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We, as boxing fans, are a little bit sick in the head at times and whilst we might all say we enjoy boxing many of us are lying to ourselves and everyone else. What we really enjoy isn't boxing, instead it's a fight. It's not the sweet science that we love but mindless violence and macho mentality of two men who just want to batter the other to a stand still. There is something that seems to appeal to us about savage violence so much more than the a physical chess match. With that said let us introduce one bout that had little in terms of technical boxing and nuance and was instead a war between men. This contest, from 16th July 2011 isn't a fight you will see mentioned in Ring Magazine, Boxing News, Boxing Monthly or anything like that though was possibly the best fight of the year and it saw Taek Min Kim, of South Korea, battle against Indonesia's Sonny Manakane. The bout was the first defence by Kim of the PABA Featherweight title and showed just how much the belt meant to both men. For the fight we saw next to no defence in a contest that could be accurately described as an all time great slug fest. Both men just threw shots with little regard of what was coming back and whilst it wasn't the most skilled contest it was thrilling none stop action that featured numerous round of the year contenders, especially round 4. In the US we often see Compubox used to demonstrate the action and accuracy of the fighters. We're scared that if compubox had to do this fight it's poor computer system would crash with ridiculous activity and connect rate of both men. In regards to the accuracy it seemed neither man could miss, until they both began showing signs of exhaustion and missing shots. It wasn't defensive work making either guy miss but their own tiredness. The bad thing about fights like this is that neither man is ever the same and sadly that's been the case here. Thankfully however both men did get their chance to be in a bout that brought the best out of each other even if it did significantly age them in terms of boxing and of course it gave us a reason to share the bout with fight fans like yourselves. You may not have heard of the fighters, you may never seem them again, but we beg you to give this thriller just 20 minutes of your time, you will not regret it! (Video courtesy of SPELV SUPERSINDO)
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Ahead of his OPBF Super Bantamweight title challenge against Shingo Wake we described South Korea's Jaesung Lee as a man who "has real sting in his right hand". Whilst we partly said that due to his knock down of the tough Takuya Watanabe we also said it due to the way he finished off Akihiro Matsumoto back on December 11th 2011. Going in to this bout Lee was generally viewed as not being very good. He had gone 3-3-1 in his previous 7 and was not expected to beat Matsumoto who had never been stopped and was a promising fighter with a 9-2 record. What we ended up having however was one of the most perfect introductions to a new audience a fighter could hope for. Around a minute into the fight Lee landed one of his under-rated right hands and sent Matsumoto down hard, the Japanese fighter did recover his feet before falling over and then being stopped. Even after the stoppage Matsumoto looked to be on wobbly legs. Sadly for him his career has faltered significantly since then and he is now 12-5-1 suggesting that his early potential will never fulfilled. Lee on the other hand is putting final touches towards an OPBF title fight that could launch him to a life changing opportunity. Since this fight it's turned out Lee is actually a pretty good fighter and he has gone on to win 5 of his following 6 bouts to set up his OPBF title opportunity. If you've not yet seen Lee we'd advise as a short and cheerful introduction to the Korean ahead of his fight with Wake on July 21st. Following this we suggest you give his bloodbath with Watanabe a watch, it's bloody and great. (Video courtesy of SPELV SUPERSINDO) It's not often we can describe bouts as “blood baths” but the encounter between Jaesung Lee and Takuya Watanabe from March 16th 2014 certainly does fulfil all the conditions of a blood bath courtesy of a nasty cut suffered by Watanabe in round 2. The cut, which was opened on the top of his head bled, and bled, and bled. It resulted in blood not just covering his face but also the shots of Lee, which at the end of the fight were red, parts of the ring and Lee. Despite the blood Watanabe fought a brave fight and really gave fans some fantastic action in a fight that could really described as a "sloppy but action packed". Neither man possessed real developed skills, neither man seemed to care too much about defence and instead they just put one of the most fun to watch fights of the year several round of the year contenders, including the 9th round which was great fun to watch as well as the final minute of round 5. We know Korean boxing is a shadow of it's former self but with fights as exciting as this being shown on Korean TV we really hope someone in the country can be inspired to pick up the sport and make a name for themselves. Sure the skill lacks, tough out the fight but with so much action, heart and bravery we cannot really complain about the sloppiness of the two men. Enjoy what we are dubbing "the bloodiest fight of 2014" It seemed that almost every promising Filipino has been dubbed as "The next Pacquaio", unfortunately for many fighters that has been little more than a poison chalice with those fighters, typically the hard hitting and aggressive ones, swiftly losing and being cast aside as being over-hyped nobodies. The obsession with finding a new Pacquiao seems to be a real problem with few realising that a fighter like Pacquiao only comes around once in a blue moon. As far as we're concerned the man who could well fill the void of Pacquiao, when the great "Pacman" retires, is the very exciting "Prince" Albert Pagara a man who combines aggression, power and skills like very few young fighters on the planet. In this fight, from March 1st 2014, we get to see Pagara defeat Isack Junior of Indonesia. For much of the round it appears as though Pagara is happy to have a feeling out round, the typical opening round to a fight. In the final minute however it seems Pagara snaps and decides that their is no point in dragging the bout out as he swiftly demolishes the over-matched Indonesia ending the contest with a vicious combination. Whilst it's obviously too early to predict how far Pagara will go his talent is obvious and we're hoping to see him develop his skills before moving on to world titles in the next few years. (Video courtesy of Jerome Naldoza) Hard hitting Japanese Super Featherweights seem to be the order of the day right now with WBA champion Takashi Uchiyama, AKA "KO Dynamite", and WBC champion Takashi Miura being the most well known. Below those two is another major puncher, Masao Nakamura, AKA "The KO King". Nakamura began his career in 2006 and scored 12 successive KO's before coming undone in 61 seconds against Ronald Pontillas. Since that loss he bounced back with a subsequent 6 KO's including an opening round stoppage over Thai veteran Fahsai Sakkreerin who dropped 3 times in just 100 seconds. The bout, fought on 14th of October 2013, was expected to be a decent match up though Nakamura's power was simply too much for the Thai. As we write this Nakamura is preparing for a fight with the unbeaten Masayuki Ito, it's thought that if he can beat Ito he'll be fighting Uchiyama later this year in a potentially explosive WBA world title fight. As for Sakkreerin we think the Thai is likely to be heading towards retirement though at 32 he may well continue to fight on the Thai domestic scene. (Video courtesy of Minegish minami) At the end of 2013 fans saw two major Japanese shows as Tokyo TV and TBS put on year ending boxing events. Of the 4 majors bouts televised 3 went relatively as expected, at least they saw the men expected to win coming out victorious. The other bout however saw a major shock as Thailand's little known Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr stopped former WBA Minimumweight champion Ryo Miyazaki in 3 rounds. The result put Fahlan on the boxing map and immediately saw him gaining world rankings whilst Miyazaki seemed to vanish off the boxing scene. From the opening round Miyazaki looked off, he was slow, sluggish, flat footed and didn't look his usual self. Had you seen the weigh you would have known why, the former world champion was had all but collapsed after his weigh in and was severely weight drained despite having moved from 105lbs to 108lbs. The issues with weight seemed to take everything from Miyazaki who wasn't even a shadow of himself and although Fahlan was facing a wounded fighter he still managed to get the job done in style with a beautiful shot that completely took away Miyazaki's senses and the Japanese fighter was unable to continue despite getting to his feet. Unfortunately for Fahlan his time in the world rankings was short lived and he lost his very next fight to novice pro Takuma Inoue. Having recently broken the news that Akira Yaegashi, the current WBC Flyweight champion, would be defending his belt against Roman Gonzalez we've began going through some of his fights. Amongst them was his OPBF title defence against Thailand's Liempetch Sor Veerapol from September 18th 2006. Yaegashi had claimed the OPBF title just over 5 months earlier in his 5th professional contest and here he was facing another novice in Liempetch who boasted a 4-1 record. Despite both men being inexperienced they were still in completely difference classes and it showed with Yaegashi doing a real number on the Thai who was dropped 3 times in the opening round thus forcing the referee to stop the bout. Whilst he isn't known for his power shots Yaegashi seemed to hurt the Thai regularly and he never let him recover really sticking it too him in a bout that demonstrated the early attacking mentality of Yaegashi. Although he has improved markedly from this fight, with experience helping him to become a 2-weight world champion, it's still interesting to see how a young Yaegashi was in his early fights and how he has developed in to one of the sports true warriors despite his numerous technical limitations. (video courtesy of BoxeoAmadeo) On September 5th Japanese fighter Akira Yaegashi has the toughest bout of his career as he takes on Nicaraguan destroyer Roman Gonzalez. As we look forward to that bout we've decided to go through some of Yaegahi's previous fights, including his Japanese Minimumweight title winning bout with Japan's "nearly man" Kenichi Horikawa. This bout, from way back in 21st June 2009 was Yaegashi's first title bout following his world title loss to the then WBC champion Eagle Den Junlaphan, in a fight that can be seen here. Although the Junlaphan bout had come some 2 years earlier it had taken Yaegashi some time to recover from his painful facial injury and then it had taken further time to rebuild his confidence and re-earn the opportunity to fight for the national title. Although he was experienced at the world level Yaegashi was actually less experienced, in terms of fights, that Horikawa and the fight turned out to be a very difficult and close contest with both men believing they had enough. In the end it was Yaegashi who got the narrow decision but few would have complained had Horikawa nicked it by a point or so. It's amazing to think that following this close fight Yaegashi would become a 2-weight world champion and one of the faces of Japanese boxing but it seems clear that he has really developed his skills and become a much better fighter following this contest. (Video courtesy of BunchesinPunches) The recent announcement regarding the fight between Akira Yaegashi and the very talented Roman Gonzalez saw us going through the vault to find some of Yaegashi's most interesting fights from the past few years, one of those fights was his battle with the Japanese Thai Eagle Den Junlaphan. This bout, from way back in 2007, was Yaegashi's 7th professional contest and saw him in his first world title bout taking on the very talented Eagle Den, a fighter who at the time was making the 4th defence of his second reign as he WBC Minimumweight champion. Unfortunately it was too much too soon for Yaegashi who fought much of the bout with a jaw injury, relying on his toughness and heart to see out the distance. Although this was Yaegashi's first loss it didn't stop him from rising through the ranks and later becoming a 2-weight world champion and one of the leading figures in Japanese boxing. It was, considering the situation, a brave and gutsy performance and one that would signify the toughness of Yaegashi, the same toughness that he will need to over-come Gonzalez when the two men meet on September 5th. We won't include many amateur bouts on here but a few are deserving of attention, one of which was the 2011 World Amateur Champion Middleweight final from Baku. The bout, which pitted Ryota Murata against Ievghen Khytrov was a bout that really showed what both men were about. It was a slug fest, an amateur war, a toe-to-toe brawl, a mano-a-mano phone tear up. Murata came up short in the bout and was forced to take home the silver medal but since this his career has really rocketed. He, of course, went on to claim gold at the 2012 Olympics and has since made a perfect start to his professional career. Likewise Khytrov has also began a very promising career and we hope that one day we'll see these two trading leather as a professionals. Although Murata has added to his boxing since this contest it's fair to say that a lot of what he does now is based on how he fought this bout and it's why so many fans from around the world are so happy to follow him in what looks almost certain to be an exciting and prosperous career as he rises through the ranks and to world title fights in the next year or so. (Video courtesy of AIBABoxing) |
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