Taconing retains OPBF title in thriller, Magramo continues unbeaten run, Elorde Bros. get stoppages9/13/2015 This past Saturday wasn't the busiest day in Asian boxing, but there was still plenty of action.
Metro Manila, Philippines The biggest show in Asia came from Metro Manila where fans had the chance to see several prospects as well as a world class fighter defending a regional title. The main event saw that world class fighter, namely Jonathan Taconing (22-2-1, 18) make his first defense of the OPBF Light Flyweight title as he out slugged Jomar Fajardo (14-9-2, 7) to claim a 10th round technical decision. The fight, an all out war, saw both men suffer cuts from head clashes which eventually caused the end of the bout, but had been a thriller until then. Fajardo, who made his name last year with a draw against Francisco Rodriguez Jr, was dropped in round 4 though showed real guts to continue fighting off Taconing. We're now hoping that Taconing ditches the OPBF belt and chases a world title fight, though the cuts he suffered here may keep him out of the ring for a while. Whilst the main event was a brilliant match up the same couldn't be said of much of the card which generally featured some dire mismatches. One of those saw Juan Miguel Elorde (19-1, 10) blow away Arnold Mau (2-6, 3) inside a round. Another mismatch saw Elorde's older brother Juan Martin Elorde (18-1-1, 8) defeat Yakobus Heluka (8-13, 1) in 6 rounds. It wasn't just the Elorde brothers picking up stoppage wins as the very promising Giemel Magramo (14-0, 11) did the same, stopping Roilo Golez (15-15-1, 6) in the third round. Golez was once a contender but a 3-9-1 record in his last 13 bouts says it all and he's now little more than a domestic level journeyman. Another unbeaten fighter to pick up a win was 21 year old Jay Loto (10-0-1) who out-pointed Ryan Bajala (4-4-1, 2) over 8 rounds. Another 8 rounder saw Jeffrey Francisco (12-1-1, 1) take a decision over Jeson Berwela (4-20, 2). In a 6 rounder Daffy Dempo (3-4, 2) scored a minor upset win over Kenta Ide (2-2-1, 1). One other result from this card that we have was a a win for Robin Dingcong (1-3-1, 1) who scored his first win with a 3rd round KO against the debuting Jaime Escanaries (0-1) Cebu, Philippines Sadly we don't currently have the results from a show in Cebu. Las Vegas, USA On the biggest of the weekend fans of Asian did have something's to make a note of. In an all-Asian bout Sanjarbek Rakhmanov (2-0, 1), from Uzbekistan, out pointed Farkhad Sharipov (4-5, 1), from Kyrgyzstan. This 6 rounder was a good test on paper for Rakhmanov but it was white was with all 3 judges scoring it 60-53 to the unbeaten 26 year old. Another Asian on this card was Filipino youngster Recky Dulay (8-2, 5) who was taken out in 94 seconds by the talented and heavy handed Gervonta Davis (12-0, 11). Although the loss was a bad one for an Asian fighter we were genuinely impressed by Davis who looks like he has the tools to face much stiffer competition.
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This past Saturday was a hectic day for Asian boxing fans who saw action begin in Japan, with a trio of shows, and end in Mexico with a Filipino slugger getting his chance to make a statement. Tokyo, Japan The biggest show in Tokyo came from the Korakuen Hall where Teiken hosted a notable card featuring several notable names. In the main event we saw the world ranked Yu Kimura (16-2-1, 3) put on a show-case performance as he defended his Japanese Light Flyweight title and stopped Hayato Yamaguchi (12-6-1, 2). Yamaguchi only got the bout a couple of weeks ago, following an injury to Shin Ono, but looked more out of his depth than ill-prepared. From the opening round Kimura looked too good, too fresh and too sharp before finally forcing the referee to save a bloodied Yamaguchi. In the chief support bout we saw former world-ranked fighter Yasutaka Ishimoto (25-8, 7) take a 7th round technical decision over Yoshihiuro Utsumi (12-6-3, 7). The bout, scored 68-65 by all 3 judges in favour of Ishimoto, saw Ishimoto ending a 2 fight losing streak which had included a razor thin loss last December to Yukinori Oguni in a Japanese title fight. It's fair to say that Ishimoto will be hoping to get another title fight later this year. Interestingly this is the 3rd time Utsumi has last by technical decision. Another support bout saw Masanobu Nakazawa (17-1-1, 7) score a late stoppage against Kazuya Soma (7-7-2, 6). Soma, who had only been stopped once previously, was taken out in the first minute of round 8 as Naklazawa claimed his second successive stoppage win and recorded his 14th straight win. Another supporting bout saw 2014 Light Flyweight Rookie of the Year Kenji Ono (8-1, 4) score a 2nd round TKO against Taichi Yokote (6-3, 3). This was one of two scheduled 6 rounders with the other being a highly impressive debut by Tomoki Narumi (1-0, 1) who kicked of his career with a 2nd round TKO against Makoto Hiroki (4-9, 3) in a Light Middleweight bout. Narumi was a good amateur and it seems likely that he will be fast tracked as a professional. On the under-card there were 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. The most competitive of those saw Toshiki Nishihara (4-3-2, 1) fight to a majority draw with Kenta Yamada (3-1-1, 3) in a really nip-and-tuck affair. The only other 4 rounder to go the distance saw Akira Onishi (1-2) claim his first win as he over-came the still win-less Kimiaki Suzuki (0-1-1) with a close decision. One bout that almost went the distance ended with with Masato Niijima (2-0, 2) taking a late stoppage over the previously unbeaten Junki Kobayashi (1-1, 1) whilst the remaining bout was over in just 72 seconds as Hayate Kaji (2-0, 2) blew away the debuting Musashi Yoshino (0-1). Osaka, Japan The “L-Osaka” played host to two shows, of those the most notable was the Osaka Teiken promoted card. In the most interesting bout on that show fans saw Kosuke Saka (10-3, 7) lift himself off the canvas to stop the previously unbeaten Ryuto Kyoguchi (13-1-1, 9) in the 3rd round of a really short but fun fight. Another stoppage on this card saw Myung He Lee (18-4-1, 6) make light work of Thailand's Dawut Manopkanchang (0-3). This was Dawut's 3rd stoppage loss in Japan following previous defeat to Kohei Kono and Atsushi Kakutani. From what we understand Lee is now hunting a Japanese title fight. A third fight of note here ended in disappointing fashion as Bunta Mitaka (6-2-3) and Shingo Kawamura (9-2-1, 4) saw their bout end in a 3rd round technical draw. On the under-card of this show fans saw a trio of low level bouts. The most competitive of those saw Go Mitaka (3-5-2) record a narrow win over Naoki Okumura (1-3) whilst another decision bout saw Hirohide Murakami (3-2) defeat the previously unbeaten Kenta Sakata (2-1-1). The only under-card not to go the distance saw Kyosuke Tsutsuminoto (3-0, 3) continue his perfect start with a 3rd round retirement victory over Shota Taguchi (2-2) Osaka, Japan The other “L-Osaka” show was promoted by Taiho. The most notable of the fights saw Ryota Kajiki (25-9, 16) score a 2nd round TKO against the over-matched Tokiya Nishioka (9-5-2, 5). On paper Nishioka never stood a chance and that proved to be the case in the ring. A more competitive contest saw Ippo Nishiwaki (8-3-1, 4) narrowly over-come Hirokazu Okajima (8-5-2, 4) in a really well matched contest. We don't imagine either of these two will become fixtures at the top of the domestic scene but they did make for an excellent matched up contest against each other. A third bout from this show saw Akiyoshi Kanazawa (12-3-4, 5) score a 5th round TKO again Junya Nishikawa (7-6-2, 2). This loss was the first time Nishikawa had suffered back-to-back defeats whilst Kanazawa scored his first win in 3 bouts. On this under-card there were 4 bouts with only a single one going the distance. That was the narrow 4 round decision win for Takuya Fujioka (4-4-1, 1) who narrowly over-came Noboru Osato (4-3-3, 1). As for the stoppages the quickest of those saw the unbeaten Daijiro Yuki (5-0, 2) score a 2nd round TKO against the debuting Kenji Okawa (0-1). It didn't take much longer for Ruka Shobu (1-0-1, 1) to force a retirement of Akihiko Hayashi (0-2). The other of the undercard bouts went into the 4th round as Kensei Hirano (4-0, 2) defeated Kazumi Hara (1-1) México, Mexico In the final bout of the day to involve an Asian we saw the brilliant Jonathan Taconing (21-2-1, 18) impress as he stopped former WBO Minimumweight champion Ramon Garcia Hirales (20-6-1, 12). The powerful Filipino seemed to be the boss from the first round and eventually forced the referee to save his Mexican foe who looked completely out powered and out fought. This was the win that proved Taconing's ability and it now seems likely that the aggressive Light Flyweight is going to be getting a world title eliminator in the coming months. (Image courtesy of www.boxingnews.jp) This past Sunday was a very busy one with fights across Asia. Tokyo, Japan In Tokyo we had the 2014 All Japan Rookie of the Year finals which featured 10 bouts in total, following bouts at 135lbs and 140lbs both being cancelled due to fighters pulling out. In the Minimumweight division fans saw the unbeaten Reiya Konishi (7-0, 4) continue his winning streak as he over-came Yuki Kubo (6-2, 2) with a clear decision. The talented 21 year old from Kobe just seemed to have too much of everything and we're really looking forward to seeing him in the mix with the ranked domestic contenders. At Light Flyweight things were highly competitive as Kenji Ono (7-1, 3) took a razor thin decision over Seita Ogido (6-2-1, 1). The cards, which ended in a split decision, all read 48-47 showing just how competitive it was round after round. The Flyweight division saw a battle between unbeaten men though saw the Koguchi promoted Kenya Yamashita (7-0, 4) defeat Shun Kosaka (9-1) with a clear decision. The talented Yamashita, an 18 year old with real promise, has now beaten 3 successive unbeaten men and we suspect his recent sparring with the likes of Suguru Muranaka has helped him develop into yet another promising Flyweight prospect. Don't be shocked if we see both of these guys fighting in the domestic title mix in the coming years. Masayoshi Hashizume (7-0, 4) continued his success as he won in the Super Flyweight tournament with a 3rd round technical decision against Shogo Yonenaga (6-2, 3). Sadly a clash of heads forced the bout to an early conclusion though it did seem like the exciting Hashizume was in charge prior to the conclusion. Sadly it seems likely that both men will be inactive for the next few months as the cuts they each suffered looked very nasty at the end of the bout. In the Bantamweight division we saw Ryohei Takahashi (5-1-1) continue his winning run as he over-came the heavy handed Keisuke Tabuchi (8-2-2, 6) with a very clear decision victory. Takahashi's lack of power will likely limit him when he steps up a level. Although Tabbuchi came up short there is a chance he'll go further in the sport given his heftier blows which will likely help him as he steps up in class. At Super Bantamweight we saw a slight surprise as the light hitting Shohei Kawashima (9-0-2, 2) scored just his second stoppage in 11 fights. The light hitter managed to stop Yuki Matsudo (8-2, 4) in the early stages of round 4 with a huge right hand that sunk Matsudo who was unable to beat the count. This win for Kawashima saw him winning the Skills Award for the tournament. In the Featherweight division Reiya Abe (8-1, 4) took home the crown as he out pointed Kyohei Tonomoto (5-2, 2) in a clear decision. Another clear decision saw Yuichiro Kasuya (6-0, 1) out point Masashi Wakita (4-3-1, 2) in a bout that won Kasuya the “Fighting Spirit” award. Aged 18 Kasuya looks likely to be involved in a lot of exciting bouts in the future, hopefully he can develop some power to go with his exciting style. The winner of the MVP award was the heavy handed Yuki Beppu (8-0, 8) who stopped Hironobu Matsunaga (6-1, 3) in the 2nd round in the Welterweight bout. Beppu, an exciting and heavy handed fighter had to take some hard shots himself in this thrilling contest though his belief in his own power was well founded. Matsunaga was down late in the opening round and never seemed to really recover before being stopped very early in round 2. At Middleweight Hisao Narita (8-1, 4) won a very tight one with Toshihiro Kai (4-7-2, 1). We had expected Narita to win this one easily but Kai really gave a great effort and made things very competitive. Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines fans saw one of their most exciting local fighters in action. That was OPBF Light Flyweight champion Jonathan Taconing (20-2-1, 17) who made light work of Oscar Raknafa (12-8, 5). Raknafa retired in the 4th round after having taken a bit of a beating. On the undercard here results have been scarce, though we do know that Abraham Bullagay (1-0-1, 1) fought to a draw with the win-less Manny Mamacquiao (0-4-1). Batangas, Philippines A second show in the Philippines had equally as interesting action. In the main event here fans saw Jhon Gemino (12-3-1, 5) take a very narrow split decision win over the previously unbeaten JR Magboo (16-1-2, 7) to claim the GAB Super Bantamweight title and record his most significant win to date. For Magboo this will a bad loss concede, even if it was close. In the co-feature fans saw Roberto Gonzalez (25-2, 16) score an 8th round TKO over Jose Ocampo (17-9-1, 12) in a bit of a blood bath. Gonzalez was cut early from a headclash before he battled back and cut Ocampo on the right eyelid with a punch in round 8. The cut on Ocampo's caused an early conclusion to the bout with the doctor ruling him unfit to continue. Another of the support bouts that ended early saw Bonjun Loperez (9-2-1, 5) score a victory over Oliver Gregorio (9-4-2, 5) after Gregorio retired with a damaged shoulder. A third support bout saw Renz Rosia (11-2, 5) take a majority decision over Jayson Rotoni (13-15-1, 7), though the cards were a bit all over the place here. In the sole 8-rounder Reneria Arizala (12-1-1, 5) made very light work Lowell Saguisa (7-18, 3) with Saguisa being stopped after just 83 seconds. A bulk of the undercard was made up of 6 rounder,of which we had 3. One of those saw Michael Rosal (5-3, 3) take a very close win over Jesson Inso (9-5-1, 3) in a bout that was essentially decided by a knockdown scored by Rosal in round 3. Another of the 6 rounders saw Balweg Bangoyan (19-9, 8) score a 5th round KO against Rey Ramos (6-7-2, 3) whilst Philip Luis Cuerdo (6-1, 3) made very light work of Juanito Hondante (2-5, 1). The show also featured a pair of 4 rounders. One of these saw the debuting Edlin Sese (1-0) score a decision win over Jerwin Mejes (1-1, 1) whilst the other saw Ariel Arevalo (3-1-2, 1) score a very clear win over Jeffrey Garcia (0-3). Seoul, South Korea The lowest profile show was in South Korea as fans had 9 bouts, including several international bouts that saw Koreans battling against Japanese fighters. Interestingly from the 6 bouts between fighters from the two countries Korea won 3 bouts, whilst Japan won 2 and 1 resulted in a draw. Of the 9 bouts on the show 4 of them were 4 rounds. These saw Chae Yong Lee (1-0, 1) score an opening round stoppage against Sung Il Jo (0-1). Another of the 4 rounders saw the previously win-less Do Hyung Kim (1-2) take a clear win over Jung Yul Lee (0-2). The other 4 rounders both ended in draws with Kyung Hee Han (0-0-1) drawing in an all debutant bout against Min Young Kim (0-1) and Gang Hoon Lee (1-1-2, 1) being held by Ryo Nakano (1-2-1) in the first of the 7 South Korea Vs Japan bouts. The most impressive win for Japanese fighters saw Akira Ono (6-3, 5) quickly see off Jae Man Kim (2-1, 1) who was dropped 3 times in the opening round. The only other Japan win saw Ryosuke Hayase (5-1, 1) take a split decision over Hyun Woo Lee (5-2, 1). For Korean fighters there 2 stoppage wins with the most impressive of those being a 75 second blow out by Jae Ho Kim (5-1, 1) who swiftly saw off Kenji Fujiyama (5-5, 3). The other stoppage win for Koreans saw Woo Min Won (6-1, 3) score a 3rd round win over Shingo Yabu (4-4-2). The only decision win for a Korean fighters over a Japanese visitor saw Jong Hwa Lee (9-2-2, 1) easily defeat Katsunori Imai (5-6-1). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Shibata retains unified crown, Taguchi dropped but wins, Taconing on form and Rufino bounces back7/6/2014 This past Saturday wasn't a major one for Asian boxing fans but there was still a host of action, much of which was involved fighters at or around the OPBF title level. Tokyo, Japan The most notable of all the matches involving an Asian fighter took place at the Korakuen Hall as the unified Japanese OPBF Middleweight champion Akio Shibata (23-8-1, 9) retained his unified crown for the first time. Shibata was always expected to over come his opponent, Hikaru Nishida (10-7-1, 3), but was forced to use all hsi experience to over-come a fighter that we believe will come again in the future. Nishida, although not a world class fighter, is a man who will give everyone at this level a hard bout and we doubt Shibata will be in a rush for a rematch. Whilst Shibata is a unified OPBF/Japanese champion we did see a former world champion on the undercard in the form of former IBF Minimumweight champion Florante Condes (27-9-1, 23). Condes, travelling to Japan, took on former Japanese Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (20-2-1, 8), seemed on the verge of scoring a shock stoppage over the gutsy Japanese fighter but Taguchi showed all his heart to recover from a very hard knockdown in the second round. Taguchi's heart saw him recovering over the following round to take a very hard fought decision but neither man came out of this bout with any shame and we're going to look forward to seeing both in action again. One man who did manage to see off his hurt opponent was Hayato Hokazono (18-4-1, 11) who took out Osamu Hashimoto (9-7, 1) in the 6th of a scheduled 8 rounder. Likewise Yuji Wauke (18-4-1, 9) managed to take out his opponent, Jonel Gadapan (8-7-1, 4), needing just 5 of the 8 scheduled rounds to close the show. The quickest of the contests saw the monstrously hard hitting Yuichi Yokoyama (14-2, 13) take out Tatsuya Yanagi (10-2, 4) in just 169 seconds as the power of Yokoyama was felt in a big way. Yanagi managed to recover his feet but he was counted out doing so following a huge straight right of Yokoyama's. In a 5 round bout Yoshihisa Yokota (6-10-1, 2) took a decision over Yamato Nakagawa (4-4, 2) whilst in the opening bout Shinya Ito (2-01) took a 4 round decision over Shinnosuke Yoshimori (1-2, 1) in what was the show's opening bout. Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines fans had the chance to catch a 7 fight show in Metro Manila. The main event on this show saw recent OPBF Featherweight title challenger Vinvin Rufino (35-16-3, 16) retain his GAB Featherweight title but trade knockdowns in a very competitive bout with Cristian Abila (11-13-3, 3). Rufino was dropped in the 11th round but managed to even it out by scoring a knockdown of his own in the following round to give us a bout what was more competitive than the records of the fighters would have suggested going into the contest. Whilst Rufino had failed in his OPBF title challenge earlier this year the co-feature had a man who had taken his chance with both hands and claimed the Light Flyweight title with a stunning victory over Virgilio Silvano back in March. That was the hard hitting Jonathan Taconing (19-2-1, 16) who stopped the previously unbeaten Jaipetch Chaiyonggym (3-1, 2) with a devastating body shot in the 3rd round. Another man who scored a body shot KO was the unbeaten Randy Braga (13-0-1, 3) who stopped the very poor Dexter Mendoza (11-14-2, 3) in just 47 seconds! Some of the bouts, other than the main event, on this show did go the distance, including the sole 6 round bout which saw Glenn Suminguit (13-2, 7) take a very wide decision over Jomar Borbon (4-18-2, 2), a very narrow 4 round majority decision for the unbeaten Roderick Flores (3-0-1, 1) over the debuting Jayson Dogelio (0-1) and a debut victory for Marlon Paniamogan (1-0) who took a shut out over Jaymark Borbon (0-1). The only other 4 round bout on this card saw Raymond Yanong (2-1, 2) defeating Christian Rayta (0-2), who retired at the end of the second round. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Tuesday may not have been a major day in world boxing but it was still an important one with a trio of title fights that took place over Asia. Tokyo, Japan The most notable of those title bouts was in Tokyo as OPBF Bantamweight champion Ryosuke Iwasa (17-1, 10) was given one of the toughest bouts of his career. Iwasa, who is unbeaten since being stopped by current WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, was given hell by the over-looked Filipino Richard Pumicpic (14-6-2, 4) who came to get the title from Iwasa though just fell short in a majority decision loss. Whilst some will view that as a wake up call for Iwasa, the WBC #1 ranked challenger, it was more a testament of just how good Pumicpic is and we'd be shocked by Pumicpic not winning an OPBF title one day. For Iwasa this was a perfect test before getting a world title fight hopefully later this year. Although the main event was the most attractive bout on the show, by a long way, it wasn't the only fight of note. Another bout of note saw former world title challenger Ryo Akaho (22-1-2, 15) stopping Richard Garcia (25-18-1, 7) in 2 rounds. From what we've read we do believe that Akaho was down prior to the stoppage though more angered by himself than actually hurt from the knock down and he swiftly punished Garcia afterwards. Whilst the Iwasa bout was very close there were two other bouts which were closer. One of those was an 8 rounder that saw Daisuke Yokoyama (15-5-1, 6) fighting to an unexpected majority draw with Kenta Takahashi (10-7-3 3) whilst Fumiya Akao (1-0-1) had a disappointing split decision draw with Shogo Yanagisawa (1-4-1, 1). One of the most notable bouts on the card saw the debuting Koki Koshikawa (1-0) out pointing Quaye Peter (5-4-1, 3) over 6 rounds. Koshikawa was a stand out amateur and like many former standouts he is tipped to rise fast through ranks. What makes him particularly interesting however is that he's campaigning at Light Welterweight or Welterweight suggesting that he will need to fight international opponents at an earlier stage than perhaps some of the smaller Japanese fighter who are equally as highly viewed due to their amateur experience. The remaining bouts on this card saw Manato Honma (6-3, 3) stopping Koki Yoshida (4-4, 2) in 2 rounds, after Yoshida retired, whilst Shinya Nemoto (4-3-1, 1) took a 4 round decision Yudai Hata (2-2, 1). Metro Manila, Philippines Although Pumicpic fell short in his OPBF title fight we did see a Filipino fighter crowned as a new OPBF champion. That man is the hard hitting Jonathan Taconing (18-2-1, 15) who managed to stop compatriot Vergilio Silvano (18-4-1, 10) in an absolutely brilliant fight. Both landed their share of bombs in a contest that eventually saw Silvano being saved in round 11. The victory for Taconing saw him claim the OPBF Light Flyweight title that had previously been vacated by Naoya Inoue and we're now hoping to see Taconing challenge for a world title. He's fun to watch, power, aggressive and although most fans won't recognise him he is a genuine top 10 fighter at 108lbs. Iwasa wasn't the only man to successfully defend a title as Filipino Monico Laurente (24-10, 5) successfully defended his Filipino (GAB) Bantamweight title with a defence over Jetro Pabustan (22-2-5, 6) by 5th round technical decision. Incidentally this was Pabustan's second technical decision loss following a 7th round technical loss to Lowie Bantigue back in 2010. The chief support bout to the two title contests saw Juan Miguel Elorde (15-1, 7), the grandson of the great Flash Elorde, scoring an opening round KO over Indonesian visitor Budi Risky (8-4, 5). The rest of this card saw Jeffrey Francisco (9-0-1) taking a very narrow decision over the limited Fidel Cuyno (1-3-2), Raymond Yanong (1-1, 1) scored his first victory with a stoppage over the debuting Christian Rayta (0-1) whilst Wilbert Berondo (2-0, 1) stopped Raul Luba (0-2). Both of those stoppages came in the third round. (Photo courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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