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At the end of October fans in Osaka were lucky enough to see the world ranked Masayoshi Nakatani successfully defend his OPBF Lightweight title against the heavy handed Futoshi Usami. Nakatani, a hard puncher himself, showed off all the traits that we feel could take him to a world title. He showed great patience, fantastic poise, an excellent jab, and although the bout was very slow at times he showed a brilliant understanding of distance and timing. It was as controlled a performance as you are likely to see from a Lightweight hopeful with less than 10 professional bouts. As for Usami it's unlikely he'll ever win an OPBF title but we'd like to see him mixing at the Japanese title level as he could certainly be in interesting contests there. (It's taken a few weeks for us to get this one but we're so glad we've finally gotten it and we have to send a massive thank you to Yossy112311 for the footage)
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On July 25th 2013 fans were hoping to see a thriller when the unbeaten but relatively untested Masayoshi Nakatani took on the monstrously hard hitting and very exciting Shuhei Tsuchiya. There was little certainty about who was going to win but everyone expected a bout that wasn't going to go the scheduled 8 and was going to be action packed. Whilst the bout didn't go the distance few would have expected the reason for it. Tsuchiya was simply out boxed, out banged and beaten up by Nakatani who landed numerous body shots that took the wind out of Tsuchiya's sails in double quick fashion. It was the breaking out party for Nakatani who, just a fight later, won the OPBF Lightweight title by over-coming Yoshitaka Kato in a much tougher bout than this one. For Tsuchiya things haven't been great but they have been exciting and it's clear that he's going to be a fan favourite with his do or die attitude in the ring. Technically limited but highly aggressive he'll remain a fan favourite even if he never manages to go on to win any sort of titles. It's fighters like him that make the sport worth following below just the big names and we want to say thank you to Tsuchiya even though he was up against a much better fighter here. (Video courtesy of Yossy112311) One Japanese fighter who really came to our attention late last year and early this year was Masayoshi Nakatani who, with his combination of speed, size and power, has become on of the most promising rising stars of Japanese boxing. On May 7th of this year Nakatani recorded his first defence of the OPBF Lightweight title as he took on Japanese based Filipino Ricky Sismundo, AKA Mondo Harada. The fight was competitive despite Nakatani having almost all the advantages and, although the rightful winner won, it was the second successive fight in which he was forced to work very hard to win. This fight, which followed his contest with Yoshitaka Kato, was a second character building fight and although he's not walking all over opponents there is no doubting that Nakatani will have world title aspirations. Although Sismundo came up short here he put on the sort of effort that will see him holding his head up high. Hopefully he'll get another OPBF title fight in the future but for now he'll just be able to be proud of his effect against one of Japanese boxing's rising stars. (Video courtesy of Yossy112311) The first OPBF title fight of 2014 took place on January 11th as the unbeaten and much touted Masayoshi Nakatani challenged the teak tough Yoshitaka Kato for the OPBF Lightweight strap. The bout was a coming of age contest for the challenger who really was given a tough, tough test and for the champion it was a lesson in starting too late and not making the most of what tools he has. The bout was genuinely a perfect way to kick off a new year and saw both men putting the new year behind them as they exchanged some fantastic action. It was far from a fight of the year contender but it was still a very enjoyable contest between a grizzled veteran and a young upstart who appears to be on a march towards a world title. Whilst the fight really did show neither man was ready to move beyond OPBF level it will have helped both progress and become better fights and we'd certainly not mind seeing a rematch in in the next year or two. (Video courtesy of Yossy112311) |
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