Eagle Den Junlaphan
Picture courtesy of Kadoebi
Not many in the Minimumweight division are fondly remembered, though one man who is very fondly remembered is "Eagle" Den Junlaphan a fighter who was born in Thailand though made his legacy in Japan.
Born in 1978 into a large family in the Pichit Province of Thailand, Junlaphan was one of the more memorable Minimumweight's of recent years and actually had a bit of a cult following in his adoptive Japan where he became a 2-time WBC Minimumweight champion and forged a career that has left him as one of the most highly regarded fighters the 105lbs division has ever seen.
Junlaphan first began boxing in 1995 following in the footsteps of childhood hero Khaosai Galaxy and over the following 5 years he would run up a reported amateur record of 30-4 (25). Unfortunately, though as is often the case with Thai's, full details of his amateur achievements are sketchy at best, though it does seem fair to suggest he was a very capable fighter in the unpaid ranks.
In 2000, less than 5 full years after beginning to box, Junlaphan would make his professional debut and stop fellow debutant Saming Porkungpaorachada in Bangkok, Thailand. It wouldn't take long for him to add more victories to his record and in just a few months he had raced out to 4-0 (2) with all 4 contests taking place in the Thai capital.
In December 2000 Junlaphan got married to a Japanese lady and set his mind on moving to his wife's native Japan. This saw his boxing career almost come to a premature end as he thought of retiring. Thankfully he would continue with boxing and return to the ring the following year where restarted his career in Japan after joining the Kadoebi stable of fighters. The move to Japan not only saw Junlaphan changing the gym he was fighting in but also saw him changing his name to “Eagle Okuda”. The name change was one of many that he saw through his career though, Eagle would become more of an adoptive nickname regardless of his sponsors name.
Born in 1978 into a large family in the Pichit Province of Thailand, Junlaphan was one of the more memorable Minimumweight's of recent years and actually had a bit of a cult following in his adoptive Japan where he became a 2-time WBC Minimumweight champion and forged a career that has left him as one of the most highly regarded fighters the 105lbs division has ever seen.
Junlaphan first began boxing in 1995 following in the footsteps of childhood hero Khaosai Galaxy and over the following 5 years he would run up a reported amateur record of 30-4 (25). Unfortunately, though as is often the case with Thai's, full details of his amateur achievements are sketchy at best, though it does seem fair to suggest he was a very capable fighter in the unpaid ranks.
In 2000, less than 5 full years after beginning to box, Junlaphan would make his professional debut and stop fellow debutant Saming Porkungpaorachada in Bangkok, Thailand. It wouldn't take long for him to add more victories to his record and in just a few months he had raced out to 4-0 (2) with all 4 contests taking place in the Thai capital.
In December 2000 Junlaphan got married to a Japanese lady and set his mind on moving to his wife's native Japan. This saw his boxing career almost come to a premature end as he thought of retiring. Thankfully he would continue with boxing and return to the ring the following year where restarted his career in Japan after joining the Kadoebi stable of fighters. The move to Japan not only saw Junlaphan changing the gym he was fighting in but also saw him changing his name to “Eagle Okuda”. The name change was one of many that he saw through his career though, Eagle would become more of an adoptive nickname regardless of his sponsors name.
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Junlaphan would make his Japanese debut on August 4th 2001 and stop Tsutomu Oshigane inside a round. Having made an impressive Japanese debut he would return to the ring some 5 months later and take on former world champion Nico Thomas. Thomas, the second ever world champion from Indonesia, was no match for the much younger Junlaphan who stopped him in just 3 rounds.
Within months of the victory over Thomas, Junlaphan would score a second notable victory out pointing former world title challenger Noel Tunacao, the older brother of Malcolm Tunacao, in a 10 round shut out. In May 2003 Junlaphan, then 10-0 (5), would change his name for a second time since moving to Japan. He would change from being known as “Eagle Okuda” to “Eagle Akakura” taking his name name from his new sponsor “Akakura”. It was under the ring name “Eagle Akakura” that Junlaphan would get his first world title fight facing off against long reigning champion Jose Antonio Aguirre of Mexico. Aguirre had won the title in February 2000 and had held the belt for almost 4 years have already made 2 defenses in Japan and 7 in total. Despite going in to the bout as the favourite Aguirre was dominated from the opening bell by the fast and skilled Junlaphan who made a genuine statement by usurping the Mexican. This victory, in just his 12 professional contest really helped to Julaphan on the boxing map. Amazingly after just 1 fight under the “Eagle Akakura” moniker Junlaphan would again change his name, this time becoming "Eagle Kyowa”, a name many will remember him best by. Having won the the world title in just his 12th professional contest Junlaphan looked set for a long reign as the world champion and after his first defense, a dominant technical decision over Satoshi Kogumazaka things seemed even brighter for the Japanese based Thai. He was looking talented, he was young, he was skilled, faster and appeared to be a very special fighter. Unfortunately Junlaphan's title reign came to an unexpectedly early ending as he dislocated his shoulder in his second defense, facing the limited Isaac Bustos, and was sadly stopped by the referee whilst in extraordinary pain. This injury would keep Junlaphan out of the ring for almost 8 months and stand in the way of any immediate rematch, instead Bustos would lose the title in his first defense to Katsunari Takayama. Thankfully for Junlaphan he would be the first challenger after Takayama had won the belt and the talented Thai got straight back in to the swing of things as he out pointed Takayama and regained the title. This performance seemed to show that Junaphan was back to being the fighter he had been prior to his injury and again a long reign seemed inevitable. Having become a 2-time world champion it was obvious that Junlaphan was going to be very difficult to dethrone and he proved it in the first defense of his second reign by thoroughly dominating Ken Nakajima until the referee called a halt in round 7. Junlaphan would defend the title again just months after the Nakajima fight by out pointing the previously unbeaten Filipino Rodel Mayol in a genuinely fantastic bout that can be seen in full at the bottom of this article. Against Mayol, Junlaphan was cut early and really had to dig deep showing he had heart and a will to win as well as the skills everyone knew he had. With Junlaphan having looked sensational against Nakajima and very good against the dangerous Mayol it appeared that his next defense, against Lorenzo Trejo, was a formality. Trejo was little more than a Mexican journeyman, he had been stopped in 4 round by Mayol and widely out pointed by Puerto Rican Ivan Calderon, the then WBO champion. Despite the bout clearly looking like a “gimme” for Dunlaphan, Trejo gave the Thai one of the toughest bouts of his career dropping the champion twice in round 6 before narrowly dropping a decision. In June 2007 Junlaphan would return to the ring for the first time following the tough bout with and face the then unbeaten Japanese fighter Akira Yaegashi. Yaegashi started the bout well though unfortunately suffered a facial injury early in the bout that forced him to concentrate more on protecting himself than trying to defeat Junlaphan who would take a clear decision to defend the title once again. Following the Kyowa Buildings Company going out of business in 2007 Junlaphan would be forced to change his name once again, this time settling on “Eagle Den Junlaphan”, effectively reverting to his birth name whilst also incorporating his popular nickname. Junlaphan's one, and only, title defense under his real name came in November 2007 as he fought in Thailand for the first time since moving to Japan. Facing off against the unbeaten Oleydong Sithsamerchai in what is sometimes misreported as being the first ever all-Thai world title bout. Unfortunately a rather flat looking Junlaphan was narrowly out-pointed by Sithsamerchai who recorded the upset by being quicker and slightly more versatile in the bout than Junlaphan. After the loss to Oleydong there was a lot of talk about a rematch between Junlaphan and Oleydong, there was also talk of Junlaphan facing the then unbeaten Koki Kameda. Unfortunately neither of these contests took place and in 2008 Junlaphan returned to Thailand and officially from boxing later that year with a stellar record of 18-2 (6). In the ring Junlaphan was incredibly popular with the Japanese fans. He may have been a foreigner by birth but the fans took to him almost immediately thanks to his skills, heart and personality. In the ring one of his keys strengths he was able to read situations incredibly well and he often managed to slip shots whilst landing his own hurtful counters whilst in the pocket. As well as his counter punching ability he was able to box on his toes, as he showed against Trejo, and he was able to wage war on fighters when needed as he did with Mayol. Unfortunately for fans in the West Junlaphan is a bit of a forgotten man despite the notable victories over Aguirre, Takayama, Mayol and Yaegashi as well as the very memorable bout with Trejo. Sadly this is down to a combination of reasons, including the emergence of Ivan Calderon as a top fighter on the world stage, the general view of the Minimumweight division in the West and the fact Junlaphan only fought in Thailand and Japan. The video below, as mentioned above, shows Junlaphan's memorable contest with Mayol and is thanks to Vizathas. As well as the fight the video includes some build up including comments by both men (with Mayol's being made in English). |
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