Tokyo, Japan Japanese fans get to see hundreds of fights every year at the Korakuen Hall, the venue which is believed to host more fights every year than any other. This past Friday the venue hosted possibly the best fight this year as Masao Nakamura (20-3, 19) and Daiki Kaneko (24-5-3, 14) went toe-to-toe in a breath taking fight that combined everything a fight fan could wish to see. The action was intense from the off, both men were rocked, both men landed heavy leather and the fans were joining in on the action chanting through out. In the end it was Nakamura who just did enough to claim a split decision though neither man had anything to be ashamed by here in a bout that needs to be watched by every self respecting fight fan. Following the bout Nakamura signalled his intention to fight for the Japanese title, eyeing up a fight with Rikki Naito, and we'd not be shocked to see that made, possibly for December! For Kaneko, who has now lost back-to-back bouts, it would make sense to take an easy one though we'd not be shocked to see him in another exciting bout with talented opponent. In the chief support bout fans saw Ryohei Takahashi (7-1-1) score his 7th straight win as he out pointed Kenji Kubo (5-4-1, 2) over 8 rounds. Prior to this bout Kubo had stated that he would take a break from boxing if he lost and now it appears likely that he's likely to make good on his would. Sadly, given the expectation on Kubo when he turned professional, this is a very disappointing result. For Takahashi however it seems the future really is rather bright. A very close 8 rounder saw Kinshiro Usui (24-4, 10) claim a majority decision win over Yuta Horiike (9-5-3, 2). Horrike, on paper, was given no chance but he really performed well here against Usui, who is a former Japanese Bantamweight title challenger. In a 6 round bout fans saw the unbeaten Shogo Yamaguchi (8-0-1, 4) extend his perfect record with a unanimous decision win over Keisuke Arima (8-11-1, 1). Yamaguchi, a 21 year old Lightweight prospect, does appear to be worth keeping an eye on in a division that is relatively weak domestically. Another 6 rounder saw Hyuma Fujioka (6-3-1) over-come the limited Hokuto Sakata (5-6-1, 3) with a unanimous decision. Fujioka doesn't appear likely to make his mark as any sort of a contender but the 23 year old could well be in some interesting fights down the line. The card also featured a pair of 4 rounders. One of those saw 19 year old Seiryu Toshikawa (3-2, 2) take a unanimous decision over Atsushi Kudo (3-5-2, 3) whilst the other resulted in a draw between the win-less Jun Fudo (0-1-1) and the debuting Junpei Sato (0-0-1). Suwannakhet, Laos Thai fans who tuned in to channel 3SD also got action, including an all out war and a chance to see to promising fighters. The war that was aired on Thai TV saw Thai veteran Kompayak Porpramook (53-5, 37) claim a decision win against Filipino foe Jopher Marayan (7-7-2, 3), in a bout for the WBA Asia title at Light Flyweight. The bout saw Kompayak, a former WBC world champion, add to his long line of highlights which have also included bouts with the likes of Adrian Hernandez, Koki Eto and Oleydong Sithsamerchai. Although he picked up the win here the 33 year old Kompayak doesn't look like a fighter who is going to return to world level any time soon. One of the rising fighters on this card was Kongthara KKP (8-0, 6) who scored a 2nd round KO against the debuting Mathias Bernua (0-1) whilst the other was teenager Nampetch Kwanjaisrikod (6-1, 2), who scored a 5th round KO against Looksorn Sithsophon (0-1). Nonthanburi, Thailand Another televised on Thai TV came on channel 7 where fans had the chance to see one of the emerging stars of the Thai scene. The rising star is the unbeaten Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (31-0, 24) who made another defense of his PABA Welterweight title as he stopped Boitshepo Mandawe (14-7, 10) in the 6th round. The 23 yea old Thai will now be hoping to get some kind of WBA title fight though will likely plug away with his PABA until a bigger opportunity arises. Another promising fighter on this card was Ronnakit PKT College (4-0, 3) made very light work of Supertop Chalermprakiat Sport (0-1). Ronnakit appears to have fought under the “Technopoly Bangkok” name on this show. Former OPBF title challenger Kajornsak Sithsaithong (8-6, 8) came back from his recent trio of losses as he stopped the heavy handed but poor Khundon Chaiyonggym (7-2, 7) in the 2nd of their scheduled 6 rounds. We also believe that there were several other bouts on here featuring prospects, with Denappa Kiatniwat and Montree PKT College in action. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Tuesday was a busy day in Asian boxing with several interesting fighters in action through out Asia. Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan In Japan fans had the chance to see the latest in the Dangan series of shows and, on paper, this was a great card with several very promising young fighters in action in what were really interesting tests. The most notable of the youngsters who we thought was being tested was Masayuki Ito (16-0-1, 7) who took on Filipino foe Ryan Sermona (16-7, 9) in what looked like an interesting bout. Ito, who beat Masao Nakamura last time out, was expected to to do what he usually does and box and move though began the bout by holding his ground and landing some very clean and damaging shots. Those managed to quickly cut Sermona and inside a round the referee was forced to stop the bout due to the cut. This was the quickest of Sermona's stoppage defeats and notably Ito's 4th stoppage win in 5 fights suggesting he is growing in belief of his own stopping power even if he didn't stand and trade with Nakamura. Another very interesting bout at the top of this card saw Ryoichi Tamura (3-1-1, 1) score an 8th round TKO over Kenji Kubo (5-3-1, 2) in a bout that was everything a boxing fan could hope to see. Both men gave their all before a tired looking Kubo was dropped late in the bout. It was one of the bouts that again suggested we down-rate fighters for their records and Tamura showed the ability to go a long way, don't be fooled by his record. A third man who we were excited to see in action was Yusaku Kuga (10-1-1, 6) who struggled to a technical decision win over tough southpaw Kenta Takahashi (10-9-3, 3). The bout was stopped in the 5th round with Kuga taking the unanimous technical decision though it does appear that he will need a few more bouts before moving to title level. A fourth 8 rounder on this card saw former OPBF title challenger Valentine Hosokawa (18-4-3, 9) scored a 5th round TKO against the light hitting and relatively soft Takeshi Goda (7-3-1, 2) who suffered his third stoppage loss. This was Hosokawa's second win following his loss to Min Wook Kim in an OPBF title fight in South Korea last year. Further down the card fans saw the talented Daishi Nagata (1-0-1) score his first career win as he took a 6 round split decision over the more experienced Jeffrey Arienza (12-3-1, 7). Although Nagata went into this bout having only drawn on his debut he was matched hard and it seems clear that he's not going to be given many easy bouts in his career. Another 6 rounder saw Kyosuke Sawada (2-2, 1) take a clear decision over Yamato Nakagawa (4-5, 2). At the start of this card fans saw Ryo Ueda (3-0, 2) take a clear decision over Regent Kusumoto (2-1) whilst the debuting Toru Wakamatsu (1-0, 1) managed to defeat Yutaka Kato (0-1) with a 4th round stoppage in an all debutant affair. Dumaguete City Hall Quadrangle , Dumaguete City, Philippines As well as the show in Japan we also had a card in the Philippines headlined by the unbeaten Mark Bernaldez (15-0, 10). We'll admit we are high on Bernaldez but he was less than impressive here as he struggled to a majority decision win over Cristian Abila (12-15-3, 4) Another unbeaten fighter at the top of the card was Brian Lobetania (9-0-3, 7) who managed to live up to expectations as he stopped Renante Suacasa (6-13, 1) in the fourth round to extend his winning run. On paper the win was expected by Lobetania though no one would have expected him to stop Suacasa who had been just once in his 8 bouts. In the sole 8 rounder Jonas Sultan (6-2, 4) scored a 7th round stoppage against Andrew Palas (3-3, 1) in the 7th round of the bout. Another stoppage win came for Crispin Parba (8-7, 5) who took out the very experienced Elmer Colve (6-31-3, 2) in the fourth round of a 6 round whilst it took Jess Rhey Waminal (5-0, 3) a round less to stop Alvin Sibugan (1-2-1). The only 6 rounder that actually went the distance was that of the debuting Jesson Horteza (1-0) who out pointed James Paul Talaman (2-1, 1). In 4 rounders fans saw Michael Estrella (1-0) out point Noel Rosa (0-4) and Junder Gregorio (1-0) defeat Jamjam Ungon (1-7) in two wins for debutants. Thailand Unfortunately we've not got all the Thai results yet though the one we do have is that of PABA Welterweight champion Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (28-0, 22) who stopped Abraham Peralta (14-3, 12) in the 8th round of their bout. Teerachai has continued to show improvements though we are worried that he'll never become the fighter that his team had hoped and bouts like this aren't likely to really help him develop in the way he could. (Image, of Ito landing a clean jab on Sermona, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Today was a busy day in Asian boxing with several shows and some very notable bouts in what has been a long day. Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand Action kicked off with a bout between former foes of Takuma Inoue as Thailand's Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (24-3-1, 15) battled against Japan's Tatsuya Fukuhara (13-4-5, 4). The men fought to a draw, very fun fight but neither of the men had the power to hurt the other so it was action packed bu lacked real drama. We wouldn't mind seeing a rematch of this one as bother were pretty much at the same level and botu fought to win, though neither should be considering a fight for a world title, at best they regional title level. Following the under-card bout we then moved on to the day's big bout as IBF Flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng (14-0, 5) retained his title with a very narrow split decision win over Puerto Rican puncher McWilliams Arroyo (15-2, 13). The bout was a frustrating one to watch, especially considering how how fun the under-card bout was, though was highly competitive with several momentum shifts in the action. Amnat got off to a solid start before Arroyo came back into the fight and scored a knockdown in round 6, Amnat then bounced back brilliantly to win round 7 before both men struggled through the championship rounds. Ruenroeng was probably lucky to be at home and had he been away from Thailand there is every chance he'd have lost his title, especially considering that the split decision win only saw him winning courtesy of cards that read 115-114 and 114-113 whilst the third judge had the bout 114-113 to Arroyo. It's fair to say that on the back of Amnat's win he has painted a bulls eye on his back and fighters like Naoya Inoue, Zou Shiming, John Casimero, Takuya Kogawa and Suguru Muranaka will all be eyeing him up as a clear target for a Flyweight world title. A third bout on this card saw Mike Tawatchai (34-7-1, 21) take an 8 round decision victory over popular Indonesian fighter Rasmanudin (18-6-3, 9). Sadly we've not managed to see this one. Tokyo, Japan Soon after the action in Thailand we then got action in Japan at the Korakuen Hall. The Japanese show kicked off with a 4 rounder that resulted in a draw between Souther Sawada (1-0-1, 1) and Toshiro Tarumi (1-0-1, 1). The draw saw both men retaining their unbeaten records though neither will have been too happy about the result of the bout. The bulk of the card was bouts scheduled for 8 rounds. These were mostly KO challenge bouts where fighters were to be rewarded for knockout wins by the promoter. Amazingly however the promoter didn't have to pay a single bonus as not one of the 8 round bouts was ended in a conclusive stoppage fashion. Although none of the 8 rounders saw stoppages 2 of them did fail to go the scheduled distance. One of these saw Daisuke Sakamoto (8-8-2, 4) fight to a 3rd round technical draw with Shiro Saito (7-4-2, 2) whilst the other bout that failed to reach the final bell saw Yuki Nasu (24-8, 16) take a 7th round technical decision win against Jonathan Ligas (8-6-1, 1). The other 8 rounders were both competitive. The most competitive of those saw recent Japanese Featherweight title challenger Yuki Ogata (20-1-1, 3) take a split decision over the unheralded Kentaro Yamada (8-5-1, 6). The other bout saw much touted Kenji Kubo (5-2-1, 2) take a narrow decision over Kota Sato (9-6-2, 4), this was the second meeting between these two after fighting to a draw earlier this year. The Kubo/Sato bout wasn't the only rematch on this show and the main event was also a rematch. This saw Japanese Heavyweight champion Kyotaro Fujimoto (10-1, 6) forcing a stoppage of #1 challenger Kotatsu Takehara (10-10-3, 4). Fujimoto had struggled in his first defence against Takehara late last year though looked like a completely different fighter here as he landed heavy and sharp shots from the off. Takehara was cut over both eyes and eventually saved from further punishment as Fujimoto really showed off his ability in a dominant performance. From what we under-stand this win will likely lead to Fujimoto rematching Nobuhiro Ishida in another defence of his Japanese Heavyweight title. Minsk, Belarus In Belarus fans saw the heavy handed Kazakh Bantamweight Zhanat Zhakiyanov (23-1, 16) make very light work of the previously unbeaten Gagi Edisherashvili (7-1, 6). Edisherashvili came into the bout unbeaten but lasted less than a round with Zhakiyanov who claimed the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council Bantamweight title with this win. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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