September 20th has certainly been an interesting day in the history of Asian boxing. That's not to say we've had a lot of huge fights but we have had some very interesting events on this day. In 1987 Koreans fans saw one of their boxing hero's Myung-Woo Yuh retain his WBA Light Flyweight title with a stoppage victory against Rodolfo Blanco. This was the 6th defense of the belt by the Korean great known as the "Sonagi". Yuh's reign would last from 1985 all the way to 1991 when he lost the belt to Hiroki Ioka. A rematch with Ioka saw Yuh reclaim his belt which he would defend once more in 1993 before retiring with the Light Flyweight record for most defense and the legacy of being one of the greatest South Korean fighters of all time. On this day in 2010 Japanese fans had mixed emotions. On one hand they saw the always entertaining Kohei Kono come up short in a WBC Super Flyweight world title fight against Tomas Rojas, sadly for Kono this was his second defeat in world title bouts and it would be some 15 months before he got another bout as this level. That loss for Kono was softened somewhat for Japanese fans as Takashi Uchiyama retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 5th round TKO against Indonesian challenger Roy Mukhlis. This was Uchiyama's second defense and came just over 8 months after he had won the title. Since then Uchiyama has gone on to prove himself as one of the divisional elite and one of the hardest punchers in world boxing. As well as the world title fights 3 notable fighters fought their debuts on this day. The first of those was in 1959 when fans saw the debut of future Flyweight king Hiroyuki Ebihara. Ebihara made his debut with a 4th round KO against Kazuhijo Kurihara. In 2001 Thai fans saw the debut of Pornsawan Porpramook. Pornsawan stopped Victor Ranturambee inside a round on his debut and would later become the WBA Minimumweight champion with a narrow win over Muhammad Rachman. Although the win over Rachman is his crowning achievement he is best known for his loss to Akira Yaegashi, in his first defense. The third notable debutant was Ryol Li Lee who debuted in 2005 with a win over Kazuki Murakami. Lee would later go on to win the WBA Super Bantamweight title with a great win over Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym though lost his title in his first defense to Akifumi Shimoda. One interesting birthday to celebrate is that of Thailand's wonderfully named Knockout CP Freshmart. At the time of writing Knockout is training for the biggest fight of his life, against Carlos Buitrago, and his birthday may well be a very quiet one due to his upcoming contest. (Image, of Ebihara, courtesy of boxrec.com)
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One of the most disappointing days in Asian boxing history is September 19th which really has lacked talking points through its history. That's not to say nothing has happened but very little of real importance, sadly. The first bout of note on this day that we came across was back in 1967 when Chartchai Chionoi defended his World Flyweight title against Scotland's Walter Mcgowan. The bout was the the second meeting between the two men and ended much like their first contest with McGowan bleeding profusely from injuries inflicted from the fist of the Thai, unlike the first fight however this bout was fought in the UK and McGowan had to take the defeat in front of his home fans as opposed to travelling around the world to battle with Chionoi who seemed to be involved in a lot of blood baths and wars during his great career. In 1991 Japan's always fun to watch Joichiro Tatsuyoshi claimed his first world title as he defeated Greg Richardson and claimed the WBC Bantamweight title with a 10th round stoppage of the light punching American. This was just Tatsuyoshi's 8th professional bout and due to his style, personality and popularity he became one of the fore bearers in the current upturn in Japanese boxing. It was down to Tatsuyoshi that we got to see fighters like Hozumi Hasegawa who helped bring along more and more great fighters in Japan. Unfortunately up to now fighter since has managed to replicate "Jo's" insane level of popularity though he really was a mega-star of Japanese even when he lost. Just 3 years after "Jo" claimed his world title we saw the debut of future world champion Masamori Tokuyama. Tokuyama would later become the first male world champion fighting under the North Korean flag. Although best known for being "North Korea's first world champion" Tokuyama was actually a really good fighter and scored notable wins over Hiroki Ioka, In-Joo Cho, Gerry Penalosa, Dmitry Kirillov, Katsushige Kawashima and Jose Navarro in a genuinely notable career. In 2004 we saw another notable debutant as Filipino Michael Farenas kicked off his professional career. Farenas scored a 2nd round technical draw with Octavio Aleonar on his debut and would later go on to score a technical draw with WBA Super Featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama. Although not the greatest fighter Farenas has managed to give real problems to some very good fighters such as Uchiyama, Fernando Beltran and Yuriorkis Gamboa. The hope is that Farenas will get another shot at a world title though we do understand opponents not wanting to share the ring with him. Having mentioned two debutants we might as well include a birthday boy. Popular Indonesian journeyman Heri Amol celebrates his birthday today having been born on this day in 1983. With that said happy birthday Heri "Bayi Ajaib" Amol, hope you have a great one! (Image, from the Chionoi Vs McGowan bout, courtesy of boxrec.com) September 18th hasn't been an historically great day in Asian boxing, for whatever reason, but we have still had plenty of fights fall on this day with varying levels of importance. On this day in 1963 we saw a surprising change of title as Thailand's Pone Kingpetch, Thailand's first ever world champion, was stopped inside a round by Japan's Hiroyuki Ebihara, who claimed the unified, WBA/WBC, Flyweight title. Kingpetch went into the fight having previously beaten the great Fighting Harada with a majority decision in Thailand and nobody had expected Ebihara to blast him away like this. Unfortunately for the Japanese fighter his reign was short lived and he lost his titles in a rematch with Kingpetch just 4 months later. It was on this day in 1982 that South Korean great Jung Koo Chang suffered his first professional defeat. Chang, the "Korean Hawk", was narrowly out pointed by the great Hilario Zapata. The fight was Chang's first world title bout as attempted to claim the WBC Light Flyweight title from Zapata ad although Chang did come up short he would quickly avenge the loss, stopping Zapata 6 months later. From then on Chang became a true boxing legend setting a then record number of defenses in the division. In 1999 Kazakhstan's great Vassiliy Jirov successfully defended his IBF Cruiserweight title with a 10th round victory over Dale Brown. This was the first defense from Jirov who would hold that title until meeting American legend James Toney in 2003 and losing a 12 round decision in what was essentially a thriller. Sadly it was also on this date that we last saw Thailand's Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym in the ring. Poonsawat defeated Danilo Pena in what would be his final fight before it was discovered that he suffered from thalassemia and caused him to retire from the sport. Just prior to his retirement Poonsawat was set to fight Cuban sensation Guillermo Rigondeaux and it's a real shame we didn't get to see that bout as it would have been very interesting. (Image, from Kingpetch/Ebihara I, courtesy of boxrec.com) September 17th has been a notable day in Asian boxing history with several notable bouts in the last 30 years as well as the birth of a true legend. The birthday mentioned was that of South Korea's Ki Soo Kim. Kim, a former WBC/WBA unified Light Middleweight and OPBF Middleweight champion, was the first ever world champion from South Korea. Born on September 17th 1939 Kim would be a notable figure in the development of Korea boxing through the 1960's, 70's and 80's though sadly died in 1997 when he was just 57 years old. Japan's Jiro Watanabe successfully defended his WBC Super Flyweight title with a 7th round TKO against Kazuo Katsuma on this day in 1985. This was the 11th straight win in a title bout for Watanabe who recorded the 3rd defence of the WBC belt with the win. As for Katsuma this was his sole world title bout, though was a 2-time Japanese national champion. On this day in 1992 we saw the insanely popular Joichiro Tatsuyoshi lose his WBC Bantamweight title to Mexican challenger Victor Rabanales. Rabanales stopped Tatsuyoshi in round 9 to take the world title from the popular Japanese fighter. This was the first of two meetings between the two men with Tatsuyoshi getting revenge for the loss 10 months later when the Japanese fighter won a split decision over the Mexican. In 1995 we saw an all-Thai world title fight as the great Veeraphol Sahaprom announced himself on the boxing scene. Fighting in just his 4th professional contest Veeraphol managed to take a split decision over the much more experienced Daorung Chuwatana to claim the WBA Bantamweight title. At the time this was the second fastest "race to a world title" in history taking just a fight more than fellow Thai Saensak Muangsurin, who won a world title in his 3rd bout. In 1999 Thailand's Medgoen Singsurat scored a career defining victory as he stopped Filipino Manny Pacquiao and claimed the WBC Flyweight title. Pacquiao, who had failed to make weight, was stopped in round 3 of the bout though would later become one of the sports greatest icons and over the following decade he became one of the faces of the sport. As for Singsurat his reign was short lived. He defended the belt once, defeating Masaki Kawabata before suffering a stoppage loss to Filipino Malcolm Tunacao. (Image, of Singsurat, courtesy of boxrec.com) September 16th hasn't been on of the most action packed days in the history of Asian boxing but is has been a day which has given us some bouts. Some of the most recent notable bouts were back in 2012 when we saw two female world title bouts in Osaka. In one of them Etsuko Tada successfully retained her WBA female Minimumweight title with a very hard fought decision win over Naoko Shibata. The bout was very competitive and suggested that Shibata had the ability to one day become a world champion whilst Tada was given one of the best tests of her career. The other female bout on the same show saw Ayaka Miyao claiming the WBA Atomweight title with a decision win over Mari Ando. This win for Miyao saw her winning a title she still holds to this day and has defended multiple times to become one of the most notable Atomweights in history alongside fellow Japanese fighter Momo Koseki. On this day in 2007 we saw the final great memory of South Korean Yo-Sam Choi. Choi would defeat Terdkiat Jandaeng to claim the WBO Inter-Continental Flyweight title. Sadly just a fight later Choi would suffer life ending injuries and he passed away in early 2008 ending the career of one of the last South Korean world champions. In 2005 we saw the final bout for Mongolian fighter Lakva Sim who defeated Ebo Elber in a WBA Lightweight title eliminator. Sim nevr managed to get the subsequent world title bout and retired aged 32 as the first, and only, Mongolian to have won a world title. (Image, of Sim, courtesy of boxrec.com) September the 15th may have been one of the days with the fewest bouts of note in Asian boxing history. In fact there is so little action that many of the bouts taking place on the same show. The show in question came on September 15th 2008 when Japanese fans were treat to a world title triple header to remember. At Super Bantamweight fans got to see Toshiaki Nishioka claim the WBC interim Super Bantamweight with a win over Thailand's Napapol Sor Rungvisai. Just a few months later Nishioka saw his title upgraded to the full version of the belt and he would later become one of the real faced of the division scoring notable wins over the likes of Jhonny Gonzalez, Rendall Munroe and Rafael Marquez. In an all Japanese bout Nobuo Nashiro took a hard fought split decision win over Kohei Kono to claim the previously vacant WBA World Super Flyweight title. The bout could have gone either way and was a genuinely great bout, it's just a shame we never got a rematch between the two Japanese tough guys. Nashiro's reign was his second as a world champion and it was short lived as he lost the title just 8 months later. As for Kono he is now the current holder of this very same title. It was also on this show that we saw Nicaraguan sensation Roman Gonzalez claim his first world title as he defeated Yutaka Niida to claim the WBA World Minimumweight title. The performance wasn't the best from Gonzalez though announced himself on the world stage in a big way. Niida would retire after this fight whilst Gonzalez has since gone on to claim world titles at Light Flyweight and Flyweight. Going back a little bit further to 1990 we saw South Korean Jung-Koo Chang score his 38th and final career victory as he stopped Ric Sidora. The popular Korean fighter would lose his two subsequent bouts coming up short against Thai pair Sot Chitalada and Muangchai Kittikasem and then retire in 1991 realising he was no longer the fighter he was in his wonderful prime. (Image of Nishioka courtesy of boxrec.com) September 14th has been a pretty pivotal day in Asian boxing with several notable birthdays and major fight. These goes back almost 100 years in one of the most varied "On This Day" that we've done. We'll start with the oldest event that we could find, which happened in 1922 when Filipino legend Pancho Villa stopped former Bantamweight world champion Johnny Buff to claim the American Flyweight title. Villa stopped Buff in 11 rounds for the title and less than a year later the Filipino became a national hero as he stopped Jimmy Wilde to claim the Flyweight world title. The win over Wilde saw Villa become the first Filipino world champion. In 1979 we saw the birth of two notable fighters who, incidentally, fought each other. From Japan we saw the birth of Hiroyuki Enoki, a former OPBF and Japanese Featherweight champion. In Indonesian we had the birth of the legendary Chris John who was one of the longest reigning world champion in history as he held the WBA Featherweight title for the better part of a decade. The two men met in October 2008 when they were both 29 year old's and both certainly shortened each other's prime in a thriller. Their meeting saw John winning a clear decision though it was one of the best bouts in his career and was regarded as one of this few "wars". Chris John isn't the only Indonesian to have celebrated on this day as compatriot Muhammad Rachman also has this day etched in his memory courtesy of his narrow win over Daniel Reyes. The win over Reyes, in 2004, saw Rachman becoming the 4th Indonesian to win a "big 4" world title following Chris John who had won his title a few months earlier. One more bout of note on this day came in 1984 when as South Korean powerhouse Chong-Pal Park defended his IBF Super Middleweight title against the highly ranked Marvin Mack. Mack gave a great account of himself in Busan though came up short on all 3 card to give the Korean one of his many IBF title defenses. Park may not be fondly remembered by many now but he was one of the divisions first stars and deserves to remembered much, much more than he is now a days. (Image courtesy of boxrec.com and is the poster of the Enoki/John fight) September 13th is an interesting day through the history of Asian boxing even if the number of major bouts is some what limited. Talking about major bouts one of the most interesting and notable happened in 1935 when Filipino great Ceferino Garcia battled against against HOF fighter Barney Ross. Garcia managed to drop Ross twice in the opening round though sadly lost a decision to Ross, one of the greatest fighters at 140 and 147lbs. The men would fight again 2 months later with Ross again winning a decision. South Korean 2-weight world champion Hi Yong Choi was born on this day in 1965. Although now a bit of a forgotten fighter Choi claimed WBA titles at both Minimumweight and Light Flyweight and scored notable wins over Bong-Jun Kim, Yuichi Hosono, Leo Gamez and Keiji Yamaguchi. In a 21 fight career Choi fought 9 world title fights. Whilst Choi might not be a well known champion his compatriot, Jung Koo Chang, is certainly well known. Chang successfully defended his WBC Light Flyweight title on this day in 1986 by taking a 12 round decision over Francisco Montiel. This was Chang's 10th defence of his title and his second bout with Montiel in a little over 13 months. In 2010 we saw a female world title fight as Nanako Kikuchi attempted to claim the WBC female Minimumweight title. Sadly for Kikuchi she was no match for Mexico's Anabel Ortiz who retained her title with a 10 round. Whilst this was a clear set back for Kikuchi we did see Ortiz return to Japan 8 months later and get stopped by the sensational Naoko Fujioka who won her first world title with an 8th round TKO against Ortiz. (Image, of Kikuchi, courtesy of boxrec.com) September 12th has been an interesting day in Asian boxing though it's been far from a major day. In 1974 we saw popular Japanese fighter Guts Ishimatsu successfully defend his WBC Lightweight title for the first time with a 15 round draw against Mexican challenger Arturo Pineda. The bout came 5 months after Ishimatsu's title winning bout against Rodolfo Gonzalez and would be followed with 4 more successive defenses, including a decision victory over Pineda the following year. Although not an all time great Ishimatsu is genuinely well remembered and his "Guts pose" is legendary among Japanese athletes. On this day in 1995 Japanese fans saw Shinji Takehara retain his OPBF Middleweight title with a decision win over Korean challenger Sung Chun Lee. On it's own this win wasn't significant in the slightest but in his very next fight, just over 3 months later, Takehara became Japan's first ever Middleweight world champion courtesy of a decision over Jorge Fernando Castro. In 2009 we had two fights of note in separate countries. In Puerto Rico fans saw the controversial Rodel Mayol suffer a 7th round split technical decision loss to the great Ivan Calderon. This was the second meeting between Mayol and Calderon and the second successive technical decision and a case could have been made for Mayol to have deserved a win in either of the bouts. At the time Calderon was unbeaten and a poster boy of the hardcore boxing fans as well as a Puerto Rican boxing icon whilst Mayol was becoming one of the sports more controversial figures, as shown in his follow up fight with Edgar Sosa. On the same day in Mexico fans saw Donnie Nietes retain his WBO Minimumweight title with a 12 round split decision over Manuel Vargas. This was Nietes's 3rd defence and he would actually only add one more defense before vacating the title to campaign at Light Flyweight. Although the performance was one of the best from the Filipino fighter it was certainly not a bad one considering that he was fighting on the road. Although scored a split decision one does need to question quite what Brian Garry saw from ringside considering that Nietes appeared to win the bout pretty handily and yet Garry had Vargas winning. (Image, of Guts Ishimatsu, courtesy of boxrec.com) We know that life is more important than boxing so we'd like to being our "On this Day" for today by wishing all of our American friends and readers the best. We know that September 11th is a day where boxing takes a back seat to many, many other things, and the tragedies and acts of disgraceful behaviour that happened "On this Day" will forever be remembered. We hope you are all staying safe and remembering those we lost just a few short years ago. As for boxing, this day has been a fairly notable one in Asia, especially for Japanese and Thai fans. It was on this day in 1994 that we saw the excellent Samart Payakaroon fight for the final time. The Thai ended his 12 year career with a stoppage loss to Elio Rojas as Samart attempted to become a 2-weight world champion. By then the Thai was 31 and had had a long fighting career behind him and knew that his body wasn't up to being in fights any longer so instead of remaining a fighter he moved to entertainment and has continued to play his part behind the scenes with boxers. Despite now being in his 50's Samart looks sensational and he's certainly aged very well considering that he was stopped in 8 rounds by Rojas. Exactly 10 years after Samart's final bout we saw Veeraphol Sahaprom defend his WBC Bantamweight title against Cecilio Santos. This would be Veeraphol's final successive defence of the title and some 7 months later he would lose the title courtesy of a narrow decision loss to Hozumi Hasegawa. The win over Santos saw Veeraphol running up his 42nd bout with out a loss, a run of 40-0-2. As for Japan it was on this day in 1984 that Akifumi Shimoda was born in Hokkaido. Although Shimoda wasn't at the top of the sport for long he was the WBA Super Bantamweight champion for over 5 months after beating Ryol Li Lee in a thriller. Sadly though Shimoda is best known for KO of the year contender losses to Rico Ramos, in 2011, and Marvin Sonsona, in 2014. More recently Japanese fans will remember September 11th 2013 as a day to remember as Kazuto Ioka successfully defended his WBA Light Flyweight title and Ryo Miyazaki defended his WBA Minimumweight title. For Ioka the assignment was a straightforward one as he despatched Kwanthai Sithmorseng in the 7th round to defend his title without too much drama. For stable mate, and close friend, Miyazaki things were much more difficult as he struggled past Jesus Silvestre in a very, very tight contest. For Miyazaki this would be his last defence before he moved up a weight, as for Ioka he would defend the title against a few months later before beginning his campaign at Flyweight. (Image, of birthday boy Shimoda, courtesy of boxrec.com) |
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