This past Friday was an interesting one in the world of Asian boxing with major fighters from Japan, Thailand and the Philippines all in action. It may not have have been a huge day of televised action but their was still enough of it to keep us interested in the days proceedings. Hyogo, Japan The biggest disappointment for Asian boxing fans came in Japan where Japanese Bantamweight champion Kohei Oba (35-3-1, 14) failed in his attempt to secure an IBF world title fight. Oba, fighting against unbeaten American Randy Caballero (21-0, 13) was broken down with vicious body shots that saw being stopped in round 8. We had expected this to be a competitive contest but it seemed that Oba was out of his depth from relatively early in the contest with the sharpness, power and speed all seemingly favouring Caballero who will now move on to IBF world title fight later this year, probably with Britain's Stuart Hall. Also from this card there was a victory for the promising Shun Kubo (4-0, 3) who took a huge step backwards to beat Thai novice Nongbeer Sor Bangkru (0-2). Kubo beat Monico Laurente last time out so we've no doubt about his talent but we see no real point this match up. We saw no point before hand and we're still unsure on the point after the fact. A title fight on this show saw Kei Takenaka (7-0, 3) stopping the win-less Yokkhao Loei Citygym (0-5) to claim the female OPBF Light Flyweight title in a clear mismatch. The other results on this show saw Shota Yamaguchi (21-1, 8) score an 8th round stoppage over Tetsuya Nishinaga (11-9-1) as well as 4 undercard bouts. The undercard bouts saw just one stoppage as Masaki Kimura (2-0, 1) stopped Yuki Abe (1-4) inside a round. This was then followed by 3 decision as the unbeaten Shun Kosaka (5-0) extended his unbeaten run with a shut out against Hiroya Kojima (2-2, 2), Seita Mochizuki (3-5) struggled to a majority decision over Kazuhiro Hirahara (1-5, 1) and also a victory for Kyohei Okutani (4-1, 3) who beat Yu Konomura (1-2-1). Tokyo, Japan A second Japanese show took place at the Korakuen Hall and was one of the Dangan shows with both Rookie of the Year qualifying matches and Class C tournament matches. This card kicked off with Desierto Nagaike (1-1) taking a majority decision over the debuting Junpei Ota (0-1) in a none competition bout. The second bout was a shut out victory for Sho Kimura (4-1) who over-came Katsunori Shimooki (3-4-1) whilst in the third bout Genki Ishikawa (1-0) scored a debut decision over Toshiya Tanaka (0-1). The first of the competition bouts saw Wataru Hosokawa (1-1, 1) stopping the debuting Tatsuya Matsumoto (0-1) in 2 rounds. This was surprisingly 1 of just 2 stoppages on the entire card. Hosokawa's victory was one one of the two C-Class tournament bouts with the other seeing debutant Yuta Tanaka (1-0) narrowly over-coming Jun Funatsu (0-1). All 6 of the remaining bouts on this card were qualifiers for the Rookie of the year of the tournament. These began with an upset victory for Daiki Yoshimatsu (4-2, 1) who beat the previously unbeaten Shogo Dairakuin (2-1, 1). Yoshimatsu's victory was followed by Yasuki Katagiri (2-0, 1) who took a 3 round technical decision over the previously unbeaten Takuya Yamaguchi (1-1-1, 1). After the technical decision we then saw a serious of 4 round decision wins. These saw Toshizane Kinoda (3-0, 1) beat Seishiro Kumakiri (3-4, 1), Ken Kodama (2-0-1, 1) out point Kensho Tokutome (1-2, 1), Shonosuke Sango (2-0) defeat Ryo Sugimoto (1-6-1) and Akinori Kubota (2-0, 1) beat the limited Ryosuke Ota (1-6). The final bout on the show was a rather nice show case for the very hotly tipped teenage sensation Andy Hiraoka (3-0, 2) who stopped Susumu Nakata (1-5-2, 1) in the second round. Whether he goes on to win the competition or not we will be keeping a serious long term eye on Hiraoka who came to our attention last year Ratchaburi, Thailand If the card in Japan had the most significant bout of the day then the card in Japan had probably the #2 bout of the day, in terms of immediate significance, as Chatpetch Sithmorseng (7-3, 3) stopped Dicky Amtiran (3-8) to claim the PABA Super Flyweight title. In terms of significance a PABA title is meaningful though in reality this bout wasn't all that important and Chatpetch is unlikely to go far. However saying that his 3 losses came in his first 3 bouts and he could well become "the next Srisaket Sor Rungvisai" who also started his career with some poor early results before developing into a monster. Another bout on this card saw former world champion Kwanthai Sithmorseng (45-2-1, 25) score his second stoppage victory since being stopped himself by Kazuto Ioka last year. Unfortunately Kwanthai's opponent is currently unknown. Distrito Federal, Mexico In Mexico fans got the chance to see the unbeaten Filipino Joebert Alvarez (14-0-1, 6) in action. Alvarez, fighting for the first time outside of the Philippines, over-came Mexico's very own Julian Rivera (13-9-1, 2) via a 12 round decision. The victory, a hard fought one, saw Alvarez claim the WBC Continental Americas Flyweight title and complete his first full 12 round bout. Whilst he claimed the win Alvarez will know he was in a tough one after being dropped early and cut rather badly before bravely rallying back to take the victory in what is clearly the most impressive victory of his career so far. (Photo courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Rankings aren't worth the paper they are written on. Luis Ortiz for example holding a #2 Heavyweight ranking with the WBA being a clear example of that. This past Tuesday saw another over-ranked boxer, albeit on the Japanese national level in the only Asian show of the day. Tokyo Japan The show in question took place at the Korakuen Hall on a 8 fight card promoted by Kawashima which featured several Japanese ranked fighters. One of those ranked fighters was Toshio Arikawa (8-4, 7) who entered his bout as the #7 ranked Welterweight in Japan. He was expected, by pretty much everyone including ourselves, to easily take care of domestic opponent Daisuke Sakamoto (8-8-1, 4) however Sakamoto hadn't read the script and within 70 seconds Arikawa had been stopped. What was viewed as a mismatch turned out to be a terrible calculation and has certainly left Arakawa's career in, at least temporary, tatters. Sakamoto's loss was one of 4 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds. One of the others, also at Welterweight, saw Osamu Hashimoto (9-6, 1) manage to take an 8 round decision over Tomoyuki Omura (7-5, 3). In fact, other than Sakamoto's all of the bouts scheduled for 8 went 8. Another of those saw Yudai Koizumi (11-6-2, 4) take a unanimous decision over Hiroyuki Sagehashi (7-7-2, 1) whilst Junnosuke Nagayasu (12-10-1, 3) scored his first win in over 4 years as he took a majority decision over Hajime Nagai (10-6-2, 2). Arikawa wasn't the only Japanese ranked Welterweight in action as #15 ranked Ryoji Tanaka (7-2-1, 2) took a 6 round victory over the very limited Noriomi Sakamoto (3-5-2, 2). As a result of this bout and Arikawa's we'd not be shocked if we actually see Tanaka climb over Arikawa when the JBC rankings are next published. In the only other 6 rounder Hiroki Saito (5-8-1, 3) fought to a draw with Yoshiyuki Suzuki (4-6-5, 1) in a bout that was simply too close to argue with. Although it was a majority draw the third judge did have it 58-57 suggesting that even he felt it was too close to really argue with a draw. Whilst many of the shows bouts, other than the main event, did go the distance the two opening bouts didn't. These instead saw Reiya Abe (3-1, 1) stopping Takeshi Yamagata (1-2-1) in the second round and Hirofumi Tachibana (3-9-2, 1) stopping Rei Ochiai (2-3-3) with just 2 seconds of their bout left. (Poster courtesy of boxmob.jp) There were no card in Asia this past Thursday but that didn't mean there were no Asian in action, in fact there was a trio of Asian fighters fight and they suffered mix fortunes despite all fighting on the same show "down under". Victoria, Australia The lesser of the bouts involving Asian's on this card saw Filipino born Australian based Czar Amonsot (26-3-3, 15) score a 4th round TKO over Thailand's Sapapetch Sor Sakaorat (30-15, 20). Unfortunately for the Thai this was the 14 stoppage loss on his record and it's clear that whilst can dish it out he hasn't the durability, mentally or physically, to take it. Although Sapapetch has left much to the imagination in terms of his desire, it wouldn't be fair to cast the same doubt on Shuhei Tsuchiya (15-3, 13), pictured, who suffered the 3rd stoppage loss of his career in an all out slugfest with Australia's very own Leonardo Zappvigna (31-2, 21). Tsuchiya was down in round 4 but fought back bravely giving Zappavigna, a former world title challenger, a real handful until he was stopped by his corner in round 10. By then both men were showing the facial damage involved in a brawl and it's doubtful we'll see either man back in the ring until October at the earliest. This was one of those bouts that will see neither man being the same fighter again, it genuinely vicious, violent and great fun to watch. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Tokyo, Japan This past Monday saw the 97th "Dangan" show with an astonishing 12 bouts with a number of them being part of the Rookie of the Year tournament and others being part of a Class C tournament. It may have been the only show of the day, but it was a bumper show. The card opened opened with Junichi Obara (5-2-1, 1) narrowly out pointing Michiharu Mori (3-7, 3) in a majority decision. The bout was one of only a handful of contests which wasn't part of a competition though was thoroughly competitive, as if both men wanted to make a good impression. The shows second contest was also not part of the competitions though was one of the more intriguing bouts with the 18 year old Ryota Ishida (1-0, 1) making his debut. Ishida, despite his age and novice stature needed just 94 seconds to take out the win-less Taichi Furukawa (0-2) in very impressive fashion. In the shows third contest fans got to see an all debutant contest between Yukito Tomori (1-0) and Takehiro Ichikawa (0-1) with Tomori taking a narrow majority decision. The Class C tournament got off to an interesting start as Shigeaki Kodama (0-0-1) and Masahiko Ashiya (0-0-1) fought to a 38-38 draw in a Featherweight contest. We actually got very close to back-to-back draws with Hayato Hata (1-0) taking a thinnest of majority decisions over Hironobu Suzuki (0-2). Two of the judges had it 39-38 and a draw wouldn't have been an unfair result. We got the first clear cut decision in the show's 6th bout as Ryo Kato (1-0) clearly beat fellow debutant Masayuki Sugino (0-1), posting a near shut out over the 4 rounds. Kato's impressive performance, in the penultimate Class C Tournament bout, was followed up by another decisive bout as Pon Ponta (1-0, 1) blasted out Ryo Nakano (0-2) in the second round. Follow the Class C Tournament bouts we then moved on the the Rookie of the Year qualifiers. These started with Yugo Ueda (2-0, 1) taking a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Yoshinobu Kakinaga (2-1). As with some of the other bouts on the show this was too close to call either way and could well have been a draw with out any arguments. The second Rookie of the Year qualifier wasn't so competitive as Kenya Yamashita (2-0, 2) took out Norris Yano (2-1) inside a round. We had highly competitive action again in the third of the qualifiers as Yutaro Nakajima (3-2) limped past Fumihiro Ijima (1-2) with yet another majority decision, the 4th of the show! Thankfully that was the final on as we saw stoppage in the final two bouts The first of those stoppages saw Naoaki Kumagai (2-1, 2) taking out Tatsuya Tsuge (2-3, 1) inside a round as he impressed before the show closed with a second round KO by Atsushi Kudo (2-2-2, 2), who stopped Tetsuya Seshimo (1-4, 1). (Photo courtesy ofhttp://danganboxing.com/) Some days of boxing around the world are quiet with just a few bouts others however are extremely busy with more action than you can shake a stick at. One of those busy days was this past Sunday with Japan hosting more fights that we sometimes see in a whole week! Shizuoka, Japan For us the most important card was the Ohashi promoted show at the FujisanMesse in Fuji. This show was headlined by the unbeaten Ohashi prospect Ryuji Hara (17-0, 12), pictured, who successfully claimed the OPBF Minimumweight title by out pointing Filipino Donny Mabao (21-21-1, 4). Although on paper this was a huge mismatch Mabao was experienced, is much better than his record indicates and was significantly heavier on the scales which essentially all came together to give Hara a very tough nights work. The co-feature was sadly a huge step down in quality from the main event though was even more competitive as James Murashige (7-3-2, 4) was held to a draw by Cristiano Aoqui (7-3-2, 4). We did expect this to be competitive and whilst draws are rare this did seem, on paper, like a bout that was very evenly matched and that a draw was always a strong possibility. The remaining 9 bouts on the show were all 4 rounders. As with the main bouts, they included some very competitive contests with Yuya Watanabe (0-1-1) and Yoshikazu Tanabe (0-0-1) needing to settle for a draw with each other in the closest of them. A point on all 3 cards separated Tsunehiko Aitoku (1-2) and Akihiro Asahara (1-3), with Aitoku coming out on top with a unanimous decision, likewise just a point separated Kazuyoshi Toguri (2-5) and Yukihiro Kaneko (0-2) with Toguri winning this one by a razor thin unanimous decision. In less competitive bouts from this show Kenta Yokoe (3-7-1, 1) took a somewhat clearer decision over Shinnosuke Okada (1-5-2, 1) whilst Noriyoshi Taki (4-4, 1) effectively dominated Bejita Ishikawa (2-6-1, 1). The undercard featured 4 bouts that didn't go the distance. The shortest of these was a 93 second victory for the debuting Naoki Miyagi (1-0, 1) who swiftly saw off the win-less Takahiro Tonouchi (0-3). As well as Miyagi's early victory there was a second round stoppage for Kiyoshi Nakamura (1-0, 1) who stopped fellow debutant Kabereen Yuya (0-1), a fourth round TKO for Daichi Ushiki (2-5, 2) over the the previously unbeaten Tom Hamaguchi (1-1) and a 4th round KO for Daiki Ichikawa (1-0, 1) who took Shinichi Hiraga (0-3) with just 6 seconds left. Osaka, Japan As well as Hara's OPBF title bout there was also an OPBF bout at the IMP Hall in Osaka. This time though it was the turn of the fairer sex and Tomoko Kawanishi (9-1, 4) who came out on top as she defended her female Super Flyweight title with a shut out against Thailand's Jubjang Lookmakarmwan (3-7). After the bout the champion apologised for not scoring a stoppage though her fans would have been happy at her domination of the Thai challenger. Kawanishi's win was the headline bout in the first of a 2 part show at the IMP Hall. The chief support bouts on her part of the card saw Ryuto Kyoguchi (11-0-1, 8) impressively stopping Yasunori Kishigami (8-2-1, 5) in just 2 rounds and Tatsuya Ikemizu (9-0, 3) scoring a 6th round KO over Thailand's Tienchai Sor Kanitsorn (0-3). The undercard on this show was just as competitive as the Ohashi one with Kiyonori Matsumoto (2-1) taking a split decision over Ryuji Hayashi (1-2), Ryu Horiguchi (4-2-1, 3) managing a majority decision over Kenji Nakayoshi (2-2, 1) and Fumiya Imafuji (4-0-1, 1) taking a very narrow unanimous decision over Takaaki Kanai (2-2). The one clear cut result from this undercard saw Ryo Ishida (1-0, 1) stop fellow debutant Naoki Fujita (0-1) in the third round. The second of the IMP Hall show was, on paper, the more interesting of the two parts. The sole "under card" bout saw Go Mitaka (2-3-2) narrowly out point Shinichi Yokozato (0-2). The main card on this part of the show then featured 5 bouts, each scheduled for 8 rounds. These included a slight upset as Yuki Kobayashi (7-3, 4) managed to defeated the previously unbeaten Bunta Mitaka (6-1-2) in a narrow decision. Mitaka's was one of two unbeaten men in action and whilst he lost fellow unbeaten Shohei Omori (11-0, 6) managed to keep his 0 in tact. Omori, fighting against Yubon Kim (10-4, 3), had to settle for his first decision in in over a year ending a 3 fight T/KO streak. In another decision bout we saw Kojiro Takada (13-6-3, 9) manage to out point domestic journeyman Shun Ishibashi (8-16-1, 3) whilst. Of the decisions however the most interesting ended in a draw with Myung Ho Lee (16-4-1, 5) holding former 2-time world title challenger Hirofumi Mukai (9-3-2, 1) to a split decision draw. This draw means that Mukai is now 1-2-1 in his last 4 and his career, sadly, is on the verge of being a write off after showing some really great early promise. Although much of the card went the distance their was one stoppage as the light punching Kazuyasu Okamoto (9-3, 3) took advantage of the less than durable Shigeki Suda (7-5, 1). This was Suda's 5th stoppage defeat. Aichi, Japan The remaining card was at the Aioi Hall and featured a further 11 contests. The main event here saw Shinji Takayama (21-3, 11) continue his long winning streak with a decision over the tough but limited Kohei Maruoka (7-6-1, 1). This bout was main event though for many the highlight was seeing Katsunari Takayama in the ring with Yuki Sano who used this show to wave farewell to his professional career. As far as the chief support bouts Yuji Shimizu (15-8-1, 1) found his lack of power as an issue in struggling to a decision victory over Taisei Higashi (5-7, 4) who ran him very closely whilst Daisuke Hayakawa (6-2, 5) stopped Hiroki Taniguchi (5-3-1, 1) in 4 rounds of a scheduled 6 and Yasufumi Asaoka (8-7-1, 6) fought to a draw with Kosuke Mizuno (6-4-2, 2). From the 7 under card bouts on 2 went the scheduled 4 rounds. These two bouts saw Ryoichi Shimano (2-2, 1) very narrowly over-come Yoshiaki Inoue (0-4-1) whilst the debuting Yuya Asano (1-0) overcame fellow novice Shuichi Inagaki (0-1). Of the 5 stoppages 3 came inside a round. The quickest of these was a 99 second victory for Kenta Matsui (3-2, 1) who scored his first stoppage by taking out the previously unbeaten Hideaki Kamiyasu (1-1). The other opening round stoppages saw the debuting Akihisa Buma (1-0, 1) take out Maito Fujii (0-2) and Takanori Terashima (1-1, 1) stopping Hidekazu Iinuma (1-1, 1). The other 2 stoppages came in the final round with Takuya Mizuno (2-0, 2) taking out Yusuke Kubota (0-2) with 38 seconds left whilst Eita Sakurai (3-0, 1) had exactly 30 seconds of his left when he stopped Katsuya Takahashi (1-1, 1) (Photo courtesy of Ohashi gym) |
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