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April 7th 2007-Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Yutaka Niida (20-1-3, 8) Vs Katsunari Takayama (18-2, 7) When we talk about our favourite fighters we always list Katsunari Takayama, one of the sports most exciting fighters. Although he's exciting he is also talented and has been mixing with world class opposition for the better part of a decade, as seen when he took on the then WBA Minimumweight champion Yutaka Niida. Entering this bout Takayama was the interim champion and Niida the "regular" champion with the belts being unified, in what has since become a real rarity.
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April 22nd 2015- Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Osaka, Japan Katsunari Takayama (28-7-0-1, 11) Vs Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (27-3-1, 15) We here at Asian boxing are massive fans of Katsunari Takayama, heck what's not to love about someone willing to fight anyone and who always seems to be involved in a war. Saying that however we were disappointed when it was announced that he'd be defending his IBF Minimumweight title against Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr. We suspected that this would be a mismatch, in the ring however it turned out to be a brilliant highly enjoyable watch that every fight fan should enjoy. (Video thanks to Kom Thairec) December 31st 2014- Bodymaker Colosseum, Osaka, Osaka, Japan Katsunari Takayama (27-7-0-1, 10) Vs Go Odaira (11-3-3, 1) In the west fighters seem to fight for money and history second. In Japan history, records and achievements seem to matter almost as much as a bank account and fighters are happy to chase their own little bits of history. One such fighter who has chased history through his career is little dynamo Katsunari Takayama who set his eyes on becoming Japan's first ever "Grandslam" champion. Takayama failed in his first attempt to achieve that feat, falling short against Francisco Rodriguez Jr but got a second bite at the cherry at the end of 2014 as he battled Go Odaira for the WBO and IBF Minimumweight titles. Odaira on the other hand was fighting to finish off a career year in style. If you've not seen this it is worth the time and effort to give it a watch. All too often in this great sport we see amazing fights get over-looked not just by the big networks but also by fans. It's unfortunate but it happens. Thankfully as a result of the internet we can not only a get a chance to watch great fights after they are but also discuss great fights after they are and one fight that stole the weekend was the IBF/WBO Minimumweight unification bout between Japan's Katsunari Takayama and Mexico's Francisco Rodriguez Jr. We're not going to spoil the result but we will ask that you do set aside an hour of your time and watch this amazing contest between two of the best guys at 105lbs. The contest is riveting from the first round to the last and was the sort of thing that professional boxing needs more of, top fighters, fighting each other with little worry about what a loss means their career. They are fighting for their legacy not just to line their pockets with undeserving and grossly over-paid purses. For those who hadn't seen Rodriguez before he had won his WBO world title by stopping Merlito Sabillo earlier this year. As for Takayama he had won his IBF title in a previous visit to Mexico when he defeated Mario Rodriguez, whilst both of those bouts were good, this one was much better than either of them. In December 2004 the Japanese based Thai Den Junlaphan lost the WBC Minimumweight title to Isaac Bustos after suffering a very nasty injury to his right arm. The loss was Junlaphan's first as a professional and kept him out of the ring for 8 months. In that time Bustos had himself lost the WBC title to rising Japanese youngster Katsunari Takayama. With his injury healed Den Junlaphan was back in action to fight Takayama and regain his world title. His shoulder was healed and he was back to reclaim what he felt was his and show up the 21 year old Takayama who actually looked like a child when stood near Junlaphan. The bout, from the opening round to the final bell was great action with both men fighting at a very high pace. Neither seemed to mind throwing one to land one and neither man seemed to dislike the challenge of the other. Unfortunately for Takayama however the shots of Junlaphan seemed to have more power on them even though Takayama often seemed to land higher number of punches. The only bad thing about this contest were the scorecards with one judge managing to see the fight as a 119-111 fight in favour of Den Junlaphan, it was a bout that could have gone either way and a card that was that wide really didn't give Takayama any credit for his part in a enthralling contest. At the time of writing Takayama is one of two active world champions that Den Junlaphan beat, alongside Akira Yaegashi. *Den Junlaphan fought as Eagle Kyowa (Video is thanks to JohnnyNawiedzony) Japan's Katsunari Takayama is one of our favourite fighters, we've never tried to hide that and we never will, we genuinely love "The Lightning Kid". In the build up to his fight with Francisco Rodriguez Jr we thought it fitting to include some of Takayama's many notable bouts, including this one with the then WBC Minimumweight champion Isaac Bustos. This was Takayama's first world title fight and it was also Bustos's first title defence following his somewhat fortunate victory over Eagle Den Junlaphan. Takayama however appeared to be the man who looked like he was the more comfortable fighter in there looking busier and faster through out to take his first world title against his Mexican foe. Sadly for Takayama his reign as WBC champion didn't last long with the Japanese youngster losing the belt in his first defence to former champion Junlaphan. (We are sorry about the settings for this video which we've got thanks to Iwata Haruo) Back in 2009 few would have suggest that Roman Gonzalez was one of the best fighters on the planet, in all honesty few really knew much about him. He had, admittedly, destroyed Yutaka Niida in 2008 but that was about it for his notable wins at the time. Of course now we all know what "Chocolatito" is capable of and he has become arguably the most impressive fighter on the planet with all the tools a fighter could want. He's dedicated, hard working, skilled, tough, speedy, a natural combination puncher, powerful and just a sensational fighter. Whilst many will consider the victory over Niida as Gonzalez's break out victory a good case could be made for what he did some 10 months later when he returned to Japan and battered the fantastic Katsunari Takayama, who actually retired for over a year following the bout. This fight, which was fought on July 14th 2009, was really amazing and showed off not only all the great facets to Gonzalez's game, his aggression, work rate, skills and power but all a lot of what we love about Takayama. Despite taking a hammering the Japanese fighter refused to be stopped even though he looked out on his feet numerous times. At the end of the day there was only 1 winner, Gonzalez by a wide margin, but both men impressed us and have continued to do so in careers that have really given us more excitement than we'd typically expect of such small fighters. Amazingly at just 27 Gonzalez still has so much to give whilst Takayama himself he risen to top of the Minimumweight division and will be looking to unify the IBF and WBO world titles later this year. It's fair to say both men have had amazing careers and have been in their share of amazing fights. (Video courtesy of Boxeoprodesa and is in Japanese, there is another version of the same fight that we hope to have up in the future, which we believe is in Spanish.) When we talk about our favourite little men in the sport one name that is always high up on our list is Japan's Katsunari Takayama who does everything that we love to see a fighter do, including fighting anyone, anywhere. The proof of Takayama's willingness to fight the best on their turf was seen when he travelled to Mexico to fight the then IBF Minimumweight champion Mario Rodriguez on March 30th 2013. Takayama had literally chased the IBF title around the world fighting for it twice in South Africa before this fight which finally saw him winning the title at the third attempt. With the recent announcement that Takayama would be returning to Mexico to face WBO champion Francisco Rodriguez Jr it seems a perfect time to relive this fantastic bout that really showed the Mexican fight fans who Takayama is. Also this fight gives us a rare chance to see the lesser spotted "Takayama Shuffle". (Video courtesy of PromocionesdelPueblo boxeo) |
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