September 19th

One of the most disappointing days in Asian boxing history is September 19th which really has lacked talking points through its history. That's not to say nothing has happened but very little of real importance, sadly.

The first bout of note on this day that we came across was back in 1967 when Chartchai Chionoi defended his World Flyweight title against Scotland's Walter Mcgowan. The bout was the the second meeting between the two men and ended much like their first contest with McGowan bleeding profusely from injuries inflicted from the fist of the Thai, unlike the first fight however this bout was fought in the UK and McGowan had to take the defeat in front of his home fans as opposed to travelling around the world to battle with Chionoi who seemed to be involved in a lot of blood baths and wars during his great career.

In 1991 Japan's always fun to watch Joichiro Tatsuyoshi claimed his first world title as he defeated Greg Richardson and claimed the WBC Bantamweight title with a 10th round stoppage of the light punching American. This was just Tatsuyoshi's 8th professional bout and due to his style, personality and popularity he became one of the fore bearers in the current upturn in Japanese boxing. It was down to Tatsuyoshi that we got to see fighters like Hozumi Hasegawa who helped bring along more and more great fighters in Japan. Unfortunately up to now fighter since has managed to replicate "Jo's" insane level of popularity though he really was a mega-star of Japanese even when he lost.

Just 3 years after "Jo" claimed his world title we saw the debut of future world champion Masamori Tokuyama. Tokuyama would later become the first male world champion fighting under the North Korean flag. Although best known for being "North Korea's first world champion" Tokuyama was actually a really good fighter and scored notable wins over Hiroki Ioka, In-Joo Cho, Gerry Penalosa, Dmitry Kirillov, Katsushige Kawashima and Jose Navarro in a genuinely notable career.

In 2004 we saw another notable debutant as Filipino Michael Farenas kicked off his professional career. Farenas scored a 2nd round technical draw with Octavio Aleonar on his debut and would later go on to score a technical draw with WBA Super Featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama. Although not the greatest fighter Farenas has managed to give real problems to some very good fighters such as Uchiyama, Fernando Beltran and Yuriorkis Gamboa. The hope is that Farenas will get another shot at a world title though we do understand opponents not wanting to share the ring with him.

Having mentioned two debutants we might as well include a birthday boy. Popular Indonesian journeyman Heri Amol celebrates his birthday today having been born on this day in 1983. With that said happy birthday Heri "Bayi Ajaib" Amol, hope you have a great one!

(Image, from the Chionoi Vs McGowan bout, courtesy of boxrec.com)

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