Tokyo, Japan This past Tuesday wasn't a huge day of action hut there was a very interesting Dangan card in Tokyo that featured 7 B-Class tournament final bouts, several of which were really good bouts and well matched contests. The card began with 4 rounders. One of these was an all debutant contest that saw Akihiko Kurita (1-0) take a unanimous decision win over Konosuke Saito (0-1), whilst the other saw Sosuke Sakata (3-2-1, 1) take a majority decision win over Toshinori Kikuchi (2-2, 2) in a very well fought bout. For Sakata this win qualifies him for the East Rookie of the Year. Notably 2 other bouts for the short were cancelled due to pull outs. The first of the B-Class tournament finals saw Sho Kimura (6-1-2) take a clear win over Tomoyuki Kaneko (7-5-1, 4) to claim the Light Flyweight crown. This win for Kimura saw him extending his unbeaten streak to 8 fights and although he appears to lack power he does look a handy boxer. Sadly for Kaneko this was his 4th bout with out a win and he's actually gone 1-4-1 in his last 6. At Flyweight Kensuke Sasaki (4-1, 3) proved his ability with his 4th straight win, a 5th round TKO against Tatsuji Kakumoto (5-6, 1). Although Kakumoto isn't a special fighter he had never previously been stopped making this win an even more notable victory for the 22 year old Teiken fighter. A second successive stoppage on this show saw the talented Shingo Koike (8-2, 4) make light work of Kazuki Yokoyama (7-3, 5). Coming in to this bout it things looked really even on paper but Koike blew away Yokoyama in just 109 seconds. The bout of the day came at Featherweight as Takehiro Shinohara (7-4-2, 7) upset the previously unbeaten Daisuke Watanabe (2-1, 2). Watanabe looked the better fighter through out but Shinohara showed his heart and power and turned the bout around in the 5th round. Through much of the bout it seemed like Watanabe was too good, too quick and in control but full credit must be given to Shinohara who saw out the storm and claimed the memorable victory. At Super Featherweight Yutaka Ekawa (7-3-1, 4) claimed a 2nd round KO against Shoichi Eiraku (6-5, 5). For Eiraku this was the second stoppage loss of his career, and his 3rd loss in 4, whilst Ekawa is now on a run of 6-1-1 (4) in his last 8 bouts. At Lightweight the heavy handed Ryosuke Takami (7-1, 6) showed his power as he took out Manato Honma (8-4, 4) in the 2nd round of their bout. The 21 year old Takami is now 3-0 (3) since being stopped by Ryui Ikeda in the 2013 Rookie of the Year final and it seems like the youngster may, genuine, have a promising career ahead of him. The final bout of the show as at Welterweight where Noriaki Sato (2-1) claimed a very fiercely fought split decision against Makoto Kawasaki (6-3-1, 1). There wasn't much to separate these two men on a couple of the cards though the deciding judge had the bout almost a shut out to Sato in a strange card given the very competitive nature of the contest. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Tuesday Asian fans in Thailand and Japan had action to make note of.
Pathum Thani, Thailand In Thailand fans got televised action courtesy of Channel 3 who aired a short Nakornluang promoted show featuring a highly ranked Flyweight, a former Super Flyweight champion and a very promising young novice. The novice was the unbeaten Jirapan Nakornluang (3-0, 2) who managed to continue his winning run as he defeated Italian debutant Philipo Piatada (0-1) with a 6 round unanimous decision. Another bout that went the distance saw former WBC Super Flyweight champion, and current Bantamweight contender, Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (40-6-1, 18) take a decision over experienced Indonesian loser Samuel Tehuayo (18-33-2, 3). Meeting for the second time Suriyan did what he needed to do to take home the win though again left us wondering why Tehuayo, aka “Sammy Hagler”, is still used as a journeyman considering his run of 4-33-2 has really failed to see him do much more than survive at times. In the main event of this show fans saw Flyweight contender Nawaphon Por Chokchai (26-0, 19) successfully defend his WBC Asian Boxing Council Flyweight title with a 5th round KO against Filipino Southpaw Powell Balaba (8-13-1, 5). This was Balaba's 4th straight loss and it again leaves questions as to how a bout like this will really help Nawaphon prepare for a world title fight, or a mooted world title eliminator. Tokyo, Japan In Japan fans had a show that was much more competitive on paper and provided plenty of action, though did also feature one bit of disappointment. The card, which was mostly a B class tournament looked brilliant on paper and proved, on the hole, to be really good. The began with a 4 round bout, the only 4 round bout on the show, and saw the debuting Yuta Ishikawa (1-0, 1) defeat fellow debutant Makoto Yamazaki (0-1) in the 3rd round with a KO to begin his career with a win. The second bout was at Middleweight where the win-some, lose-some Koji Kase (5-4, 2) managed to narrowly defeat the heavy handed Wataru Seino (4-3, 4). For Seino this was his first bout in more than a year, following an opening round defeat to Koki Tyson Maebara in the 2013 Rookie of the Year final whilst Kase has now streaked to 3 straight wins following a 4 fight losing run. A scheduled bout involving Kenya Noguchi (2-0, 2) against an experienced Thai foe was supposed to be the 3rd bout on the card but was sadly cancelled, and we're unsure why. The first B-class tournament bout was the shows 3rd contest and it saw a notable upset as Tatsuji Kakumoto (5-5, 1) took a clear decision win over Yuji Okinori (6-2-1, 1) in a bout at Flyweight. The 22 year old Kakumoto certainly doesn't have a great record but it's clear he's better than the numbers suggest and many of his losses have been razor thin decisions. As for Okinori this is his 3rd straight set back following a 6-0 (1) start to his career. Kakumoto's win was one of two bouts in the Flyweight division with the other being between Kensuke Sasaki (3-1, 2) and Yasuhiro Tanaka (4-2-2) with Sasaki taking a clear but hard fought decision over his more experienced foe. Sasaki is a man we suspect is being groomed as a better prospect than many may suspect and he could well be a man to make a note of. Tanaka on the other hand suffered his second defeat in 3 bouts. One of the most competitive bouts saw Hyuma Fujioka (5-3-1) take a hotly fought split decision win over Naoto Fuimoto (7-5-1, 4). Fujioka entered this bout following a stoppage loss to Gaku Aikawa 10 months ago and fought possibly the best bout of his career so far to inflict the second successive decision on to Fujimoto who has also lost last December. Heavy handed Super Bantamweight Kazuki Yokoyama (7-2, 5) continued to leave opponents in his wake as he notched up the 5th stoppage of his career and forced the referee to save Shota Kumazawa (6-7-1, 5) in the 4th round. For Yokoyama this is a second straight win following an opening round defeat in November 2013 whilst Kumazawa has now lost 4 of his last 5 dating back to 2012. The talented Shingo Koike (7-2, 3) appeared to be under pressure early on against Ryuta Nakajima (5-5-1, 4) though in round 3 it was Nakajima who ended up on the canvas following a wonderful shot from Koike who ended the bout. Having been out of action for 14 months this was a great win for Koike, even though Nakajima had lost his previous 3. In a really exciting contest between two men who believed there power was the key fans saw Takahiro Shinohara (6-4-2, 6) stop Atsuhi Kudo (3-4-2, 3) in the 3rd round. The bout saw plenty of exchanges and was a fun fight with Kudo being stopped on his feet. For Hinohawa this was his second win in a row following almost 2 years of inactivity. Kudo has now been stopped for the first time. Possibly the pick of the bouts, at least on paper, was the penultimate contest on the show which saw the talented Daisuke Watanabe (2-0, 2) dispose of the more experienced Ryuto Araya (7-3-1, 1) in the second round, with the corner throwing in the towel to say Araya. Watanabe caught out eye last year when he stopped Toru Kudo in the 4th round and we suspect he's going to achieve something notable sooner rather than later, so keep an eye on this 23 year Featherweight hopeful. Araya on the other hand suffered his first stoppage defeat and saw a 2-fight winning streak come to an end. In the final bout of the show fans saw Makoto Kawasaki (6-2-1, 1) take a 5 round decision over Mamoru Takeuchi (5-6-3). This loss ended a 3 fight winning streak for Takeuchi whilst Kawasaki scored his second win in a row. In the ring this was a big of a mismatch with Kawasaki being too good for Takeuchi who was unable to really compete with his more skilled rival. There wasn't a lot of fights today but we did have two notable shows in Asia with one card coming from Japan and one from South Korea. With both cards being small we understand them going under the radar of some fans but there was some notable bouts all the same. Seoul, South Korea The South Korean show was a card promoted by AK Promotions and we believe it featured 7 bouts in total, though we're not 100% sure given that our Korean is relatively poor to say the least. In the main event fans saw Bong-Joon Seok (8-1-2, 2) take a clear 10 round decision win over Filipino journeyman Vergel Nebran (12-9-1, 8). For Nebran, who was a very clear loser on the scorecards, this was his 5th loss in 6 bouts and it's now clear that he's going to be little more than a journeyman, despite running Yushi Tanaka close in July 2013 at the start of that bad run. The co-feature saw current South Korean Lightweight champion Sa-Ya Lee (6-2, 3) make the first defense of his national title as he easily over-came former Korean Super Featherweight champion Sung-Tae Kim (5-10-1, 2). This was Lee's first defense of the title he won earlier this year when he stopped Sang-Joon Park in the 10th round of their bout and it's clear that he's one of the more promising Korean's out there right now. Sadly whilst we know there was a lot more to this card we've not yet received the results for any of the other results from the show. Tokyo, Japan Whilst the results from South Korea are incomplete we have got all the results from a Japanese card promoted by Watanabe. The main event here saw a notable upset as the well regarded Jo Tanooka (9-2-3) was out pointed by Hiroki Saito (9-4, 5) in a well fought 8 round bout, Tanooka's lack of power made life relatively easy for Saito who's clear edge in force seemed to be the deciding factor on the cards which favoured Saito. Another upset on the card saw Yusuke Nakagawa (7-3-1, 4) take a 7th round technical decision over the much more experienced Koji Umetsu (22-15-3, 10), for Nakagawa this is by far the most significant win of his career whilst Umetsu may well need to think about retirement considering his long and hard career. Another technical decision resulted in a draw as Masaki Saito (11-10-4, 3) and Tsuyoshi Tojo (12-13-4, 2) saw their bout being stopped in the 4th round before a proper decision could be rendered in what was scheduled to go 8 rounds. The only other 8 rounder on the card saw the win-some lose-some Yasuhiro Okawa (13-11-3, 4) score a rare stoppage as he over-came Indonesian fighter Sandi Korga (3-6, 1) with a 5th round TKO. To open the card there was a trio of 6 rounders. The most interesting of those saw the debuting Daisuke Watanabe (1-0, 1) stop Toru Kudo (4-4-2, 1) in the 4th round to begin his career in relatively impressive fashion. Another stoppage on the early part of the card saw Kazuki Yokoyama (6-2, 4) stopping Ryuta Nakajima (5-4-1, 4) in the 6th round of their bout, in fact there was only 26 seconds of this bout left. The remaining bout ended in a technical decision as Masajiro Honda (6-5, 4) out pointed Soichiro Murata (4-3-3, 2) with a 4th round technical decision. Amnart Charoen, Thailand In Thailand we saw the unbeaten Hanuman Sithluangporphun (4-0) score a 12 round decision over Filipino journeyman Wilber Andogan (10-17-4, 4) to claim the interim PABA Light Flyweight title. We have received the video of this one and will be hoping to upload it shortly (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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