January 17th

2008-Tepparith Singwancha debuts 
Thailand's Tepparith Singwancha, also known as Panthep Mullipoom, made his debut on this day in 2008. He would debut at the Nonthaburi Female High-School and score a 3rd round TKO over fellow debutant Chanasuk Sor Samranchai. 
 
Although not well known in the West Tepparith would go on to have a pretty notable career, scoring wins over Filipino pair Rey Megrino and Drian Francisco before defeating Daiki Kameda, Tomonobu Shimizu and Nobuo Nashiro, to earn the Japanese Killer tag and make several defenses of the WBA Super Flyweight title. That nickname was short lived however and he lost the title at the end of 2012, when he was stopped by Kohei Kono.
 
Sadly following the loss to Kono we saw Tepparith's career sort of fade into nothingness, with 4 low key wins before ending his career in 2016, with a record of 25-3 (22). A potential unification bout with the then WBC Super Flyweight champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai looked exciting, though both men lost their titles before the bout ended up being made.
 
1987-Ji Hoon Kim birthday
One of the few recent Korean fighters to make their mark on professional boxing was Ji Hoon Kim. Kim, dubbed the "Volcano" was born in Goyan City on this day in 1987, and made his debut at the age of 17. His early career was pretty unremarkable, in fact he lost 3 of his first 5 and was 8-5 after 13 fights. From then on however things clicked and he would go on to become one of the most notable Korean fighter's this millennium. 
 
Kim would become a cult fighting figure in the US, following a win over Koba Gogoladze in 2008, he would win the IBO Featherweight title in 2009 and then return to the US for a string of fights. Sadly Kim lost in his sole world title fight, being clearly out pointed by Miguel Vazquez in 2010, but remained a constant fan favourite until his retirement.
 
Kim's last bout was in 2013 and he would retire quietly some time afterwards, due to eye eye issues. The last we heard he was still in the US. As a fighter Kim's record doesn't read amazingly, at 25-9 (19), but he certainly left a lasting impression on fans who had the chance to see him in action.
 
1984-Toshiyuki Igarashi's birthday
Japanese fighter Toshiyuki Igarashi isn't likely to be remembered long into the future, and his short reign as the WBC, and Linear, Flyweight champion was that of a transitionary champion between bigger names. Despite that he was a pretty key figure for the Teiken gym in having won the Japanese title in 2011 and the WBC title in 2012.
 
Igarashi was born on this day in 1984 and although not that fondly remembered he did share the ring with some pretty notable names, losing to the likes of Tomonobu Shimizu, Akira Yaegashi and Sho Kimura. Sadly the latter part of his career is best known for messy, scrappy fights, marred by headclashes rather than exciting action. It's also a career that was cursed with injuries, and Igarashi really did have some bad luck after his short world title run.
 
Igarashi was a good amateur and as a professional held a solid 23-3-3 (12) record in a career that began in 2006 and ended in 2017.