We continue our look at under-rated fighters by look at the first decade of this current century and we suspect some of these names will be more familiar to some fight fans than some of the other names we've features.
As with the other articles in the series we have got a few basic rules in place regarding eligibility. Firstly none of the fighters here can have won a world title at any point during their careers, that means not only in the relevant decade, but at all. To be considered for any decade a fighter might have either fought during 5 years of the relevant decade, just that decade, or more than half of their career in that decade. As a result of those rules we will also only be considering their records for that decade, which will be mentioned alongside their career records where necessary. Also just for clarity we are only considering Asian fighters for this series. Where a fighter fights in multiple decades, as long as they fill one of the criteria, they can be considered for multiple decades. Also please note this isn't a comprehensive list of over-looked fighters from the decade and the list could have been much, much longer than it is. Jess Maca (Career tally 48-23-6 (18); record during the 00's 11-7-3 (2)) On paper Jess Maca's record for the decade isn't anything to write home about, and his 1990's was a much more productive decade for the "Japanese Killer". The reality however is that he was still very much an under-rated fight in the 2000's, despite only fighting 21 of his 77 career bouts in the decade. He was not only a continual nightmare of an opponent, but also picked up some of best results in a decade where he wasn't his most effective. Maca entered the decade as the OPBF Bantamweight champion and almost claimed the PABA "interim" Super Bantamweight title as the decade began, fighting to a draw in Thailand with future world champion Yoddamrong Sithyodthong. In late 2000 he continued his run of form in Japan as he defeated future world champion Katsushige Kawashima. In 2001 he then added wins over Masayuki Arinaga and Ryuichi Minoriyama and Hiroaki Murakoshi before being robbed against Masakazuu Sugawara. In 2003 Maca's run against Japanese fighters, which had began in the 1990's, came to an end when he was beaten by Hozumi Hasegawa and from there his career never really got going again with regular set backs as he went 6-6-1 and suffered both of his career stoppage losses. Whilst that was a bad run he did still pick up a notable win over Makyo Sugita in Japan and went the distance with Terdsak Kokietgym. Sadly though by 2007 he was a lesser fighter than he once was, and retired following a 2007 loss to Alexander Bakhtin. By that point Maca was 35 and he had seen better days. Jung-Bum Kim (Career tally 32-3-1 (28); record in the 00's 20-2 (18)) Dubbed the "Oriental Express" Jung Bum Kim was an absolute nightmare on the Oriental scene and he showed it through the decade. He had ended the 1990's as the South Korean Light Welterweight champion and despite losing the belt in 2001, to Hwan Young Park, he quickly reclaimed the title, stopping Sung Woon Cha. In 2004 Kim moved up in levels and claimed the OPBF title Masakazu Satake in 2 rounds to claim the belt. Sadly following that bout he lost in his US debut, to Arturo Morua, but returned back to Asia and made 5 defenses of the OPBF title, all by stoppage. In fact after losing to Morua we saw Kim go 9-0 (9). Sadly Kim's competition, for much of the decade, was lacking, but watching him in action it's clear he deserved some better dancer partners. Sadly the era was a bad one at 140lbs for Asian fighters. Wins over Satake and Sataporn Singwancha were as good as things got for him. He could have done more, but was still a total nightmare in a division that was sadly void of regional contenders at the time. Choi Tseveenpurev (Career tally 36-7-1 (24); record in the 00's 22-2 (14)) British based Mongolian Choi Tseveenpurev had a bizarre decade that could, and probably should, have resulted in a lot more attention than it. He was rough, tough, heavy handed and exciting but sadly spent much of the decade going up against over-matched opposition who really shouldn't have been in the ring with him. Choi won his first 3 bouts of the decade before losing a decision to Willie Limond in Scotland. Following the loss Choi reeled off 9 straight wins, but they were hard to get too excited about, other than a win over the previously unbeaten Livinson Ruiz. That winning run came to an end in 2004 when he lost a razor thin decision to Lehlo Ledwaba, who had been the IBF Super Bantamweight champion just a few fights earlier. That loss showed that Choi was a good fighter and thankfully acted as a turning point, helping him face better opponents. Following the Ledwaba bout we saw Choi go 10-0 (8) for the decade and have his most notable wins. They included a decision over the then 9-0 Kevin O'Hara, a KO against the then 13-0 Nikoloz Berkatsashvili, a decision over the then 10-0 Abdul Tebazalwa and a massive KO over the then 20-0 Derry Matthews. Although not a world beater Choi was a massive danger man, with an iron chin, rock fists and the ability to beat better competition than he faced. A reach shame he didn't get the opportunities his talented deserved more frequently though the decade. Z Gorres (31-2-2, 17) The tragedy of Z Gorres is something that every fan from the decade will likely know all too well. Gorres was one a trio of talented Filipino fighters making waves under the ALA banner, alongside Rey Bautista and AJ Banal. Unlike Bautista and Banal however Gorres wasn't a puncher, but was a fantastic boxer with brilliant balance, and boxing IQ. Of the trio Gorres was the most talented and the best boxer, by quit some margin. After a rather busy start to his professional career, which began in 2000, Gorres would sadly see his unbeaten start come to an end in the summer of 2003, when he was stopped by fellow Filipino Edgar Rodrigo. The loss to Rodrigo was followed by Gorres moving up in weight and scoring noteworthy wins over Sairung Singwancha, Wisanu Kokietgym Glenn Donaire. These led to him getting a world title fight with Fernando Montiel in 2007, and losing a razor thin split decision to the Mexican. Despite losing to Montiel that wasn't the end for Gorres who would bounce back with a win over Eric Ortiz, a controversial draw with Vic Darchinyan, and noteworthy wins against Cruz Carbajal and Luis Melendez. Sadly however Gorres career came to an end following a brain injury he suffered against Melendez. He was only 27 at the time. In another timeline Z Gorres was a world champion, sadly however in this one he is one of the unluckiest fighters out there and his career really was ended too soon. He seemed on the verge of a second world title fight, and had been genuinely impressive. A real talent, and one of those sad tales of what could have been. Thankfully Gorres has recovered from his injury enough to enjoy life, but sadly more than a decade later he remains one of the big "what if..." stories of Filipino boxing. Almazbek Raiymkulov (27-2-1, 15) There was a time when "Kid Diamond" Almazbek Raiymkulov was looking like he was going to go far in the sport. He was exciting, aggressive and the rare type of fighter that had US TV backing him for a good while, despite being completely unable to pronounce his name. Sadly Raiymkulov failed to reach the heights expected of him, but that's now seen him become rather under-rated now a days. Raiymkulov began his career in 2001 and won his first 20 bouts before fighting to a draw with Joel Casamayor, a result that looks brilliant on reflection. That draw had followed stoppage wins over the likes of the then 10-0 Ray Narh, Jose Luis Soto Karass and the then 17-0 Koba Gogoladze. Sadly the draw with Casamayor was followed by a loss to Nate Campbell. He would bounce back with wins against the likes of Emanuel Augustus, Miguel Angel Huerta and Javier Jauregui. Sadly Raiymkulov would end his career after a stoppage loss to Antonio DeMarco. He had failed to reach the heights some had expected for him, but in reality he had a really solid resume and certainly shouldn't be as forgotten as he is now. Not a world champion, but very much a fighter who had a number of solid wins. Yuki Murai (Career tally 21-18-5 (7)); record during the 00's 13-13-3 (4)) This series has been built around lots of fighters with misleading records, and Yuki Murai is another great example of a misleading record. During the 00's he won less than half of his career bouts, but he faced a who's who, and proved himself as a genuine tough nut giving world class opponents very real tests. From his 12 losses during the decade not a single fighter managed to stop him and instead he was seen a genuine banana skin. A tough, rugged banana skin. Murai entered the decade with a 2-1-1 record and would fight a number of lower level bouts at the start of the decade, suffering a couple of low key losses along the way. As he began to step up his level of competition however he began to prove himself as an awkward fighter. He managed to push Chatchai Sasakul, Somsak Sithchatchawal, Sompoch Harnvichachai and Teiru Kinoshita, with Kinoshita and Sompoch both being taken right down to the wire. Although Murai failed to secure any wins of real note in the 00's he managed to give much better fighters, much tougher tests than he had any right to. He was so tough and such a nightmare than no one who got in the ring with him had an easy time and he was being brought over to face title level fighters to help toughen them up test them. Murai's career was never going to be that of a world champion but he made a career out of being a headache. He was the perfect "journeyman" and managed to give a legitimate effort every time he stepped in the ring. Vitaliy Demyanenko (Career tally 22-0 (12); record in the 00's 17-0 (11)) In recent years we've seen a lot of notable Kazakh fighters making their mark on the sport. One man who often falls between the cracks in Kazakh boxing history is Vitaliy Demyanenko, who fought much of his career in the 00's and seemed like he was a man close to banging on the door for a big fight, but never landed it. Demyanenko made his debut in 2005 and reeled off a bunch of low key wins in Kazakhstan before stepping up and beating the likes of Esteban de Jesus Morales, Kiatchai Singwancha, Arnel Tinampay, Anderson Clayton, and even moved over to the US to score a couple of wins before the decade was over. Whilst Demyanenko is certainly not a "lost Golovkin" his career really could have ended better than it did. His win over Arnel Tinampay showed what he could do, with Demyanenko being one of the few to actually take a clean win over the tough Filipino. He probably deserved a top tier fight before hanging them up, but is instead someone who saw their career fritter away in the early 2010's. A real shame, but also a solid fighter who helped prove their was some capable fighters in Kazakhstan, along with the top, top names. Norio Kimura (Career tally 35-7-2 (19); record during the 00's 25-4-1 (16)) It's fair to say that Norio Kimura is not a name that will stand out to many, and in fairness it probably shouldn't. He entered the decade 12-3-1 (3) and had won just 1 of his 4 towards the end of the 1990's. He then actually lost his first bout of the 00's. And then he went on a bit of a tear with some notable results and a good climb through the rankings that eventually resulted in a world title fight. Kimura's most notable results during the decade included a technical draw with Tadashi Yuba, as well as wins over Junichi Ono, Shingo Eguchi, Motoki Sasaki, Shinya Nagase, and Kenryo Matsumoto. He essentially dominated the Japanese domestic scene at 140lbs during the decade, running up an impressive 13 title defenses over a 5 year reign. Sadly Kimura's career is probably best known internationally for his 2008 loss to Andriy Kotelnik, but the reality is that Kotelnik was never an easy out for anyone and that loss shouldn't over-shadow the fact Kimura was a 2-weight Japanese national champion. The loss to Kotelnik stands out, but his achievements regularly get over-looked. Nobuhito Honmo (Career tally 29-5-2 (5); record during the 00's 16-2-1 (2)) One of the most criminally under-rated Japanese fighters in recent years was the tough and talented Nobuhito Honmo, who is well known internationally for facing Edwin Valero, but did so much more during career. In fact not did he give Valero one of his toughest bouts but he also recorded a good number of solid wins during the decade. Honmo had started his career in the 1990's and gone 13-3-1 before we entered the 00's. He hadn't scored any wins of note, and didn't really enter with any real momentum. What little momentum, he did have was pretty much squashed immediately when he lost on his US debut against Amador Vasquez. Following that loss however Honmo went on a 17 fight unbeaten run which included noteworthy wins over Eiichi Sugama, Kinji Amano, to win the Japanese Super Featherweight title, Hidekazu Matsunobu, Koji Arisawa, Tsuyoshi Nakamura, Keita Manabe and Jimrex Jaca, with that win netting Honmo the OPBF title Super Featherweight title. Sadly for Honmo he would end the decade with a loss, losing in 8 rounds to the then WBA Super Featherweight champion Edwin Valero, becoming only the third man to last more than a round with Valero. Having book ended the decade with losses Honmo's success in the decade was really credible going 16-0-1 between his defeats. To add in the fact he was a total non puncher makes it even more impressive. He got where he got on skills, durability and ring craft. He was a very smart boxer with a sharp jab and with 8 defenses of the Japanese title he was very much a success story of the decade. Despite the loss to Valero. Trash Nakanuma (Career tally 27-6 (12); record in the 00's 13-4 (8)) One man who certainly didn't live up to his name was Trash Nakanuma, he certainly wasn't trash. In fact he was one of the more notably Flyweight contenders of the decade and a nightmare to fight. He was physically strong, had a good work rate, incredibly tough and had under-rated power. Those were all tools he showed off against some top fighters during the 00's, before retiring in 2006. In 2000 Nakanuma recorded 3 wins before upsetting Panieng Poontarat in 2001 to put himself on the map. In 2002 he scored one of the biggest wins of his career, beating Takefumi Sakata in a brilliant bout to claim the Japanese Flyweight title. He would lose the title to Sakata a year later after defending the belt twice. The loss to Sakata was then followed by a razor thin loss to Noriyuki Komatsu and then a very competitive loss to Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Nakanuma would avenge the loss to Komatsu in 2004 but lost in a second world title fight, to Lorenzo Parra. That was the start of the end for Nakanuma who fought in a couple of low key bouts to end his career. Although not a world beater the fact Nakanuma pushed both Wonjongkam and Parra close in world title bouts showed he belonged at that level. He held Japanese and OPBF honours and was a very tough man to beat. Yes he lost 4 bouts during the decade but absolutely nobody had an easy time with Nakanuma. He was a real nightmare to fight and deserves more than to be remembered for just his fighting name.
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We've looked at the 1960's, 70's and 80's and now we look at the 1990's as we continue to look at some under-rated fighters. The 1990's was an interesting decade, as the IBF and WBO world titles gave fighters more options than ever, but again we're only considering fighters who never won world titles.
This week we have fighters from South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan as we look at some of those fighters that are over-looked, having misleading records and are better than people realise! To be considered for any decade a fighter might have either fought during 5 years of the relevant decade, just that decade, more than half of their career in that decade, or had most of their most notable bouts during that decade. As a result of those rules we will also only be considering their records for that decade. Also just for clarity we are only considering Asian fighters for this series. Where a fighter fights in multiple decades, they can be considered for multiple decades. Also please note this isn't a comprehensive list of over-looked fighters from the decade and the list could have been much, much longer than it is and we may do a second volume in the future. Jung Oh Park (Career tally 27-4-3 (20); record during the 1990's 13-2-2 (11)) Fans who have followed the sport since the 1990's will likely recognise the name Jung Oh Park. In 1995 he suffered a 4th round TKO loss to Ike Quartey in a WBA Welterweight title bout. That was a whooping for Park and sent him into retirement. Sadly that's pretty much the only bout Western fans will know him for, and the other 16 bouts he had during the decade won't get a second thought. For us however Park needs to be measured on what he did do, which was dominate the Asian Welterweight scene through much of the 1990's. Park was the Korean national champion and sported a 14-2-1 (9) record when we headed into the 90's. By the end of 1990 he had added the OPBF title, stopping Yong Bae Cho. From there he would make 13 successful defenses, including successful defenses against Jintoku Sato, who dominated the Japanese national scene, and Hiroyuki Yoshino. Not only did he have a lengthy run with the OPBF title but he was also thrilling to watch, with an exciting, aggressive style that really made some of his bouts brutal to watch. Sadly by the time Park fought Quartey he had shown some serious signs of decline and had failed to win either of his 2 previous bouts. He was only 27 going into the Quartey bout but was an old 27 and had absolutely no answer to Quartey's jab. The gulf between Oriental level and world level was huge, but at Oriental level Park was king for the first half of the 1990's. Jong Kil Kim (Career tally 22-12-4 (14); record during the 1990's 14-6 (8)) The career of Jong Kil Kim is a genuine oddity, with a record that is baffling. He entered the 1990's with a record of 7-5-4 (6), with his final bout coming into the decade coming in December 1988. Not only that but his final 5 bouts of the 1980's had seen him go 0-2-3. It took until 1993 for him to re-appear in the sport but by the end of the decade he certainly made a mark, despite only adding 20 bouts to his record during the decade. Between January 1993, when Kim returned to the ring, and the end of February 1995 he had gone 3-4 for the decade, with losses to Jong Hoon Yuh and Hiroyuki Sakamoto. Despite that poor start to the decade he would then go 12-2 with noteworthy wins over Jung Bum Kim, Jong Jong Pacquing, Jong Hoon Yuh and Hisao Arai. Not only did he score those 4 good wins but he also became a 2-time Korean Light Welterweight champion and the OPBF champion, losing the belt just days before the decade was over. Interestingly 3 of Kim's 6 losses for the decade came against Jong Hoon Yuh, with him beating Yuh in their 4th meeting. Despite having so many losses Yuh was a tough nut, he was never stopped, was in with some serious punchers and managed to have many of his best results the wrong side of 30. He was never a world beater, but he was a lot better than his record suggests, and his win over Pacquing was a brutal war for those interested in something to watch! Faisol Akbar (Career tally 16-6-3 (3); record during the 1990's 14-5-2 (3)) We're going to preface this by stating that we don't think many Indonesian fighters have complete complete records. We think a lot of Indonesian fights are missing. With that said we can only go what boxrec report, unless another source is more complete, and we find it hard to not include Faisol Akbar based on his 19 recorded bouts for the decade. Akbar's first recorded bout came in 1990, in fact his first 3 recorded bouts came in 1990, before he seemingly went off the radar. By 1993 he had apparently amassed a 16-3 (3) record when he fought to a draw with Korean Oh Kon Kim for the first time. The two would rematch later that year with Kim taking the win and the OPBF title. Around 11 months after losing to Kim, Akbar resurfaced and fought to a split decision loss to Ronnie Magramo. Just a month later he recorded the first of two wins over future world champion Muhammad Rachman. In 1997 Akbar added another major win to his record as he beat Wandee Singwancha, to claim the IBF Inter-Continental Minimumweight title. That win lead to a 1998 show down with Zolani Petelo for the IBF world title, with Akbar losing a very close split decision in South Africa to the champion. Whilst it's hard to know exactly what Akbar's record should be it's fair to say that wins over Rachman, twice and Wandee as well as a split decision loss to Petelo show his quality and he is very much an under-rated fighter. Reality is that he probably has twice as many fights unrecorded as his boxrec numbers suggest, and he clearly had a lot more talent than the numbers we have suggest. Rey Paciones (Career tally 39-8-3 (11); record in the 1990's 14-5 (5)) We're bending the rules slightly here for Filipino Rey Paciones, who only fought until 1993, but what he did in those 3 years sees him included on the basis that his biggest fights came in the 1990's. It was a decade in which he lost more 25% of the bouts he was in, suffered 1 of his 2 career losses, but was an absolute nightmare to go up against. He could nick an upset when opponents over-looked him and could test real top quality fighters. In 1990 Paciones went 5-0, including an upset win over Tacy Macalos, the following year he went the distance with Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, Yong Hoon Lee and Yasuei Yakushiji. In 1992 he picked up a notable win over Rolando Bohol and took Jung Il Byun the distance, not long before Byun won WBC Bantamweight title. Sadly though his career came to it's end in early 1993 when he was stopped, in the 12th round, by Rolando Pascua. Few fans will remember Paciones, but his opponents will remember the tough Filipino fighter who really was a gatekeeper in the early part of the decade. From his 19 bouts in the decade he lost to 3 future world champions, one former world champion and beat beat 2 former world champions. A very notable and under-rated fighter from the early part of the 1990's. Jess Maca (Career tally 48-23-6 (18); record during the 1990's 37-16-3 (16)) Filipino fighter Jess Maca is not a fighter with a record that would suggesting anything too exciting. This series however loves fighters like this, as Maca's record is so misleading it doesn't even tell a quarter of the story about the "Japanese Killer" who fought from 1990 to 2007. Maca began his career without doing too much of note but did was incredibly busy in the early part of the decade and had 23 fights to his name by the end of 1992. They had included a decision loss to future Flyweight world champion Chatchai Sasakul and going 1-1 with Nolito Cabato. As the decade went on he began to rack up bouts against more and more notable fighters, losing decisions to Saen Sor Ploenchit, Gerry Penalosa and In Jin Chi in 1993. A loss to Daorung Chuwatana in 1994 was another decision against the tough Maca, who went the distance with Chi again in 1995 and Daorung in 1996. He would twice see the final bell against Samson Dutch Boy Gym and also against Veeraphpl Sahaphom. Of course going the distance with world class fighters was only part of Maca's 1990's. In 1997 he beat the then 11-0-1 Masahiko Nakamura in Japan, returning to the Land of the Rising Sun to do the double over Nakamura in 1998, to claim the OPBF Bantamweight title. With the OPBF title around his waist he went on a run of victories in Japan against Setsuo Segawa, Shigeru Nakazato, Shin Yamato and Taiji Okamoto. By the end of the decade he was riding a 9 fight unbeaten run into the new millennium. Yes Maca was no world beater, but he was a tricky out for anyone, and in fact it took until 2003 for him to lose the OPBF title, losing it to Hozumi Hasegawa. He was a nightmare and a genuinely over-looked fighter. Dan Nietes (Career tally 27-10-1 (17); record during the 1990's 24-10-1 (16)) Donnie Neites is a Filipino legend and one of the top Filipino names of recent years. Along with Nonito Donaire and Manny Pacquiao, he has been one of the faces of Filipino boxing. Donnie's uncle, Dan Nietes, on the other hand is an often over-looked fighter who only ever managed to win a GAB title during his career. Despite the lack of wider success he was criminally under-rated between 1989, when he began his career, and 1995, when he had his final bout. Nietes entered the decade with a 3-0 record and would compete in 35 bouts during the 1990's. These included decision losses to Pichit Sithbanprachan, in which he dropped the then 14-0 Pichit who had recently won the IBF Flyweight title, Saen Sor Ploenchit, and a split decision loss to Samson Dutch Boy Gym. He's not as notable as Paciones and Maca, not by any stretch, but with losses in 10 of his 35 bouts it's worth considering who he fought, and tough tests he gave guys like Pichit and Saen Sor. Sadly he lacks in terms of notable wins, but was certainly not an easy out in the early to mid 1990's. Thanomsak Sithbaobay (Career tally 56-6 (33); record during the 1990's 29-5 (20)) Coming through the Super Flyweight scene at the same time that Khaosai Galaxy was dominating the picture Thanomsak Sithbaobay was expected to be the heir apparently for the Thai's. Sadly however Thanomsak failed to win a world title, due in part to some questionable scoring and a real lack of good fortune. Thanomsak headed into the 1990's with a 27-1 (13) record, with his only loss coming in by split decision to Kenji Matsumura in 1987. He had momentum coming into the decade and a feared reputation. Sadly though he would suffer his second professional loss before the end of 1990 as he lost a close decision at Bantamweight to Luisito Espinosa. He bounced back from that defeat and got a shot at his more natural weight, Super Flyweight. He travelled to Japan for that bout and lost a very controversial decision to the hugely Katsuya Oniuka, in a contest for the WBA Super Flyweight title that Galaxy had previously held. Many, including some in Japan, felt the Thai had been robbed and in 1993 he got another bout with Galaxy. Again he was denied with some questionable scorecards in favour of the Japanese star. Following Thanomsak's second loss to Onizuka he reeled off 12 straight wins, including a TKO win over Rolando Pascua, before being stopped by future world champion Sirimongkol Singwancha. The bout ruined Thanomsak who wouldn't fight for 2 years, then returned in 1998 and was stopped by Tetsutora Senrima in 1998. Although perhaps not quite as good as some once though Thanomsak was incredibly unfortunate in both of the bouts against Onizuka and really should have been a champion. Whilst he did get 3 title shots, and was fairly beaten in the first, 2 of them could easily have gone his way. A genuinely unfortunate fighter who deserves to be remembered much more than he is. Yamato Mitani (12-4, 9) It's fair to say that Yamato Mitani may be the toughest guy on this list, even if he wasn't the best. The Japanese Super Featherweight fought from 1993 to 1998 and despite suffering 4 losses in 16 bouts has one of the many misleading records we see when looking at under-rated fighters. He was a former Japanese champion, 2-time OPBF champion and was only ever beaten by 2 men, more about that in a few moments. Mitani had turned professional after going 91-13 in the amateurs. The expectancy was huge for him, and he had signed a monster contract when he turned professional with Misako boxing gym, who had made sure his fights were going to be shown on Fuji TV. Not only did he had a TV deal early on and a notable Japanese promoter but was also matched up with former world champion Tadashi Mihara. Everything seemed to be behind Mitani being a star. Unfortunately for Mitani he found a true nemesis and lost his 5th bout to future world champion champion Yong Soo Choi. He also lost his 9th and 11th bout, both of which were WBA Super Featherweight bouts and both were razor thin decisions to Yong Soo Choi. Within 11 bouts Mitani was 8-3 (7) and had lost a trio of bouts to one of the toughest and roughest fighters of his era. Whilst they were certainly setbacks he certainly achieved a decent amount to. He won the Japanese Super Featherweight title, beating Toshikazu Suzuki, stopped Noree Jockygym for the OPBF Bantamweight title and would later stop Joselito Rivera to reclaim the OPBF title. As well as his 2 OPBF title reigns he also score a notable win over Nobutoshi Hiranaka before losing his final bout to Kengo Nagashima, the second man to beat him. On face value a 12-4 record doesn't look great, but losing 3 razor close fights to Yong Soo Choi really does put into some perspective that he was a lot better than his record indicates. He was rough, tough, heavy handed, and very fun to watch. Hitoshi Kamiyama (Career tally 32-2-1 (20); record during the 1990's 19-1 (13)) We suspect some fans may recognise Hitoshi Kamiyama's name, and will be aware that he fought for the WBA Light Middleweight title in 1992, when he lost to Julio Cesar Vasquez in Argentina. That is probably the most some fans know about Kamiyama, but he ruled the Japanese scene with an iron fist. Despite not being world class. Kamiyama had entered the decade with a 13-1-1 (7) record and the Japanese Light Middleweight champion. When he retired in 1995 he had avenged the one domestic loss, and draw, that he had had from the 1980's and had kept a hold of the Japanese title. In fact he had scored 17 defenses of the Japanese title during the 1990's. That alone would still be a Japanese for the weight class, and that was in just over 5 years of the decade. Whilt the names Kamiyama beat aren't well known internationally they included Pat Lawlor, probably the most famous, Hiroyuki Yoshino, who had marked up Kamiyama's record in the 1980's with the draw and loss, and Akira Ohigashi, who would later win the title and run up 10 defenses of his own. Whilst Kamiyama never made a mark at world level he simply dominated domestically to the point where the title was around his waist from January 1989 to his retirement in 1995. Yes he lost his biggest bout, quickly, but he ruled the roost at home Hiroyuki Sakamoto (Career tally 39-7-1 (29); record in the 1990's 34-3 (25)) One of boxing's true "hard luck" stories is Hiroyuki Sakamoto. Sakamoto was neglected as a child, went into foster care and in recent years has become one of the real good guys of sport, helping kids in the position he was once in. His most notable bouts did come in the 2000's, including losses to Gilberto Serrano and Takanori Hatakeyama, but his work in the 1990's certainly made up the bulk of his career, with 37 of his 47 pro bouts taking place in the 90's. Sakamoto debuted in 1991, won the Rookie of the Year in 1992, won the Japanese Lightweight in 1993 with a win over Rick Yoshimura, and was unbeaten until 1995, when he was out pointed by Juan Martin Coggi. He rebounded quickly and would defeat Jeff Mayweather just 6 months after losing to Coggi, with the win over Mayweather coming in what was Sakamoto's sole US bout. Sakamoto would add to accolades in 1996, when he won the OPBF Lightweight title Sadly for Sakamoto he would go on to lose in would title bouts in 1997, to Stevie Johnston, and 1998, to Cesar Bazan losing both bouts by decision. Despite losing his two biggest bouts of the decade Sakamoto did score noteworthy wins against Rick Yoshimura, Hiromu Kuwata, Jeff Mayweather, Roger Borreros, and Prawet Singwancha before the decade came to a close. Sadly an over-looked fighter, with great will power, heavy hands, a steely determination and a great story. Sakamoto is someone who under-rated in the 1990's but has used boxing to be a platform for bigger things, and deserves, rightfully, to be included in any list of boxing good guy's, as well as this list of under-rated fighters from the 1990's. With the current lack of live fights we've decided to take on an interesting task of looking for the most under-rated boxers from various decades.
We are now on to the third decade in the series, the 1980's. As with the other articles in the series we have got a few basic rules in place regarding eligibility. Firstly none of the fighters here can have won a world title at any point during their careers, that means not only in the relevant decade, but at all. To be considered for any decade a fighter might have either fought during 5 years of the relevant decade, just that decade, or more than half of their career in that decade. As a result of those rules we will also only be considering their records for that decade, which will be mentioned alongside their career records where necessary. Also just for clarity we are only considering Asian fighters for this series. Where a fighter fights in multiple decades, as long as they fill one of the criteria, they can be considered for multiple decades. Also please note this isn't a comprehensive list of over-looked fighters from the decade and the list could have been much, much longer than it is. Chung Il Choi (career tally 14-2, (13); record during the 1980's 9-2 (8)) Korean puncher Chung Il Choi is a rather interesting fighter from the time period, and one of the most exciting. He began the decade with a 5-0 (5) and fought only 11 times during the decade, but a mark, and should have held a world title. Choi began the decade with two blow out wins before take a decision over Yoshitaka Ikehara, in what would be his only bout to last the schedule. Following that win he would score solid wins over Rod Sequenan and Rey Tam. By the end of 1981 he had gone 8-0 (7) for the decade and shot up the world rankings to earn a shot with WBC Super Featherweight champion Rolando Navarrete. The bout between Choi and Navarrete was a barn burner, and a criminally over-looked bout. It was also a highly controversial one with Navarrete being dropped in round 5 and the bell sounding early to end the round. This was as close as Choi came to winning a world title, and he would stopped himself in the 10th round of the bout. He would get a second shot, losing to Rafael Limon 8 months later, after Limon had taken the title from Navarrete. Sadly he was stopped in 7 rounds by Limon, whilst in the lead on all 3 cards. Sadly after losing to Limon in 1982 Choi left the sport. He was only 24 years old and could easily have continued on, but for whatever reason he hung them up instead. Eung Shik Kim (Career tally 20-2 (16), record during the 1980's 19-2 (15)) Korean Light Welterweight Eun Shik Kim fought through much of the 1980's, debuting in 1982 and finishing his career in 1990. During the decade he fought 21 bouts winning the Korean and OPBF titles along the way. Whilst not a big name he certainly left his mark on the regional scene, running up 5 defenses of the OPBF title. The hard hitting Korean took the OPBF title in his 7th professional bout, less than a year after his debut. Whilst his reign was an amazing one it would include 3 notable defenses as he managed to retain the title against Akio Kameda, twice, and Francisco Ferrer. He see his reign end in 1985, when he lost a decision to the then 18-0 Kyung Duk Ahn and never get a chance to avenge the loss. Despite losing the OPE title he continued on beating Tricky Kawaguchi in 1986 and Elmer Leonardo the following year before losing to former foe Francisco Ferrer in 1988. He would only fight twice more after that, with both bouts taking place in Japan, before he hung them up. Given he holds two wins over Akio Kameda, who would get two world title fights, he deserves a mention here, and he's certainly better than his competition would suggest. A real shame he didn't get in with other notable names during his career as he had the power, toughness and skills to be much better known. Neptali Alamag (Career tally 41-9-6 (12); record during the 1980's 14-5-3 (5)) Although more than Neptali Alamag's career took place in the 1970's, including a win over former world champion Venice Borkhorsor, we want to focus on just his work between 1980 and 1986, when he fought for the final time. Durign that time frame he fought 22 bouts and faced a mini who's who. After going 4-1 in 1980 Alamag made his US debut and upset Frankie Duarte, before travelling to Korea and losing a decision to Seung Hoon Lee. He would return to his native Philippines and win 5 in a row before fighting to a draw with future world champion Ji Won Kim. Alamag would prove the draw was no fluke by going the South Korea and again earning a draw with Kim, this time in Seoul, in a rematch. It took until 1983, when he was fighting in his 50th career bout, until Alamag won his first title, the GAB Bantamweight title, when he beat Amado Cabato. The following year he added the OPBF belt to his collection with a KO win over Japan's Mitsuo Imazato, who was the Japanese national champion at the time. Sadly that would be his last big result. Alamag's career ended with a 0-2-1 run in his last 3 bouts, but did include a bout against future world champion Samart Payakaroon in 1984. On paper his 41-9-6 (12) record doesn't look great, and even his record for the decade doesn't look amazing. The reality is that he was a lot better than those numbers suggest and his two draws with Kim were the only marks on an otherwise perfect record for the Korean who retired 16-0-2 (7). Rod Sequenan (Career tally 56-25-5 (33); record during the 1980's 28-11-1 (13)) Although not a rarity in general Rod Sequenan is a rarity in regards to these articles as he fought over 3 decades, beginning his career in the 1970's, fighting through the 80's and sticking with the sport to the mid 1990's. With that said we're really just focusing on the 40 bouts he had during the Freed Decade. Sequenan was never a world beater, but he was the sort of fighter who could pick up the sneaky upsets. He did this against the likes of former world title challenger Sa Wang Kim, twice, Il Bok Lee, a win that net him the OPBF Super Featherweight title, Jin Shik Choi, who was then 9-0, Ronaldo Sumalis and Jong Jong Pacquing. As well as his wins he could, when he was on song, be a nightmare for better fighters. He gave Hwan Kil Yuh fits in the first ever IBF Super Featherweight world title fight, pushed Lester Ellis hard in their first bout and almost upset the then rising Mark Fernandez in 1985. With 11 losses in his 40 bouts during the decade Sequenan was never a true top contender, but was a handful and a banana skin. If you over looked him you could end up being beaten, and he could, on his day, be a real horror to face off with. Francisco Ferrer (Career tally 34-28-7 (16); record during the 1980's 31-16-7, (15)) Having mentioned Francisco Ferrer earlier it's worth speaking about him in more detail as well. The Filipino certainly ended his career badly, losing 12 of his 15 bouts in 1990's, but during the 1980's he was a very capable journeyman who fought at a fairly high level with some mixed results. Ferrer made his debut in 1980 and in 1982 he scored his first win of note beating former OPBF champion Fred Rolando Pastor. He had some mixed results after that but did show what he could do in 1984, when he ran Australian veteran Jeff Malcolm very close, losing a split decision "Down under". He also gave the big punching Akio Kameda a tough bout in 1986, made Seung Soon Lee work for 10 rounds before Lee's 1989 world title bout, beat Eung Shik Kim in their second bout and gave Fujio Ozaki an incredibly tough bout for the OPBF Welterweight title. Sadly for Ferrer he was inconsistent through much of the 1980's. When he was on song he was a threat to anyone on the regional scene, but rarely got over the line in the tougher bouts. He was however much, much better than what his record suggests, even if he does lack the wins to show how good was. Kongtoranee Payakaroon (12-2, 9) Our unofficial "best to not win a title" fighter from the 1980's was Thailand's excellent, smart, and highly skilled Kongtoranee Payakaroon who's professional career ran from early 1985 to 1988 and boy was he matched hard and unlucky. Kongtoranee, the older brother of Samart Payakaroon, had been a fantastic Muay Thai fighter before transitioning to professional boxing in 1985 with a 10 rounder against Ruben De La Cruz. In just his second bout he beat former world champion Payao Poontarat and by the end of the year he had also added a win over former Japanese Light Flyweight champion Kentoku Nakama. Late in 1986 he challenged the sensational Gilberto Roman and came up short against the then WBC Super Flyweight champion. Despite the loss he remained a well respected fighter and just 13 months later got a shot at Khaosai Galaxy. When Kongtoranee faced Khaosai Galaxy the hard hitting Galaxy was 32-1 (29) and had already made 6 defenses of the WBA Super Flyweight title. Galaxy got the decision there, but it was a controversial one, and Kongtoranee deserved better from the judges than he had got. He had spent the fight boxing and moving, flummoxing Galaxy, who never looked comfortable at all with the skills of his challenger. After feeling hard done by against Galaxy we saw Kongtoranee walk away from boxing, returning to Muay Thai and then turning his hand to being a trainer. Prayurasak Muangsurin (21-7, 14) If you look at Prayurasak Muangsurin's record and dismiss him off hand we wonder what you're doing reading this article! He's here not because he lost 25% of his career fights but what he did in the ring, and even when we consider his losses he should still be mentioned in this list. During a career a career that ran from 1982 to 1987 he left his mark on the sport, beat several fighters who reached the top and twice fought for world titles himself. Prayurasak began his career in May 1982 and score 2 wins in his first 2 weeks as a pro. Later that same year he scored a win over future world champion Samuth Sithnaruepol. The following year Prayurasak would defeat Kim Chul Ho, sending the former WBC Super Flyweight champion into retirement. Sadly for Prayurasak the Super Flyweight division wasn't a good one for his punch resistance and in 1984 he was stopped by both Ju Do Chun, the then IBF Super Flyweight champion, and Elly Pical, a future 3 time world champion. After a rough patch following those losses he re-found his form and moved up to Super Bantamweight. It was here he claimed the Thai national title, and then the OPBF title, beating Youn Kap Choi in a lose bout for the Oriental title. This lead to his second world title bout, and sadly that also ended in a loss to the fantastic Seung Hoon Lee in 1987. Sadly that loss was pretty much the end of Prayurasak's career and he only fought twice more. With 3 losses to either reigning or future world champions it's easy to understand how Prayurasak suffered so many losses. Sadly it's the other losses that look bad on his record, but he was very much a contender during his heyday. Hidekazu Akai (19-2, 16) The always exciting Hidekazu Akai was dubbed the "Rocky of Naniwa" and will always be best remembered by Western fans for his 1983 loss to Bruce Curry in a WBC Light Welterweight title fight. There is, of course, so much more to Akai, both in and out of the ring. Whilst we won't discuss Akai's out of the ring successes it should be noted that now in Japan he's probably just a well known for non-boxing activity as he is for his in ring career. That's actually a great tale given that in 1985 boxing almost took his life. Akai started his career in 1980 and reeled off 14 straight wins, with 13 knockouts to begin his career. They included a big win over Fujio Ozaki in the All Japan Rookie of the Year, and saw him reel off 12 straight KO's, setting a then Japanese record. His style saw Asahi began to back him as a broadcaster and despite having not even won a Japanese title he was already getting just as, if not more, popular as Jiro Watanabe. Sadly though he would lose to Bruce Curry in 7 rounds, and fail to win the WBC title. Just over 3 months after the loss to Curry we saw Akai back in the ring, taking a 10 round decision over Yohi Arai before scoring 4 more wins. Sadly a brain injury suffered in a shock loss to Masaharu Owada in early 1985 ended his career, and left him close to death. Thankfully the fighter recovered but would never fight again. Having never won any kind of title Akai is an oddity in many ways. In fact he only ever fought in one title bout, the loss to Curry, yet if you ask Japanese fans from the 1980's about him they will rave about him. It's a real shame that his career ended at the age of 25, though he had certainly left an impression on the domestic stage. Shuichi Hozumi (Career tally 29-5 (8); record during the 1970's 15-5 (6)) Shuichi Hozumi is not someone we think many fans will be familiar with, but he was a pretty major figure in the lower weight classes in the 1980's. He made a big impact on the Japanese scene, twice challenged for world titles and scored a number of over-looked wins. Hozumi began the 1980's with a 10-0 (2) record but really began o make his mark in 1980. That was the year he not only beat former world title challenger Tito Abell, but also the year he upset Tadashi Tomori to become the Japanese Light Flyweight champion. Hozumi's reign as the Japanese champion at 108lbs was a short one though and he quickly moved up in weight, losing in an OPBF Flyweight title bout to Hong Soo Yang. In 1981 he lost for the second time, this time in a bout for the Japanese Flyweight title. He would however settle at the weight in 1982 claimed the Japanese title at Flyweight to become a 2-weight Japanese champion. In 1983 Hozumi got his first world title bout, and lost in 2 rounds to Santos Laciar, the then WBA Flyweight champion. Despite the loss Hozumi really wasn't discouraged and continue to rule as the Japanese Flyweight champion until December 1985. During his reign he beat Koki Ishii in a title defense, Jackal Maruyama in a non title bout and Takashi Sakakibara. Those wins earned him a second world title bout, though he wasn't able to over-come the excellent Hilario Zapara and retired the following year after losing to Oh Kong Son in South Korea. Although not spoke about much anymore Hozumi was a talented fighter, with a technical style, fighting on the outside and he certainly deserves a lot more attention than he gets from fans now a days. Shunichi Nakajima (Career tally 23-7 (13); record in the 1980's 22-4 (12)) We end this with another Japanese national champion who had gone massively over-looked in recent years after being a key fighter in the 1980's domestic scene. That is Shunichi Nakajima, who fought 26 times in the 1980's and was a very solid Super Flyweight. Whilst his most notably bouts came in the 1990's, his biggest successes came in the 1980's, when he went 22-4. Nakajima debuted in 1984 and won his first 6 bouts, including a win over former Japanese title challenger Kazutaka Higa. Just 15 months after his debut he fought for the Japanese Super Flyweight title, and lost a close decision against Tadashi Maruo. Rather than stepping backwards after that loss he continued to be matched hard and sadly suffered 2 more loss, to Rae Ki Ahn in South Korea and Leopard Tamakuma in Japan. He had gone from 6-0 to 7-3 in the space of just 10 months. Despite the set backs Nakajima continued going forward with his career, losing against in 1987 when he travelled to Korea and lost to Byung Kwan Chung in a bout for the OPBF Super Flyweight title. He bounced back immediately from that to beat Masayuki Takahashi in an A Class tournament final. That was followed by Nakajima finally scoring a big win in 1988, when he claimed the Japanese Super Flyweight title with a win over Koji Nishikawa. That began a great run for Nakajima who would defend the title 5 times before the decade was over. By the end of the 1980's Nakajima was world ranked and ready to get a world title fight in the 1990's. Although his record isn't the greatest he did end the decade in the title mix, not something we'd have expected for someone who started their career 7-3. With the current lack of live fights we've decided to take on an interesting task of looking for the most under-rated boxers from various decades. We've already looked at the 1960's and now we move on to the 1970's.
Before we start lets just go over the. Firstly none of the fighters here can have won a world title at any point during their careers, that means not only in the relevant decade, but at all. To be considered for any decade a fighter might have either fought during 5 years of the relevant decade, just that decade, more than half of their career in that decade, or had most of their most notable bouts during that decade. As a result of those rules we will also only be considering their records for that decade. Also just for clarity we are only considering Asian fighters for this series. Where a fighter fights in multiple decades, as long as they fill one of the criteria, they can be considered for multiple decades. Also please note this isn't a comprehensive list of over-looked fighters from the decade and the list could have been much, much longer than it is and we may do a second volume in the future. Chang Kil Lee (26-3-1, 13) Korean fighter Chang Kil Lee is not a name we expect to see anyone mentioning on any kind of regular basis, but may be they should. His career only spanned from 1970 to 1975 but in that time he squeezed in 30 fights, became a 2-time Oriental champion, fought for a world title and was part of history. Lee's career began in a 6 rounder and would take the South Korean Light Welterweight title very early in his career. In 1971 be beat Lion Furuyama for the OPBF Light Welterweght title, to begin his first reign. That first reign featured 5 defenses of the title, before he was stripped in 1973. Despite being stripped of the belt he would recapture it the same year, when he beat beating Pedro Adigue Jr. His second reign saw him notch 4 more defenses before losing it in Indonesia to Wongso Suseno, with Suseno becoming the first Indonesian fighter to win an international title. That would end Lee's career and he retired without fighting again. The loss to Suseno is a notable one, but so to are his other losses, to Ken Buchanan in 1972 and Antonio Cervantes in 1974, in a WBA Light Welterweight world title fight. On the flip side of that are his wins, which included victories over Kazuyoshi Kubokura, Lion Furuyama, Guts Ishimatsu, Hiroshi Shoji, Shoji Tsujimoto, Eagle Sato and Pedro Adigue. That gives him wins over over former and future world champions and a number of domestic champions. Lee won't go down as a big name from Korea, and sadly his losses in his biggest fights will hang over him, but he was a very good fighter on the regional scene. Hyun Chi Kim (23-3, 9) Another very good Korean who had a short career, but a busy one, is Hyun Chi Kim, who fought at Super Featherweight during his career. His entire ran from 1971 to 1975 and like Lee, he made a mark as one of the top regional level fighters, but failed in his biggest bouts. Kim beat future Japanese national champion Sumio Nobata in his third bout, in 1971, and then again in 1972 to claim the OPBF Super Featherweight title. He would defend the belt 3 times, including notable defenses against former champion Suleman Itti Aanuchit and future champion Apollo Yoshio. In 1975 Kim got his only world title fight, taking on Ben Villaflor for the WBA title and lost a split decision in the Philippines to the local star. The bout had a toll on him, with Kim being dropped 3 times. After this he never picked up another, losing in 6 rounds to Tyrone Everett in the US, due to cuts, and then a decision in South Africa to the often forgotten Nkosana Mgxaji. After a trio of losses to end his career Kim retired leaving the sport with on 3 success losses. Sang Il Jung (9-5-2, 3) With just 16 bouts to his name Sang Il Jung is a bit of an oddity here, but someone well and truly worth mentioning due to his short, yet stacked career. In just 16 bouts he faced 4 men who won world titles, and two others who challenged for world level belts, and became a 2-time OPBF champion. He also challenged for a world title himself in what was an incredibly intense career. Less than a year after making his debut Jung won the Korean Light Flyweight title and just months later he became the OPBF champion, beating the then 16-0 Montsayarm Haw Mahachai. In his first defense he defended against future world champion Netrnoi Sor Vorasingh, with the men fighting to a draw. Jung lost the title in January 1978 to future world champion Sung Jun Kim, but reclaimed it less than 6 months later when he defeated Kim. That win earned Jung a world title fight, though he was not match for the then WBA Light Flyweight champion Yoko Gushiken. Following Jung's loss to Gushiken he would defend the OPBF title once, before suffering back to back losses to future world title challenger Yong Hyun Kim. Although Jung suffered 5 losses in his 16 bouts his career was very intense and notable, yet is probably only really remembered for his loss to Yoko Gushiken. Just knowing him for that is harsh given his 2 regional title reigns and his results against Montsayarm, Netrnoi and Kim. Kwang Min Kim (Career tally 22-4-1 (7); record during the 1970's 16-1-1 (5)) The final Korean we're looking at for the decade was the talented Kwang Min Kim, who began his career in 1976 and left his mark on the regional scene at Lightweight. During the decade he fought 18 times and scored several note worthy wins in a short but notable career. In Kim's 7th bout he fought experienced Japanese fighter Mitsuyuki Nakane before taking the South Korean title just weeks later, with a win over Kwang Sun Kim. In his sole defense of the Korean title Kim blew out the previously unbeaten Sang Mo Koo inside a round. The win over Koo was particularly notable as Koo would win the OPBF title at 140lbs the following year. Kim would then look to move towards bigger titles and scored noteworthy wins over world title challengers Rey Tam, Tae Ho Kim and Young Oh Ho. With a 15-0-1 (6) record Kim would get the biggest fight of his career, taking on WBA Light Welterweight champion Antonio Cervantes. Sadly Cervantes's experience and skills would be too much for the Korean who lost a split decision, which really should have been a unanimous decision in favour of the champion from Colombia. He would bounce back from his first loss by beating fellow former world title challenger Fitzroy Guisseppi. Whilst it's not relevant here Kim would fight into the early 1980's, winning the OPBF title and scoring wins over Rod Sequanan and Young Ho Oh. Whilst no match for Cervantes in 1979, few were, Kim had done more than enough to leave his mark on the sport, and is now criminally over-looked, in part due to losing 3 of his last 7 career bouts. Poot Lorlek (8-0, 3) Former Muay Thai great Poot Lorlek had a reputation as a brutal head kicker in his natural sport but then transitioned over to western style boxing for a very short boxing career. Between 1975 and 1977 he fought 8 times and quickly proved he didn't need to be able to kick fighters to make a mark. Whilst Poot's boxing career was short he managed several wins of note, including a decision over future Commonwealth Light Welterweight champion Lawrence Austin and a decision over the then OPBF Lightweight champion Young Ho Oh, in a non-title bout. It's a shame in many ways that we didn't see Poot stick with the sport as he clearly had talent, and had Muay Thai wins over Seansak Muangsurin, who did make a notable impact on professional boxing. In the 1960's article we described Kiyoshi Tanabe as one of the great "What if's" and Poor Lorlek certainly belongs in a similar conversation Fel Clemente (Career tally 13-13-2 (4); record during the 1970's 13-10-2 (4)) On first glance Fel Clemente's record looks out of place here, though like many fighters we featured in the 1960's articles records mean little, it's what a fighter did that is typically the important part of this series and Fel Clemente did an awful lot for a man with such an uninspired looking record. The Filipino turned professional in 1973 and legitimately faced numerous legends during his career, often giving them surprisingly tough tests and even scoring an upset or two along the way. Early in his career, reportedly just his second bout, Clemente travelled over to Japan and stopped Zensuke Utagawa to claim the OPBF Featherweight title. He stopped Utagawa in 6 rounds, when just a few fights earlier it had taken the legendary Ruben Olivares 7 rounds. He followed that win up by fighting to a draw in Honolulu with Mexican veteran Octavio Gomez. In 1975 he lost his unbeaten record thanks to a split decision against the then 25-0 Ronnie McGarvey and suffered another split decision to Gerardo Aceves. Those losses would be part of a look run for Clementem who won just 1 of 5 bouts in a 19 month stretch. Despite the set backs Clemente rebuilt and would go on to take wins over former world champion Romeo Anaya, world title contenders Jose Torres, Ernesto Herrera, Refugio Rojas and Raul Tirado. To end the 1970's Clemente fought Salvador Sanchez and Ruben Castillo, going the distance with both men. Amazingly his stiff run continued into 1980 when he faced Rocky Lockridge, Rocky Gacia and Juan Laporte to end his career. Whilst we're not counting those 3 losses against him here that is just an insane run for anyone. Clemente may not have been a world beater but he was a true gatekeeper, no matter what the numbers on his record state. Eijiro Murata (career tally 24-2-3 (15); record during the 1970's 16-0-1 (10)) We mentioned in our 1960's article that Mitsunori Seki was one of the best never to win a world title, and the same can also be said of Eijiro Murata, the very talented Japanese Bantamweight who got 4 shots at the world title and came incredibly close twice. In fact the similarities between Murata and Seki don't just end at their multiple world title shots, but both also dominated their divisions on the oriental scene with 12 defenses of the OPBF title, however in Murata's case they were spread over the 1970's and 1980's. Murata was a top amateur who missed out on the 1976 Olympics. Having missed out on the Olympics he turned professional and quickly made an impact with a 57 second win over future Japanese Flyweight champion Masaru Fuji. Just months later he stopped former world title challenger Hisami Numata, and then notched wins over future Japanese Bantamweight champions Joe Aaki and Hurricane Teru. Just to explain those wins in a little more context, they were all in his first 6 professional bouts. In 1978 Murata beat Yung-Shik Kim to claim the OPBF Bantamweight title which he defended 4 times before the decade came to an end. Sadly the 1980's was a more notable decade for Murata, when he defended the OPBF title a further 8 times and had 4 world title fights, but for just the 1970's he managed to go unbeaten, beat a number of Japanese champions and win the OPBF title. An impressive decade, despite not being the one with his most notable contests. Shinichi Kadota (Career tally 38-10-1 (25); record during the 1970's 21-6-1 (17)) Japanese southpaw Shinichi Kadota was 20 years old when the decade began and had managed to make a name for himself in LA, fighting at the Olympic Auditorium in LA 5 times in 1969. That gave him momentum heading into he 1970's, which was when he did his best work. In 1970 Kadota went 5-1, losing a decision in the Philippines to the excellent Rene Barrientos before winning the OPBF Lightweight title 4 months later. As the OPBF champion Kadota would make 3 defenses of the title and score a non-title win over Guts Itshimatsu. Sadly for Kadota he would lose the title to Ishimatsu in a rematch 5 months after stopping him. In the summer of 1972, and for most of 1973, Kadota fought in the US. His American bouts included a loss to Jeyvier Ayala but also a huge shock win over former WBC Lightweight champion Chango Carmona. That win lead to Carmona being tested to see if he'd been drugged and essentially ended Carmona's career near the top of the sport. Sadly for Kadota the win, which should have opened doors, essentially ended his run in the US. On his return to Japan he stopped former world title challenger Jimmy Robertson in 4 rounds and moved towards his world title fight. In 1974 Kadota got the big opportunity that his career had been building to, but found out he was no match for the brilliant Antonio Cervantes, who stopped him in the 8th round. Prior to the stoppage the gutsy Kadota had been dropped numerous times. It was his first stoppage loss, but essentially the end of his career. He would fight on for the next 2 years and go 3-2-1 (3), with both of those losses coming by stoppage. Whilst most looking at Kadota's name will see the Cervantes loss, that's really ignoring his OPBF title reign and his wins over Guts Ishimatsu, Chango Carmona and Jimmy Robertson. Not a world beater, but a damn good fighter. Ryu Sorimachi (Career tally 57-12-4 (31); record during the 1970's 27-7-3 (14)) Japanese Welterweight-come-Light Middleweight Ryu Sorimachi just narrowly missed out on being featured in the 1960's version of this series but there was no real way we could ignore him for what he did in the 1970's. It was a decade in which Sorimachi made the OPBF belt his. He may have made "only" 11 defenses but he held the title from October 28th 1970 to March 26th 1979. That means from the entire decade he held the belt in over 100 of the 120 months of the decade. As well as that long reign as the OPBF champion he also held the Japanese title earlier in the decade. Sorimachi entered the decade as the Japanese Welterweight champion, having held the title since January 1969, and would defend it twice in 1970. Later that same year he took a non-title win over former world title challenger Hisao Minami before ripping the OPBF title from Byong Mo Yim, beginning his legendary reign. Whilst he would only defend the belt around once a year he wasn't exactly ducking easy match up, instead wanted to claim a world title. In 1973 Sorimachi got his first world title fight, moving up in weight and losing a razor thin decision to Koichi Wajima for the unified Light Middleweight titles. A loss to Eddie Perkins in May 1974 should have dented his hopes, but they didn't and 5 months later he would get a second world title fight, losing in 7 rounds to to Oscar Albarado as he against challenged for the Light Middleweight titles. Despite those losses he remained the Oriental Welterweight champion and in 1976 notched an excellent defense against Pedro Adigue. In 1978 Sorimachi finally got a world title fight at his weight, Welterweight. That also ended in defeat as Carlos Palomino stopped him in 7 rounds. That was pretty much the end of Sorimachi as a major fighter and he would go 2-2 before retiring, having finally lost the Oriental title in March 1979 to Man Duk Lee Whilst Sorimachi will go down as a man who lost 3 world title fights during the decade his incredibly long run with the OPBF title is incredible and he certainly did more than most during his career. His wins may not match up with some, but he's very much an over-looked and under-rated fighter who dominated the oriental scene for close to a decade. Lion Furuyama (Career tally 38-12-4 (27); record during the 1970's 21-11-3, (16)) A man we mentioned in passing earlier in this article is Lion Furuyama, who deserves to be included here as another under-rated fighter from the disco decade. He entered the decade with 19 professional bouts under his belt but it was the 1970's that really was a much more compelling decade for him with 35 bouts including some against some top names. His first year of the decade was a genuinely intriguing one, with a decision loss to Eddie Perkins, in March being followed 2 months later by a Japanese Light Welterweight title defense against Kazuyoshi Kubokura. Just 4 months after that he became a double champion by taking the OPBF title form Chun Kyo Shin and even fit in a defense of that title before the year was over. In fact during the year he went 5-1-1 (4). Things weren't as good the following year, when he went 1-3, and lost the OPBF title. Despite those set backs he bounced back in 1972, becoming a 2-time Japanese national champion with a win over Hiroshi Shoji. Furuyama got his first world title fight in 1973, losing a clear decision to the then WBA Light Welterweight champion Antonio Cervantes in Panama. He bounced back, defending the Japanese in 1974 before travelling to Italy and facing off with Perico Fernandez for the vacant WBC title. Furuyama was incredible unlucky against Fernandez, losing a highly debated split decision to Fernandez, which had he won would have seen him create history as the first Japanese fighter to win a world title in Europe, something that didn't happen until 2019. The loss to Fernandez began Furuyama's down fall. He would narrowly retain the Japanese title against Battlehawk Kazama then suffer a TKO loss to a then 1-0 Saensak Muangsurin, which was Furuyama's first stoppage loss. That was followed by another as Furuyama's career began to spiral. Thankfully he finally clicked back into form, and made another defense of the Japanese title before facing Muangsurin in a rematch for the WBC Light Welterweight. This time around Furuyama went the distance with the big punching Thai, losing a clear decision to the Thai. That could have been the end, but instead Furuyama would record 4 national title defenses, before losing back to back bouts in 1977 then retiring. Furuyama may never have won a world title, but making a total of 12 defenses of the Japanese Light Welterweight title during his two reigns, as well as winning the OPBF and giving Fernandez such a close bout shows his ability. He could certainly have done more, and with a bit of luck he would got the decision over Fernandez and things would have been very, very different for the man from the Sasazaki Boxing Gym, which would have had a second world champion. |
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