October 9th

October 9th has been a recurring day on the Asian fight scene with a huge number of notable fights falling on this day over the last half a century.

In 1977 Japanese legend of the ring Yoko Gushiken recorded the 3rd defense of his WBA Light Flyweight title. Gushiken, who had won the title almost a year previous against Juan Antonio Guzman, took out Montsayarm Haw Mahachai in 4 rounds to record his first stoppage win as champion and kick off a Japanese record of 7 successive world title defenses by stoppage. Gushiken would set a Japanese record of 13 total defenses before losing his crown in 1981 to Pedro Flores and retiring as a national boxing hero.

In 1985 we saw the third defense of the IBF Super Bantamweight title by South Korean Ji Won Kim. Kim, one of the few fighters to retire unbeaten, took on old foe Sung In Suh and stopped him in just 66 seconds to retire the man he had beaten for the title just 9 months earlier. This was to be the penultimate defense of Kim's reign with the champion retiring after recording a 2nd round TKO over Rudy Casicas some 8 months later.

Staying on the theme of title defenses it was on this day in 1988 that Korean legend Khaosai Galaxy stopped Chang-Ho Choi to record his 8th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title in less than 4 years. Galaxy's fantastic reign as champion would continue on a further 3 years and see him racking up a total of 18 total defenses as he etched his name into the books as one of, if not the, greatest ever Super Flyweight. Galaxy is in the record books for numerous reasons and whilst his reign as a world champion was highly impressive he was also also one of the first sets of twins to win world titles with his twin brother Khaokor Galaxy, a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion.

In 2000 Hideki Todaka lost the WBA Super Flyweight title to Leo Gamez. Todaka was attempting to make the 3rd defense of his title though was stopped in 7 rounds by the Venezeulan. Whilst this was a major set back for Japanese fighter he did get revenge for the loss almost 3 years later when he took a split decision over Gamez to claim the interim WBA Bantamweight title, unfortunately he lost that in his first defense to Julio Zarate and then retired in 2004.

More recently, in in 2002 Osamu Sato lost the WBA Super Bantamweight title to Salim Medjkoune. Sato, defending the belt for the first time, was widely out pointed by the French visitor who successfully defended the blet just once before losing to Mahyar Monshipour, a man famous for his war with Somsak Sithchatchawal. Sadly for Sato he would fail to become a 2-weight world champion after challenging Chris John in 2004 for the Featherweight title and then retire with a 32 fight ledger including 26 wins.

(Image, of Galaxy, courtesy of boxrec.com)

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