September 24th

After a few very, very disappointing days we've finally come to a day that has a number of more interesting contests with some legends in action.

Our first bout of interest in 1989 when the legendary Myung Woo Yuh who recorded the 13th defence of his WBA Light Flyweight title with an 11th round KO victory over Kenbun Taiho. Prior to the stoppage Yuh had dominated the fight and was a mile up on the cards going in to the championship rounds, he however didn't let that stop him hunt the finish which he got Taiho who was fighting in his one and only world title bout. Yuh would hold the belt until December 1991 when he lost a much debated split decision to Japan's Hiroki Ioka though he would regain the title 11 months later and hold it until he retired in 1993.

On this day in 2001 we saw the first of two contests between Masamori Tokuyama and Filipino legend Gerry Penalosa. The bout saw Tokuyama retaining his WBC Super Flyweight title for the third time with a unanimous decision over Penalosa though the decision was very much debated and many felt Tokuyama had done more running than fighting. A rematch the following year say Tokuyama again beating Penalosa though that bout ended in a split decision, and again it was much debated with many feeling Penalosa had done enough to usurp the champion.

Not every world title fight on this day has been an all-Asian one and in 2007 we saw Japan's Kuniyuki Aizawa challenge the very hard hitting Alexander Munoz for the WBA Super Flyweight title. Unfortunately for Aizawa he found out that Munoz wasn't just heavy handed but also a good boxer and in the end Aizawa was nearly shut out with a very, very wide decision in favour of Munoz. This was Munoz's first defense of his second reign having won the title several months early with a decision victory over Aizawa's compatriot Nobuo Nashiro.

One additional bout we'd like to mentioned occurred in 2010. This bout saw Japanese female fighting legend Naoko Fujioka claiming her first title as she out pointed Kanittha Kokietgym to claim the OPBF female Minimumweight title. The two women would meet again the following year with Fujioka making the first defense of her WBC world title with a 9th round TKO of the Thai.

(Image of Tokuyama courtesy of boxrec.com)

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