November 6th

After a few poor days we appear to be in form in today with a few notable fights coming on November 6th!

On this day in 1988 South Korean fans saw one of their greats, Myung-Woo Yuh, record the 10th defense of his WBA Light Flyweight title as he stopped the feather fisted Indonesian Udin Baharudin in the seventh round of their bout. The contest was Yuh's 4th defense of the year and saw him recording his 6th stoppage in world title bouts. For the Indonesian this was just his second stoppage loss and came in his sole world title fight however he would later claim an Indonesian and OPBF title before retiring in the mid 1990's. As for Yuh he would add 7 more defenses before losing the title to Hiroki Ioka in 1991, he would later regain the title and add one extra defense before retiring in the early 1990's with his legacy secured as one of the greatest Korean fighters of all time.

It took a further 16 years before we had another November 6th of note, however that came in 2004 when Kostya Tszyu made his final successful defense of the IBF Light Welterweight title. Tszyu was fighting against former foe Sharmba Mitchell and decimated Mitchell in just 3 rounds as he dropped Mitchell for fun before the referee stopped the contest. This was the second meeting between the two men with Tszyu having recorded a 7th round victory over Mitchell in their first meeting in February 2001. Sadly for Tszyu this was to be his final win and in his very next bout he was over-come by Britain's Ricky Hatton and soon afterwards retired from the sport. Tszyu may no longer be active fighter but he does work as a train and has been in the corner for several notable Russian fighters in recent years.

More recently, in 2011, we saw 2 world title fights in Japan. One of those was a real struggle for Takahiro Ao who narrowly retained his WBC Super Featherweight title with a split decision win over under-rated Italian Devis Boschiero. The bout was a really narrow one and, had the fight not been in Japan, Boschiero would have taken the title with him back to Italy. The other bout was the birth of a star as Shinsuke Yamanaka took an 11th round stoppage over Mexican Christian Esquivel to claim the WBC Bantamweight title. Yamanaka, who still holds the title, was a relative unknown on the international stage prior to this bout but has quickly become the #1 Bantamweight on the planet with 7 defenses against top tier competition including a recent defense against Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.

(Image of Yuh courtesy of The Orient Boxing Monthly)

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