This past Saturday was an incredibly busy day in Asian boxing, as a result we've unfortunately been slow to get the results all up and ready.
Cebu, Philippines The most notable, of 3 Filipino shows, came from Cebu where ALA Promotions put on the wonderful, and entertaining, “Pinoy Pride 31”. A card which really had everything. The main event was a competitive bout at the top level which saw Donnie Nietes (36-1-4, 21) retain his WBO Light Flyweight title with a clear, but competitive, win over Mexican Francisco Rodriguez Jr (17-3-1, 11). Rodriguez, a former unified champion at 105lbs, went over to Cebu with real confidence and, at times, looked to have Nietes in trouble but the Filipino icon managed to use his experience and skills to take advantage of Rodriguez's flaws. Following the win Nietes has been linked to a world title fight at 112lbs where we expect he'll be fighting by the end of the year. Another title bout on this show saw the highly touted Mark Magsayo (11-0, 9) pick up the IBF Youth Featherweight title with an excellent 5th round TKO against Rafael Reyes (16-5, 12). Reyes had come to fight and gave Magsayo a good test before being stopped from a wonderful Magsayo assault. Although the fight showed some flaws with the touted youngster it's clear he's going a long way and we can't wait to see him step up again. Another talented young fighter in action here was Kevin Jake Cataraja (1-0, 1) who made a successful debut as he stopped Indonesian fighter Ardi Tefa (6-5, 4) in the 6th round. The debuting Cataraja looked sensational, despite his novice status, and looks likely to be on the fast track through the ranks. Although he was debuting he was considered as the 3rd most significant bout on the card. Whilst we were impressed by the fighters in the main bouts there was a number of other bouts on the card. One of those saw former OPBF Super Bantamweight champion Roli Gasca (23-6-1, 7) score a sensational KO over Rasmanudin (19-10-3, 10). The typically light punching Gasca landed probably the best show of his career as creamed Rasmanudin in the early stages of round 2. Another KO saw Vic Saludar (10-1, 8) score a 4th round KO against Michael Kaibigan (3-3-2, 2). Saludar, another touted fighter, is tipped for success though does need to be matched harder than this now. One other Filipino to score a memorable KO was Elmo Traya (9-1, 7) who stopped Bryan Macamay (9-3-2, 5) with a nasty body shot in the 3rd round. Sadly one other KO on this show came in a farce as Mexican politician Jorge Kahwagi (12-0, 12) scored an opening round “KO” against Ramon Olivas (13-4, 9). This bout, put on the card as a favour to Zanfer, was a joke and really was hilariously bad with Olivas looking like he had taken one of the most blatant dives in boxing history. On the under-card a couple of bouts went the distance. One of those saw Carlo Demecillo (4-2, 1) score an upset against the previously unbeaten Virgel Vitor (4-1, 2). Another distance bout saw Raul Yu (6-1-1, 5) fight to a draw with Ricardo Sueno (2-0-1, 1). Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany In Germany we had another “world” title fight as WBA Heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (34-2-1, 20) made light work of the awful Francesco Pianeta (31-2-1, 17), who lasted less than a round. Pianeta was dropped early in the opening round before being stopped at the end of the round by Chagaev who made the first defense of the title that he won, controversially, last year against Fres Oquendo. Metro Manila, Philippines A second notable Filipino show came from Metro Manila where two former world title challengers were in action as well as some talented young Filipino fighters. One of those former world title challengers was Richard Claveras (13-1-2, 12) who scored his first decision win as he defeated Benezer Alolod (16-8-5, 5) in a relatively compelling bout for the WBC Asian Boxing Council Light Flyweight title. The other former challenger was Ardin Diale (29-9-3, 15) who scored a 6th round retirement victory against Heri Amol (35-24-4, 15). Interestingly Diale's victory was his 6th straight win following a loss, in an OPBF title fight, against Koki Eto last year. The Claveras Vs Alolod bout was one of 4 title bouts on this show. Another title fight saw the much under-rated Michael Dasmarinas (21-2, 13) take a decision win over Jhaleel Payao (11-1, 6) to claim the WBC Youth Super Flyweight title that Payao had won last year. This was, on paper, a brilliant match up between two talented Filipino youngsters and despite the loss for Payao we don't really see it as a major setback with both of these fighters likely to on to big things in the future. Another title bout saw Jonas Sultan (9-2, 5) take a competitive decision win over Rene Dacquel (14-5-1 5) to become the new GAB Super Flyweight champion. The remaining title bout saw the experienced, and often under-rated, Danilo Pena (27-21-4, 12) score a 7th round technical decision over Rey Juntilla (20-7-4, 13) to claim the LuzProBa Featherweight title, in what was an upset but not as much as the records of the fighters would suggest. On the undercard there was several bouts. One of those saw the unbeaten Fighting Heno (5-0-3) take a very close decision win over John Ray Logatiman (3-2-1), another unbeaten fighter picking up a decision on this undercard was Cris Ocana (2-0, 1), who out pointed Diego Gabayeron (0-1). One unbeaten fighter who did score a stoppage was Lorence Rosas (4-0-2, 2) who defeated Alberto Pentecostes (1-6-1). A stoppage on the under-card saw Eric Panza (8-4-1, 2) score a 3rd round KO as he took out the fragile Marco Niones (3-16, 1) with a body shot. There were two other bouts on this card. One of those Ernie Mino (3-5-2) score an upset decision win against Masazumi Furukawa (6-7-2, 1) whilst the other saw Joel Taduran (5-2) out point career loser Jhon Jhon Faminiano (1-12-3). Cotabato del Sur, Philippines There was yet more Filipino action with a card at the Robinson's Mall Atrium with this one also featuring some notable young fighters. Arguably the most notable of the fighters in action here was unbeaten prospect John Vincent Moralde (13-0, 7), who fought for the first time since his tragic bout with Brayd Smith in March. Moralde easily defeated William George (10-23, 3), who was stopped in the 3rd round, though there will continue to be questions over whether or not Moralde will ever become the fighter he was once expected to be. This win for the 21 year old was, however, a good step forward in terms of getting a read on his mentality in the ring. Another notable youngster was Jake Bornea (10-1, 5) who saw off Richard Rosales (9-3-2, 4) in 4 rounds to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Youth Flyweight crown. Jake's younger brother Jade Bornea (4-0, 2) was also on this show as he over-came the previously unbeaten Salatiel Amit (6-1-2, 4) with an 8 round decision. Yet another touted youngster in action here was Jelbirt Gomera (9-0, 6) who scored a 3rd round TKO win against the limited Prell Tupaz (9-28-5, 1) to claim the PBF Super Bantamweight title. Arguably the best match up the card was a non-title contest that saw the talented Jetro Pabustan (26-2-6, 7) out point former world title challenger Vergilio Silvano (20-5-1, 12) over 10 rounds. Whilst Pabustan shouldn't yet be looking at t a world title fight this was the type of step up win that his career desperately needed. Another 10 round bout that also looked interesting ended in a draw between Junuel Lacar (7-1-2, 5) and Jimboy Haya (7-2-2, 4), we'll be honest this looked tasty on paper and proved to be a well matched contest between two young domestic level fighters each looking ton make their mark on the sport. The under-card here had 5 bouts. From those bouts we saw a genuine upset as Jayar Diama (5-5-5, 2) leveled off his record with a decision win against Marjun Pantillgan (5-3, 4). Another decision win was scored by Joey Antonio (2-1-1), who claimed a majority decision over debutant Lony Cadayday (0-1). Another under-card bout that went to the judges saw Mark Bawaan (1-0-1) fight to a draw with the win-less Holly Quinones (0-4-1). Under-card bouts that didn't go the distance saw Renz Magarce (7-0, 5) score a 4th round KO against Romulo Ramayan Jr (6-5-3, 3) and the debuting Vinz Paras (1-0, 1) blow away Romeo Garde (0-1) Guerrero, Mexico In Mexico we saw disappointment for Filipino fighter Jhon Gemino (12-4-1, 5) who suffered a 10 round decision defeat to unbeaten Mexican Andres Gutierrez (32-0-1, 22), who is now looking likely to get a major fight. Gemino was dropped early in the fight but fought back well, despite the loss.
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A day that begins in Australia and ends in Mexico can be an insanely long day in the boxing world. Sometimes it's not really worth it but this Saturday really was worth it as we had one of the best fights you will see in 2014! Nuevo Leon, Mexico Although it was the last bout of the day, by some margin, we can't help but start the results with the war in Mexico between Katsunari Takayama (27-7-0-1, 10) and Mexico's Francisco Rodriguez Jr (15-2, 10). The bout, a rare unification contest at 105lbs, saw the IBF and WBO titles being unified by Rodriguez who won a very hard fought decision in a bout many are dubbing the fight of the year. From the first round to the last the bout swung one way then the other, one man looked in charge then the other did, the action, relentless and pulsating from the off was the sort of thing worth staying up for and although Takayama, a man we love, lost on the scorecards he enhanced his reputation as a warrior. We're hoping for a rematch though we'll be honest and say that we don't imagine it happening which is a shame but considering how good the bout was we'll be remembering this one for a very long time. If you're interested in watching this fight we have the video here. Crimea In the hotly disputed area of the Crimea we had a Russian promoted card that featured a "world title" fight that was little more than a criminal mismatch between one of the rising Russian stars and someone who has seen much, much better days. The card began with a trio of low level decision bouts. These saw debuting Heavyweight Pavel Doroshilov (1-0) take a decision over British veteran Danny Williams (46-23-0-2, 35) to announce himself as a man to keep an eye on. Although Williams is a "shot" fighter he's still an interesting opponent to debut against, especially when you consider who many other fighters have been debuting against in recent weeks. In a 6 rounder Azerbaijan's feather fisted Ramal Amanov (6-0) took a disputed majority decision over the more experienced Wilfrido Buelvas (15-3, 9). This wasn't the only debated decision on the card with Dilmurod Satybaldiev (5-1, 2) narrowly taking a split decision over Konstantin Piternov (15-6, 6). Although some of the decisions on this show were debatable no one would argue with the decision that went in favour of the very promising Arif Magomedov (12-0, 8) who totally dominated Britain's Patrick Mendy (15-7-1, 1). Mendy, who fought to a draw with Dmitry Chudinov last year, was dropped in rounds 2, 7 and 8 as Magomedov did everything but stop his foe. By the end of the bout the scorecards didn't really matter as it was so one sided, though somehow onely 1 judge gave it a shut out with scores of 120-105, 119-106 and 118-117 all being returned from the judges. The video of this fight is available here. In the main event Dmitry Chudinov (14-0-2, 9) simply destroyed French veteran Mehdi Bouadla (30-6, 11) to retain the WBA "interim" world title. Chudinov dropped Bouadla 5 times in less than 3 rounds forcing the referee to wave off the bout and save Bouadla from any further punishment. Bouadla was down once in the opening round then twice in rounds 2 and 3 as he found out just how hard Chudinov punches. The video of this fight is here. Gauteng, South Africa We had two title fights of note in South Africa earlier and sadly neither of them went "our way". For Russian fighter Denis Grachev (13-4-1, 8) the action was exciting though he was unable to over-come the unbeaten Ryno Liebenberg (16-0, 11) who took a clear decision to claim the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. Grachev brought a lot of pressure in the fight but was unable to land the clean blows needed to over-come the clean counters of Liebenberg who deserved the decisions, though he cards were frustratingly wide in favour of the home fighter. For Filipino fighter Roli Gasca (22-5-1, 6) things were equally disappointing as he gave his all against the heavy handed Thabo Sonjica (20-2, 14) in a bout for the IBO Super Bantamweight title. Gasca, who was up against it when the bout was signed, found himself up against a man who failed to make weight and that was simply too much for him, despite a good effort. Sonjica came in above the Featherweight limit and was naturally bigger anyway. That size came in handy and despite being dropped in round 7 Sonjica was simply too strong, dropping Gasca in round 11 to secure a clear decision victory, though one which will come with many people feeling disappointed in the South African fighter. New South Wales, Australia The boxing began in Australia today with 2 cards. The most important of the bouts involving an Asian "down under" took place in New South Wales as Filipino fighter Ryan Sermona (16-6 9) attempted to make the first defence of his WBC International Super Featherweight title. Unfortunately for Sermona, who took on the light hitting Corey McConnell (14-1-1, 2), he became just the second stoppage victim of McConnell after suffering a cut that caused the referee to stop the bout. It's a shame for Sermona to lose his title like this but hopefully he will be able to secure a rematch with the Australian. Queensland, Australia The other bout of note in Australia saw Aussie debutant Luke Hall (1-0) over-come Thailand's win-less Arnon Yuchareon (0-5). Arnon managed to win 1 of the 4 rounds on all 3 cards losing 39-37, surprisingly this is as close as he's got to winning a professional boxing contest since he turned professional 6 months ago. Pennsylvania, USA In the US fans were rightfully impressed by the performance of the unbeaten Vasily Lepikhin (16-0, 9) who put on a text book display of boxing to defeat the heavy handed Robert Berridge (24-2-1, 20) over 5 rounds. It was an incredibly solid performance from the unbeaten Russian fighter who seems likely to become a genuine contender over the next few fights. Again if you are interested in the video of this bout we have it here. (Image courtesy of Nakazato boxing) Kunming, China It's not often that boxing has a show full of novices but's what we had in China this past Sunday with a long Zovi boxing card in Kunming, the home town of Xiong Zhao Zhong, the only ever male Chinese world champion. In total the card had 13 bouts and amazingly all but 2 of them went the distance. One of the bouts that didn't go the distance saw Yang Xing Xin (7-3-2, 5), the most experienced man on the show, stopping the debuting Hu En Tu (0-1). Tu was one of 23 debutants on the show and like 12 others he was beaten. The other stoppage saw Yang Zheng Guang (1-0, 1) defeat Yuan Wu Qiang (0-1). The Guang/Qiang bout was one of 3 Featherweight bouts. The others saw Zhu Yuan Cai (1-0) out point Shen Kang (0-1) and Zhang Fang Yong (1-0) take a decision over Yang Dong (0-1). At Super Bantamweight, the lowest weight that saw some action, fans got to see Yang Zhen Yong (1-0) out point Tao Guang Hong (0-1) whilst at Super Bantamweight Pai La Kun (1-0) defeated Dong Chuan (0-1). In the Super Featherweight division the slightly experienced Xian Wei Qian (3-3-1) defeated Jian Hai Fei (0-1) whilst Zhang Hong Peng (1-0) over-came Guo Chao (0-1). At Lightweight Bai A Fu (1-0) defeated Wang Li Ming (0-1) whilst Light Welterweight action saw Hu Li Fu (1-0) defeated Ma Men Guang (0-1) and Wang JV Lin (1-0) took a decision over Liu Wei (0-1). At Middleweight where Zhang Yong Ming (2-0) defeated Yang Hui (0-1) whilst at Super Middleweight Liang Ming Kui (1-0) decisioned Ye Guo Hao (0-1) Shizuoka, Japan Whilst the longest show of the day was the Chinese one there was also several cards spread across Japan. For us the stand out fight, on paper, from those shows was in Shizuoka as former OPBF Super Bantamweight champion Roli Gasca (22-4-1, 6) showed his class and thoroughly dominated the less experienced Yuta Horiike (9-2-3, 2). Gasca, who genuinely a very talented fighter, is best known to Japanese fans for his losses to Yukinori Oguni and his draw to Akifumi Shimoda though in all honesty he is fringe world class and could give a lot of very good 122lb fighters a very hard nights work. In the chief support bouts to the Gasca/Horiike bout fans got to see the light punching Shota Suito (9-3-1, 1) take a narrow decision over Michiya Sato (10-6-4, 6) whilst the once beaten Hideo Sakamoto (14-1-2, 4) made very light work of Yuki Tsuge (12-4, 6), who was stopped in just 89 seconds. O the undercard we had 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounders. These included 2 early finishes and 2 very competitive bouts. The most competitive of the 4 rounders was the draw between debuting pair Tatsuharu Okura (0-0-1) and Suguru Kayashima (0-0-1) which was split 2 rounds each by 2 of the judges to give us a majority decision. The other close and thoroughly competitive contest saw Japanese based Colombian Elfelos Vega (3-1, 2) take a split decision over Yuichi Sakuta (2-2-, 1) with all 3 judges scoring the bout 38-37. The early finishes saw the unbeaten Shogo Yamaguchi (3-0-1, 2) stopping Masayuki Hirano (2-3, 1) in the 3rd round of their fight whilst Shota Okuda (4-1, 2) stopped Tetsuya Kudo (3-2, 2) in the second round of their contest. Osaka, Japan Alhough the stand out bout was on the Shizuoka card the best card of the day was in Osaka where we had 3 Japanese ranked fighters in action on a long 11 fight show. Of the 11 bouts 8 were scheduled for 4 rounds. From those 8 bouts on the lower part of the card they were evenly split with 4 ending early and 4 going the distance. The distance bouts saw Masayoshi Hashizume (3-0, 2) beating the previously unbeaten Ryusuke Tanaka (3-1, 1) in a clear decision, Shachihoko Dragons Keita (4-2, 1) take a very narrow victory over Daisuke Takeichi (1-2, 1) and the debuting Golgosaithon Kenji (1-0) completely dominate Sumeeman Shoki (0-4) in a bout scored 40-35 by all 3 judges. The remaining decision bout was an all debutant affair that saw Takuya Hase (0-0-1) fight to a split draw with Kenta Sakaya (0-0-1). As for the stoppages one came in an all debutant bout as Ryusei Kitamura (1-0, 1) stopped Tenmei Aoi (0-1) in 2 rounds, like wise it only took 2 rounds for Tom Tsukamoto (5-4-1, 1) to stop the previously unbeaten Yuki Ono (2-1, 1). Both of the other stoppages in 4 rounders came in round 3 as Kohei Iwai (2-2-1, 2) stopped Ryota Shimizu (3-5, 1) and Kaminoko Okamura Kentokid (3-0-1, 2) stopped Hiroshi Takagi (2-3). In the first of the more notable bouts the wonderfully named and excitingly hard hitting Middleweight Koki Tyson Maebara (6-1-1, 6) stopped Hiroshi Ohashi (7-8, 3) who was beaten inside the distance for the third time in his career. This stoppage came with just 65 seconds left. Maebara was one of two ranked fighters to successfully win alongside the baby faced Cyborg Nawatedani (7-2-2, 3) who defended his Super Flyweight ranking with a decision over Sho Nakazawa (17-11-2, 1). Unfortunately for ranked fighters they didn't go 3-0 as Shohei Kanemoto (9-7-1, 3) took a very unexpected victory over the hard hitting Jumbo Oda Nobunaga Shoten Petagine (8-2, 7). This bout was one where Petagine's power didn't destroy his opponent and for the second time his lack of a plan B has cost him. Fukuoka, Japan In Fukuoka we got a 7 bout card headed by a bout between Tatsuya Fukuhara (12-4-4, 3) and Akiyoshi Kanazawa (11-2-4, 5) which finished in a disappointing 7th round technical draw. This was a third successive set back for Fukuhara who was also the debut opponent for Takuma Inoue back in December of last year, where he dropped a lop-sided decision to the then 17 year old. The chief support contest here saw Yuta Sasaki (6-3, 1) out point Tadashige Nakao (6-4-2, 5) in the only bout scheduled for 6 rounds. The remaining contests were all scheduled for 4 rounds and surprisingly all but one went the distance. The bout that failed to go the scheduled 4 rounds saw Shuya Murata (1-0, 1) stopping fellow debutant Hayato Nakamura (0-1) at the very start, 12 seconds, into the second round. In the bouts that went the distance Yudai Yamakawa (2-2, 1) out pointed Junya Mishima (3-7, 3), Hideaki Yamaji (4-4, 2) over-came Yuki Shigeyoshi (1-4-2), Naoki Yamashita (1-1) took a hard fought victory over Koichiro Higashi (0-3) and Yoichi Kojima (1-1) struggled to a majority decision over the debuting Ryutaro Yamamoto (0-1). Hyogo, Japan The remaining show that took place in Japan over Sunday was in Hyogo. This was the lowest profile card of the day though on paper it was the most perfectly matched with no visible mismatches on the card. As it turned out there a lot of competitive action even though we did see two early finishes. The earliest of those finishes came in just 48 seconds as the limited Takaaki Kitagawa (3-2, 2) stopped the debuting Tadao Iwaya (0-1) in a blink and you miss it fight. The only other stoppage saw Yu Yan (4-2-2, 3) take out Tsukasa Horiuchi (1-2, 1) in the third round. Although Iwaya was stopped on his debut we did see a deuting fighter score a victory as the debuting Seigo Yuriakui (1-0) completely shut out Yuki Sueyoshi (1-0, 1). Just one other 4 rounder was one sided as Ryo Kanda (2-0, 1) took a dominant decision over Tatsuya Sato (2-2, 1) with Kanada in charge of the bout from the off. The competitive nature was seen as Takuya Sugiyama (2-2) struggled to a majority decision over Tatsuya Terada (1-1) and Kensuke Fujita (1-0-2) fought to a draw with Toru Kageyama (3-5-1, 2). The only 6 rounder on the card saw Takeshi Sone (5-2-1, 1) overcome Munehito Kijima (5-5-1) via a some what clear decision before the 8 round main event saw good back and forth between Kazuya Murata (9-4, 3) and Hirokazu Okajima (8-4-2,4), with Murata taking a narrow decision. (Poster courtesy of Zovi Boxing) |
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