Tokyo, Japan This past Friday there was 3 Asian shows with 2 in Japan. For us the more noteworthy of those came form the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The most notable bout on this card saw the always exciting Takuya Kogawa (24-4, 13) reclaim the Japanese Flyweight title to begin his second reign. The all-action warrior managed to out point the tough Hiroki Saito (9-5, 5) in an entrancing 10 round battle that brought the best from both men. Kogawa, who lost the title in 2013 to Suguru Muranaka, has now got a lot of exciting options in front of him, including a possible rematch with Muranaka or a chance to move into another world level bout with some really big names for the lower weights. Whilst the main event was brilliant there was also 3 very good supporting match ups. One of those saw fringe Super Featherweight contender Shingo Eto (17-3-1, 9) move a step closer to fighting for the OPBF title as he out pointed Filipino veteran Edgar Gabejan (27-32-6, 9) in a very competitive bout. Although Gabejan's record is far from impressive he's actually a very solid fighter and showed that once again here. Another supporting bout saw Hideo Sakamoto (16-1-3, 5) suffer an unfortunate draw with Hiroki Teshigawara (9-1-2, 4). Some at ringside felt this was a political decision that cost Sakamoto what should have been a clear but competitive decision win though the draw does keep the under-rated Bantamweight in the hunt for a title fight in the next few years. Although talented Sakamoto doesn't belong in the ring with the likes of Shohei Omori, though will be a good opponent for anyone at the domestic level. The third of the noteworthy support bouts saw the under-rated Ryoichi Tamura (4-2-1, 1) take a split decision over heavy handed southpaw Yusuke Suzuki (6-2, 4) in an enthralling contest between two novice professionals putting it all on the line in what was a perfect example of what boxing is about. We won't pretend this was the highest skilled fight in history but it exemplified the fight game perfect. As well as the 4 main bout this card also featured 5 lower level bouts, all scheduled for the 4 round distance. Of those under-card bouts just a couple went this distance. These both saw wins for debutants with Kazuki Naya (1-0, 1) out pointing Daisuke Uchikawa (2-2-1, 1), in a competitive Featherweight bout, while Rikiya Ono (1-0) easily saw off Shogo Isaka (0-1). A bout that almost saw the final bell ended with more than a minute of round 4 gone as 17 year old prospect Junto Nakatani (2-0, 2) stopped Akira Kokubo (1-6-3), giving Kokubo his first stoppage loss. The remaining bouts both ended in the opening round with Welterweight Shunsuke Nakamura (2-0, 1) stopping 34 year old debutant Akio Uwajima (0-1) at the end of the opening stance whilst Junki Kobayashi (2-1, 2) stopped Ryo Kato (1-2) midway through the opening stanza. Osaka, Japan The other Japanese card came from Osaka where Harada Promotions put on an 8 fight card. The main event here saw Japanese domestic contender Tetsuya Hisada (23-9-2, 13) score a 2nd round TKO against fellow contender Atsushi Aburada (10-8, 6). Hisada came out swinging with bad intentions and a big flurry dropped Aburada early in the second before a follow up attacked forced the referee to step in. Coming in Aburada had, just 2 fights back, fought in a Japanese title fight against Yu Kimura but this loss ends any chance of him getting another any time soon. It does however open the door to Hisada getting a well deserved shot, something he's amazingly never had before. The co-feature bout here saw Riichi Kawase (7-6-3, 2) score a 2nd round KO against Hiroki Yoshimura (7-12, 4), who has now been stopped 10 times. Yoshimura beat the 10 count but was waved off by the referee. Another early win saw Kyohei Tonomoto (7-2, 3) take out Paisitong Muangsima (0-1) in 161 seconds. In a 6 rounder Hiroshi Takagi (5-4, 1) took a decision win over the very light punching Takahiko Nakajima (4-7-1). This win for Takagi was his third in a row and it's fair to say he has turned his career around after a 2-4-1 start. He is however unlikely to progress far given that he's already 29 years old. Like the other card this one had a number of 4 rounders, all of which went the distance. The most notable of those saw the unbeaten Tuki Takahashi (5-0, 1) extend his perfect start with a decision win against Yosuke Shimagawa (5-6-1, 2). Another unbeaten picking up a win here was Yuna Hara (2-0) who out pointed the debuting Joken Takaoka (0-1). It wasn't all good news for people who came in unbeaten however as Maya Uegaki (1-1, 1) suffer a decision loss to Minayo Kei (1-1). The remaining bout saw Takashi Oura (4-4, 1) level off his record with a decision win over Takahiro Horio (1-1). Pathum Thani, Thailand In Thailand we saw a number of Nakornluong fighters in action as they continued their march towards numerous world title bouts. In the main event of the card the WBC #1 ranked Flyweight contender Nawaphon Por Chokchai (29-0, 22) successfully defended his WBC Asian Boxing Council Flyweight title with a 3rd round KO over over-matched Filipino Wiljan Ugbaniel (13-5-1, 4). Nawaphon, who has set his eyes on Roman Gonzalez, was too big and too strong for Ugbaniel and although he landed a massive low blow in round 2 it was a culmination of shots that eventually forced Ugbaniel to take the count in the corner. A huge mismatch saw the always fun to watch Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (35-4-1, 32) put in a stay busy performance as he stopped Indonesian visitor Jack Amisa (21-36-2, 14) inside a round. The always aggressive Srisaket now has eyes on a rematch with Carlos Cuadras, as it seems likely that that bout may come before the year is over. Notably Amisa was unhappy at the stoppage but he did seem to take his time getting up and had been given a slow count as it was. Another mismatch saw the criminally under-rated Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (44-6-1, 22) took a straight forward win over the much taller Ibuki Tanaka (0-2). On paper this was a total mismatch, as it proved to be in the ring, but it seemed that Suriyan was working on how to deal with a tall fighter and how to make the most of his “shortness”. Whilst it's not a given it could be that he's looking to get a title fight with a champion later in the year, and many of the top champions in the division are taller than him. Tanaka, to his credit, show real grit and toughness, but was never competitive before being stopped. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Sunday saw a couple of low profile Japanese cards. The bouts certainly weren't anything to shout home about, at least on paper, but there was several significant contests. Fukuoka, Japan For us the most important of the two shows came from Fukuoka where we had the best match up as well as a number of lower level bouts. In our eyes the match up of the day came between the streaking Hideo Sakamoto (16-1-2, 5) and the "better than his record suggests" Ryoichi Tamura (3-2-1, 1). On paper it may look like a mismatch but Tamura was touted and viewed as a promising fighter, sadly however his inexperience showed here as Sakamoto easily out pointed him in an 8 rounder. This was Sakamoto's second notable win in a row following an upset win against Hiroki Shiino last year. Despite the match up we liked being relatvely one sided it wasn't a bust for the show which featured two highly competitive 8 rounders. One of those saw Yosuke Kirima (20-4-2, 13) take a very narrow split decision win over tough journeyman Hideo Mikan (7-9-1, 2). Mikan was expected to go the distance but he also managed to score a career altering upset win over Kirima, a 2-time Japanese title challenger. Another of the 8 rounders resulted in a split decision draw as the judges were unable to clearly split Yuki Miyoshi (11-4-4, 9) and the heavy handed Koichi Ito (10-3-3, 9). This bout was almost perfectly matched on paper and real credit needs to go to the match maker for putting it together. The remaining 8 rounder from Fukuoka resulted in a genuine upset as Tamato Uchinono (6-3-5, 4) managed to regard a 3rd round TKO against Aiki Koto (8-2-1, 4). This result ended a 6 fight winning streak, and 8 fight unbeaten run, of Koto's whilst Uchinono managed to bounce back from a stoppage loss, last time out to Koji Itagaki. On the under-card there was a number of 4 rounders. The most competitive of those saw Shota Aikawa (4-4-2, 1) surprisingly score a majority draw against the previously unbeaten Yukinori Yamaguchi (3-0-1, 1). Another unbeaten fighter on this card was Change Hamashima (3-0) who narrowly retained his perfect record with a very narrow win over Taichi Yoshizato (1-4, 1) Fumiaki Sueyoshi (1-0, 1) got off to the perfect start in his career as he stopped Takuya Hayashi (0-1) in the second round of an all debutant contest whilst another debutant, Ryoya Ikema (1-0, 1) scored a 4th round TKO against Takeshi Oishi (1-4), with Oishi being stopped for the 3rd time. Aichi, Japan The other Japanese show was in Aichi where fans again saw a bit of everything even though the show looked less than sensational on paper. The most outstanding of the results on this card came in the main event where fans saw unheralded Filipino Roque Lauro (13-16-4, 3) scored a shock KO against Daisuke Hayakawa (8-4, 7). Whilst Lauro winning wasn't a huge shock, considering he had beaten Hayakawa last December, no one would have guessed that the Filipino was going to score his 3rd career stoppage and his first since stopping a then unbeaten Joan Imperial back in September 2012. Sadly for Hayakawa it really is a case of going back to the drawing board after back-to-back defeats to Lauro, The Lauro/Hayakawa bout wasn't the only surprise on this card as the experienced Yuji Shimizu (17-9-1, 1) was also also beaten as Tomohiro Sawada (9-4-2, 4) managed to take a razor thin majority decision over his more experienced foe. This was Sawada's first bout in almost 2 years and saw him notching back-to-back wins for the first time since 2005! Unfortunately for Shimizu it ended a nice run of 3 wins, all scored last year. A third 8 rounder saw Shinichi Tsukahara (9-7-3, 4) score a 5th round TKO against Japanese based Brazilian Marcos Sogabe (6-10-1, 5), who saw a 3 fight winning run coming to an end. For Tsukahara this is his first win since December 2013. As well as the trio of main bouts this show also featured a number of 4 rounders on the undercard. Of those only 2 finished early with the quickest win being scored by Yoshiaki Inoue (2-4-1, 1) who stopped the win-less Yosuke Kato (0-3) at 1:18 of round 2, the other saw Takuya Mizuno (4-0-1, 4) continue his unbeaten run as he stopped Kazunori Takai (1-1-1, 1), who was stopped at the 2:28 mark of the second round. As for the bouts that went the distance there were typically close with the one clear winning being the debuting Naoto Mizutani (1-0) who nearly shut out the previously unbeaten Akihisa Buma (2-1-1, 1). A clear but competitive bout saw Masamu Muramatsu (1-1) claim his first win as he over-came the still win-less Yuya Watanabe (0-2-1) whilst the debuting Jinya Ito (1-0) took a razor thin win over Tasuku Matsunoshima (0-2). The closest of the 4 rounders on this card saw Shunichi Inagaki (3-2, 1) take a majority decision win over Yuya Asano (1-1), who suffered his first loss. (Image of Sakamoto courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Monday was nothing short of a blockbuster day on the Japanese domestic scene with two notable cards and a host of interesting bouts. Tokyo, Japan The bigger of two cards was Dangan 113 which came from the Korakuen Hall and had a big of everything from a highly entertaining main event to a dreadful debut from a touted prospect, from a notable upset to a highly impressive debut. The main event saw Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (11-0, 5) retain his title with a clear decision over Shingo Eto (14-3-1, 9). The scores, which ready 98-93, twice, and 98-92 suggest it was a one-sided contest but certainly wasn't and Naito had to work incredibly hard to win the rounds and fight on despite a nose that was bloodied very early in the contest. The chief support was a genuine upset as the under-rated Hideo Sakamoto (15-1-2, 5) managed to stop the world ranked, WBC #12, Hiroki Shiino (11-4, 10). Shiino a former OPBF Bantamweight champion, was widely favoured to over-come Sakamoto though was made to look distinctly second rate by the more talented under-dog who will likely use this win to move towards a title shot, either nationally or regionally. Unfortunately for Shiino this was a second stoppage loss in 3 bouts following a loss late last year to Ryosulke Iwasa. Whilst Shiino's loss was an upset he did put up a good effort, not something that can be said of former amateur star Takaaki Kamikawa (0-1) who was frankly terrible against Shoma Fukumoto (5-1, 5). Kamikawa had turned professional with notable fanfare but this performance made it look like he was a rank amateur. Fukumoto isn't a terrible fighter but we expect much, much more from Kamikawa. Another minor upset saw Tatsuya Otsubo (5-6-1, 3) force a 3rd round TKO against Ryosuke Suzuki (4-2). Interestingly Otsubo was fighting for the first time in almost 3 years making the upset even more impressive. Another of the results that we had received from this card was that of Koji Benjamin Watanabe (0-1-1), a friend of the site. Sadly Watanabe was stopped in just 37 seconds by Daijiro Umemoto (1-0, 1) who appeared to be a very good prospect in the Light Welterweight division. When we first published this we were missing a number results. Of those bouts only went the distance as Yoshito Ikari (3-1-2, 3) fought to a 4 round majority draw with Naoya Sato (2-0-1). Between the other 3 bouts there was just 7 rounds of action. The longest of the bouts we've not yet mentioned went into round 3 as the previously winless Hironobu Suzuki (1-2, 1) got off the mark with a third round TKO over Takuya Gocho (0-3). The other bouts only went into round 2 and these saw Daisuke Fukuyama (3-2-1, 3) stop the debuting Kanehiro Nakagawa (0-1) and Takeshi Ishiwatari (1-0, 1) begin his campaign with a win over Yutaro Ogane (0-1). Osaka, Japan In Osaka fans got a smaller show that was headlined by a very promising female fighter, Nana Yoshikawa (4-0, 2). Yoshikawa made extremely quick work of former world title challenger Kledpetch KKP (6-4, 1) with a second round KO via a devastating body shot that saw Kledpetch down for the count. This was supposedly a world title prelude, or tune up, for Yoshikawa who we assume will have put the Light Flyweight on alert considering nobody had taken care of Kledpetch like this, even Shindo Go took 8 rounds to see off the Thai. As with the other card we were missing results when this was first published, sadly in this case it was for much of the show. Those results can now all be found below. Yoshikawa's bout was one of a trio of 8 round bouts. Another saw Eita Kikuchi (15-4-4, 7) score an 8th round TKO against the heavy handed but limited Toshiya Yokogawa (6-7-1, 5) whilst the other featured Shota Kawaguchi (18-5-1, 7) who scored an 8th round KO against Kosuke Isono (7-3-1, 1) with a beautiful right uppercut that left Isono out cold for quite a while. The sole 6 rounder on the show also ended early as Junki Oura (6-5, 2) took out Thai visitor Decha Janthasri (0-1) in the second round. It was also in the 2nd round of the scheduled 4 rounder than fans saw Takuya Uehara (2-0, 1) stop Kento Osumi (1-1, 1). The other undercard bouts all went the distance with many of them being very competitive outs. The most "one-sided" of these bouts saw Hiroya Kojima (3-2-1, 2) take a clear cut decision win over Ryusei Kitamua (2-1, 1) and Kosei Toyoda (3-1-1, 1) take a clear win over Masahiko Jikan (2-3). The closer contests saw Yu Konomura (3-2-1) take a split decision over Takuya Fujioka (3-4-1, 1), the previously win-less Tsuyoshi Hashimoto (1-2-1) take a majority decision win over the debuting Kenji Miyata (0-1) and Daisuke Takeichi (2-3, 1) take a majority decision win over Ryuji Hayashi (1-4). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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