Tokyo, Japan The only Asian show this past Monday came from the Korakuen Hall where reason put on the latest in the “Dangan” series of shows. On paper the card was one of the most mouth watering so far and it had everything, prospects, veterans and fighters tipped to go a long way. It also had action and shocks. The show opened with a 4 round bout that saw Masaharu Kaito (2-0) take a narrow decision against the previously unbeaten Ryota Toyoshima (2-1-1, 2). The bout was a close and very competitive bout which acted as the perfect opening for the fans who got to the venue early. Those same fans also got a treat in the second bout as the much touted Daigo Higa (6-0, 6) continued his perfect run. Higa took on his stiffest test to date in the form of Filipino Cris Alfante (11-5, 4), who was stopped in the 4th round of the scheduled 6 rounder. For Higa this was his longest bout to date and it seems very clear that he has the power, style and ability to go to title level in the coming years. Another man who will be looking to compete in title bouts in the coming years is Yusaku Kuga (11-1-1, 6) who recorded a 2nd round TKO against Kojiro Takada (13-9-3, 9). For Kuga this bout may serve as his final bout before a potential fight for the Japanese Super Bantamweight title and although it was a mismatch on paper it was good to see Kuga getting back in the ring after having been out of action since November. The big shock on the card was a wide loss for the touted Koki Koshikawa (4-1, 2) who was effectively shut out by veteran Koshinmaru Saito (21-7-1, 11). This was supposed to be Koshikawa's coming out party and a bout that saw im claiming a Japanese ranking but instead the previously unbeaten man struggled to ever get in to the bout. For Saito his movement was key but Koshikawa was very disappointing. At the top of the show was a co-main event. The first of those main bouts saw OPBF Flyweight champion Koki Eto (17-3-1, 13) record the second defense of his title as he took an 8th round TKO against Yuki Fukumoto (17-10, 5). Eto did struggle early in the bout, losing 2 of the first 4 rounds, but found his rhythm in the middle portion of the fight before stopping Fukumoto. After the bout the champion hinted strongly at dropping the title to fight for a world title, and from what we understand his likely route is going t be the IBF title. The other main event saw Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (13-0, 5) take a hard fought win over former world ranked fighter Nihito Arakawa (25-6-1, 16). The bout saw Naito need to battle hard after a poor start though ended up becoming a really excellent bout between two very good fighters. For Naito this win will likely help move him towards a world title fight, though we're now unsure if his future lies at Super Featherweight or at Lightweight. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Tokyo, Japan We've not seen much action in Japan this year but things are starting to get going and today we had the first taste of domestic title action as the Champion Carnival kicked off, we also had a world fighter in action and several promising fighters all looking to make a name for themselves. The show began with a 4 rounder which saw the debuting Kentaro Omori (1-0, 1) introduce himself to the professional boxing world with a 70 second stoppage win against the win-less Hirako Saito (0-2). This was one of a number of lower tier bouts which also included another opening round blow out as Yutaka Ekawa (6-3-1, 3) unexpectedly blasted out Ryosuke Suzuki (4-3) in an impressive 23 seconds in a bout scheduled for 5 rounds. Ekawa's win came in one of 2 bouts set for 5 with the other resulting in a disappointing technical draw between Hidetoshi Ueki (4-9-2) and Tomoyuki Kaneko (7-4-1, 4) after a headclash in the second round forced this bout to be abandoned. In a 6 round bout we saw the talented, and unbeaten, Daishi Nagata (2-0-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he took out the more experienced Ryoji Miyagi (7-6-1, 4) in the 3rd round. Although Nagata does have a “mark” on his record he is incredibly talented and we'd tip him to go far on the domestic scene, just like Takeshi Inoue who gave him that mark on debut. The chief support bouts both looked interesting on paper. One of those saw world ranked Super Flyweight Go Onaga (23-2-2, 16) take a clear decision over former “world” title challenger Breilor Teran (13-11-1, 6) in what amounted to a show case of sorts for Onaga, a member of the Ohashi stable. The other saw the heavy handed Yusuke Suzuki (6-1, 4) enhance his fast growing reputation as he blasted away Akinori Hoshino (11-9-1, 8) in the 6th round of their scheduled 8. The ending here saw Hoshino crashing to the canvas an unable to beat the 10 count, though Suzuki was given a good test before the finish. The headline bout, and one of the first really notable bouts this year in Japan, saw Rikki Naito (12-0, 5) successfully retain his Japanese Super Featherweight title as he narrowly over-came Masayuki Ito (16-1-1, 7) in a highly competitive bout that ended with Naito taking a narrow majority decision. The bout really was one of those where no one felt they lost and whilst Ito may have a “1” on his record he'll still feel unbeaten. Naito, a very talented fighter managed to record the third defence of his title though he'll likely not rush up to fighting at the world level considering how hard he was pushed here. We really hope we'll see a rematch of this one somewhere down the line and with both men being really young it's pretty likely that we will see them crossing paths again, one day. (Image 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) Odaira and Naito retain Japanese titles, Shiino returns with a win and Nakagawa upsets Laurente6/11/2014 Tokyo, Japan One of our favourites "series" of shows is the "Dangan" series which range from Rookie of the Years shows, B class tournaments and some amazing title cards which have more depth that first meets the eye. We had one of those top Dangan shows this past Monday with 4 bouts that all had some sort of relevance. The first of those 4 bouts saw Japan's Yuta Nakagawa (13-4-1, 8) claiming the biggest victory of his career so far as he narrowly out-pointed Filipino Monico Laurente (24-11, 5) in an 8 round bout. Going into this bout Laurente was the #1 ranked OPBF challenger at Bantamweight whilst Nakagawa was unranked so we're expecting to see a big shuffle in the rankings next month. Whilst Nakagawa's victory over a Filipino visitor was unexpected the second bout of note saw a very expected result as former OPBF Bantamweight champion Hiroki Shiino (11-3, 10) made very light wok of Filipino visitor Rodel Tejares (20-29-6, 5). Shiino, who was stopped last time out by Ryosuke Iwasa, had been out of the ring due to an injury and took all of his frustrations out on Tejares who was battered for 3 rounds. Following the two big, albeit none title fights, we then move on to the first of two Japanese title fights. These kicked off with Japanese Minimumweight champion Go Odaira (10-3-3, 1) defending his belt for the first time. Odaira was less than impressive as he struggled past the limited Yuma Iwahashi (11-7-1, 1) in a bout that was some what poor despite being competitive. Odaira defended his title with a majority decision and seems likely to be facing Kosei Tanaka and Takuma Inoue next time out with the two super prospects both wanting to win titles sooner rather than later. Odaira wasn't the only champion who retained his title as Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (10-0, 5) also defended his belt successfully. Naito took on the much more experienced Kyohei Tamakoshi (32-9-6, 12) and was dominant through out, though did struggle to pin his man down early on. As soon Naito turned it up in the second half of the fight he appeared to have Tamakoshi in trouble but the experienced man called on his past to see out the trouble moments. As well as the 4 major bouts there was also a trio of lesser bouts. These included a pair of draws as Hisashi Owada (5-8-1) was held in a 6 rounder by Kenichi Ohara (4-8-1) and, in a 4 rounder, Toru Takahashi (2-8-2, 2) was held by Yoshikuni Hashiguchi (2-4-1, 1). These were both majority draws. The only other bout on the show was an all debutant affair that saw Toshiro Tarumi (1-0, 1) scoring a 4th round TKO over Shota Irie (0-1). Siem Reap Province, Cambodia In Cambodia fans saw the return of the touted Cuban Reymi Aleye (6-0, 3) who made light work of Cambodian debutant Svay Rota (0-1). Aleye is touted as one of the best "Cuban's you've never heard of" and has been fighting out of the ALA gym in the Philippines recently despite living in Thailand. We hope to see him back in a Filipino ring soon as that's where he will probably develop his already highly attained skills. (Image courtesy of http://danganboxing.com) It's rare to have good boxing on a Monday but that's what we had this week with a Japanese show featuring two title bouts and 7 bouts in total. Tokyo, Japan The show, at the Korakuen Hall kicked off with a relatively uninteresting under-card in which Mamoru Takeuchi (4-5-2) narrowly defeated Kazumichi Ishizawa (2-4) and Mamori Hasebe (1-0) took a decision over fellow debutant Tomoya Kubo (0-1). Although both bouts were competitive neither would have done much to put bums on seats. The one bout on the lowest part of the card that was interesting saw Kenta Yamada (2-0, 2) stopping the previously unbeaten Ibuki Kitade (1-1) in a bout between prospects. It'd be nice to see Yamada stepping up slightly again next time out but at just 19 years old there is no rush at all for the hard hitting youngster. After the bottom of the card was done we had two interesting contests in the middle of the card. Unfortunately one of these middle of the card bouts ended in serious disappointment with Moon Hyun Yun (14-4-2, 2) fighting to a 3rd round technical draw with Kuninobu Shimamura (16-3-1, 11). We expected this bout to be really interesting but unfortunately the premature ending robbed us of the contest. The other 8 rounder on the card saw Ryo Takenaka (10-2-1, 5) taking the decision over Filipino visitor Rene Bestudio (16-6-4, 5) in a competitive match up that saw neither man really asserting dominance over the other. Although one judge scored it 79-74 we'd suggest it was closer. In the co-feature the very highly touted Rikki Naito (9-0, 5) put on an impressive showing as he dominated the experienced Hiroyasu Matsuzaki (22-7-2, 11) to claim the Japanese Super Featherweight title. Naito was simply too quick and too skilled for Matsuzaki who was tagged by southpaw right hooks time and time again. After 8 rounds Matsuzaki's corner pulled their charge from the bout saving him any further punishment. The main event saw the highly talented Shingo Wake (16-4-2, 9) successfully defending his OPBF Super Bantamweight title. Wake, fighting against Japanese based Filipino Jovylito Aligarbes (10-3, 4), controlled the bout from the opening round and whilst Aligarbes, otherwise known as Jovy Katsumata, tried his best he was simply unable to cope with the power or skills of Wake who dropped him twice. The second knockdown was one Jovy couldn't recover from and he stayed down for the count. We do need to wonder what Aligarbes was doing in the ring with Wake but credit to the Filipino for putting up the best fight he could even though he was significantly smaller than Wake. |
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