and we're only just putting up Sunday's results. This has been down to several small reasons that have all, unfortunately, occurred at once delaying a lot of things. Part of the problem was that there was simply so much action in Asia, 6 separate cards too place across Japan and South Korea meaning that it took a long time to get all the results. But, belatedly, here we go. Tokyo, Japan The biggest show of the weekend, not just in Asia but world wide was in Tokyo as the boxing world turned it's attention to a world title double head and a card dubbed "Ring of Diamonds" a show that was created to celebrated Ohashi Gym's 20th anniversary and show off some of their genuinely top tied fighters. It was a show that a super show and one that deserved to mass attention it got. The main attraction was of course young superstar Naoya Inoue (6-0, 5) who continued his climb to the top of the boxing world with a breath taking performance against the defending WBC Light Flyweight champion Adrian Hernandez (29-3-1, 18). Although he was the betting favourite few would have expected Inoue to do what he did. Firstly he out boxed Hernandez for 4 rounds, then he outfought Hernandez for 2 rounds scoring a 6th round stoppage despite suffering from some issues with his leg. The stoppage was brutal and the result was sensational. Inoue wasn't the only man in a world title fight and in the shows other world title bout saw Akira Yaegashi (20-3, 10) successfully defend his WBC Flyweight title fight with a nasty stoppage of game challenger Odilon Zaleta (15-4, 8). The performance from Yaegashi was less than stellar though tactically Zaleta had the style to give the Japanese fighter some real issues at times. In the end though Yaegashi had enough in his locked to over-come a poor start and stop the challenger in 9 rounds. Yaegashi's victory helped set up a fight with Nicaraguan sensation Roman Gonzalez (39-0, 33) who himself scored a victory on the card beating the over-matched Juan Purisima (11-5-1, 4) in the shows only out-and-out mismatch. It wasn't a fair fight but it was a bout that was there to show case Gonzalez and have him in the venue to "publicly" challenger Yaegashi something he did after Yaegashi's title defense. One of the most competitive bouts on the show saw Satoshi Hosono (25-2-1, 19) defend on his "bazooka" like power to over-come the previously unbeaten Yuki Ogata (19-1-1, 3) to claim the Japanese Featherweight title. Ogata had gotten much the better of the fight before Hosono managed to land a bomb in round 10 to keep his world title dreams alive. Despite the loss we genuinely believe that Ogata will "come again" an is likely a future Japanese champion in the making, though from the skills he showed he does have the potential to win an OPBF title, he just needs more experience over 10 rounds. Further down the card their was chances to shine for two talented young, unbeaten Japanese prospects. These saw Ryo Matsumoto (10-0, 8) over-come tough former world title challenger Hiroyuki Hisataka (22-12-1, 10) in a valuable 8 round contest. It was, easily, the hardest bout of Matsumoto's career though it certainly helped his development and showed that he has the talent and ability to become a world champion even if he's not yet ready. Strangely we can't say that Takuma Inoue (2-0) despite his lack of experience, isn't ready. He was also on the show and completely dominated the top 5 ranked Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (23-3, 15) in one of the most out standing performances by such a novice. Prior to the 6 fights above there was 2 Rookie if the year Qualifying bouts. These saw Shingo Iijima (4-1-1, 1) take a decision over the previously unbeaten Masahito Oki (2-1, 2) and the debuting Shin Tomitaka (1-0) over-came Takahiro Yamanishi (1-2). Fukuoka, Japan Another Japanese show as held in Fukuoka at the Kokura Kita Gym. This show was one of the smallest shows of the day and featured a highly competitive headline bout between Yoshihiko Matsuo (17-5-5, 3) and Yudai Matsumoto (8-9-3, 1). On paper it looked one sided, in reality however there was next to nothing to split the two men and Matsumoto, once again, proved his record is misleading and although he is 1-5-1 in his last 7 he is a brilliant opponent who will never let anyone have an easy time with him. The co-feature on this show wasn't as competitive as the main event and instead it saw Yamato Uchinono (5-2-5, 3) stopping Takuro Habu (11-9-2, 3) in 5 rounds. The rest of the card was unfortunately one sided with a trio of stoppages. These saw the promising Yuki Beppu (4-0, 4) score a 96 second stoppage over Shota Aikawa (4-4-1, 1), Keisuke Nakayama (6-1, 3) stopped the debuting Dawubon Sakhonwon (0-1) in 3 rounds whilst Masanori Maeda (1-1-1, 1) scored a 4th round stoppage over the win-less Yoshiaki Kishioka (0-2). Okayama, Japan One of the most more obscure cards of the day was in Okayama at the Mimasaka Bunka Center and promoted by Shinsei Gym who were, of course, a little down hearted with Kohei Oba having lost the biggest fight of his career just a few days earlier. This show was headlined by a fight between Filipino Adones Aguelo (21-9-2, 13) and Hirohito Fukuhara (16-9-9, 8) with the visiting fighter scoring a late KO with just 94 seconds of the bout remaining. This was one of only 2 stoppages on the card with the other coming way down the card as the previously win-less Atsuhiro Mach Yamamoto (1-7, 1) defeated Katsuyoshi Yamada (0-1) inside a round. The other 5 bouts on this show all went to a decision. The highest profile of those saw Kazuhiro Nishitani (13-2, 6) take a wide decision over the hard hitting but technically poor Gabriel Royo (9-9-2, 8). This was a near shut out over 8 rounds and was one of two bouts that went the completed 8 with the other being a decision victory for Ryuya Yamanaka (7-1, 2) who over-came Hiroki Yamamoto (6-10-1, 1). In the only 6 rounder we had the most competitive bout of the day as Yasuyuki Otagaki (4-1-3) drew with Yushi Fujita (5-6-2). The 4 rounders saw Tetsuya Kawabata (3-7, 1) taking a rare decision as he over came the debuting Manabu Kashine (0-1) and Takuya Fujioka (3-3-1, 1) levelled his record off as he over-came the previously unbeaten Hideya Takayama (2-1-1, 1). Aichi, Japan The rest of the Japanese action was at the Aioi Hall in Aichi where 2 separate shows were held on the same day. The first of these shows that we'll look at is the Midori promotions show which was a 6 bout card which was nothing but competitive from top to bottom. The show opened with a trio of 4 round contests, only one actually got a winner. The one bout with a winner saw the unbeaten Masaru Urata (3-0-1, 1) over-come Ryunosuke Yamashita (1-3) via a narrow decision that saw one judge giving the bout to Urata by just a point. The other two 4 rounders both resulted in draws with Kazunori Takai (0-0-1) fighting to a majority draw with Tomoya Yamaguchi (4-2-1, 4) whilst Tetsuya Kanao (0-0-1) fought to a split decision draw with Kiyoshi Tanaka (0-3-2). Following the back-to-back draws we then had back-to-back split decision bouts as recent Japanese Heavyweight title challenger Kotatsu Takehara (10-9-3, 4) narrowly over-came Frenchman Cyril Leonet (6-8-2, 1) in a very competitive bout and Filipino journeyman Jaypee Ignacio (11-17-2, 2) scored a shock upset victory over Ryosuke Maruki (7-2-1, 5). Of those 2 bouts the talking point is clearly Ignacio's win over Maruki which ended Ignacio's 0-2 run in Japan. Outstanding performance by the tough Filipino. The main event here saw Kazuya Maruki (16-2, 10) taking a close and controversial victory over RJ Ano-os (8-6-1, 2) in a bout that should probably been scored a draw with all 3 cards giving Maruki the nod 96-95. The other show at the Aioi Hall we again got some very competitive match ups. These included a 4 round majority decision to Takashi Igarashi (2-0, 1) who out pointed Ryuya Kusakabe (0-1), a split decision draw between Naoki Yoshimura (0-0-1) and fellow debutant Shin Tomita (0-0-1) and a very close unanimous decision victory for Masatsugu Ito (1-1-1) who over-came Hideya Koyama (0-1). The other 4 rounders on this show were less competitive as Hayato Takeshima (3-2, 3) took just 38 seconds to see off the win-less Shohei Iwamoto (0-2-1), Shinpei Tominaga (1-1, 1) took less than 2 rounds to stop Yuta Takimoto (3-4-1, 2), Jun Takigawa (3-0, 2) needed 3 rounds to see off Tatsuya Sakamoto (3-5, 1) and Tetsuya Yamaguchi (2-1-1, 1) also needed just 3 rounds as he defeated the previously unbeaten Masanori Kawai (1-1, 1). The co-feature bout was also over early as Kazuki Fukakura (7-6-2, 3) saw off Nao Iwata (3-11-3) in the 3rd of a scheduled 6 rounds. Thankfully after all the stoppages we get a really hard fought main event which surprisingly saw Daiki Koide (21-6-2, 9) given an amazingly tough bout by Jose Maxian (9-4, 7). Although Maxian was stopped inside 2 rounds almost 2 years ago by Rikki Naito he does seem to be growing into a very capable fighter. We'd keep an eye on Maxian one day winning an OPBF or Filipino title as he is much better than his record indicates. Gimpo, South Korea In South Korea a card genuinely slipped under our radar despite their being a Korean title as the main event. The show, in total, had 10 bouts with the main attraction being the the bout for the Korean Lightweight title which is now around the waist of Sa-Ya Lee (5-2, 3) after he stopped Sang-Joon Park (5-4-2) with just 75 seconds of their bout remaining. Prior to the main event we got a series of 4 rounders and a small handful of 6 rounders. The 4 rounders, the 6 of them, featured just a pair of stoppages. These early endings saw Suk Yoon (1-0, 1) stopping Min-Wook Lee (0-1) in 2 rounds and Ki-Chul Lee (2-0, 2) stopping Kwon Kim (0-2) in round 4. Interestingly Kim was just seconds from the final bell. In the bouts not to see stoppages we did have one technical decision as Dong-Young Gang (2-0) took a 3 round technical victory over Kyung-Am Kim (0-3), incidentally they scored the 76 second third round, with at least 2 of the judges awarding that particular round to Gang. As well as the technical victory for Gang we also had 2 draws as debuting pair Seung-Yoon Shin (0-0-1) and Joseph Lee (0-0-1) were seen as difficult to split by the judges and Sung-Dong Kim (2-1-1, 1) marked up the previously perfect record of Joon-Ho Moon (2-0-1, 1), also with split decision draw. The one 4 rounder that reached a natural decision conclusion and had a winner was a bout that saw the unbeaten Byung-Ha Kim (3-0) clearly defeat Seung-Bong Moon (1-1-1, 1) . In the 6 round bouts things were equally as competitive with Moon-Sun Jung (2-2-3) taking a majority decision over In-Kyoo Lee (2-2, 1) and Da-Won Suh (3-3-1, 1) fighting to a draw with Hyo-Suk Kim (2-0-4, 1). Whilst the only clear victor was Joon-Young Lee (4-1-3, 2) who clearly beat Hyo-Hyun Nam (2-4). (Image thansk to Ohashi Gym) Kamegai successfully defends OPBF belt, Kiyota wins and Alvarez scores career best victory!4/9/2014 Sometimes we need to apologise for being late with results and this is one of those times. Unfortunate fights from both Saturday and Sunday were very late to reach us in full. We're sorry for this and hope it won't affect us on a regular basis. Tokyo, Japan In terms of Asian cards the most notable was the Teiken promoted show at the Korakuen Hall which features a total of 9 bouts including a notable title bout and a former Japanese national champion. The notable title bout was a contest for the OPBF Welterweight title as the hard hitting and genuinely fun to watch Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-1-1, 21) successfully defended his belt for the first time. Kamegai was matched somewhat easily however as he took on the limited Korean champion Jung-Hoon Yang (8-6, 2) who simply couldn't cope with Kamegai's power and was stopped in 4 rounds. Kamegai's was a mismatch but so too was the chief support bout which pitted former Japanese Middleweight champion Tomohiro Ebisu (12-3, 12) who made very light work of Indonesian import Satria Antasena (6-6, 2), scoring a 3rd round KO with out even breaking sweat. One of the few competitive bouts on paper turned out to be equally as uncompetitive as Yota Hori (11-2-2, 6) manage to take a wide decision over Kenta Okumura (11-2-1, 2). On paper this was competitive though in actuality Okumura struggled to win a single round of the 8 round contest. Of the other 6 bouts on the show only one actually went the distance and that was the only competitive bout on the show as Ryuya Kaji (2-0, 1) out pointed Ryusei Ishii (2-1, 1) in a narrow 4 rounder. Of the 5 remaining bouts 3 of them only went in to the second round. These saw the debuting Sho Nagata (1-0, 1) stopping the still win-less Hiroki Imamura (0-2), the win-some lose-some puncher Heisuke Ono (4-2-2, 4) took out journeyman Taro Mochizuki (4-8, 4) and unbeaten puncher Masaya Tamayama (3-0, 3) stopped Kotaro Sasa (1-5). Both of the other bouts went 4 rounds and these saw Shingo Kusano (8-3-1, 4) stopping Tsubasa Matsuo (8-3, 4) and the unbeaten Teppei Kayanuma (2-0, 2) defeated fellow novice Tateo Saito (2-2). Kanagawa, Japan A second show in Japan took place at Camp Zama, the third major show in recent times at the military base. This time around however there was no Charlie Ota, unfortunately, but their was an appearance by OPBF Super Middleweight champion Yuzo Kiyota (25-4-1, 23). Kiyota won a none-title fight as he defeated Mexico's Victor Manuel Palacios (10-6-1, 7) in 5 rounds. As with the Korakuen Hall card the chief support bout there was also one sided with the experienced Yuta Nagai (28-9-4, 19) taking care of Korean Kyung-Jin Son (6-11-2, 4) in 5 rounds. Further down the card we saw Naoto Fujimoto (6-3-1, 3) scoring a 6th round KO against Tetsuya Koyama (5-6, 2), who was stopped for the first time, Naoya Sato (1-0) score a debut victory over fellow rookie Norihito Ouchi (0-1) and two female bouts. These female bouts saw Momoko Kanda (5-6-2) take a decision victory over Carol Castro Madrid (5-4, 2) in a 6 rounder and Chisa Tanaka (1-1, 1) score an opening round victory over the debuting Yumiko Shimooka (0-1). Baja California, Mexico In the biggest shock of the weekend hard hitting Filipino prospect Rogelio Jun Doliguez (18-1-2, 14) was out pointed by Mexican journeyman Gabriel Francisco Pina (11-11-1, 4). We've heard some very mixed reports about this bout ranging from Doliguez having an off night toe the Filipino being robbed. The only thing that we're sure of though is that Doliguez doesn't like Mexico where he is now 0-1-1 from 2 bouts. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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