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The development of Keita Obara from promising former amateur star to OPBF champion has been a really interesting one. On his debut he was thrown in too deep by being matched with Kazuyoshi Kumano, a very experienced fighter who wore down and stopped Obara. In his second bout he was put in with a limited southpaw to get a relatively easy win before being matched with Daichi Sakoda, a teak tough southpaw. Rather than letting Obara pick up cheap and easy wins his team continued to match him hard and in his 4th bout he was put in with another very durable fighter in Kota Oguchi. Oguchi was supposed to take Obara rounds whilst being a safe opponent with little in terms of punch power, Oguchi however failed to survive the power of Obara. Obara followed up the bout with Oguchi by fighting another durable opponent in the form of Kengo Nagashima. Unlike Oguchi however Nagashima could punch, in fact Nagashima was arguably the heaviest handed fighter on the Japanese domestic scene and had a record of 10-6-2 (9) with 2 of his losses coming very early in his career. He wasn't in the ring to take Obara rounds, he was in there take behead Obara and employed tactics similar to what Kumano did in Obara's debut. Unfortunately for Nagashima he was fighting an improved Obara and it showed when he coped with the pressure and countered it before dropping and then stopping Nagashima in round 2. Since this bout Obara has claimed both Oriental and Japanese titles at Light Welterweight proving his class. Nagashima however hasn't faded away either and the dangerous puncher will be getting a chance to claim the Japanese Light Middleweight title on August 10th when he battles Yuki Nonaka in a very interesting bout.
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March 2024
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