November 11th

In 1971 Japanese fans saw the great Kuniaki Shibata retain the WBC Featherweight title in what was to be his final successful defense of the belt. The Japanese fighter, who had won the title exactly 11 months earlier, made the second defense of the belt with a 15 round split draw against Panamanian great Ernesto Marcel who was fighting in his first world title bout. Marcel would later capture the WBA Featherweight title and make 4 defenses of the belt however this was the only one of his 6 world title bouts that he failed to win. Unfortunately for Shibata he would lose the title on 19th May 1972 when he was stopped by Clemente Sanchez however he would quickly move to Super Featherweight and enjoy reigns as both the WBA and the WBC champion up at 130lbs before his retirement in the late 1970's.

Exactly 4 years later, in 1975, fans saw South Korean Jae-Doo Yuh record his sole defense of the WBA Light Middleweight title as he stopped Japanese challenger Masahiro Misako in the 6th round of their bout. As with Shibata this would actually be his final successful defense of the belt and he would suffer a 15th round KO just 3 months later to Japanese favourite Koichi Wajima. Although Yuh lost his world title he actually continued to reign as the OPBF Middleweight champion until he retirement in the late 1970's having made an incredile 22 defense of that title! Sadly for Misako this was to be his sole world title bout.

In 1982, and still in Japan, fans saw Jiro Watanabe make the second defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title with a 12th round TKO of compatriot Shoji Oguma. Watanbe would later be stripped by the WBA for attempting to unify with the WBC champion Payao Poontarat, who he stopped in 1984, as he tried to prove himself as the best Super Flyweight on the planet at the time. The Japanese great would later lose the WBC title in 1986 against the excellent Gilberto Roman and announce his retirement soon afterwards. For Oguma, a former 2-time WBC Flyweight champion, this would be his final bout.

Again in Japan, in 2001, fans saw Wolf Tokimitsu fail in an attempt to claim the WBC Minimumweight title as he was stopped in 3 rounds by Mexican Minimumwe great Jose Antonio Aguirre. For Tokimitsu this would be his final bout as a professional whilst Aguirre would continue to reign as the WBC champion until 2004 when he he was out pointed by Japanese based Thai Eagle Den Junlaphan. Sadly for Aguirre he would go on far too long and his once impressive record now reads 35-10-1 (21) with 8 of those losses coming in his final 10 professional bouts.

(Image of Shibata courtesy of boxrec.com)

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