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Filipino icon Nonito Donaire is one of boxing's real good guys and his boxing ability, along with his personality have made him one of the most well liked fighters in the sport. Outside of the ring Donaire has been part of songs and music videos, and had a number of tracks recorded for him. They include "In a Flash", recorded by Q-York, Jay R, Kris Lawrence and featuring Donaire himself in the video. This isn't our type of music, but it is catchy enough and does show quite a bit of Donaire in the official video. Not great, but certainly not the worst thing we've seen in the series of music themed videos.
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For this week's Asian fight with English Language commentary we though we'd cover Naoya Inoue's final bout at Super Flyweight. That saw him take on French fighter Yoan Boyeaux in Yokohama. The bout wasn't one of Inoue's most amazing performance, but was a solid performance against a long, rangy, taller challenger, in what was one of the very final bouts of 2017. The following year he burst on to the wider public consciousness as he announced himself on the Bantamweight division, and later won the WBSS. Last week we including "Pancho Villa" by Sun Kil Moon from the album "Ghosts of the great highway" and we stick with Moon and that album this week as we go to their long and touching song "Duk Koo Kim", which again takes it's title from an Asian fighter. The fighter in question is another tragic figure from Asian boxing, with the man in question being Duk Koo Kim, who famously passed away following a Lightweight world title bout with Ray Mancini. We think every fight fan is aware of the fight, which saw Kim being stopped in round 14 and his death having massive consequences beyond just himself, with the referee and Kim's mother both committing suicide following the bout. The bout was also responsible for the change from 15 to 12 round fights in the years that followed. The song is one that will appeal, musically, to some, but even if it's not musically to everyone's taste it's nice to think that Kim's death touched an American musician so much that around 20 years later he would record a song regarding Kim. In a few days time we'll see Daigo Higa back in the ring, as he fights for the second time since a lengthy suspension from the ring. For this week's English dub, we've decided it was a perfect time to look an older Higa bout. With that in mind we though there were few bouts better suited to one of these English language commentaries than his second defense of the WBC Flyweight title, which saw him take on Moises Fuentes at the Prefectural Bodukan in Naha. At the time of this bout Higa was 14-0 (14) and the 22 year old looked like a star in the making. Fuentes on the other hand was 25-4-1 (14) and at 30 years old was looking like a man who had, perhaps, seen better days. American music Mark Kozelek put together a quartet that recorded music under the name Sun Kil Moon, which was inspired by the great Korean fighter. The debut album by the group was "Ghosts of the Lost Highway" which was originally released in 2003, and then re-released in 2007. The album has several tracks with titles and lyrics inspired by boxers, including the 10th and final track from the original release, "Pancho Villa". Pancho Villa is of course the Filipino great from the early 1900's who fought between 1919 and 1925, and ran up a record of 77-4-4 (22), at least from what we know. He was only 23 when he died but his place in history is vital with the Filipino being the first ever Asian world champion. The track, which is completely in English, talks about Villa and references him, his age when he died and the Philippines in what is rather touching song about one of boxing's many tragic figures. In August third generation Japanese fighter Keisuke Matsumoto (0-0) made his professional debut, taking on experienced 32 year old Hironori Miyake (9-9-2, 1), who had never previously been stopped. Prior to this bout Fuji TV had done a number of TV shows featuring Matsumoto and the hope was that he would show what he could do here against a durable, tough and tricky foe. This was, on paper, a very good debut bout for Matsumoto and it proved to be a bout worthy of giving the English Language Treatment to. Japanese folk-rock band Alice aren't the most famous band in Japan but they are a relevant one for us as their 1978 track "Champion", from "Alice VII" is very much related to boxing. The track, which is completely in Japanese, tells the story of a veteran champion losing to a younger, fresher challenger. Supposedly the fighter that inspired the song was Cassius Naito, so it's possible that it was his 1974 loss to Masashi Kudo that could have inspired the song. The track went to #1 on the Oricon charts, the Japanese charts, and remained their for 4 weeks. It was a more Rock like sound than most Alice sounds, and is a pretty solid track, even if the story of the lyrics aren't something a non-Japanese speaker will under-stand. Back in August 2020 we saw the highly touted debut of the fantastic Ryutaro Nakagaki (0-0), who won a string of amateur titles before signing with the Ohashi gym and turning professional this year. In his debut he took on Shohei Horii (3-5-2, 2) at the Korakuen Hall. Here we have given his the bout the English language treat, giving it a lick of English language commentary in an attempt to make the fight, and fighters, more accessible to a Western audience. And if we're being honest Nakagaki is someone worthy of attention. He's got a lot of promise, a lot of skill, and the potential to be a genuine Japanese star of the future. Make a note of his name. Thailand's legendary Saensak Muangsurin is someone many newer fans to the sport may not have heard of, but they really should have. In the 1970's he set a then record for winning a world title in his third professional bout, a record that still stands for men now decades later., with only Vasyl Lomachenko managing to tie it. The Thai was a huge puncher in Muay Thai and had immediate success in professional boxing, though ended up having a rather short professional career. Despite his short career his legacy has lived on and there's several songs dedicated to him. They include this one, which we've been told is titled "Dangerous" and was recorded by Noppadon Duangporn. The song has a real old school sound to it and is very much an easier listening track than some of the songs we've included in this feature recently. A big shout out to our good friend Kyle McLachlan for bringing this to our attention, we advise all fans of combat sports give Kyle a follow on twitter @pulgasBoxeo |
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