September 11th

We know that life is more important than boxing so we'd like to being our "On this Day" for today by wishing all of our American friends and readers the best. We know that September 11th is a day where boxing takes a back seat to many, many other things, and the tragedies and acts of disgraceful behaviour that happened "On this Day" will forever be remembered. We hope you are all staying safe and remembering those we lost just a few short years ago.

As for boxing, this day has been a fairly notable one in Asia, especially for Japanese and Thai fans.

It was on this day in 1994 that we saw the excellent Samart Payakaroon fight for the final time. The Thai ended his 12 year career with a stoppage loss to Elio Rojas as Samart attempted to become a 2-weight world champion. By then the Thai was 31 and had had a long fighting career behind him and knew that his body wasn't up to being in fights any longer so instead of remaining a fighter he moved to entertainment and has continued to play his part behind the scenes with boxers. Despite now being in his 50's Samart looks sensational and he's certainly aged very well considering that he was stopped in 8 rounds by Rojas.

Exactly 10 years after Samart's final bout we saw Veeraphol Sahaprom defend his WBC Bantamweight title against Cecilio Santos. This would be Veeraphol's final successive defence of the title and some 7 months later he would lose the title courtesy of a narrow decision loss to Hozumi Hasegawa. The win over Santos saw Veeraphol running up his 42nd bout with out a loss, a run of 40-0-2.

As for Japan it was on this day in 1984 that Akifumi Shimoda was born in Hokkaido. Although Shimoda wasn't at the top of the sport for long he was the WBA Super Bantamweight champion for over 5 months after beating Ryol Li Lee in a thriller. Sadly though Shimoda is best known for KO of the year contender losses to Rico Ramos, in 2011, and Marvin Sonsona, in 2014.

More recently Japanese fans will remember September 11th 2013 as a day to remember as Kazuto Ioka successfully defended his WBA Light Flyweight title and Ryo Miyazaki defended his WBA Minimumweight title. For Ioka the assignment was a straightforward one as he despatched Kwanthai Sithmorseng in the 7th round to defend his title without too much drama. For stable mate, and close friend, Miyazaki things were much more difficult as he struggled past Jesus Silvestre in a very, very tight contest. For Miyazaki this would be his last defence before he moved up a weight, as for Ioka he would defend the title against a few months later before beginning his campaign at Flyweight.

(Image, of birthday boy Shimoda, courtesy of boxrec.com)

---