|
When we talk about the best fights that took place in 2013 there is a lot of debate about which was the best. In fact there were so many good fights that if we did a short list we would easily get to double figures in terms of contenders.
One of the more surprisingly contenders was a between the unbeaten Genesis Servania and the relatively light hitting Konosuke Tomiyama. The bout, at least on paper, looked like an interesting one but not one that would leave fight fans talking about both men after the fight and certainly not a fight that would steal the show on a Macau card. On paper neither man was a puncher, this had distance fight written all over it and few would have expected it to have a round of the year contender. What we ended up getting however was something special with 4 knockdowns including 3 in the opening round! We won't ruin the result but we do advise that if you've seen some of the other great fights from 2013, such as Koki Eto Vs Kompayak Porpramook and Takashi Miura Vs Sergio Thompson then this is one that you should also watch. (Video courtesy of Ryan Bivins)
0 Comments
Some bouts don't go the way that they are expected to and that was certainly the case when the 20 year old Allan Tanada travelled to fight Japanese veteran Rikiya Fukuhara and scored a stunning upset victory over the former Japanese Super Bantamweight champion to claim the OPBF Super Featherweight title. Going in to the bout the OPBF title was vacant and the men were the top 2 ranked contenders. Fukuhara, despite having achieved very little at Super Featherweight, was the the #1 contender and was widely viewed as the favourite courtesy of his experience and maturity. Tanada, ranked #2 by the OPBF, was still a kid and he was expected by many to walked over by the big punching Japanese fighter. What happened instead is that a confident Tanada used his youth and speed to great effect countering Fukuhara early on and forcing Fukuhara to miss. After a good opening round Tanada amped up the pressure and forced Fukuhara to work hard to create space and have any real success. Not only was Fukuhars being forced to work hard but in the final minute of round 2 he was forced to eat some very hard shots from Tanada. If the first 2 rounds had been surprising then the third was thoroughly shocking with Fukuhara dropped about 10 seconds into the round. Tanada then went hunting for the stoppage and dropped Fukuhara again about a minute later. It appeared that Fukuhara was going to go down for a third time but the referee intervened and saved Fukuhara from further punishment in possible the most disappointing performance of the Japanese fighters career. Both men have continued to fight on after this fight though neither have had amazing success. Tanada lost his title in his first defence, being stopped in 5 against Masao Nakamura, whilst Fukuhara lost 3 of a subsequent 8 bouts though does now appear to have his career on the right tracks after a few successive stumbles. (Video courtesy of Jerome Naldoza) Back in 2008 a very young Filipino called Allan Tanada made his professional debut. Few would have expected after that bout that he'd race to an OPBF title but that's exactly what he did less than 2 years after his debut. Prior to winning the OPBF title Tanada had impress several of those involved in the Filipino fight scene courtesy of several great performances including his stoppage of the then debuting Christian Nokumura just 3 months after Tanada had made his own debut. The fight saw Tananda come out like a man possessed and his intentions to impress both the fans and the TV cameras was obvious. Despite Tanada fighting like a whirring dervish Nokumura managed to some how see out the first round he wasn't so lucky in round 2 as Tanada got his wish of looking sensational and scored a brilliant knockout that showed his sensational ability. Amazingly when this fight took place Tanada was just 17! (Video courtesy of Jerome Naldoza) When we talk about the best Super Featherweight on the planet many, including ourselves, would make a very strong case for Takashi Uchiyama. He is the man with more notable wins at the weight than any other fighter and he is the man with some of the most stunning KO's in the division. In fact going through his record reads like a who's who of the division with wins over Takashi Miura, Juan Carlos Salgado, Jorge Solis and Bryan Vazquez. We would suggest, however, that Uchiyama's hardest bout came against the previously unheralded Daiki Kaneko who, at the time, was known on by those who follow the Japanese domestic scene. Going in to this bout Uchiyama had made 7 defences with 6 KO's, the only man not to be stopped by the heavy hitting champion was Michael Farenas and that bout was ended early due to a clash of heads in round 3 force a technical draw. It was expected by many that Uchiyama would stop Kaneko, after all Kaneko's best wins had come on the Japanese domestic scene against the likes of of former champion Seiichi Okada, multi time challenger Kyohei Tamakoshi and first time challenger Ryota Kajiki, none of whom would have been a match for Uchiyama. What we ended up getting was a surprise. The bout wasn't a blow out, in fact it never really looked like Kaneko was going to be stopped as the challenger proved he was just as strong and tough as the champion who was forced to work hard, and pull himself off the canvas. It was, by far, the toughest test for Uchiyama and surprisingly it was the first time he had gone the distance in more than 4 years! Although Kaneko failed in his title bid here we have to believe that this performance has proven he is world class and he's now only waiting for another opportunity. If, or rather when, he gets another world title fight we suspect he'll take home the gold. Sometimes finding some quality footage of a fighter can actually be a lot more difficult than one might assume. That's certainly the case for the OPBF ranked Takahiro Shigee who has very limited footage available and we could, earlier today, only find a single complete bout. Sadly that bout was a relative waste of time as he faced Thailand's Banchadej Sithprakaifah. The bout was a mismatch from the off and Shigee did as he pleased against someone who simply didn't fight. In fact what Banchadej did was replicate a punching bag by taking shots. Shigee did try and get the Thai to lead a few times but Banchadej refused to throw more than a token shot every so often. It was clear the Thai wasn't there to beat Shigee or even test him but instead he wanted to be ultra negative and spoil to make Shigee look bad. In fairness that did happen at times and Shigee did look poor himself before finally dropping the Thai who was happy to take a seat on the canvas. We know Shigee is better than this performance indicates but sadly footage of the fighter is so difficult to come across that it's hard to actually prove it. Hopefully he takes his upcoming opportunity, against Rodrigo Guerrero but it is a huge step up for the 22 year old Southpaw. (Video courtesy of kobeshinsei) Whilst most international fans will know the name Daiki Kaneko due to his loss to Takashi Uchiyama at the back end of last year he's actually very well known by Japanese boxing fans due to his reign as the Japanese Super Featherweight champion. Kaneko, who won the title May 2012, defended the belt 4 times with each of those victories coming by T/KO before he fought Uchiyama for the WBA world title and although they were "only" domestic title fights he did prove himself as one of the most freakishly strong fighters in the division. The second of Kaneko's 4 defences came against Ryota Kajiki. Kajiki had stopped his previous 7 opponents and at 25 years old was seen as a promising and heavy handed fighter despite having 6 losses on his record going in to this bout. He wasn't just heavy handed but he was also tough having taken Masao Nakamura 8 rounds in the fight before Nakamura became OPBF Super Featherweight champion. The bout saw both men starting slowly and being somewhat cautious in respect of the other man's power. By the middle of round 2 hour things began to heat up and in round 3 we saw both men begin to unload in bursts on their opponents. It wasn't non-stop action but it was exciting action with both believing they had the power to hurt the other. As the fight continued to heat up and both began taking risks it seemed almost certain that the fight wouldn't see the final bell. In round 6 Kaneko really turned on the style and went for the kill as he unloaded a heavy assault on Kajiki forcing the referee to stop the challenger who had been braved but was beginning to take a real beating. The Super Featherweight division is one of, if not the, most exciting division in regards to Japanese talent. The country currently boasts both the WBA champion, Takashi Uchiyama, and the WBC champion, Takashi Miura, as well as two of the best contenders. One of those contenders is the heavy handed Masao Nakamura whilst the other is the incredibly over-looked and ridiculously strong Daiki Kaneko. Kaneko is a fighter well known on the Japanese domestic scene but only just known on the international stage. He is however a man we think international fans are going to see a lot over the coming few years. Aged just 17 when he began his career Kaneko suffered 2 losses in his teens. One of those losses was a 5th round TKO defeat at the hands of Mitsuya Omura back in 2007. Following that Kaneko rebuilt his career, found his man strength and became a bit of a phenom on the Japanese domestic scene running up a 16 fight unbeaten run. Included in that run was a Japanese title winning effort, against Seiichi Okada, and 4 defences. For Kaneko his 4th defence would likely have been the most pleasing as he finally got revenge over Omura, and in very quick fashion, stopping his challenger inside a round. Interesting Omura actually failed to make weight for the bout. That didn't help him however and the man he had beaten as a boy 6 years earlier was now a man on the verges of a world title fight, a fight Kaneko got 4 months later. Although Kaneko lost that one, dropping a decision to Uchiyama, he had proven himself as a tough fighter with the potential to be a world champion sooner rather than later. (Video thanks to Y TAKA) When it comes to female fighters few rival either Momo Koseki. Koseki is not only one of the toughest, roughest and brutish fighters in female boxing but also one of the most successful having made more than a dozen defence of her WBC Atomweight title. Whilst a lot of her wins have come down to her rough and tumble tactics, which have been described as being similar to a bull, she can actually box pretty well. One of Koseki's most complete boxing performances came when she defended her world title for the 10th time and totally shut out Mexican challenger Maria Jimenez with her work, accurate punching and pressure. The bout started moderately well for Jimenez who looked last on her feet but within 40 seconds or so Koseki had taken over the bout and used numerous straight shots to keep her challenger at bay. Although a dominant fighter Koseki isn't a big puncher and this, more than anything, helped Jimenez survive the schedule though it really was a 1-sided bout. Koseki will be looking for her next defence on August 2nd when she takes on the unbeaten Denise Castle in what looks likely to be a genuinely testing assignment for the Japanese champion. If she wins that bout Koseki will set a new Japanese national record for most world title defence by a fighter, breaking the record she co-holds with Yoko Gushiken. Whilst there are lots of world titles out there there are also a lot of over-looked fighters who have had limited opportunities at the top and are still unknown by many fans around the world. One such fighter is Japan's powerful Ryo Akaho who is one of the more over-looked contenders in Japanese boxing. Akaho is a former OPBF Super Flyweight champion and former WBC Super Flyweight world title challenger. Although he came up short in his world title effort, losing to Yota Sato, he has since run off 4 straight stoppages including one over Filipino fighter Jecker Buhawe. The contest, at times, resembled two men swinging for the fences though was highly entertaining from the first bell to the eventual stoppage. If you like your technically correct boxing we'd suggest you avoid this one as it's not for the purists but for the rest of you this one should be good fun as both men test the patience of the referee and both try to decapitate the other. Trust us this isn't pretty but it is rather fun. At the time of writing the most active Japanese national champion is Lightweight champion Yoshitaka Kato who recorded his 7th title defence earlier this week with a stoppage of the hard hitting Tsukasa Saito. The fight was Kato's 9th bout since winning the Japanese title back in 2011 and was another fight that proved not only his toughness but also the excitement he can bring to the ring. From the moment this fight was announced we had expected action and that's what we got as Saito took the fight to Kato and the men stood in front of each other taking it in turns to let punches go, often to the body. For Saito the mentality seemed to be about breaking down Kato whilst the champion appeared happy to fight in the pocket and pick his openings in a fight that wouldn't have looked out of place in a phone booth. By round 3 the tide was starting to turn but the action was still almost constant with one man, or the other, on the attack. In round 4 the fight suddenly flipped with Kato dropping Saito. From then on Saito seemed to begin tiring though continued to fight his heart out before eventually being stopped by the referee in round 8. At first it looked like the stoppage was early but a few seconds later it appeared clear the referee saw something and made a perfect stoppage so a lot of credit needs giving to Katsuhiko Nakamura for stopping this when he did. Whilst the fight won't go down as a potential FOTY candidate it was still a great all action fight and the sort of thing we are coming to expect of Kato who has now won back-to-back fights following his loss of the OPBF title to Masayoshi Nakatani back in January. (Much thanks go to Mitani Yamato Gym for up loading this footage) |
VideosHere we include some of the best, most interesting, most exciting or most eye catching videos from around the Asian boxing world. Archives
April 2024
|