This past Sunday was a hectic day in Asia with 3 notable shows in Japan as well as a small Filipino card. Tokyo, Japan The best of the 3 Japanese shows came from Tokyo where reason, along with Shirai-Gushiken-Sports, put on a very good looking “Dangan” card. The card, in total, had 9 bouts with 4 of them being genuinely notable. The main event saw former Japanese Super Featherweight title challenger Shingo Eto (16-3-1, 9) take a close and competitive decision victory over Tomoya Yamada (12-6, 3). This, on paper, was supposed to be an easy win for Eto but he was pushed all the way in a bout that would have been great to keep Eto on his toes and help prepare him for another, eventual, title shot. In the co-feature we saw Filipino warrior Ardin Diale (28-9-3, 14) take a split decision win against Yuta Matsuo (7-2-1, 4) in a fantastic bout that showed Diale at his best. The Filipino was fighting in Japan for the first time since his dramatic 8th round TKO loss to Koki Eto last year and seemed to quickly shake off any issues he had with that loss as he notched his 5th straight win. For Matsuo this loss sees him dropping to 2-2-1 in his last 5. A third 8 round bout saw Spice Matsushita (14-8, 2) take a competitive decision victory over the hard hitting Takumi Koyama (9-4-1, 7) in a slight upset win. In a 6 rounder we saw the destructive Daigo Higa (5-0, 5) quickly take care of Filipino visitor Virden Rivera (8-2-1, 2). Rivera, who's only previous loss was a 7th round defeat to Rex Wao, was unable to cope with Higa who was aggressive from the opening and finally saw off Rivera in the 2nd round. On the under-card were 5 bouts, two of which ended early. The quicker of those ended in the 2nd round as Taisei Hayashi (1-1, 1) defeated Toshihiko Saito (0-2), the other saw Sho Nagata (4-1, 2) upset Hokuto Kawana (4-1, 3) with a 4th round KO. In a more competitive under-card action Hideaki Onuki (2-0) claimed a majority decision over the win-less Koji Fujimoto (0-2) whilst Taiga Higashi (2-1, 1) took home a split decision victory as he over-came Yusuke Moriya (1-2). The only clear decision on the under-card saw Yoshimitsu Kimura (1-0) take a victory over Yuki Nishikawa (0-1) in an all-debutant affair. Wakayama, Japan In Wakayama fans has an interesting show with 3 notable bouts as well as a relatively forgettable under-card. The main event saw former OPBF Super Bantamweight title challenger Eita Kikuchi (17-4-4, 7) take a decision win against Keita Ito (8-20-2, 4). For Kikuchi this was a third successive win after back-to-back stoppage losses in 2013, including a loss to Shingo Wake. Interestingly Ito managed to surpass expectations and gave one of his best performances in recent years, unfortunately however it was his 8th straight loss. The unbeaten Shohei Kawashima (10-0-2, 2) continued his unbeaten run with a clear decision victory against Yuta Sasaki (6-7, 1). This was Kawashima's first 8 round bout and the 23 year old will have learned so much from the experience, even if Sasaki wasn't a top tier opponent. The third main bout saw Kazuki Hashimoto (11-4, 7) take a very quick victory over Chikashi Hayashizaki (6-5-1, 2). Hashimoto saw off his foe after just 97 seconds. The under-card, surprisingly, all went the distance with all 5 bouts completing their schedules. The most competitive of those saw Yosuke Shimagawa (5-5-1, 2) take a very narrow split decision victory over the win-less Koichi Sumiya (0-2-1), who proved to be better than his record suggested. Another very competitive bout saw the debuting Shintaro Ukezono (1-0) take a majority decision over Shinen Nakayasu (0-3). Even the “non-close” decisions were close. These saw Ryo Sumiya (2-1-1) take a thin unanimous win over Kazuaki Okada (3-4) and Koichi Wakita (2-1) take an even slimmer win over Kazuki Koyanagi (3-9). The only clear decision from the under-card saw Katsushito Kudo (2-2, 1) over-come Teruyuki Nogami (0-2) Hiroshima, Japan In Hiroshima there was a 10 bout card which featured 2 main bouts alongside 8 under-card bouts, each of which was scheduled for 4 rounds. The main bout saw Koji Itagaki (14-9-2, 6) take a wide decision against Filipino visitor Benezer Alolod (16-7-5, 5). This was Itagaki's second win following an horrific 0-4-1 run whilst Alolod has now lost back-to-back fights after having a good string of results in 2014 The other main event saw Ryuji Ikeda (9-2-1, 5) blow away journeyman Kosuke Iwashita (14-18-2, 8) in just 160 seconds. We didn't expect this one to be so one-sided and it perhaps spells the end of Iwashita who is now 1-8 in his last 9 bouts The under-card featured a bit of everything, with a number of competitive bouts as well as a number of stoppages. One of those stoppages came in an all debutant bout as Katsushi Shiga (1-0, 1) scored a 4th round TKO against Hiroyuki Tsujimura (0-1). Another 4th round TKO came at Lightweight as Satoshi Yamamichi (4-3, 4) took out Takahiro Maeda (1-2, 1). A third 4th round finish saw the unbeaten Kazuya Okubo (3-0, 1) extend his perfect record with a victory against Kota Hama (2-1, 1), who lost his unbeaten record. One other stoppage on this card saw Ryoya Ikema (4-1, 4) stop the win-less Hayata Komen (0-2) in the 3rd round. In more competitive action J Soul Maeda (3-2-2, 1) took a split decision over the previously unbeaten Riku Inokuchi (1-1), another split decision saw Takahiro Morisaki (3-1, 1) defeat Takumi Konod (1-1-1, 1), who also lost his perfect record. Another close bout saw Hiromichi Kurokawa (4-2-1, 1) take a majority decision over Masashi Kamon (1-2). The only clear under-card bout saw Hironori Miyake (4-3, 1) take a wide decision over Masafumi Suda (1-2, 1) Siquijor, Philippines In the Philippines there was a small card with no major bouts on it though the main event did feature an unbeaten prospect taking a step up in class. That aforementioned main event saw Jayr Raquinel (5-0, 3) take a 3rd round DQ win against Jimboy Haya (7-2-1, 4), who was unable to keep his shots above the belt against the unbeaten man. The 18 year old Raquinel may be worth making a note of, though unfortunately this bout failed to really tell us how good he is. In both the under-card bouts fans saw early blow outs. One of those saw Marjun Pantilgan (5-2, 4) blast away with Rajah Jetro Tulod (0-1) inside a round whilst the other saw Filjun Taneo (3-1, 1) defeat Salvador Crispin (0-1), also inside a round. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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A champion really should defend their belts as often as they can. What is the point in being viewed as the best in your particular area or field if you don't prove it, right? Well this past Monday saw 4 champions all defending their belts in successful fashion on a relatively busy start to the week. Tokyo, Japan Of the 4 titles up for grabs 2 of them were fought for in Japan and although both were national titles they were probably the most significant, and competitive, bouts of the day. The first of the title fights saw the unbeaten power-puncher Hiroki Okada (9-0, 7) successfully defending his Japanese Light Welterweight title for he first time with a very hard fought decision victory over Shamgar Koichi (18-6-1, 11). Koichi, challenging for a belt for the first time in his career, brought the pressure and Okada was forced to answer back in what was a genuinely enthralling contest between two well matched fighters in terms of both skills and styles. For Okada, who was cut late, this was his toughest bout and his best win though for Koichi it was another set back following previous losses to the likes of Shinya Iwabuchi. Following the Light Welterweight clash we then moved up for a Japanese Welterweight clash between reigning champion Suyon Takayama (21-1, 7) and Koshinmaru Saito (20-6-1, 11). The two men were meeting for the second time and many may be calling for an immediate rematch given how competitive this was. Takayama had, in the first meeting, claimed the vacant Japanese title in a competitive but comfortable win but this time around things were anything but comfortable for Takayama who narrowly kept his title with a majority decision. Sadly Takayama's struggles to retain his belt here like take any lustre off a meeting between him and Yoshihiro Kamegai in what actually looked a tasty bout going in to this contest. As well as the title bouts Japanese fans also got treat to 5 under-card bouts, two of which featured recognisable names. One of those "names" was the heavy handed and very fun to watch Shuhei Tsuchiya (16-3, 14) who made light work of Thai visitor Fonluang Sor Singyu (6-5, 4). Tsuchiya, fighting for the first time since his entertaining loss to Leonardo Zappavigna in Australia, needed just 103 seconds to get rid of Fonluang. The other was former OPBF Super Bantamweight champion Yukinori Oguni (13-1, 4) who scored his second successive stoppage as he over-came Thai debutant Ryan Sor Tanacho (0-1) in 4 rounds. In more competitive action Keita Nakano (11-9-3, 2) scored an 8 round split decision over Masahito Igawa (12-8-1, 4) and Tonko Nakagawa (12-6-1, 4) took a 6 round majority decision over the more experienced Junnosuke Nagayasu (12-11-1, 3). The one remaining bout on this card saw Junki Kobayashi (1-0, 1) claiming a 3rd round TKO victory over Eiji Miyamoto (0-1) in an all debutant contest. Bangkok, Thailand In Thailand it was the PABA interim Super Flyweight title that was being fought for. The belt, just like the Japanese titles, stayed where it was at the start of the day as Nop Kratingdaenggym (9-0, 1) retained with a 6th round technical decision against the highly experienced Hendrik Barongsay (26-18-3, 15). Nop looked sharp from the off before a headclash caused a sadly early ending to the bout. Laguna, Philippines In the Philippines fans got the chance to see a Filipino national title being fought for as Benezer Alolod (15-5-5, 5) retained his GAB Light Flyweight with a 5th round stoppage over Jomar Fajardo (14-5-1, 7). Alolod is now 3-0-1 (3) following his stoppage loss to Nkosinathi Joyi and has now lost just once in his last 16 bouts, a great run for a man who started his career with 3 losses in his first 5 bouts. We only saw 2 other early finishes on this card. One of those was an opening round blow out for Jonel Alibio (17-18-5, 9) who swiftly took card of the usually tough Desson Cag-ong (14-15, 8). The loss for Cag-ong was his quickest in 29 fights and saw him suffer his first stoppage loss to a fellow Filipino having previous been stopped by a trio of Japanese fighters including Takashi Miura. The other stoppage on this show saw Lester Abutan (6-2-2, 3) defeating Dexter Dimaculangan (3-5-5, 1) in the 4th round of their scheduled 8 rounder. One of the best wins on the card was for the unbeaten Justo Bornilla (5-0-2) who over-came the experienced Ronald Postrano (7-20-2, 3) in a very 1-sided bout. Postrano was down in round 3 and later suffered a cut from a clash of heads leaving him bloody and beaten. Aged 18 we'd suggest keeping an eye on the young Bornilla even if he does seem to lack power so far in his career. In the only uncompetitive 6 rounder Jesame Dela Cerna (5-2-3, 1) took a clear win over Jay-Ar Diama (1-4-4). Thankfully the other two 6 rounders were much more competitive and saw Menard Abila (5-1-4, 1) taking a split decision over Fidel Cuyno (2-4-2) and Marlon Arcilla (5-2, 1) taking a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Crisanto Contemprato (2-1-1, 1). The only 4 rounder on the show saw the debuting Benjie Baron (1-0) get off to the perfect start with a win over Alberto Pentecostes (0-3). The win, by decision, saw Baron dropping Pentecostes early before effectively shutting down the win-less fighter. (Image courtesy of Boxingnews.jp) |
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