October 10th

When we've been doing our research for "On this Day" there has been some days very much void of action whilst others could have had essays done on them. October 10th is an example of the latter with something like a dozen possibility for us to consider, of which we have selected just 3 and even these may not actually be the best 3 fights involving Asian fighters on this day.

On this day in 1962 we saw a collision of legends as Fighting Harada, a Japanese boxing icon, took on Pone Kingpetch, the first ever world champion from Thailand. The bout, in Japan, saw Harada claiming the WBA Flyweight title with an 11th round stoppage of the Thai legend. Sadly for Harada however his reign was short lived and he'd lose a return match in Thailand just a few months later as Kingpetch regained the title from Harada and became the first 2-time world champion from Thailand. Although Harada's reign as a Flyweight champion was short lived he did have a memorable reign as the unified Bantamweight champion and was of course well known for his 2 wins over Brazilian great Eder Jofre. As for Kingpetch he would go on to become a 3-time world champion losing the belts then winning them back from the great Hiroyuki Ebihara.

Talking about great fighters there are few from Asia as great as Yoko Gushiken who won the WBA Light Flyweight world title on this day in 1976 by stopping Juan Antonio Guzman in he 7th round. Gushiken's reign as champion was amazing and he set a Japanese national record for most defenses, a record that has only been broken by female boxing star Momo Koseki, at 13 successful defenses. What made Gushiken's reign, and career as whole, so great was that he fit a lot into a short time span and from winning the title in 1976 he was insanely active racking up his 13 defences in less than 4.5 years! Unfortunately Gushiken's career ended after he suffered his sole loss, a stoppage to Pedro Flores in early 1981. For a man as well remembered and loved by fans it's hard to believe Gushiken was only 25 when he last fought.

Sadly not all has been rosey on this day and in 1971, exactly 5 years before Gushiken's title reign began, we saw the end of Yoshiaki Numata's reign as the WBC Super Featherweight champion, and soon afterwards his career. Numata, one of the more forgotten Japanese world champions had won the title in April 1970 and had defended it 3 times in in little over a year, inclduing scoring a notable win over Lionel Rose. Sadly however he was unable to defeat Ricardo Arredondo who took the title from Numata with a 10th round KO. Incidentally the title was returned back to Japanese hands in 1974 when Kuniaki Shibata out pointed Arredondo for the title.

(Image, from the Kingpetch/Harada fight, courtesy of boxrec.com)

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