This past Monday was a busy day in Asian boxing with notable fights taking place in both Japan and Korea. Osaka, Japan The most of two Japanese shows came from Osaka as Osaka Teiken put on a very notable 9 fight card that showcased prospects and domestic contenders as well as novices. The most promising fighter in action was Japanese youngster Sho Nakazawa (7-0, 4), who scored his biggest win to date as he out pointed former world title challenger Silvester Lopez (24-10-2, 18) over 10 rounds. The Japanese 22 year old was dropped early in the fight but then found his groove and took a comfortable decision win over Lopez. Following this win Nakazawa seemed to suggest that he was eyeing up a Japanese title fight with Yukinori Oguni. Another of the main bouts saw tough Flyweight contender Myung Ho Lee (19-4-1, 6) take a clear decision win over Akiyoshi Kanazawa (12-4-4, 6), as Lee continued his hunt for a title fight of his own. Talking about title fights it's now clear that Kenichi Horikawa (29-13-1, 6) will be fighting Shin Ono for the Japanese Light Flyweight title later in the year. Horikawa booked his place in that fight by scoring an 8th round TKO win here against Il Che (7-9-5, 1), who was stopped for just the second time in his career. Although a number of bouts were notable in and around the title level there was one, major bout, that wasn't even close to being relevant at the top of the domestic level. That bout saw Juiki Tatsuyoshi (2-0, 2) continue his career with a 2nd round KO win against Naoki Okamura (1-4). Tatsuyoshi, the son of the charismatic Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, already appears to be a huge draw despite facing poor opposition and it's clear that his team are going to make the most of his surname. In low level action we had a number of novices all facing off. The most notable of those bouts was a split decision win for Toshiki Kawanishi (3-4, 1), who over-came Yosuke Taniguchi (3-4). Another split decision saw Shintaro Ukezono (2-0) over-come the debuting Masayuki Kuroko (0-1). In competitive decision bouts Hayate Ikuta (2-0) out pointed the win-less Wolf Nakano (0-1-2) and Kazunori Harima (1-1-1) over-came Ryo Inagaki (1-1, 1). There was also a blow out on this opening portion of the card as Ryuta Miyoshi (1-2, 1) stopped Kenji Okawa (0-2) in just 129 seconds. Fukuoka, Japan A second Japanese show took place in Fukuoka where fans got an 8 bout card. In the main event of this show we got a mild surprise as Satoshi Ozawa (10-6-1, 2) claimed a split decision win against the much more experienced Yoshihiko Matsuo (18-6-6, 3). The co-feature also ended in a split decision as Koki Ono (8-3, 4) out pointed Aki Koto (8-3-1, 4), though the judge scoring in favour of Koto does seem to have gotten this one wrong. Another very competitive match up here saw Yusuke Sekido (9-11-2) take a majority decision win over Takanori Hayashida (5-10-3) in a very well matched bout. The remaining bouts here were all 4-rounders. These included a female bout that saw Maika Fukuzaki (1-1) claim her first win as she out pointed Arisa Iwanaga (0-2), a very competitive win for Tsunehiko Aitoku (3-3-1), who out pointed the previously unbeaten Yukinori Yamaguchi (4-1-1, 2) and a wonderfully competitive split decision draw between Kaito Akiyoshi (1-0-1) and Akito Terada (1-1-1). The only one sided bouts among these 4 rounders, other than the female bout, was a clear decision win for Shuma Nakazato (3-0, 2) who impressed en route to out pointing Hiromichi Kurokawa (4-3-1, 1) and a 4th round TKO win for Fumiaki Sueyoshi (2-0, 2), who stopped Takafumi Uryu (0-2). Interestingly Nakazato is the son of former OPBF champion, Shigeru Nakazato, who was a multi-time world title challenger. Ulsan, South Korea The only show outside of Japan came from South Korea where fans had televised action under the KBF banner. The show featured a couple of televised international bouts and a number of others bouts, though only one of the bouts on the show has been included on the boxrec.com database. The one bout that is on boxrec is an IBF Asia Super Bantamweight title fight that saw defending champion Ye Joon Kim (12-1-2, 6) retain his title with a 7th round retirement of Japan's Yoshihiro Utsumi (12-7-3, 7), who suffered his first stoppage loss. The talented Korean was in fine form to defend his belt for the first time though now needs to look towards making a mark on the world stage. Another international bout on this show saw Sa Myung Noh (8-2-1, 1) take a narrow decision win over Filipino fighter Jaymart Toyco (15-8, 11) in a very hotly contested 8 round bout that could easily have gone Toyco's way. Frustratingly there was one other televised bout on the show, though we're unsure who was involved. The bout was a 6 round that saw a now 6-1-1 (1) fighter taken the unbeaten record a fighter now 5-1 (1). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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On December 28th there were 3 Asian cards in 3 different countries. Osaka, Japan The biggest of the three shows on Sunday came from Osaka where we had two very interesting bouts. The biggest of those was a Japanese Light Middleweight title bout that saw Yuki Nonaka (27-8-2, 9) successfully defend the Japanese national title with a very narrow and controversial split decision victory over Charlie Ota (24-3-1, 16). The bout, Nonaka's first of his second reign, really was a bout that split opinion though many opined that if the bout wasn't in Osaka, Nonaka's home city then Ota would probably have gotten the nod. Unfortunately for Ota this is a second notable set back in as many fights and it seems likely to be made worse by Nonaka fighting Takayuki Hosokawa next time out with the winner of that bout likely to be pushed well into the IBF top 10. We are hoping to have video of this bout in the coming days to try and see if it was a home town decision as some have told us or whether it was one of those close bouts that could have gone either way with no one really deserving to lose it.. Whilst the headline bout was highly competitive the same could not be said about the co-feature, which we expected to be a scintillating affair. Instead this was a blow out which saw Filipino tough guy Rey Labao (27-6, 18) take out former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Masao Nakamura (18-3, 18) in the second round. Nakamura was lucky to survive the opening round, despite being dropped twice and groggy, though couldn't survive long into round 2. For Nakamura this is a serious set back and, like Ota, is his second successive loss following a decision loss earlier this year to Masayuki Ito. Despite the co-feature being the blow out all the other bouts on the card went the distance. This included a good win for former OPBF title challenger Eita Kikuchi (16-4-4, 7), who claimed a narrow win over Kojiro Takada (13-8-3, 9) in an 8 round affair. Another 8 rounder saw the criminally under-rated Satoshi Niwa (16-18-3, 2) score a slight shock over Yuki Strong Kobayashi (8-4, 4) with a split decision. Another split decision, albeit in a 6 rounder, saw Shachihoko Dragons Keita (4-3-1, 1) fight to a split draw with Yoshiki Kawamura (4-6-1, 3). The only other 6 rounder on this show saw Kenta Shimizu (8-4-1, 4) take a win over Masaki Hirai (4-13-3, 2). In the only 4 rounder the debuting Masahiro Sakamoto (1-0) took a decision over Yusuku Hiranuma (1-1). Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines fans got an interesting show with 7 bouts in total including several title bouts, one of which ended in a notable upset. We'll start with that upset which saw former world title challenger Silvester Lopez (23-6-2, 17) claim the WBC International Bantamweight title with a 7th round KO of the previously unbeaten Rex Wao (10-1, 8). Although Silvester had competed at a much higher level his career was seriously on the rocks coming into this bout. He had lost his previous 2 bouts and scored just 3 wins in his last 10 bouts dating back more than 2 years. Lopez's poor form didn't stop him dropping Wao in the opening round and eventually stopping the touted “Igorot Warrior”. Another title bout saw the rampaging Tosho Makoto Aoki (19-12-2, 16) claim the IBF Australiasian Lightweight title with a 2nd round KO of Indonesia's Rengga Rengga (7-2, 1). For Rengga this was a second successive stoppage loss, following an opening round defeat to Masatoshi Kotani whilst Aoki is on the run of his career with 6 successive stoppage wins, including 4 in the Philippines. We believe a third title fight took place on this show as Dennis Tubieron (19-3-2, 8) and Carlo Magali (18-7-3, 9) threw down, though we're unsure what title was on the line, and it may be that no-title was eventually fought for. As the actual fight it resulted in a majority draw in what was scored very closely. On the undercard we saw a bit of everything. That included a 21 second blow out win for the unbeaten Rolly Sumalpong (7-0-1, 4), who swiftly dispatched Michael Landero (16-13-4, 5) and another opening round victory for Mujtaba Kamal (1-1, 1), who claimed his first win by stopping Romnick Dejano (2-8, 1). The under-card also included some very competitive action as Romel Oliveros (2-0-1, 1) was held to a draw by Vincent Bautista (1-2-2) and John Ray Logatiman (3-1-1) scored a solid win over the previously unbeaten Alvin Medura (2-1, 2), with Medura being dropped in the opening round. Indonesia In Indonesia fans got an obscure card, and one that we sadly don't have all the results for, at least we don't believe we do. The one result we do know is that Roy Tua Manihuruk (16-12-2, 12) scored a 7th round victory over a man we believe to be Rusmien Kierah (13-7-2, 2). Unfortunately the records of both men are disputed and we may be missing copious fights for both. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Some days are busier than others and we're happy to say that this past Saturday was hectic to say the least with a massive number of fights taking place with Japanese fighters involved in them. Chicago, USA The two highest profile bouts from Asian fighters came in the US as we saw two of the three Kameda brothers in action. The first of those saw former 3-weight world champion Koki Kameda (33-1, 17) make light work of Omar Salado (24-9-2, 15) with a 4th round stoppage. This was Koki's US debut and it was also his first bout in almost a year following his victory in South Korea against Jung-Oh Son. It appears clear that Koki was shedding ring rust here but it was a mismatch and it's hard to know how he would compete against the top Super Flyweights if he was matched with one of them. The second bout of note was the biggest Asian bout of the night as Koki's youngest brother Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19) put his WBO Bantamweight title on the line against mandatory challenger Alejandro Hernandez (28-11-2, 15). The bout appeared to be dominated by the more technically sounds, faster and aggressive Kameda though some how the judges all had it close with scores of 115-113 being rendered on all 3 cards, unfortunately one went to Hernandez to give a split decision in a bout that really wasn't close. Unfortunately for Tomoki this bout could have undone the good will of his stoppage victory over Pungluang Sor Singyu from earlier in the year. Tokyo, Japan One of the three Japanese shows came from the Korakuen Hall and it was arguably this one that was the most important. The main event here saw Japanese Light Flyweight champion Yu Kimura (15-2-1, 2) successfully retain his title with a 7th round technical decision over Atsushi Aburada (9-7, 5). This was Kimura's second defense and was a comfortable one with the champion only losing the first round before settling behind his sharp and accurate jab. As soon as Kimura had his jab going it was a straight forward bout for the champion who got his hand raised early after Aburada suffered a cut over the left eye and was eventually ruled unfit to continue. Kimura, a world ranked fighter, may well look for a world title fight in 2015 though if the opportunity doesn't arise we'd not be shocked by him continuing to defend the Japanese title. In the co-feature fans saw the #2 ranked Japanese Flyweight Tetsuma Hayashi (25-2-2, 9) score an excellent knockout against the over-matched Ryutaro Taira (8-5-2, 3). The shots that finished off Taira were a devastating series of body shots that left him him on the canvas in agony. After the fight Hayashi said that next year he would be aiming to win a Japanese title and in all honesty we would love to see Hayashi fight current Japanese champion Suguru Muranaka. In a notable upset Filipino fighter Jonel Alibio (18-18-5, 10) managed to score a shock win over the heavy handed Yuichi Yokoyama (14-3, 13). Alibio entered this bout with just 1 win in his last 12 and was on a run of 4 straight losses in Japan though he showed the class to stop Yokoyama in the 4th round. Incidentally this was Alibio's first win in Japan since he stopped Naoki Matsuda in November 2010 to claim the OPBF Featherweight title. We saw another upset as Takumi Suda (11-10-2, 3) shocked the hard hitting Huiroyuki Otsuka (7-3, 6) in just 158 seconds. Suda went straight to work and and dropped Otsuka early before a continued attack forced the referee to save the much fancied Otsuka. For Suda this was his first win since 2009 and saw him ending a 6 fight losing streak. Whilst the streak sounds like a bad one it included losses to Shin Ono, Warlito Parrenas, Masayuki Kuroda, Yu Kimura and Yasutaka Kuroki. In another 8 rounder fans saw Masaru Sueyoshi (8-1, 5) over-come Shota Suito (9-4-1, 1) with a clear decision to extend his current winning streak to 5 bouts following his sole defeat to Masayuki Ito back in July 2012. To open the the card we saw Masaaki Shiraishi (1-0, 1) take an opening round blow out victory over Daisuke Tanigawa (0-1) in an all debutant contest that lasted just 22 seconds and we also saw Masanobu Nakazawa (16-1-1, 6) take a 5th round retirement stoppage against Ken Otokawa (6-5, 5), in a bout scheduled for 6. Fukuoka, Japan A second Japanese show took place in Fukuoka and was headlined by a WBC female Minimumweight title fight between Japan's very own Yuko Kuroki (12-4-1, 6) who successfully defended her title with a very hard fought and competitive split decision over Mexican challenger Katia Gutierrez (19-5, 4). The bout was a very tough first defense for Kuroki but it was an excellent contest all the same between an aggressive fighter, Gutierrez, and a skilled fast boxer, Kuroki. The competitive nature of the bout saw both women talking about a rematch post fight and we'd not be disappointed by that in 2015. The chief support bout here ended in another upset as the unbeaten Shohei Okuda (11-1, 4) was shockingly upset in the 3rd round of a scheduled 8 rounder. Okuda, a much fancied 23 year old prospect, was expected to easily over-come Ryusei Yoshida (25-6, 12) but was made to looking shockingly bad by the veteran. Okuda was cut over the left eye, dropped in round 3 and then stopped by a follow up attack as his unbeaten record was destroyed in style by Yoshida. A third notable bout on this card saw Aiki Koto (8-1-1, 4) narrowly defeat Koki Ono (7-3, 4). The bout was a really competitive 8 rounder though Koto did just enough to deserve the majority decision over the 8 round distance. The bottom of the card consisted of 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds, including 2 more females bouts. The female bouts went the distance with the the first of those being a debut win for Sana Hazuki (1-0) who narrowly over-came the win-less Sayaka Aoki (0-2), the other saw Shione Ogata (3-5) out point Ayaka Sato (1-3, 1). Another undercard bout that went the distance saw the debuting Super Featherweight hopeful Go Matsuda (1-0) out point Yoshiki Shoda (0-1). The only under-card bout not to go the distance saw Yoichi Kojima (3-1-1, 2) take an opening round stoppage against the previously undefeated Toshiki Yanari (2-1, 2). Hyogo, Japan A third Japanese show took place in Hyogo where the main event was at a much lower level than the other two but was still a very interesting contest. The aforementioned main event saw the once beaten Hikaru Matsuoka (8-1-3, 1) defeat the criminally under-rated Filipino tough guy Richard Pumicpic (15-7-2, 4). Pumicpic, who had given Ryosuke Iwasa hell earlier this year, was simply too small to be all that competitive with Matsuoka who used distance to easily defeat the Filipino fighter on the scorecards. We had expected this bout to be much closer than it was though unfortunately it was relatively straight forward for Matsuoka. It wasn't all bad for Filipino's on this show however and Super Flyweight hopeful Giovanni Escaner (12-3-1, 8) scored an unexpected 7th round stoppage victory over Japanese veteran Junichi Ebisuoka (23-18-6, 10). Ebisuoka is now win-less in 6 bouts and his long career is likely coming to an end whilst Escaner will be hoping this will will help him get his career back on track after 3 losses in his previous 4 bouts. The only other stoppage on this card saw Jonel Gadapan (9-7-1, 5) score an upset win over the previously unbeaten Yuji Itani (4-1, 4) who was stopped in the second round of a schedule 6 rounder. The only other 6 rounder on the show went the distance as Kenta Sugimoto (7-7-1) took a 6 round unanimous decision over Hiroki Taniguchi (6-4-1, 2). In the 4 rounders fans saw Arata Matsuoka (2-2, 1) take a majority decision over Ryoki Hirai (3-3-1, 1) whilst Daichi Nakajima (2-2) took a split decision over the previously unbeaten Shoehei Matsuo (1-1). Distrito Federal, Mexico In Mexico there was two bouts of note with a Filipino and a Japanese fighter in action. The Filipino was former world title challenger, Silvester Lopez (22-9-2, 16) who was unfortunately stopped, for the second time this year, by Rey Vargas (22-0, 19) in the 8th round. The bout, for the WBC Youth Silver Super Bantamweight title, was another set back for Lopez who has now lose 5 of his last 8 and suffered a trio of stoppages. We loved watch Lopez come through but it now appears time for him to take a serious break from the ring before he becomes little more than a typical journeyman. The other man was Shoki Sakai (17-5, 11) who came up short against the always interest Nery Saguilan (31-4-1, 11) in a bout for the WBC US silver Lightweight title. Saguilan, who had claimed the title earlier this year with a win over Seiichi Okada, was forced to work very hard to over-come Sakai in a very competitive bout that suggested the records of both men were misleading with Sakai being better than his record suggest and Saguilan being worse than his looks on paper. (Image, from the Hayashi bout, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Saturday was a busy day for fighters from Russia and the Philippines and although not everything went to plan it was certainly a noteworthy day. Metro Manila, Philippines The biggest Asian card of the day took pace in Metro Manila with a staggering 13 bouts on the show. The highest profile bout on the show featured former IBF Minimumweight world champion Florante Condes (27-8-1, 13) who claimed the IBF Pan Pacific Minimumweight title thanks to a 7th round KO over Cris Alfante (10-2, 3). Condes, who has now won 2 fights following more than a year out, seems likely to to try and rebuild himself in to world title fight though it is admittedly still early in his comeback. Although Condes's win was expected the card did have some shocks. One such shock saw the hard hitting Rex Olisa (10-23-1, 8) stopping the once touted Bebong Manalo (8-2, 5) in just 3 rounds. Although Olisa has a poor record he is tough, has power and is dangerous. If fighters think they will be having an easy day with Olisa they are very much mistaken. One bout that went the way we'd have expected saw the win-some lose-some Jonathan Ligas (7-5-1, 1) manage to out point the win-some lose-lots Elbert Guardario (8-24-1, 2) via a hard fought 10 round decision. Likewise Virden Rivera (7-0-1, 2) 10 round victory over Jovill Marayan (8-16-3, 3) was also expected, especially when you consider the lack of power in Rivera's shots. In the shows only bout to be scheduled for 8 rounds we saw an accidental clash of heads call a halt to proceedings in round 6. This saw Romulo Ramayan Jr (6-3-3, 3) and Lester Abutan (5-1-2, 2) needing to settle for a draw with each other. One of the most expected results of the day saw former OPBF title challenger Dennis Tubieron (17-3-1, 8) stopping the over-matched Samuel Apuya (7-17-1, 4) at the end of 2 rounds in one of the 6 round bouts. The other 6 rounders also saw the "expected" winners coming out on top as Kenjie Monenio (6-3-3, 1) stopped Mabert Paulino (2-17, 5), Roldan Aldea (7-1-1, 3) out pointed Jomar Borbon (3-17-2, 1) and Lionel Mark Duran (12-10-2, 5) took a decision over the relatively hapless Roy Albaera (2-22-5). In the shows 4 rounder bouts we saw mixed results for debutants. We Joe Noynay (3-0) widely defeat his debuting opponent Vicencio Rubas (0-1), in an all debutant bout Mark Baribar (1-0) took a clear decision over Joshro Lindon (0-1), whilst Jun Blaso (1-0, 1) marked his debut with an early victory over Jomar Manlangit (0-2). The only of the 4 rounders with out a debutant saw Pablo Gabunia (4-2, 2) wipe out the win-less Charlie Gabriel (0-5) inside a round. Moscow, Russia If there was something that we seemed to get a lot of today it was Russian Crusierweights with an impressive array of them in action. Amongst them was the WBC Asian Boxing Council Cruiserweight champion Maxim Maslov (13-1-1, 8) who defended his belt courtesy of a clear and dominant decision over Azerbaijan's 30 year Anar Mammadov (6-2). Mammadov, fighting in his first title bout, really did look like a novice and failed to win a round on any of the cards. Another title bout involving a Russian Cruiserweight saw recent world title challenger Rakhim Chakhkiev (18-1, 14) claim the WBC Silver Cruiserweight title with a dominant victory over the over-matched, though game, Juho Haapoja (10-5-1, 13) who was stopped in the 9th round. In a third title bout Grigory Drozd (38-1, 27) quickly took out France's Jeremy Ouanna (14-9, 3) inside a round. The bout, a clear mismatch on paper, lasted just 160 seconds. As well as the Cruiserweight bouts in Moscow there was 3 other bouts. The highest profile of those saw Sergey Ekimov (9-0, 3) taking a decision over Britain's light punching Nathan King (13-22, 1) whilst another saw the unbeaten Mikhail Smirnov (6-0, 3) took a 6 round decision over the debuting Davron Mamedov (0-1). The remaining bout saw Super Bantamweight debutant Evgeny Smirnov (1-0, 1) scoring a debut victory over the more experienced Vladislav Sagalakov (2-12, 1) who was stopped in the second round. Liverpool, England Staying with Russian's they unfortunately didn't have a great time outside of Moscow. This was partly shown in Liverpool where former world title challenger Valery Brudov (41-5, 28) was stopped in the 12th round. Brudov, attempting to claim the WBO international Cruiserweight title, gave a great effort against Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13) though was stopped by the fofmer Light Heavyweight title challenger. The bout, a good one over-all, may end up being Brudov's final as a professional given that he is now 37 and hasn't really got anywhere to go for another big pay day. Pennsylvania, USA The lack of Russian success on foreign soil was also seen in the US where Light Heavyweight Denis Grachev (13-3-1, 8) lost to the talented Isaac Chilemba (22-2-2, 9). Chilemba, himself a former opponent of Tony Bellew, was too complete for Grachev who was repeatedly tagged by straight shots from an often moving target. Grachev, to his credit, proved he was tough though his technical limitations did let him down massively here. California, USA It wasn't all bad for Russian's though with Maxim Vlasov (29-1, 14) restoring a bit of faith for Russian boxing fans due to a decision win over American journeyman Derrick Findley (20-13-1, 1). It was an expected victory but still a good one following the losses for Russian's fighting out of their homeland. KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa As well as the poor results for Russian's fighting outside of Russia things didn't much better for Filipino's fighting outside of the Philippines and in South African Jether Oliva (20-2-2, 10) came up short in an IBO Flyweight title bout. Oliva, fighting former IBF champion Moruti Mthalane (30-2, 20), put up a stirring effort but didn't quite do enough to convince enough of the judges to give him decision, though Filipino judge Danrex Tapdasan did give the fight to his countryman. Although Oliva lost he certainly didn't harm his reputation and many who saw this will want to see him in another major contest sooner rather than later. Baja California Sur, Mexico Things were worse for Filipino Silvester Lopez (21-7-2, 15) who, in Mexico, suffered his second stoppage loss inside a year. Lopez, fighting against Mexico's hard hitting Rey Vargas (19-0, 16), lasted until round 8 though was unable to repeatedly take the heavy shots of the destructive Mexican. Lopez, a former world title challenger, has now lost 3 of his last 4. We hope to bring you results from two cards in the Philippines sooner rather than later, though they are currently unavailable. (Picture, of Lopez, is courtesy of Boxrec.com) |
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