January 22nd

2014-Amnat Ruenroeng Vs Rocky Fuentes
In late 2013 and early 2014 the stars some how aligned to give us a bout between unbeaten 34 year old Thai Amnat Ruenroeng and Filipino Rocky Fuentes, for the vacant IBF Flyweight. The bout had come to be following Fuentes having a bout in Puerto Rico fall through and Moruti Mthalane refusing to defend his belt in a mandatory in Thailand fow a very low purse.
 
The bout ended up seeing Ruenroeng take a decision win over Fuentes, in what was a clear but competitive win for the Thai. Ruenroeng would go on to hold the title until May 2016, when he would lose the belt to John Riel Casimero. By the time he lost the belt amnat had defended it 5 times, and notched big wins against Kazuto Ioka, McWilliams Arroyo, Zou Shiming and John Riel Casimero. He would also end up competing at the 2016 Olympics, and was last seen in a boxing ring last year, losing to Nawaphon Por Chokchai, a loss that saw his record fall to 18-3 (6).
 
Fuentes on the other hand would go 3-2 before seemingly hanging up the gloves in late 2017, with a record of 36-9-2 (20).
 
2011-Ana Maria Torres vs Naoko Yamaguchi
On this day in 2011 Japan's Naoko Yamaguchi fought in her first world title fight, losing a wide decision in Mexico to WBC female Super Flyweight champion Ana Maria Torres. Coming into the bout Yamaguchi was 15-2-3 (13) and was really lacking the experience needed to compete with Torres, who was 23-3-2 (14) and had a number of world title defenses prior to this bout.
 
Following the loss Yamaguchi would bounce back, and take the WBA female Super Flyweight from fellow Japanese Tenkai Tsunami in July 2012. She would defend that title twice before losing it in late 2013 to Naoko Fujioka, and then retire. At the time of her retirement Yamaguchi was 22-4-3 (18).
 
After this Torres would continue her career until Spring 2013, scoring 5 more defenses before retiring with a record of 28-3-3 (18).
 
1995-Manny Pacquiao debut
At the age of 40 Manny Pacquiao recently showed he still has it, defeating the once very highly regarded Adrien Broner to retain the WBA "regular" Welterweight title. Amazingly it was 24 years ago today that he made his professional debut Pacquiao's debut came when he was 16 and saw him taking a 4 round decision over Edmund Enting Ignacio in a bout that saw both men weighing in at 106lbs.
 
This bout, in Sablayan, was one of just 2 bouts on the show. Since then Pacquiao's rise through the sport has been incredible and he is now regarded as one of the true greats, something we doubt anyone thought he'd be when he defeat Ignacio.
 
During his legendary career Pacquiao has world titles at Flyweight to Light Middleweight, defeated a who's who of boxing and become a hero of the Philippines, a huge international fan favourite a future hall of famer. Interestingly Ignacio would end his career in 2001 with a record of 8-24-3 (1), and was stopped just once in his 35 fight career.