January 12th

1993-Morris East's reign ends
One of the forgotten names of Filipino boxing is Morris East, who was a real prodigy in the late 1980's and early 1990's. That is despite the fact that East is the youngest ever Filipino world champion, having won the WBC Light Welterweight title in 1992, whilst still a teenager. He won the title with an 11th round TKO win over Akinobu Hiranaka, in what was the Ring Magazine KO of the Year. Sadly though his reign came to an end on this day in 1993, when he was stopped by Jean Martin Coggi in Argentina.
 
Sadly after his title loss East would never have the same success, going 4-2, being suspended by the GAB and then retiring in his early 20's with a record of 20-4 (12). He would later go on to be a trainer, and work with several notable fighters.
 
Whilst East retired young Coggi would make numerous defenses, before losing the title to Frankie Randall in 1994. He would reclaim it from Randall in 1996, lose it in a rubber match to Randall and retire in 1999, in his late 30's, with a record of 75-5-2 (44).
 
1991- Naoto Takahashi's last bout
A huge personal favourite of ours is Naoto Takahashi, a man we will look to talk about as much as possible. Sadly his career ended on this day in 1991 after a bout with Korean foe Jong Pil Park. The bout ended with Takahashi suffering a 9th round KO loss, and suffering a brain bleed as a result. He went down in the 9th round in awful way, was stretchered from the ring and in the end he was lucky to receive the medical treatment needed to save his life.
 
Takahashi is still alive, but is a long way removed from what he was as a sighter. The injury still has major negative effects on his life and sadly he was only 23 when the injury occurred.
 
Takahashi's record after this bout was 19-4 (14), during his career he had been one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, but the excitement and wars he had been involved in certainly helped lead to the injury he suffered here. As for Park he would go 3-1-1 (1) before retiring in 1993 with a record of 21-3-1 (8)
 
1963-Pone Kingpetch gets revenge over Japanese legend
In 1963 we saw Asian legends clash, for the second time in just over 3 months. In October 1962 Japan's Fighting Harada, one of the most significant Japanese fighters ever, stopped Pone Kingpetch in 11 rounds to become the World Flyweight champion. On January 12th 1963 the two men would rematch with Kingpetch taking a majority decision to reclaim the title, and begin his second reign.
 
Interestingly Kingpetch's reign was a short one, losing in his first defense to Hiroyuki Ebihara before reclaiming the title in a rematch against Ebihara. He would retire in 1966, with a record of 28-7 (9) and sadly passed away at the age of 47. He is still remembered as Thai boxing icon, and their first ever world champion.
 
Harada would go on to secure his legacy over the years that followed, retiring in 1970 after a second failed attempt at claiming the WBC Featherweight title. During his career he would win no only the Flyweight title but also the Bantamweight crown, twice beating the legendary Eder Jofre. He would retire with a record of 55-7 (22), and is still a key figure in Japanese boxing at the age of 76.