Momo Koseki
Courtesy of http://aokiboxing.com
When it comes to top female fighters it's incredibly difficult to ignore WBC Atomweight champion Momo Koseki (19-2-1, 6) who has shown all the traits any great fighter can have. She's tough as old boots, good on the outside and can control a tear up like so few others. The only thing that she seems to lack is genuine KO power but that's very rarely found in the lower divisions regardless of gender.
Aged 31 Koseki has been the dominant Atomweight for the better part of a decade and is arguably the greatest fighter the division has ever seen. At 31 though she is getting on for a fighter in the lowest division of professional female boxing and we wouldn't expect her to continue her domination for more than a year or two. If one opponent will defeat her it'll be father time.
Koseki was attracted to the sport at an early age from watching the excellent, and highly forgotten, Hiroshi Kawashima defending his WBC Super Flyweight title in the 1990's. From then on it seems that boxing was something she wanted to take part in and whilst female boxing wasn't big in Japan at the time it was something Koseki decided to try her hand at.
Although female boxing wasn't big at the time it seemed set to take off in Japan and in 2003 the country held the first "All Japan Women's Amateur Boxing Championships" Koseki was me of the fighters involved. Whilst the tournament was embryonic to say the least it was a championship that gave us some fantastic fighters, not just Koseki but also the likes of Naoko Fujioka and Etsuko Tada.
In the final 2003 "All Japan Women's Amateur Boxing Championships" Koseki showed her skill as she took won her division beating Etsuko Tada in the final. This result saw her moved claim a place in the 2003 Asian Women's Championships in Hisar, India. Unfortunately for Koseki she ran into K.A.A.Dilrukshi in the opening round and was clearly defeated by a score of 23-15. We believe this was Koseki's first amateur defeat.
Koseki claimed her second national title by winning the Japanese Amateur Champions in 2004 though was unfortunately beaten in 2005 by Tada in the first round and then beaten in 2006 by Yuki Yashiro, the younger sister of Yoshimitsu Yashiro. Thankfully for Koseki she did manage to claim a third national amateur title in 2007 when she looked virtually unbeatable.
After the 2007 that Koseki had she was hoping that female boxing would have been accepted in to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately it wasn't and instead of continuing on her amateur journey she decided to turn professional. We believe leaving behind a 22-4 amateur record.
Aged 31 Koseki has been the dominant Atomweight for the better part of a decade and is arguably the greatest fighter the division has ever seen. At 31 though she is getting on for a fighter in the lowest division of professional female boxing and we wouldn't expect her to continue her domination for more than a year or two. If one opponent will defeat her it'll be father time.
Koseki was attracted to the sport at an early age from watching the excellent, and highly forgotten, Hiroshi Kawashima defending his WBC Super Flyweight title in the 1990's. From then on it seems that boxing was something she wanted to take part in and whilst female boxing wasn't big in Japan at the time it was something Koseki decided to try her hand at.
Although female boxing wasn't big at the time it seemed set to take off in Japan and in 2003 the country held the first "All Japan Women's Amateur Boxing Championships" Koseki was me of the fighters involved. Whilst the tournament was embryonic to say the least it was a championship that gave us some fantastic fighters, not just Koseki but also the likes of Naoko Fujioka and Etsuko Tada.
In the final 2003 "All Japan Women's Amateur Boxing Championships" Koseki showed her skill as she took won her division beating Etsuko Tada in the final. This result saw her moved claim a place in the 2003 Asian Women's Championships in Hisar, India. Unfortunately for Koseki she ran into K.A.A.Dilrukshi in the opening round and was clearly defeated by a score of 23-15. We believe this was Koseki's first amateur defeat.
Koseki claimed her second national title by winning the Japanese Amateur Champions in 2004 though was unfortunately beaten in 2005 by Tada in the first round and then beaten in 2006 by Yuki Yashiro, the younger sister of Yoshimitsu Yashiro. Thankfully for Koseki she did manage to claim a third national amateur title in 2007 when she looked virtually unbeatable.
After the 2007 that Koseki had she was hoping that female boxing would have been accepted in to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately it wasn't and instead of continuing on her amateur journey she decided to turn professional. We believe leaving behind a 22-4 amateur record.
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Following Koseki's decision to turn professional she travelled to Thailand and began her pro career over their with a trio of victories over a trio of debutants. Unfortunately her winning run came to an end in just her 4th professional contest as she was narrowly out pointed by Winyu Paradorn Gym in what was a WBC Atomweight title fight. Winyu became the first ever WBC Atomweight champion due to this victory.
Having lost so narrowly to Winyu things got even more heart breaking for Koseki who would lose her next fight to WBC Light Flyweight champion Samson Tor Buamas in another highly competitive bout that could well have swung the other way. Thankfully for Koseki that would be her last bout in Thailand as the JBC began to finally recognise female boxing in the professional ranks. Despite her experience in Thailand, against world class opponents, and her amateur pedigree Koseki failed in an attempt to claim her B license and instead had to make do with a C class license to start with. Koseki made her Japanese professional debut in May 2008 and defeated Mayumi Kubo via a 4 round decision. The victory over Kubo was quickly followed up by a stoppage against Thailand's Petchsifah Sithkrumad. Having established herself on the Japanese stage and run up back to back victories Koseki was given a second chance to claim the Atomweight title as she met former rival Winyu Paradorn Gym for a second time. This time it was Koseki having her hand raised as she scored a 2nd round TKO over Winyu to claim the title and become one of the first female fighters in history to win a "big 4" world title in Japan. Having worked so hard to in her world title it was obvious that Koseki wasn't going to just let it go. This showed as she hardly dropped a round in her first defense, comprehensively defeating Hye-Min Kim. Soon after the victory over Kim fans got to see Koseki retaining again, this time over Japanese foe Nao Ikeyama. The Ikeyama bout, despite being a world title fight, was well down the card which also featured 4 other title bouts, including Takashi Uchiyama defending his OPBF Super Featherweight title against Thong Por Chokchai. Koseki's third defense of her title saw her defending her belt against Teeraporn Pannimit. The two fighters had met in Koseki's second fight though since then Pannimit had improved as a fighter and had actually defeated Winyu. Despite the additional experience for Pannimit she couldn't over-come Koseki who ran away with a clear decision on the undercard of Koki Kameda's bout with Daisuke Naito. The fourth defense by Koseki came on yet another big undercard. This time, defending her title against Gun Joo Shin, Koseki shared the card with bouts that Pongsaklek Wonjongkam against Koki Kameda and Oleydong Sithsamerchai against Yasutaka Kuroki. Having won 7 straight fights in Japan whilst hardly losing more than a round or 2 per fight Koseki's winning run expectedly came to a halt as she took on Masae Akitaya. The bout, which ended in a technical draw, saw Akitaya suffer an accidental injury forcing the bout to be stopped after 3 rounds. Although the ending was unsatisfactory for fans it did mean that Koseki retained her title for the fifth time. Koseki returned to the ring 5 months after the Akitaya bout and featured on an all female card as she stopped Krikanok Islandmuaythai in 5 rounds. The same card also saw Naomi Togashi, Naoko Fujioka, Naoka Shibata, Kayoko Ebata and Anabel Ortiz all in action with Fujioka winning her first world title. Koseki's defenses kept piling up and her next two defences saw her dominating Mami Ito and Jujeath Nagaowa in very one sided bouts. So one sided were these that Koseki managed to find time to have a public exhibition with Argentina's hugely popular Yesica Yolanda Bopp. Amazingly after 8 defenses Koseki was then given the stiffest test of her career as Saemi Hanagata gave a stirring performance. Unfortunately for Hanagata her performance wasn't good enough to win her the title despite winning her some new fans. Although Hanagata put on a great performance it was fair to say that Koseki wasn't herself and it transpired that she had been rather ill before the bout with reports suggesting that she was suffering from the Novovirus which would have explained why she had looked so flat in the fight. Despite the relatively poor performance against Hanagata the JBC had felt that Koseki was the standout female fighter for the year and awarded her the title of female MVP for 2012 recognising her great achievement of 9 successful defenses. Having fought twice in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Koseki was unexpectedly busy in 2013 as she recorded 3 more defenses of her title. The first of those saw her shutting out the limited Maria del Refugio Jimenez Cruz in a disappointingly one-sided contest, the second saw her travelling to China to stop Eun-Young Huh in 5 rounds, in what was Koseki's only outside of Japan since her loss to Samson Tor Buamas in Thailand, and the third saw her taking a hard fought decision over Nora Cardoza in a bout that saw both suffering cuts. Since the Cardoza contest Koseki has been pivotal in the development of Mako Yamada who was sparring with her prior to winning the WBO Minimumweight title in South Korea earlier this year. That same sparring also helped Koseki to defend her title against Thailand's previously unbeaten Angor Onesongchaigym. The victory over Angor saw Koseki scoring her 13th successive title defense and in the process she tied a national record, drawing level with the great Yoko Gushiken. She has since recorded her 14th defence with an 8th round stoppage victory over Britain's Denise Castle and set a new national record as a result of the win. When it comes to the future we'd love to see Koseki in a unification with WBA Atomweight champion Ayaka Miyao. It's probably our Asian female dream bout, though for now it'll be great to just follow Koseki and her exceptional reign as WBC champion. For all the skill Koseki has she does have some complaining about some of her tactics involving her head. Unfortunately due to Koseki being so tough she doesn't seem to mind the odd headclash whilst some opponents have come off far worse than her, as seen in her rematch with Winyu and her bout with Akitaya. For those wanting to see Koseki in action we've included the video of her bout with Maria del Refugio Jimenez Cruz from last year. The video, courtesy of Boxing KO, shows the fight in full so enjoy. |
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