Currently the Light Flyweight division is one of the most over-looked with a really wonderful mix of talent from around Asia and America. There is no standout #1 fighter but there is a brilliant variety of styles and fighters in the division ranging from the lighting quick Kosei Tanaka to the warrior infused Akira Yaegashi, the calculating Pedro Guevara, the monstrously heavy handed Angel Acosta and the teak tough Jonathan Taconing. This coming Saturday fans in Tokyo will see two talented fighters in the division battle for the WBC title, in what could be a a technically brilliant and thrilling battle. In one corner will be WBC champion Ganigan Lopez (28-6, 17), a Mexican southpaw a talented fighter with a real gritty determination that comes with being a grizzled veteran. In the opposite corner will be Japanese youngster Ken Shiro (9-0, 5), a talented boxer-mover who is looking to continue his rise through the ranks. Of the two Lopez is the more well known, and that's understandable given he's a 35 year old professional with 34 bouts under his belt and has been a professional since 2003. During his long career he has had plenty of ups and down. The lows have included losses to the likes of Juan Palacios, Adrian Hernandez, Jose Alfredo Zuniga, Denver Cuello and Pedro Guevara whilst the highs have included his last two wins, over Yu Kimura and Jonathan Taconing to win and defend the WBC title. At his best Lopez is a brilliant boxer. He's not the quickest, most powerful, strongest or toughest but he is a fighter with an incredibly good boxing brain, who controls the range and tempo of the bout, boxes at his pace and dictates the fight with timing and accuracy. He can be hurt, he has been stopped, but it takes a special fighter to put him in any trouble and he's learned a lot from his narrow decision losses. Despite his boxing brain he is 35 years old and at Light Flyweight that really is ancient. He's look great in his last two bouts but a fighter at his age can get old over night, especially following a 10 month break from the ring due to issues securing a bout, with talks for a rematch against Guevara faltering. Aged just 25 Ken Shiro is still a youngster, and looks even younger with a genuine baby face. Despite being a youngster he's an accomplished boxer who first made a name for himself in the amateur ranks before making his professional debut in August 2014. On debut he made a statement by defeating veteran Heri Amol and continued to make waves, beating Katsunori Nagamine in his third bout, claiming the WBC Youth Light Flyweight title in his 5th bout, the Japanese title a fight later and the OPBF title in his 8th professional bout. Whilst winning titles quickly appears to be the done thing in Japan not many are triple crown winners that quickly. Although Ken Shiro is a talented boxer we have seen a bit of everything from him. We have seen him box, brawl, counter punch and adapt on the fly. His chameleon like ability has been really impressive at times, but has seen him being caught between styles, and it has also seen him being dropped, with Rolly Sumalpong dropping him in the Youth title fight. If he can stick to fighting with one style at a time the youngster could be a real talent, and although it sounds silly in telling him to stick to one style it would likely help him when it comes to actually being in the ring. One game plan that's consistent, with another as a back up, can be much better than trying to be a jack of all trades. If Ken Shiro, and his team, come up with the right game plan here they have a really good change at over-coming Lopez and claiming a world title. It is however a huge ask for for the youngster against someone with so much experience against world class fighters. Ken Shiro has the ability, but we do wonder whether he has the power, or experience, that he might need here. Ken Shiro will almost certainly have his moments, but we think that Lopez will have more of them, and take a very competitive decision to narrowly retain his title, and confirm his standing as one of the top Light Flyweights on the plant. If Ken Shiro can pull it off the future almost certainly leads to an all-Japanese unification bout in the very near future, especially given the fact other Japanese fighters hold titles at the weight. It would however by an upset for him to win here
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Over the last few years fans of the smaller weights have had numerous treats with some thrilling wars and non-stop action. This weekend we may well see some more great bouts in the lower weights with one potential war coming in Mexico as Filipino banger Jonathan Taconing (22-2-1, 18) gets a long awaited world title shot, and takes on Ganigan Lopez (27-6, 17), the current WBC Light Flyweight champion. Taconing has been a card holding member of the “Who needs him?” club since 2012, when he got his only previous world title fight and was controversially beaten by Kompayak Porpramook in Thailand. Although an avoided fighter after that bout Taconing has subsequently gone 9-0 (8), claimed the OPBF title and scored notable wins over Vergilio Silvano, Ramon Garcia Hirales and Jomar Fajardo. Taconing is avoided for a number of reasons. Firstly he's a huge puncher in the lower weights. Only a small number of fighters have heard the final bell against him, and only 1 of the last 9 opponents survived his power, though that one ended early with a technical decision. He's tough having proven his chin in the past and never backing up against the likes of Porpramook, Fajardo or Hirales, and he really trusts his chin. And third he has a great engine. Despite stopping many opponents early he has shown power late in fights, and actually stopped Hirales in the last 10 seconds of the 10th round. Finally, and perhaps worth of all for his opponents, and team, is that he's a southpaw making him even more tricky. When it comes to the champion we have a talented fighter who has proven he can travel to win bouts, but has had a long and draining career. Aged 34 he's in the twilight of his career, though this is first world title defense and he did score his biggest career victory just 4 months ago, when he travelled to Japan and defeated Yu Kimura for the title. It's worth noting that a year ago he pushed the then champion Pedrio Guevara all the way in a thrilling 12 rounder, in a bout that some thought would be his last hurrah. In the ring Guevara can both box or fight. He's not an elite boxer but he's got the basics down excellently, as he showed against Kimura, and when he needs to have a war he can. In fact not only can he have a war, but he can take punishment as well, with only one stoppage against him, that coming to the big punching Filipino Denver Cuello who was on a genuinely destructive run at the time and that came at 105lbs. Coming in to this one we expect a war, a full on violent, and exciting war, though given Taconing's power we eventually think he'll break down the ageing Lopez in the later rounds. Before then however this one will be a lot of fun, with both men being forced to take some seriously big shots. Japanese boxing ended 2015 on a real high with a number of notable wins by Japanese fighters in world title bouts. Sadly the momentum of 2015 hasn't really carried over into early 2016, which has been a disappointingly quiet period for Japanese boxing. The period has been so quiet that local fans in Japan don't get to see a world title fight on Japanese soil until May 4th, when they do get two world title bouts. The first of those will see WBC Light Flyweight champion Yu Kimura (18-2-1, 3) defending his title for the first time. The 32 year old Teiken fighter, who upset Pedro Guevara last November, will not be having the typical “easy” first defense but will instead be up against top contender Ganigan Lopez (26-6, 17). The talented, and gutsy, Kimura was touted as a potential world champion very early in his career but it took more than 9 years for him to reach the pinnacle of the sport. On his route there the talented, speedy and under-rated, fighter claimed the Japanese title and recorded 3 defenses of the title. Although lacking many big name wins Kimura has beaten Guevara, obviously, as well as current Japanese champion Tatsuya Fukuhara and former champion Kenichi Horikawa as well as a credible win over Yuki Chinen. When it comes to his losses they have been to current world champion Ryoichi Taguchi and former world title challenger Shin Ono. Kimura showed his gutsiness against Guevara, rebuilding from a poor start to take a narrow win over the talented Mexican and proved a lot. We knew he was talented, gutsy and fast but in that bout he proved he really could turn fights around, he proved he could bite down on his gum shield go to war and score a world class win over 12 rounds. When it comes to Lopez the challenger is a tested fighter who has mixed with numerous world class fighters. That has seen him suffer losses to the likes of Juan Palacios, Adrian Hernandez, Denver Cuello and Pedro Guevara whilst scoring wins over the likes of Mario Rodriguez and Luis Ceja. During his 32 fight career he has suffered just a single stoppage loss, to Cuello, and his last notable fight was a narrow loss to Guevara. In the ring Lopez is a heavy handed southpaw with an aggressive mentality and whilst not the most skilled he is a real handful for most of the fighters at 108lbs. He comes solid, though unspectacular skills, with a genuine toughness and spiteful power. All that comes with the awkward southpaw stance and a 34 he'll know that this could well be his final chance at the top level. In many ways this fight is being widely over-looked yet could, potentially, be a fire cracker of the fight with both possibly choosing to go to war and having a fire-fight in the centre of the ring. On paper that seems a bad idea for Kimura, but he'll know that smothering Lopez's work would be in his favour. For Lopez the idea of fighting in close quarters does give him the advantage of possibly scoring a stoppage, something he may feel he needs. This really could be a very special bout. On paper we have to favour Kimura, who is the clear betting favourite, however Lopez is a very under-dog. We often hear how low the talent pool is in a number of the lower weight classes. That tends to actually be wrong and a number of lower divisions are very deep, though sadly the best fighters aren't matched against each other nearly enough. That is clearly seen at 108lbs where fighters like Paipharob Kokietgym, Randy Petalcorin, Rey Loreto and Ryo Miyazaki have essentially been frozen out of big fights for a year whilst lesser fighters, like Richard Claveras and Luis De la Rosa are getting shots instead. Thankfully however we do sit on the verge of a genuinely intriguing bout in the division as WBC champion Pedro Guevara (26-1-1, 17) takes on former Japanese champion Yu Kimura (17-2-1, 3) in a genuinely intriguing bout that sees Guevara return to Japan for the first time since he won the title, stopping Akira Yaegashi last December. For many lower weight fight fans Guevara is one of the best in the division. His resume includes wins over Karluis Diaz, Jorle Estrada, Raul Garcia, Mario Rodriguez and Ganigan Lopez, though it's the win over Yaegashi that really broke him through into being a divisional star. He's also only lost to a genuinely world class fighter, a split decision to Filipino fighter Johnriel Casimero, more than 3 years ago. In the ring the champion can box or fight. His power is under-rated though really it's his boxing skills that set him apart from many of the others in the division and it was those skills that lead to his win again Yaegashi. It does however need to be said that he didn't look his best last time out, against Lopez, in a bout that saw Lopez make life very difficult for the champion. Going forward we suspect Guevara will move up in weight, the 26 year old is a big lump for a Light Flyweight and at some point he'll likely look to establish himself in the more prestigious Flyweight division. For now however he's a handful for anyone at 108lbs and there is no doubting that he is one of the division's key players. As for Kimura he's a man who has often remained under-the radar for non-Japanese fans, many of whom would likely regard him as a non-puncher with little real potential to change that or to ever make a name for himself. What generally isn't too well known is that he was a solid amateur himself running up a 65-15 (8) record in the unpaid ranks before turning professional back in 2006. As a professional he has done things the hard way on the Japanese scene and suffered a couple of losses as a result, though both losses have come to “names” in Shin Ono and current WBA champion Ryoichi Taguchi. As a fighter Kimura is a very talented boxer-mover with good accuracy, an intelligent boxing brain and good movement. He does, as his record suggest, lack power though much of that is down to his style which compromises on power due to the movement. His ability has seen him notch up a number of notable victories, including his 2014 Japanese title winning victory, a decision over Kenichi Horikawa, and a notable defense over Yuki Chinen. It's really since winning the Japanese title that Kimura has come into his own and started to believe he could, one day, become a world champion. Although Kimura has improved massively from the fighter he once was it's still hard to see what he really has to trouble Guevara, who looks to be the worst of the champions for Kimura to be facing. Kimura will struggle to out box the champion and certainly won't be able to hold his own when it comes to power and physical strength. To us this looks like a worth while challenge but one that likely is being used as Kimura's final bout, and a chance to say he fought at the top level. At 32 he's unlikely to get another opportunity as this level and he'll put everything he has into the bout but we really can't see how he beats the very talented Mexican. In late March we saw Filipino fighter Rommel Asenjo come up very short when he took on Juan Francisco Estrada. Just 2 weeks later we see another Filipino travelling to Mexico in hope of shocking the boxing world. This time it's the unbeaten Richard Claveras (12-0-2, 12) who will be looking to score a huge upset win and claim the WBC Light Flyweight title when he battles against Pedro Guevara (24-1-1, 16).
Coming into the bout Claveras is a real unknown. He may be the future of Filipino boxing, or he may be a fighter who bitten off much more than he can chew. Aged 25 Claveras is dubbed “Explosive” due to his power, power that has seen him stopping his last 10 opponents, and 12 of his last 13. On one hand he has been wiping out opponents at double quick speed, in fact his 14 career bouts have lasted just 34 rounds, less than 2.5 rounds a fight. That has been because he's scored 8 opening round stoppages and 10 stoppages in the first 2 rounds. On the other hand he hasn't been fighting particularly stiff competition with his most experienced foe being Rodel Tejares and his most notable win being an 8th round TKO against JC Francisco. Whilst it's almost impossible to judge Claveras from his competition he's been dealing with it the way he should. He's been completely destroying them following a 2-0-2 (2) start to his career. What we do know about Claveras is that his body shots are spiteful, his head shots are vicious, his size, for a Light Flyweight, is incredibly imposing and from the little bit of footage we've seen he's patient, surprisingly for someone with a record like he has. We also know that at 25 years old he's coming into his physical prime, even if he is technically inexperienced as a fighter. Whilst little is real known about the Filipino challenger we do know plenty about the defending champion, who claimed the title late last year when he stopped Akira Yaegashi in Japan. That was Guevara's second world title fight after having previously come up short against the then IBF champion Johnriel Casimero. As a fighter Guevara really can do it. He's a brilliant boxer-puncher who shows traits of Ricardo Lopez in the way he fights. He's capable of fighting at range behind his excellent jab, he's able to box on the back foot his counters and, when push comes to shove, he can fight on the inside. He combines his excellent all round ability with solid toughness and real patience, which make him very tough to beat. In fact his record essentially proves that as he already holds notable wins over the likes of Yaegashi, Mario Rodriguez and Raul Garcia, an excellent trio of fighters. Whilst what have seen of Claveras is impressive it's impossible for us to favour him against the fantastic Guevara who is more proven and more known. That's not to say Claveras stand no chance, but he really is going from the paddling pool to the middle of the ocean and being told to swim for the first time. Not only is he being told to swim, but he's being told to swim with sharks. For Claveras his best chance, if not his only chance, is to start fast and hope his power is simply too much for Guevara. Unfortunately for the challenger it does seem like Guevara is a tough and gritty fighter and we suspect the champion will see out any early assault before turning the tables, using his experience and skills to eventually break down the challenger, who simply isn't ready for a fight at this level. Akira Yaegashi and Pedro Guevara trade blows for the WBC 108lb title, but who will come out on top?12/24/2014 There are a lot of fights left this year but possibly the most exciting of those is at Light Flyweight as the always fun to watch Akira Yaegashi (20-4, 10) attempts to become a 3-weight world champion and over-come Mexico's Pedro Guevara (23-1-1, 15) in a bout for the vacant WBC Light Flyweight title. A title which was last held by Yaegashi's stablemate Naoya Inoue, who vacated the belt to campaign at Super Flyweight. Last time out we saw Yaegashi suffer the first stoppage loss of his career as he was beaten into submission by the exceptional Roman Gonzalez. That bout saw the best from both men though unfortunately for Yaegashi it always seemed that Gonzalez was too strong, too powerful, too sharp and too good. Yaegashi tried his best against though was left a broken fighter who seemed to realise that he was too small and light punching to really compete against the best men at 112lbs. For those who haven't seen much of Yaegashi he is the sort of fighter that fans should really appreciate. He's speedy and talented though unlike many other speedy fighters he seems to enjoy a fight just as much as the fans. His propensity for a tear up has seen him in thrilling contests with his 2011 bout against Thailand's Pornsawan Porpramook being a FOTY contender just like his 2012 ruckus with compatriot Kazuto Ioka. Both of those bouts showed not only Yaegashi's willingness to fight a war but also the way he seems to force a war, whether it's in his best interest or not. At Flyweight Yaegashi's main problem was that he lacked genuine fire power. In his 5 title bouts at the weight he scored just a single stoppage, albeit a really good one against Odilon Zaleta. Sadly we suspect that if Yaegashi had power to match his and toughness he would be fighter celebrated worldwide rather than a man only truly appreciated by Japanese fans and the hardcore boxing fans. Of course it's not just the style and wars that fans enjoy but also Yaegashi's willingness to test himself against the best. It's that willingness to fight all comers that has seen him battle with the likes of Gonzalazs, Ioka, Porpramook, Edgar Sosa, Eagle Den Junlaphan and Toshiyuki Igarashi. That's being seen again here where he's gone from being beaten up by Gonzalez to taking on the dangerous Guevara rather than fight a confidence rebuilding bout against a weaker foe. So on to the Mexican who at 25 years old is coming into his prime and will be hoping to become a world champion at the second time of asking, having previously fallen short in an IBF title fight with Filipino Johnriel Casimero. In that fight Guevara was stepping up notably in class and it showed early on when he was dropped in the opening round though he did warm to the task and managed to give Casimero a close fight, though not as close as the scorecards indicated. The bout with Casimero is easily the biggest bout that Guevara has been involved in. He has however been up against several other notable names including Mario Rodriguez, Raul Garcia, Karlius Diaz and Jorle Estrada and beaten all of them. Notably he has faced Rodriguez twice, drawing in their first meeting before dominating in the rematch with a very clear decision. The improvement between those two Rodriguez bouts was clear and on the whole Guevara has been a fighter improving regularly. Stylistically Guevara shows traits of the great Ricardo Lopez. He boxes, moves, throws sharp and correct shots and looks comfortable on the back foot, something we rarely see in a Mexican fighter. Unlike most Mexican fighters he looks happier at range and boxing rather than up close and brawling. That doesn't he can't stand there and fight but it's not his style or his strength. At a distance he has a nice variety of shots with his left hook to the body, jab and straight right being the key shots in his arsenal. From what we've seen of both guys we suspect this bout will be won by the man who can control the distance and pacing of the bout. A slow bout fought at range favours Guevara without a doubt. If the Mexican can use his reach and straight shots to stop Yaegashi in his tracks then the title will be going back to Mexico. For Yaegashi to win he has to turn this into a fight, slip the jab and unload his trademark fast flurries on the inside. The Japanese fighter has to make life uncomfortable for the Mexican visitor and if he can do that we suspect we will see Yaegashi becoming just the second Japanese fighter in history to win world titles in 3 weights. If Yaegashi can't get inside then he'll follow in the footsteps of Kazuto Ioka and Hozumi Hasegawa who both failed in their attempts to become 3 weight world champions this year. (Image courtesy of Ohashi Gym) Over the last 2 years there have been numerous fighters bursting on to the scene in one way or another. Some have gained more attention and hype than others and others have achieved more than many fighters do in their entire career. One of the men to fall into that second category is Japanese super stud Naoya Inoue (6-0, 5), a man who claimed a world title in just his 6th professional bout after being a professional for a mere 18 months. Aged 21 it's clear that Inoue has the potential to be an all-time great, in fact he has the tools to be the best Japanese fighter in history. It may sound like hyperbole but the potential for this youngster really is limitless. Last time out Inoue claimed the WBC Light Flyweight title by stopping Mexican Adrian Hernandez in just 6 rounds. The performance was sensational and saw many proclaiming him to be the best fighter at 108lbs. Sadly however he had struggled to make weight for the bout with Hernandez and it seemed almost certain that the fight with Hernandez was going to be Inoue's last at Light Flyweight. Instead however he will continue at the weight for one more fight, defending his world title against Thailand's Samartlek Kokietgym (17-4, 5) in what really is seen as a mismatch. Though for Inoue it's a chance to defend his belt before moving on, something he never did as the Japanese or OPBF champion. Although viewed as a lamb to the slaughter Samartlek is himself a champion, albeit a PABA champion at 105lbs. Sadly however not only is he moving up a division but he is also facing his best opponent to date in Inoue. Saying that Samartlek has mixed with solid company in the past. He holds a very good win over Muhammad Rachman and a notable one over Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr whilst he has suffered losses to Denver Cuello and Randy Petalcorin, both of whom are world class fighters. Sadly those losses are more notable than the wins with Cuello stopping Samartlek in 9 rounds. Samartlek is, on paper, on a good run with 9 successive victories including wins this year over Samuel Tehuayo and Domi Nenokeba, both via 6 round decision. Unfortunately that 9 fight streak has seen him scoring just 2 stoppages indicating a real lack of power. Another thing Samartlek lacks is size, even for a fighter in the lowest weights he looks tiny, in fact he sort of looks like a school boy. He has decent enough movement though nothing that should make a world class fighter worry. With Inoue being a destructive force the only issue he has here is complacency. He has said he's looking for a quick win and if he's not careful that could be his downfall. He has all the advantages in terms of skills, power, speed, size and strength though he will need to keep his head straight and focus on scoring a win rather than looking amazing. If he mows down Samartlek inside a round then that'll be a great way to wave goodbye to 108lbs. If he needs to take a hard fought decision win then he shouldn't feel disappointed with himself. Aged 21 however we all know he'll want to impress the fans and the boxing public who have tuned in to see if he is as good as people say. For what it's worth, he really is as good as people say. (Image courtesy of our great friends at http://www.thairec.com) One great thing about boxing in the East is that top prospects aren't held back. If you're good enough to swim with sharks you're allowed to swim and go for it. This has been seen time and time again with fighters like Kazuto Ioka who has proven himself capable of beating the best in the world. The next Japanese fighter who is trying to prove that he's more advanced than his record shows is the 20 year old super stud Naoya Inoue (5-0, 4) who, in just his 6th professional contest, looks to set a Japanese national record for the fewest fights to win a world title. In turn that would see Inoue breaking the record of Ioka who took 7 fights to claim the WBC Minimumweight title. When it comes to Inoue he was always earmarked for an early world title fight. Some reports suggested that Inoue would actually fight for a world title in his 3rd professional bout in an attempt to tie the long standing record of Saensak Muangsurin. Whilst that record was never really in the mind of Hideyuki Ohashi, the chairman of the Ohashi boxing Gym which promotes and trains Inoue, it showed how highly Inoue was regarded. It wasn't just promotional hype that was behind Inoue from the off. He was a stand out amateur, a 7 time national champion, a fighter who was respected by the naturally bigger and more mature Ryota Murata, a fighter who beat up the world ranked Masayuki Kuroda in a public sparring test and more importantly he was someone with a natural look about him as a boxer. That once in a life time natural ability that made everything look so effortless. The big test for Inoue however is this coming Sunday as he takes on Mexico's Adrian Hernandez (29-2-1, 18), the current WBC Light Flyweight champion and a man that many view as the top fighter in the 108lb division. This isn't Inoue trying to pick up an easy title to break the national record but is instead Inoue attempting to supplant himself as the top dog of his division and prove that he's as good as people say. Before we look at Hernandez lets just look at what we've seen of Inoue so far. On his debut he showed a sharp jab, fantastic judgement of distance and exceptional body shots as he stopped the Filipino champion Crison Omayao in the 4th of a scheduled 8 rounds. It wasn't a punch perfect debut but it wasn't far off. In his second pro bout he showed perfect timing and a fast boxing brain as he landed a brutal counter left hook. His third bout let him show off his speed, accuracy and jab as he dismantled Yuki Sano pretty much one handed in an a really stunning showing. Inoue's toughest bout came in his fourth contest as he took on the then reigning Japanese Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi and was forced to work hard for the victory over 10 rounds. It was the first fight where his power didn't make an opponent feel too uncomfortable but his physical strength certainly took it's toll on Taguchi who was looked tired in the later rounds. It was the brute strength of Inoue that was on show in his most recent bout as he just steam rolled Jerson Mancio in an OPBF title fight in 5 rounds. Although just a novice Inoue has already been in 30 pro rounds, he has experienced round 10 twice, he has done 100's of rounds of sparring with world level fighters, including stable mate and current world champion Akira Yaegashi, and has had the best preparation he could possibly have by facing a former Hernandez opponent Atsushi Kakutani. With 33 fights under his belt there is no doubting Hernandez's experience. He not only has more than 6 times as many fights as Inoue but he also had a total of 179 rounds, almost 6 times as many as Inoue, and has been in 9 world title bouts. That's almost twice as many world title bouts as Inoue has had total bouts. Like Inoue, Hernandez impressed early in his career and within 2 years of being a professional had beaten both Rodel Mayol and Gilberto Keb Baas, both of whom went on to win world titles and had previously fought in world title bouts. Although he started well Hernandez did run into problem when he saw his unbeaten record get destroyed by Oscar Ibarra who stopped him in 6 rounds. Details of the actual bout are scarce to say the least but it may well have shown that Hernandez wasn't the must durable of fighters out there. Following the loss to Ibarra we saw Hernandez rebuild really well stringing together 9 straight wins including a WBC title victory and a solitary defence before losing to Kompayaka Porpramook in an all out war in Thailand. The Porpramook bout was a thriller that saw both men trading shots for 10 rounds before Hernandez suffered to the combination of Porpramook's body attack and the heat. Whilst the Mexican would later avenge the loss it did suggest that Hernandez could be broken down with a determined and prolonged body assault. Since the loss to Porpramook we've seen Hernandez has go 7-0 (4) with a victory in a rematch over Porpramook, to reclaim the world title, as well as 4 defences including the one over Kakutani late last year. Surprisingly in that bout, against Kakutani, Hernandez was dropped in the opening round though did come back very well to stop the Japanese fighter, though it did lead us to suggest Hernandez isn't as good as some may think he is. When we look at Hernandez we don't look at a naturally talented fighter. Instead we look at a heavy handed, much more so than his record indicates, fighter who is relatively slow though very big for the weight and has a remarkable 6 foot wingspan, freakish for a fighter in the lower weights. Although he's rangy and tall Hernandez doesn't always fight like the tall fighter and can be dragged in to a battle, as he was against Porpramook in Thailand, fairly easily. Most interestingly however is the fact that he's also lacking the foot work one tends to expect with a tall fighter. He's actually remarkably flat footed for a world class fighter and against a speedy opponent he could probably be made to look rather stupid. For Inoue the danger is getting tagged cleanly by Hernandez. If that happens the Japanese youngster could be in trouble however we think that Inoue will be smarter than that, he'll not think that Hernandez is a guy their to be steam rolled like Mancio was. Instead Inoue will try to feel out Hernandez, he'll get the jab going from the off, stay on his toes and try to let Hernandez tag his guard a few times. If he feels comfortable at handling Hernandez's power after taking a few on the arms and gloves he will likely move inside and engage in trench warfare with the Mexican. If he doesn't feel comfortable, for whatever reason, we expect to see the educated jab of Inoue's being the key with Inoue jabbing and moving, taking advantage of the slow foot work of Hernandez. Of course Hernandez gas a great chance, he's experienced, he's big and he's powerful but we're going for an Inoue decision despite a few shaky moments for the highly touted "Monster". (Image courtesy of Ohashi Gym) Many fans of the lighter divisions will know that we currently love the Flyweight division, arguably the most entertaining division fight after fight after fight. It's a division that in recent years has provided some fantastic buts, most recently Koki Eto's victory over Kompayak Porpramook. Despite our love of the Flyweight division we've not got the same adulation for it's little brother the Light Flyweight division, despite the fact if features Kazuto Ioka and Teiken fighter Roman Gonzalez. One of the reason's we dislike the division, at least on the world level, is that it's actually quite a weak division. You have Gonzalez and Ioka then you struggle to define who is the #3 fighter in the division. Is it Johnriel Casimero? Is it former Casimero victim Pedro Guevara? Is it Adrian Hernandez? It's hard to say. What we can say however is that Hernandez (27-2-1, 16) will be strongly favoured to retain his WBC title later this month when he takes on Japanese challenger Atsushi Kakutani (13-3-1, 6) a fighter who in all honesty shouldn't be considered as even qualified to fight for a world title. We don't like saying someone shouldn't be qualified for something but it's hard to see what Kakutani has done to be deserving of a world title fight. He has lost his two highest profile bouts to date including an opening round defeat to Wars Katsumata/Warlito Parrenas just over 2 years ago and suffered a loss to Teiru Kinoshita in his only previous title bout. Yes Kakutani hasn't even been crowned the Japanese champion. Although the 28 year old Japanese fighter was unlucky against Kinoshita, losing a debated split decision, he didn't look particularly good in the fight before or the fight after the Kinoshita bout, drawing with Takashi Omae and narrowly defeating Rey Loreto. In Kakutani's most recent bout he defeated limited Thai Kaokarat Kaolernlekgym, though the victory really proved little due to how poor the Thai was. The only real advantage we can see for Kakutani is that he's a natural Flyweight so he may be very much the stronger, bigger man in the ring, though then again he may also be drained in the ring. "El Confesor" Hernandez has the strongest claim to be the third best fighter in the division. Aged 27 Hernandez has scored victories over a mini who's who including Rodel Mayol, Gilberto Keb Baas, twice, and Kompayak Porpramook. He's shown that whilst he can be beaten, and stopped, he's actually a credible fighter who can box or bang and at his best he's takes quite some beating, Porpramook who's first fight with Hernandez was special indeed. This is set to be Hernandez's third defense of the title this year and whilst that sounds impressive it's to be noted that none of the challengers have been great. Defenses against and Dirceu Cabarca and Yader Cardoza are certainly nothing to write home about. Unfortunately for Kakutani his punch resistance is a real worry for us, especially seeing how Katsumata/Parrenas dropped him 3 times inside a round. Sure Katsumata/Parrenas is a huge puncher and Hernandez isn't, but Hernandez is a world class boxer with a solid punch on him, a punch we expect will send Kakutani to the canvas several times before the referee stops the contest. |
World Title Previews
The biggest fights get broken down as we try to predict who will come out on top in the up coming world title bouts. Archives
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