 Courtesy of Boxrec.com To Japanese fans South African Vusi Malinga (21-5-1, 12) is a footnote on WBC Bantamweight title reign of Hozumi Hasegawa who stopped Malinga inside a round. This past weekend saw Malinga fall short in his third world title bout as he was out pointed by brave Englishman Stuart Hall (16-2-1, 7) in what turned out to be one of the fights of the weekend.
With the victory over Maligna we saw Hall becoming the IBF Bantamweight champion claiming a title previously held by Hall's countryman Jamie McDonnell (23-2-1, 10) earlier this year. On paper the logical match up is a contest between Hall and McDonnell in an all-British affair though there is a worry that promotional issues could prevent the bout from taking place with Hall's promoter Dennis Hobson, the former promoter of McDonnell, certainly having a reason to resent McDonnell. The bout between the Brits will likely be made in 2014 with Hobson and Hall getting a nice pay day in return for taking it, though that doesn't mean that Asian fighters shouldn't be eying up the possible winner of that clash. Amongst those ranked by the IBF are Kohei Oba (35-2-1, 14) the #6 ranked fighter and the #12 ranked Ryosuke Iwasa (16-1, 10). Although we'd assume Iwasa was angling for the WBC title, where he is the #1 contender he may view the IBF title as an easier route to the top. For Oba though the IBF title may well be a serious option for a man who effectively in with a real chance of getting an IBF title fight in 2014 or 2015 if that's the route he wishes to persue. We wouldn't favour Oba against Hall or McDonnell, at least not in Britain, but both fights would be very interesting and are certainly more winnable for Oba than bouts with Shinsuke Yamanaka (WBC champion) or Anselmo Moreno (WBA "super" champion) whilst Tomoki Kameda (WBO champion) would likely have Oba well down his list of possible opponents.
0 Comments
 Courtesy of marcaentradas Whilst this coming Saturday isn't a major day for boxing in Asia it is a day that could see several Asian fighters looking at possible future opponents with 3 world title fights taking place, all of which are in divisions where Asian fighters are highly ranked.
For Japanese fans in particular, the bout to be give attention to is in Britain where Stuart Hall (15-2-1, 7) battles former Hozumi Hasegawa opponent Vusi Malinga (21-4-1, 12) for the vacant IBF Bantamweight title. Although the winner of this bout is expected to face former champion Jamie McDonnell (23-2-1, 10) next there are several Japanese fighters with good IBF rankings. Whilst McDonnell (#3) with the IBF is the favourite to face the winner it's fair to say that Kohei Oba (35-2-1, 14), the IBF #6 ranked fighter, and Ryusoke Iwasa (16-1, 10), the IBF #12 ranked fighter would both be looking at the IBF title as a possibility. Neither would be favoured against WBC champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, at best Iwasa would be seen as a 50-50 chances with WBO champion Tomoki Kameda and neither would be fancied against WBA "super" champion Anselmo Moreno. The IBF belt might be their easiest route to a world title. Staying with Japanese fans they'll almost certainly have an indirect interesting in what goes on in Spain as IBF Super Bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez (29-4, 21) takes on South African Jeffrey Mathebula (27-4-2, 14). This is Martinez's first defense and it's expected that the winner of this will be defending against Britain's Carl Frampton (17-0, 12) in 2014. Despite the fact Frampton is the first in the queue it still one of the easiest titles at 122lbs to win due to the fact that the other champions include Leo Santa Cruz and the excellent Guillermo Rigondeaux. The winner will be almost certainly be on the radar of both Hidenori Otake (21-3-1, 9), the IBF #6 ranked fighter, and Yasutaka Ishimoto (23-6, 6), the IBF #9 ranked fighter, who will see the winner here as one of their best chances to take a world title at Super Bantamweight. Whilst the Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight title fights are mostly going to get the attention of Japanese fans the final major contest will be one that should get the attention of Thai fans and Filipino's as well as Japanese ones. This bout, in Argentina, sees WBO Super Flyweight super champion Omar Andres Narvaez (40-1-2, 21) defending his title against David Carmona (16-1-4, 8). From the Thai point of view Narvaez is the only man in the division who could be seen as a better fighter than WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. We don't expect to see a WBC/WBO unification but that is certainly a bout that we'd love. As well as Srisaket other Thai's who may want to keep an eye on this bout are Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (31-5-1, 13), the WBO #7 ranked fighter, Oleydong Sithsamerchai (51-1-1, 17), the #10 ranked fighter, Denkaosan Kaovichit (62-3-1, 26), the #12 WBO fighter, Tepparith Kokietgym (24-3, 14) the #14 ranked fighter and Noknoi Sitthiprasert (46-4, 27) the #15th ranked fighter. For Filipino fans the bout holds interest as Arthur Villanueva (24-0, 14), the #3 ranked fighter, and Mark Anthony Geraldo (29-4-3, 13), the #4 ranked fighter, could both be viewing up the winner as their next opponent. Neither would be favoured against Narvaez but both have the ability to really test him. As for Japanese fighters both Koki Kameda (32-1, 17), the #2 ranked fighter, and Teiru Kinoshita (19-0-1, 3), #13. For Koki it would make sense to make the most of his high ranking and hope that the WBO will have a vacant WBO title due to the "super" status of Narvaez. With Koki looking for a 4th divisional title this bout really does make a lot of sense for him to be keeping an eye on. With 9 of the top 15 WBO ranked Super Flyweights being from the Orient this bout really should be one that has the eye of every Asian boxing fan out there this coming Saturday. |
InternationalWe know that not every fight involves an Asian fighter but a lot of fights do affect Asian fighter. As a result we've decided to add this new section to Asian boxing where we look at selected International bouts. Archives
December 2015
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
