August 27th

August 27th has been an interesting day through boxing history, not the most interesting of course but still a thoroughly interesting one all the same.

We'll start with the birthdays which notable include Shiro Yahiro who was born in 1968. Yahiro, who fought between 1989 and 2001 was a 3-time world title challenger who fell short against Leo Gamez in 1993 and then twice to Saman Sorjaturong. Although he fell short at the world level he did claim both the Japanese and OPBF titles at 108lbs.

Another birthday was that of Mongolian Shinny Bayaar who was adopted by the British boxing fans in 2001 and would later claim the British Flyweight title with a close decision over Chris Edwards. Although Bayaar's career wasn't great he did effectively act as a catalyst for the BBBofC in the UK to change their accidental foul rule after he lost his title in controversial fashion to Paul Edwards. 

Away from birthday's the date was also memorable. In 1998 the tragic Yo-Sam Choi retained his OPBF Light Flyweight title to make the 3rd and final defence of the belt. Just 14 months after that bout Choi would claim the WBC Light Flyweight title, claiming a decision over the previously mentioned Saman Sorjaturong. Sadly Choi would die in 2007 following a victory over Heri Amol and with his death we saw the swift decline of South Korean boxing, thankfully though Choi's death wasn't in vein and he did donate many of his organs.

On the subject of Korean's it was on this day in 1989 that the great Jung-Koo Chang returned to the ring due to financial issues. Sadly for Chang his comeback was less than stellar and although he won the comeback fight, taking a 10 round decision over Armando Velasco, he would lose 3 of his subsequent 4 fights and retire, in 1991, with a record of 38-4 a stark difference to the 36-1 that he originally retired with.

Again staying with Koreans it was in 2000 that In-Joo Cho lost his WBC Super Flyweight title to "North Korean" Masamori Tokuyama. At the time Tokuyama was fighting under the North Korean flag though he would, later, begin fighting as a South Korean whilst being based and raised in Japan. These two men would fight a rematch 9 months later with Cho losing again and then retiring with a record of 18-2, both of his losses coming to Tokuyama.

One final bout of note occurred in 2011 when Filipino puncher Jether Oliva challenged the then IBF Light Flyweight champion Ulises Solis. Solis would retain though Oliva did show signs of being a potential champion of the future though that potential hasn't yet been realised.

(Image courtesy of boxrec.com)

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