When we began this site the main aim was to try and help make boxing from Asia more accessible to fight fans in the West. It was an honest aim and was one we knew was unlikely to be easy, or a success. Back then we didn't have things like Isakura and BoxingRaise and the biggest hopes for streaming bouts were dodgy third part sites often delivered a less than great quality of video.
Since we launched this site however things have changed massively. Isakura has been a god send for those wanting to watch televised Japanese boxing and BoxingRaise has opened up a world of domestic Japanese domestic action to international fans. However both of those services do cost, and asking fans to fork out to watch boxing during these current times is a rather big ask, especially given the PPV prices in both the US and UK. For those who can afford them, those services are great, but we understand cost is a barrier to watching boxing. That's a barrier that exists world wide with services like PPV, Sky Sports, DAZN and ESPN+. Right now we understand fight fans wanting to cut costs, and with that in mind we want to make everyone aware that this is actually the perfect time to begin showing an interest in Japanese boxing. The reason that this is such a perfect time is the fact that we are set to get a spate of live, legal, free streams on YouTube. Yes this is a chance to watch some Japanese boxing for free. No catches, no BS, no subscription, no PPV. This is free, and there are no strings. Price, and issues with streaming have always been a barrier for Japanese boxing, along with the being unsure where and how to watch, but here we are getting streams from promoters, a TV channel and a fighter in one particular case. What all these have in common is trying to make the sport more accessible, and available to all. Between September 26th and November 23rd we'll be getting 5 live, free, internationally open, streams from Japan showing a bit of everything. We have top prospects, fantastic domestic bouts, a female world title bout and a men's world title bout. Most importantly they don't all come from the same promoter, organiser or channel, and instead we have a number of promoters getting behind the idea of boxing being shown for free and funded by advertising and crowd funding whilst using free streams to help grow the sport, and the fan base. For those wanting to make the most of this opportunity to watch some live Japanese boxing we have included the shows below, with these all set to be streamed live. September 26th-Kobe Central Gym, Japan (Boxing Real) Mika Iwakawa (9-5-1, 3) Vs Nanae Suzuki (10-3-1, 1) - WBO Atomweight title bout Shun Kubo (13-2, 9) Vs Takashi Igarashi (13-4, 5) Kohei Oba (36-3-1, 14) Vs Yoshiki Minato (8-3, 3) September 27th-Fujisan Messe, Japan (Suruga Boys) Tsubasa Murachi (4-1, 3) Vs Ryotaro Kawabata (12-3-2, 6) Rentaro Kimura (1-0, 1) Vs Takafumi Iwaya (4-3) Koichi Aso (23-9-1, 15) Vs Shogo Yamaguchi (12-5-3, 7) October 13th-Korakuen Hall, Japan (A Sign) Reiya Abe (19-3-1, 9) Vs Ren Sasaki (10-0, 6) Kai Chiba (12-1, 8) Vs Haruki Ishikawa (8-2, 6) Kai Ishizawa (6-1, 6) Vs Masashi Tada (13-7-3, 8) November 3rd - INTEX, Osaka, Japan (Hiroto Kyoguchi YouTube Channel) Hiroto Kyoguchi (14-0, 9) Vs Thanongsak Simsri (14-0, 12) November 23rd - Bunka Center, Sanda, Japan (TV Osaka) Riku Kano (16-4-1, 8) Vs Ryoki Hirai (13-6-1, 4) - WBO Asia Pacific Light Flyweight title bout Sho Ishida (28-2, 15) Vs Toshiya Ishii (3-0, 2) Katsunari Takayama (31-8-0-1, 12) Vs Reiya Konishi (17-1, 7) Whilst these might not be super massive stacked cards with international title they are legal, free, streams of boxing. In sport dominated by promoters wanting you to fork out it might be worth giving consideration to some of the free content out there, supporting the sport and watching something new. The only issue these can't resolve is the time differential. Sadly these shows are all aimed at a Japanese audience in regards to time, so will be early morning to mid-day in the UK and Europe and will be very early morning in the US. If you're stuck at home however these are seriously worth a shot, and it's maybe a time you enjoyed some free boxing, and gave live Japanese boxing a shot!
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People who follow us on twitter will occasionally see us posting short clips from fights. These are typically knockouts or memorable moments. A lot of the KO's used in those clips end up in our "Reliving The Finish" series, where we try to share some of the best KO's in Asian boxing history. But the non-KO weird moments have never had a home on the site until now, where we will begin to share those odd moments on the site. This series really has no over bearing theme, but is just going to be a collection of weird moments, shared sporadically. We want to begin this one with one of the strangest endings to a fight we've seen, and one that really was a confusing mess, that probably resulted in the correct winner, but the wrong method of victory. The bout in question is the 1997 clash between Yamato Mitani (10-3, 8) and Joselito Rivera (14-3, 10), and we join the fight at the start of round 12 The two men were battling for the OPBF Super Featherweight title, which had been vacant, and their bout had been rough. In fairness all Mitani bouts were rough and his battles with Yong Soo Choi were rough, tough, gruelling thrillers. From the bell to begin round 12 the two men almost instantly began wrestling. Then, only seconds into the round, Mitani essentially pushed Rivera backwards through the ropes, with both men spilling out on to the floor. It was a weird moment that seemed to get weirder when camera's showed Rivera on the floor next to a table, a table that he had crashed into. The referee gave Rivera 5 minutes to recover, though the clip doeesn't show the 5 minutes as it's from an abridged version of the fight. Rather than continue Rivera's team removed his gloves and as a result Thai referee Ukrrid Sarasas called the bout, at an official time of 51 seconds into round 12. We probably should have gone to the scorecards for a technical decision here. It appears very much like an accidental foul causing an injury that should have taken us to the scorecards. Instead it was ruled a TKO win for Mitani. At the time Mitani was leading on 2 of the scorecards, and would have won the technical decision had the bout gone to the cards. Sadly there was never a rematch to follow up this oddity. Instead Mitani would lose the belt 7 months later, to Kengo Nagashima, then retire whilst Rivera would be out of the ring for 10 months before returning to action, and subsequenrly claiming the GAB title. We'll admit we love doing our weekly "Introducing..." series, and taking a chance to shine a light on a fighter that fans probably aren't that aware of. Sometimes the fighter in question will lead to nothing and disappear without a trace, other times however they will be moved quickly and engage in some meaningful bouts, sometimes very soon after we write about them. In June 2019 we covered Yuri Takemoto (then 6-1-1 (3), now 8-2-1 (3)) who was preparing for his 9th bout as a professional, a contest against Indonesian foe Kiki Marciano lined up. Back then we would not have been able to predict the journey Takemoto has been on and how he managed to get a major domestic fight just 14 months later. To begin with lets look at Takemoto's bout with Kiki Marciano, which came in Wakayama back in June 2019. That was Takemoto's second bout since winning the Rookie of the Year in December 2018 and saw him return to a ring in Wakayama, to give local fans a show. Sadly for fans it didn't last long, though they were left happy with Takemoto dropping Marciano twice to take a TKO in the opening round. Because there isn't a lot of boxing in Wakayama that was only Takamoto's third bout in his home prefecture, and his first one there in over a year. Instead of being able to box at home he's had travel a lot and his return to the ring, 4 months later, saw him travelling from Wakayama to Kochi, around 100 miles away as the crow flies. In that that bout in Kochi we saw Takemoto take on the experienced Yoshiyuki Takabayashi. Although not a major fighter Takabayashi is a true servant to Japanese boxing and he has been a good test for some very notable fighters. He played that role against Takemoto in testing the youngster and giving him a real fight, rocking him in round 2. Thankfully for Takemoto he recovered from the scare and went on to take a 6 round technical decision over Takabayashi, who had been cut in round 4 from a clash of heads. Despite ending 2019 with a record of 8-1-1 (4) and being well inside the Japanese rankings Takemoto was still well and truly under-the-radar. Being in Wakayama his opportunities were certainly limited, but in 2020 fortune struck and he managed to be one of the very, very few winners, in terms of boxing, from the on going global situation. Early in 2020 Japanese Featherweight champion Ryo Sagawa was supposed to defend his title against Hinata Maruta in a Champion Carnival bout. That contest, like many, fell through due to issues that put boxing on hiatus in Japan and when boxing resumed in Japan Maruta was unable to take an August date with Sagawa. As a result Takemoto got the call and jumped at the opportunity to fight for the title. Sadly for Takemoto the champion turned out to be a bit too good for him, though in fairness the youngster made Sagawa work from the off before being stopped at the very end of round 6 by a brutal body shot. Prior to being stopped Takemoto proved his hunger, his chin and his determination, but his lack of higher level experience was shown up against the world ranked Japanese national champion. Despite losing to Sagawa, like most fighters would in fairness, we actually feel move confident than we had previously that Takemoto has got the potential win titles down the line. We don't see him having world class potential but he will certainly come again at domestic level. At the moment it's unclear when Takemoto will be back in the ring, but we're looking forward to it and to following his career, even if he was stopped last time out. For those who missed it we've included the bout with Sagawa below. Korean fighter Hwan Jin Kim (22-2-2, 8) had a career that spanned from June 1977 to early 1983 and during that time he managed to win the WBA Light Flyweight, fought in 4 world title bouts and scored several other notable wins outside of his bouts at the highest level.
Whilst Kim's career was short it was intense with 26 fights in less than 6 years. Not only was it intense but it was exciting and he was moved quickly. Within 4 months of his debut he was involved in 8 round bouts and within 14 months of his debut he had 2 wins over future world champions. Later on he would he would score wins over a former world champion, one over a future world title challenger and one over a former world title challenger. Not shabby at all for such a short career. Today Kim becomes the latest fighter to be featured in our Friday series , "the 5 most significant wins for... Hwan Jin Kim". Seung Hoon Lee (November 6th 1977) In Kim's 5th professional bout be faced off with fellow Korean Seung Hoon Lee, a fighter that hardcore fans will recognise. At the time Lee was 2-0 and Kim took a 6 round decision over his fellow novice. Whilst this by it's self wasn't a big one or a notable one, it did become more significant over time as Lee went one to become the IBF Super Bantamweight champion in 1987. In fact Lee was widely regarded as one of the best Korean fighters of his generation. The win for Kim helped establish him on the Korean scene and with Lee later winning a world title the win has aged brilliantly. Shigeo Nakajima (August 19th 1978) Around 9 months after Kim beat Lee he would beat another future world champion as he travelled to Japan and defeated Shigeo Nakajima, who would later win the WBC Light Flyweight world title. The bout wasn't just another win over a future world champion, which would have been impressive by it's self, but also saw Kim making a successful international debut and going 10 rounds for the first time in his career. Winning in enemy territory is never ever easy but to do it in a career longest bout against a future world champion is very much a significant win. The victory saw Kim move his record to 7-0-1 and was actually followed, 3 months later by a win over future world title challenger Tito Abella, who later came up short against Yoko Gushiken. Pedro Flores (July 19th 1981) Having just mentioned Yoko Gushiken it's worth noting that the man who beat Gushiken and ended his long reign was himself a Kim victim. Mexico's Pedro Flores dethroned Gushiken in March 1981, after the Japanese great had made 13 defenses, and in his first defense travelled to Daegu to take on Kim. This wouldn't go well for Flores, who was competitive through 12 rounds but stopped in round 13 as Kim took the WBA Light Flyweight title. This was, of course, the win that needed Kim the WBA title, and his first world title bout. This put Kim's name on the map in a big way and was the single biggest win of his career. Although Flores was only a short term champion a win over the man that stopped Gushiken was huge for Kim. Alfonso Lopez (October 11th 1981) Sadly Kim's reign with the WBA title wasn't much longer than that of Flores, he did however make a successful defense. Less than 3 months after winning the title Kim took on Panama's Alfonso Lopez, himself a former WBA Flyweight champion from the mid 1970's. Although a bit of a faded force by 1981 Lopez was still a legitimate contender and had gone on an unbeaten 5 fight run since decision losses to Charlie Magri and Gustavo Ballas in their home countries. He appeared to have rebuilt some momentum and that showed as he pushed Kim all the way in a very close bout. In the end Kim would take a narrow decision over Lopez to record his only successful world title defense. Sadly he would lose the belt 2 months later to Japan's Katsuo Tokashiki, Yong Hyun Kim (July 24th 1982) The final win of note for Kim came in 1982 when he returned to action after his title loss. In the opposite to the former world champion was fellow Korean Yong Hyun Kim. Although Yong Hyun Kim never managed to win a world title he banged on the door, and challenged Yoko Gushiken in 1980. Whilst he came up short against Gushiken Yong Hyun Kim had won the South Korean and OPBF titles at Light Flyweight and was certainly no push over. Hwan Jin Kim managed to take a technical decision over his countryman to help him prove their was still something in the tank. Less than 6 months after this win Hwan Jin Kim got a rematch with Katsuo Tokashiki, but couldn't over-come the man who had ended his world reign. After losing to Tokashiki for the second time Hwan Jun Kim retired from the sport. For today's fight we wish we got we're not looking at world class fighters for once, but we are looking at a bout we desperately wanted, not due to the talent of the men, but due to the styles of them. In fact this was one of the bouts we clamoured for for yeas, but sadly, never got. It was the #1 present request on our Christmas list, and something we were willing to trade in exchange for birthday and Christmas gifts but still, the boxing gods denied us! Damn them!
Rex Tso Vs Jamie Conlan For the first time in this series we look outside of Asia for one of the fighters involved as we pit Hong Kong star Rex Tso against Jamie Conlan in a bout we were desperately wanting back in the 2010's. This bout, for us, had all the ingredients for a FOTY contender and would, had it gone ahead, been one for the ages with two styles that gelled perfectly, two solid local fan bases, and cult international followings for both men. This was a bout that would have had two B level guys tearing down the house in what would have been an incredible, memorable, sensational war. On paper it was also an easy one to make, and the two men had long enough overlap in careers to have given us the bout at various times. When? Unlike some bouts in this series the time window for this one spans years. It could have taken place from around 2013 right through to 2018. The earliest possible would have been 2013 when Bob Arum was taking the Zou Shiming express over in Macau, with Tso often appearing on those shows, to 2018 when both men seemingly walked away from professional boxing. To be fair both men had taken a lot of punishment by then, having been involved in numerous FOTY but had they fought in a 2018 retirement bout we'd have no complained. Although the window for the bout is large, though bout would have made most sense in 2015, 2016 or 2017, when both were world ranked contenders at Super Flyweight and when both were were very much cult stars. Maybe early 2017 would have been the ideal time, after Conlan's 2016 war with Anthony Nelson and after Tso's battle with Ryuto Maekawa, but the window was huge for the two men to fight. Who? There hasn't been many fighters form Hong Kong worth talking about, but the one that was worthy of attention was Rex Tso, an all action fighter dubbed the "Wonder Kid". Tso was one of the very few faces of Hong Kong sport and seemed to realise, relatively quickly, that he was the nation's boxing hero. He was a likeable, friendly, personable man outside of the ring, but when inside the ring he was an all action punching machine. Technically he could box, and we did see him boxing at times, but it was never hard to make Tso becoming a fighter, and draw the warrior out of him. It was that warrior spirit and mentality that quickly made Tso into a star at home and a cult hero among hardcore fight fans. Tso's career was short, with just 22 bouts, but from those he was involved in a string of instant classics. His bouts with Mako Matsuyama, Michael Enriquez, Ryuto Maekawa, Hirofumi Mukai and Kohei Kono were action packed and drama filled bouts that are all worthy of a re-watch any time you question your love of the sport. Sadly though those wars took their toll and he fell out with the head of DEF HK, his promoter, and decided to fight as an amateur after damage to his eyes forced a long break from the ring. Whilst Hong Kong is an obscure place for boxing Northern Ireland isn't and that's exactly where Jamie Conlan is from. Despite his roots he was dubbed "The Mexican" due to his style, heart and determination. There was a lot of limitations with Conlan in the ring, as there was with Tso, but there was no doubting the love and good will Conlan had for his thrilling battles. He was very much a fighter who came to put on a show and give fans value for money. He was certainly a less skilled fighter than his brother, Michael Conlan, but in many ways he connected with the fans better than his brother due to his easy to watch bouts and the drama they often had. Sadly Conlan's career was even short than Tso's, fighting just 20 times, but he helped give British fans some of the best bouts in recent memory. His win over Anthony Nelson was something special, his war with Yader Cardoza was spectacular and his guts against Junior Granados helped him eek out a win. Sadly his determination and heart weren't enough at world level and he was dominated by Jerwin Ancajas in an IBF world title fight in 2017, before retiring. How would we see it playing out? We're going to start this by admitting we have no idea who we would have favoured here. Both of these men had almost identical flaws. They were defensively limited, fought with their hearts on their sleeve, and had to grit out some tough moments, even when they took home wins. They made easy bouts hard, and made hard bouts even harder. On paper Tso would probably be the slight favourite, but it would be a 55-45 type of thing in his favour. Although we could say picking a winner here would be hard the reality is that we, the fans, would be the winner. This would start with both men boxing, for a round or two, before the pace picked up, and from there on we'd be getting a war. Both men would be trying to out last the other in a high tempo brawl of insane proportions. CompuBox operators, if they were working the fight, would give up at the intense exchanges, and we would see a fight fit for a phone booth. Sadly, given the limitations and determination of both men, they would both be taking a lot of punishment and it may well hasten their retirements, though they would sure give the fans something to remember them by! Would history of been changed? In reality this would have been little more than a blip on the wider boxing world. The winner would likely have been offered a world title fight, but we can't imagine either man coming out on top at that level. We saw Conlan being undessed by Ancajas and Tso struggled past a well beyond his prime Kohei Kono, and we suspect any world champion from the time would have done a number on either man. But in many ways we don't think that would have harmed their reputations. Neither of these men are ever going to go down in any "all time great boxers" list, but both will go down as some of the best warriors and most exciting fighters of their era. In many ways the memories they gave us in the ring is their legacy, it is their history. They will be better remembered than many better and more successful fighters. Had they fought it would have given us another memory of both, but that's pretty much a bout in isolation, rather than a bigger picture thing. As we write this it is worth noting that Conlan is still involved in the sport as part of MTK Global whilst Tso has seemingly still got eyes on the Olympics, though an appearance in Tokyo does look very unlikely. One of our biggest loves in this sport is the journey of a fighter, following them from very early in their careers right through to the point where they win titles, or in some cases don't. Of course we can usually spot the mega prospects a mile off, the fighters who were top amateurs, and went on to win medals in international competition before moving on to fight in the professional ranks as high experienced and accomplished fighters. One of the harder things to judge is which prospects can go all the way without that sort of amateur foundation. With that in mind we've decided to take a look at 4 Japanese prospects who are currently making a mark in the sport without an extensive amateur career and are still pretty much under the radar. In fact we've gone one step further and gone with a sub rule that they must have competed in the Rookie of the Year tournament in recent years. This literally rules out top amateurs but leaves us with a lot of promising talent to talk about, and a nice mix of styles, weights and strengths, Toshiki Shimomachi (12-1-2, 8) - Rookie of the Year winner in 2017 Of all the fighters we're featuring here we dare say that slippery Super Bantamweight fighter Toshiki Shimomachi is the further along in terms of development and where his career stands right now. He's already got 15 fights to his name his Rookie triumph was the better part of 3 years ago, and he is the current Japanese Youth Super Bantamweight champion. Despite all that he is still only 23 years old and is still adding new wrinkles to his game, which really is improving all the time. Shimomachi turned professional in 2015, debuting at the age of 19, and despite a 2-1-1 (1) start his career has blossomed with the youngster going 10-0-1 (7) in his last 11. That's not perfect, but the recent draw did come to Daisuke Watanabe, who later went on to win the Hajime No Ippo 30th Anniversary tournament. If you like slippery fighters, who rely on a good boxing brain and setting up counters Shimomachi is that type of guy. He's got a high level boxing brain, good reflexes and very under-rated power. Jinki Maeda (5-0, 3) - Rookie of the Year Winner in 2019 Shimomachi isn't the only boxer-type on this list, another is Featherweight standout Jinki Maeda. From what we could find Maeda had next to no amateur experience, and instead he moved into boxing having been a stellar Nippon Kempo competitor. The quick speed and reflexes needed in Nippon Kempo seemed to have translated over to boxing well and Maeda is quickly proving himself to be a force to be reckoned with. Maeda, like Shimmomachi, is 23 but only made his debut in April 2019 and his rise through the sport has been wonderfully quick. Already in his career we've seen him win Rookie of the Year, doing so with a win against Kyonosuke Kameda, but also score a sensational win in 2019 against Arashi Iimi. Whilst still a long way from a title fight, of any kind, Maeda appears to be one of those rare natural talents who just under-stands what he's doing in the ring and has an innate under-standing of what he's supposed to be doing. He likes to lure opponents into mistakes, strikes quickly, and makes a quick impact. A tremendous young fighter. Katsuki Mori - (7-0, 1) - Rookie of the Year winner in 2019 Another talented youngster is Ohashi gym's brilliant skilled Katsuki Mori, who is an aggressive but well schooled technical fighter. His game plan is based around his speed, reflexes and movement and he looks sensational at times. As with everyone else in this list he lacks in terms of amateur experience but that certainly doesn't show, and it's to suggest he's one of the best natural talents in Japan. Although he's a bit feather fisted Mori is very much a fighter who seems to fight to his strengths. Rather than trying to bomb opponents out he will counter them, out land them, make them miss, and land flashy combinations. During his 7 fight career he has only lost a small number of rounds, and has managed to win the 2019 Rookie of the Year with very, very few issues at all. At the moment it's a little bit unclear whether Mori's immediate future is at. It could be Minimumweight, where he won the 2019 Rookie of the Year, or Light Flyweight, where he fought his last bout, but longer term it seems like he will fill out his frame end up at Flyweight somewhere down the line. By then we'd hope he has a bit more spite on his shots, but for now he's a growing kid and not the complete fighter that he will become. There is work to do, as we see in the video below, but it's clear he's an excellent prospect, who is just lacking that bit of man strength at the moment. Aso Ishiwaki (8-2-1, 6) - Rookie of the Year losing finalist 2018 We've mentioned some boxers and now we'd like to talk about a true fighter, as we add Aso Ishiwaki into the mix. Ishiwaki is an educated pressure fighter who really reminds us of Daiki Kaneko in many ways. Although not as technically polished as Kaneko was Ishiwaki is an aggressive fighter with incredible physical strength, under-rated power and skills that are developing fight by fight. Like Kaneko it's his presence in the ring that seems to be his biggest strength and early losses haven't hindered his progress. Ishiwaki began his career in 2017 and loss inside a round on debut. The following year he marched his way to the All Japan Rookie of the Year final, taking several unbeaten records along the way until losing a split decision in the All Japan final to George Tachibana. That probably saw some write him off, but at that point he was just 19 and filling out his frame. In 2019 Ishiwaki went on to fight 4 times, going 3-0-1 (3), and impressed in both his draw with Yoji Saito and his year ending win over Ryuji Ikeda and showed that he's developing his skills to go with his energy, work rate, toughness, strength and power. Very much a dark horse but someone we really do see making a mark on the regional title scene. He may never make a splash on the global scene, but he's the sort of fighter who will provide us with a lot of action and some real thrilling bouts at 135lbs and 140lbs. When we talk about the most promising Uzbek prospects one name that seems to get over-looked, a lot, is Elnur Abduraimov (5-0, 5), who seems to never get any sort of a mention at all, despite being a genuine talent. The 26 year old look fantastic in the amateurs, and is looking very promising in the professional ranks, despite taking a break from the pro-ranks over the last year, when he turned his hand back to the amateur code.
Despite being massively over-looked we thought he was a fighter deserving of more attention, and the perfect fighter to talk about his week, in our Introducing series, as we continue to shine a light on talented and promising fighters from Asia. Abduraimov was born in 1994 in Chirchik City in the Tashkent region of Uzbekistan. Like many top fighters he took to the sport at a young age, and began boxing aged just 10, being trained by his father. That early training put him on a journey through the sport and set him up for notable amateur success. Abduraimov was shining at a young age on the domestic scene and in 2009 he was starting to make an impression on some of the international tournaments, competing at the President Heydar Aliyev Cup in Baku in 2009, where he reached the semi-finals. Despite only being a teenager at this point someone were suggesting he was a youngster to keep a serious eye on. Although Abduraimov had come up short in the 2009 President Heydar Aliyev Cup it wasn't long until he had began picking up small tournament wins, with one coming in neighbouring Kazakhstan in 2010. Of course winning small tournaments as a teenager is one thing, and doing them as an adult is something different altogether. As it turned out however Abduraimov could do it at the top level, claiming bronze at the World and Asian Championships in 2015. He was in the running for a place at the 2016 Olympics, but sadly missed out to compatriot Hurshid Tajibayev, who went to Rio instead and reached the quarter finals. Having missed out on the Olympics Abduraimov managed to have a big 2017, winning the Asian Championships as part of a dominant Uzbek national team. The team won 9 of the 10 available golds and was a scarily strong team. It included the likes of Hasanboy Dusmatov, Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Israil Madrimov, Bektemir Melikuziev and Bakhodir Jalolov, as well as Abduraimov. The amateur success, particularly the success at the Asian Championships, saw Abduraimov become an attractive fighter for promoters to try and get at and in 2018 he finalised a deal with DiBella Entertainment and Max Alperovich to turn professional. Despite doing that he also kept the door open to the amateurs, allowing him to essentially compete in both codes, where he saw fit, very similar to Bakhodir Jalolov who had also switched between pros and amateurs. Originally the plan had been for Abduraimov to debut in May 2018, but sadly that debut was delayed, and instead we had to wait until September 2018 to see what he could do in the pros. Sadly we only got a glimpse of his ability as he blasted through Aaron Jamel Hollis in 104 seconds. Just weeks after making his professional debut Abduraimov was back in the ring, at the same venue in Indio, California, where he stopped Giovannie Gonzalez in 2 rounds. His busy activity in the professional ranks continued when he made his Russian debut in November 2018, and blasted away Aelio Mesquita. In the space of just 2 months he had gone from 0-0 to 3-0 (3) and seemed destined for a busy career and a rapid ascent. Sadly however Abduraimov's 2019 was much less focused on the professional ranks, fighting just twice as a professional during the year, and instead focusing on the amateurs, with his viewing being to compete at the 2020 Tokyo games. Having spent of 2019 focusing on the Olympics Abduraimov managed to book his Olympic ticket earlier this year, when he won the Asia/Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament in Amman. Sadly with the Olympics being delayed to 2021 we won't see him fighting in Tokyo for a while still. Thankfully Abduraimov's not sitting and resting on the side, and recent reports from Uzbekistan have emerged to suggest Abduraimov will be back in the ring later this year for another professional bout, potentially in the US. It would be his first pro bout since a 4th round TKO win over Issa Nampepeche in May 2019. In regards to what Abduraimov is like as a fighter he is a southpaw with a text book style aided by excellent speed and power. He's defensively tight, come in behind his jab, presses forward and is very well schooled. Like many of the Uzbek fighters he's as comfortable going to the body as he is going up top. He is a text book fighter, but he has got a bit of that Uzbek flair we're seeing more and more of, and his style seems to have converted over to the professional ranks wonderfully. Our guess is that after the Tokyo Olympics Abduraimov will commit fully to the pro ranks, and when that happens we expect him to tear it up at Lightweight, and get into the world title mix within a year or two of the Olympics. He'll go in to the games as one of the top medal contenders and will be looking to leave a mark in Tokyo, before stamping his way through the professional ranks. It seems like the last week has genuinely flown by, and whilst that might just be us, it really does seem like time is starting to tick away, and we are starting to head towards some exciting times in the sport. We have big bouts around the corner, we have some interesting returns coming up and we have something to look forward.
Whilst the last week might not have had a lot of in ring action we certainly have a decent amount to talk about, both in the ring and out of it! The Good 1-A lot of bouts being announced! So lets start with the best thing, the sheer number of announcements we've had in the last week or so. In the space of around a week we've had Naoya Inoue Vs Jason Moloney announced, along with Hiroto Kyoguchi Vs Thanongsak Simsri, Daigo Higa Vs Seiya Tsutsumi and the Taisei card in November. For the first time, in a long time, we are seeing the schedule getting more and more stacked and it feels like we are heading towards some exciting times. Fingers crossed the bouts that have been announced all take place. If they do we will have a whirlwind of activity in October and November! 2-Boxnation is still going! British boxing channel Boxnation showed there is still life in the channel this week as it showed a Russian card. Whilst the show it's self was nothing great it was fantastic to see the channel pick up some fights. It seems unlikely that the channel will ever become what we all wanted it to be, but it's a great thing that it is still out there, and fingers crossed they do manage to pick up obscure cards going forward. Given the issues DAZN are having the idea that Boxnation is still out there is great, and although it's limping around like a wounded animal looking for a place to die, it's still got some fight in it. 3-Drive in Boxing in the UK! Staying with the UK it's great to see that, finally, Drive In boxing will be tried in the UK. We loved the German Drive In boxing show from earlier in the year and it's brilliant that it will be tried again. Just a shame that it's being tried in the UK in November, and will almost certainly not be the type of conditions needed to best enjoy the sport. November in the UK tends to bet wet, windy, and dark super early, so we can see this being a failure, but it's glad someone tried. Just a shame it wasn't possible to try over the summer and run the event as a proof of concept. The Bad 1-What on earth happened to Boxrec this week? It night just be us, but erm...Boxrec looks goofy recently. Records are loading weirdly, and there's other small but very notable graphical issues at times. We suspect it's due to how adverts are loading but it's making the site awkward to use at times. Fingers crossed they can sort this out, before it becomes a bigger issue. Whether you love Boxrec or not it's one of the most vital resources for fight fans and it's a shame to see so many issues creeping in to it in regards to how things look. 2-WBA rankings We don't pay attention to the rankings that we once did, mostly because it's a waste of fucking time and they make it up as they go along, but this week we did glance at some of them including the WBA's. And let us just say these are laughable and bizarre. Every division has at least one "WTF?" fighter rankings. For example Christopher Lovejoy and Fres Oquendo at Heavyweight, Juergen Uldedaj at Crusierweight and Tomoki Kameda, of all fighters, at Featherweight. Whatever the folk at the WBA are smoking, we want some! We want some badly! The Ugly 1-Canelo Vs Dazn and GBP It's hard to really understand what anyone is expecting out of the messy situation between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions, but lets just be honest, it will end up a car wreck. Whether DAZN have done anything wrong or not, and that's for the courts to decide, is going to be pretty damaging to Canelo's career if they decide to actively fight it. They could, potentially, force him to sit out a very, very long time whilst this goes through the courts. For DAZN it's a learning experience in the boxing game, and why the sport wasn't a great option for them to pursue the way they did, and for Golden Boy, well this could end up being the end of them. If this gets as messy as it could be we might see Canelo sitting on the side lines for a year or two, DAZN dropping boxing after current contracts expire and GBP being hammered into the ground. A total mess up on a mess. 2-Danny Williams Still fighting Why? Just why? Aged 47 Danny Williams was once a great servant of British boxing, and one of the better British Heavyweights from the 1990's. Now however he's a shell of a man who needs to hang them up...10 years ago. It's long been said that he's fighting for his kids to go to an expensive school, but lets be honest, if his kids are his priority maybe him being a lucid parent to them later in their lives is a more important thing than their schooling. Whoever keeps licensing him stop it, stop it now, or there will be blood on your hands one day soon. After a somewhat slow burn to begin September things step up in the second part of the month with a number of notable and big fights as the month ends on a high and sends us into October with a big boost of action! As well as meaningful bouts, at world level, we also get some big prospects in action, and a brilliant domestic bout in Thailand!
September 19th Mohegan Sun Casino, USA Tugstsogt Nyambayar (11-1, 9) vs Cobia Breedy (15-0, 5) We get a great fight to kick off this part of the month as recent world title challenger Tugstsogt Nyambayar takes on the unbeaten Cobia Breedy, who was a relatively late replacement for Eduardo Ramirez. The talented Nyambayar, from Mongolia, will be looking to secure a second world title fight, following a loss to Gary Russell Jr earlier this year. As for Breedy this is a huge step up, but he will enter with the confidence of an unbeaten man, and know there is no expectations on his shoulders. September 25th Rangsit International Stadium, Rangsit, Thailand Panya Pradabsri (33-1, 21) vs Wichet Sengprakhon (11-7, 6) World ranked Thai Panya Pradabsri looks set to drop back down to Minimumweight as he takes on the limited Wichet Sengprakhon for a regional title. Panya is one of the most talented Thai's out there, but at 29 his career appears to be on a bit of a standstill, with too many bouts like this in recent years. There is no doubting his ability, but he really should be in the world title mix, not having his third tick over bout of the year. September 26th London, UK Josh Taylor (16-0, 12) Vs Downua Ruawaiking (16-0, 13) In one of the biggest bouts of the year so far we'll see Scotland's Josh Taylor look to defend his IBF and WBA Light Welterweight titles against Thai challenger Downua Ruawaiking. The bout is an IBF mandatory for Taylor and will see him look to build on some great wins in recent years, including his victory in the World Boxing Super Series last year. As for Downua, also known as Apinun Khongsong, the bout is a huge step up, though he did impress last time he stepped up and stopped Akihiro Kondo. Kobe Central Gym, Japan Mika Iwakawa (9-5-1, 3) Vs Nanae Suzuki (10-3-1, 1) After holding the WBO Atomweigth title for more than 2 years we finally see Mika Iwakawa make her first defense, as she takes on former Japanese female champion Nanae Suzuki. It's hard to know what the champion still has to offer, given she's closing in on 40, but we suspect she will be the favourite against a hungry Suzuki. As with all Atomweight bouts expect this to be high tempo and have a lot of leather thrown, even if neither fighter has much pop on their shots. Shun Kubo (13-2, 9) Vs Takashi Igarashi (13-4, 5) Former world champion Shun Kubo returns to the ring for the first time since losing in 2019 to Can Xu. There was talk of Kubo retiring following that loss, but instead he's back here looking for a confidence building win as he takes on Takashi Igarashi. On paper this looks a competitive bout, but in reality it's hard to imagine Igarashi, who last fought in 2018, having much to offer. Still it's nice to see Kubo back in the ring, and he's always been a fun and gutsy fighter to watch. Kohei Oba (36-3-1, 14) Vs Yoshiki Minato (8-3, 3) Former Japanese Bantamweight champion champion Kohei Oba ends a 6 year break from the ring as he takes on 2018 Rookie of the Year winner Yoshiki Minato. Oba, dubbed the "Mayweather of Nagoya" was once regarded a legitimate prospect, and late a world title contender, but then Kohei Oba looks a loss to Randy Caballero in 2014 ended his world title hopes and eye issues after that sent him into retirement. As for Minato his Rookie of the Year triumph feels like a long time ago and he lost twice in 2019, and now needs a win. Suamlum Night Bazaar, Ratchadaphisek, Bangkok, Thailand Phoobadin Yoohanngoh (9-0, 4) Vs Atchariya Wirojanasunobol (12-0, 5) In a really notable, yet rather odd, all-Thai match up we'll see teenage sensation Phoobadin Yoohanngoh take on Atchariya Wirojanasunobol. The 16 year old Phoobadin really impressed last time out, winning a WBA Asia regional title and going 10 rounds for the first time in a career best win. This is however a massive step up for the youngster who is taking on an opponent who looks very live, on paper. We say on paper as we really have no idea what the once touted Atchariya has left in the tank following a very long and hard battle out of the ring. Atchariya was arrested in 2018, at the airport on the way to face Andy Hiraoka in Japan, and spent more than a year awaiting trial for drug related crimes before beign cleared earlier this year. If the ordeal has taken Atchariya's fighting spirit this could end up being a farce, but if Atchariya has a burning anger and is looking to make a statement he might have too much for the youngster here. September 27th Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ayaka Miyao (23-8-2, 6) vs Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen (4-0, 1) We'll see a new world champion being crowned in Vietnam as we see veteran Ayaka Miyao clash with unbeaten novice Thi Thi Nhi Nguyen in a bout for the WBO Female Minimumweight title. On paper Miyao, a former WBA Atomweight champion, should be strongly favoured, but the veteran is now 37 and has shown some slow down in recent years, and isn't a natural Minimuweight. Nguyen is the much younger fighter, at 23, she's a natural Minimumweight and holds home advantage, though this is a massive step up in class for her. Fujisan Messe, Japan Tsubasa Murachi (4-1, 3) Vs Ryotaro Kawabata (12-3-2, 6) The talented Tsubasa Murachi looks to bounce back from a 2019 KO loss to Froilan Saludar as he takes on domestic foe Ryotaro Kawabata. This is a decent comeback, on paper, for the once touted Murachi who has questions to answer following such a brutal KO loss. Although Kawabata is no world beater he has scored some notable results, including a draw with Rene Dacquel, and a close loss to Mark John Yap, and should prove a decent test for talent youngster. Rentaro Kimura (1-0, 1) Vs Takafumi Iwaya (4-3) In a mismatch we'll see brilliant Japanese prospect Rentaro Kimura look to build on his impressive debut win, over Yuya Azuma, as he takes on Takafumi Iwaya. Thuis really isn't expected to be much of a test at all for Kimura, who is one of the best best prospects in Japan, but given he is certainly one to follow this is a bout that should be on the radar of every fan. The 32 year old Iwaya was stopped on his debut but has rebuilt from some early stumbles and come in to this on the back of 3 straight wins. Even with that sort of form a competitive performance against Kimura would be a massive shock. Koichi Aso (23-9-1, 15) Vs Shogo Yamaguchi (12-5-3, 7) Former Japanese Light Welterweight champion Koichi Aso was never the best fighter or the biggest puncher but he was someone who has always provided value for fans, and has been in some thrilling contests. Sadly his career seems to be coming to an end, and the 34 year old is likely to hang them up sooner, rather than later. In what may be one of his final professional bouts he takes on Shogo Yamaguchi, who comes into the bout on the back of a career best win over Shuhei Tsuchiya this past February. This isn't a big bout, but we do expect it to be a fun and action packed war for as ling as it lasts. This past week we've seen a lot of announcements regarding fighters, including confirmation of bouts for the likes of Naoya Inoue, Vasyl Lomachenko, Hiroto Kyoguchi, and Daigo Higa. Sadly however the big talking point hasn't been these fighters. Instead it's been the on going saga between Saul Canelo Alvarez, DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions. A saga that went legal this week with Canelo filing a suit against his broadcaster partner and promoter.
We're not too interested in the legal side of things as such, though we are concerned in seeing how it plays out and how long it will essentially prevent the face of boxing from being in the ring. We are, however, interested in concept that boxing could ever have been the focal point for a global streaming service, and that it could ever have funded the boxing contracts it was signing up for. The three big boxing contracts, that have been widely reported, that DAZN have are the Canelo contract, at $365m over 11 fights and 5 years, the Golovkin contract, at $100m over 6 fights and 3 years, and the $1b deal with Matchroom, which was to be spread over 8 years. Of course it's not as easy as to just blurt figures out, but, for ease of maths, that works out at close to $200m a year on boxing content. And that ignores other boxing deals the service has, for example it's broadcasting of WBSS and WP Boxing events. They may have come much, much cheaper, but together we are looking at an incredible amount being spent on Boxing. To spearhead a service, like DAZN, on Boxing content seemed a stupid decision at the time. And has proven to be a rather questionable one still, on reflection. Of course the service would have loved to have launched with a league behind it, like they did with the J League in Japan, but those major US league rights were tied up, and boxing was one of the few sports fragmented enough for the service to get into. With that in mind what they really needed was a smart boxing mind to head the US boxing content. They needed someone who knew the business side of boxing, knew how the sport worked, and the unique, often frustrating, issues with boxing and boxing broadcasting. They needed someone like Ross Greenburg overseeing things, including contracts, promotional deals and other things unique to boxing. Someone who understood the sport, and the nightmare it can be. Instead they went in with the idea of being a disruptor of the industry, going their own way, and throwing money at something in the hope that it would attract the boxing fan base over to the service. And someone who wasn't directly linked to a promotional outfit. They needed someone to be above that level of politics. One of the first mistakes that they appeared to have made is assuming boxing is like other sports. It's not. Boxing is it's own weird, annoying, frustrating entity. If you're reading this we suspect your relationship with the sport is much like ours. You love it, you hate it, you're indifferent to it, you're angry about it, then you love it again. Bouts we want aren't made at the right time, people avoid each other and do too much of their fighting on social media, promoters try to steal the attention of the fighters and we get too many meaningless matches. We have too many options for fighters wanting to take a different route to a world title and we have other countless problems. Unlike the UFC, where most of the top fighters are under one banner, or a league system like the NFL, we don't have any idea when the best in boxing will face off, there is no reason them to fight, and we can't, for certain, say they ever will. Boxing is also a sport that tends to use limited dates, between 1 and 3 a week, not nearly enough to keep fans tuning in and coming back, like a league that will have games on 3 or 4 nights a week. Typically it's a Saturday night sport, and as a result looking for people to subscribe for potentially 5 nights of entertainment a month is somewhat a tricky task. DAZN needed someone who knew that, in charge. With someone like that in charge they would likely have gotten clear contracts that made it very obvious what they expected from their partners, Matchroom Sports, Canelo and GGG and how they intended to get there. They wouldn't have made a big song and dance about the money they were spending, and how big the contracts are, as that doesn't help them and makes things harder. If you know Matchroom Sports have $125m to spend in a year, and they come to you for a fight or multi-fight deal, you bet you're gonna try and get extra from that money. If you know Canelo has $40m to spend on a fight, with $35m going to him, you're going to try and get a nibble at his money. Knowing these figures mean that when Eddie Hearn tried to lure people over they knew what he had in his war chest, and also likely knew what they could get from Al Haymon and Bob Arum. The plan of Matchroom to get big American Stars completely failed. He went after Adrien Broner, the Charlo's and Deontay Wilder, and instead landed himself fighters like Tevin Farmer and Demetrius Andrade. The plan to throw money at the problem, figuratively and literally, didn't work. He failed to secure the stars he needed to make a mark on the US scene. Lets just be totally honest, the fan bases of Tevin Farmer and Demetrius Andrade aren't ever going to change the fortunes of a Pay Service, like DAZN. One of the issues that neutralised the money aspect for some fighters was the lack of exposure. A fight on a new platform like DAZN didn't have the strong presence of a show on ESPN, Fox or Showtime. Even linking DAZN bouts to a potential exposure deal in the UK, on Sky Sports, and across the global DAZN platform still doesn't give a huge amount of exposure. A fighter with a big name typically wants to be seen, they to feel famous, and that wasn't really possible on this new platform, with a tiny fan base. This was the other big problem with DAZN USA being spearheaded by boxing. It lacked the right market place for the sport. The idea was simple. "These customers paying for PPV fights get better value here paying $10 a month as opposed to $80 for a PPV". They were right. No argument at all, they are right. It is better value, by a country mile. But that's not how things always work. In 2016 a study by the Magna Global for SportsBusiness Journal found the average age of boxing fans watching the sport on TV was 49, going up from 47 a decade earlier, and 45 years in 2000. That's an old, ageing audience, which is probably now in their 50's. That audience is a TV audience that has grown up with the sport, followed it and are used to seeing it on TV. A medium they are familiar with. DAZN on the other hand is the new, hip, youth friendly service aimed at streamers. The new generation. That isn't a generation that is typically following boxing. Whilst they may get better value on DAZN they typically aren't big fans of the sport. We'll admit the Magna Global study is logically flawed. It looks at TV viewers, and sports definitely have a large online streaming audience which aren't accounted for in that study. However that streaming audience are, essentially, not paying to watch things. They are the ones who know where to look to see what they want. Add all that into the fact DAZN, as a brand, isn't a strong brand, despite what they might think, and they were always going to struggle for market penetration. They seemingly saw their competition as being sports content providers, and TV networks. For us the rival for DAZN was never the TV and sports channels, it was the streaming services, the Netflix's and the Amazon Prime's. The $20 a month luxury for entertainment. Yes it was cheap, yes it was new, but it was still an online entertainment service, and at the end of the day that was their competition with the same sort of market, the generation X and millennials. Essentially they were over-paying fighters, making it clear there was a lot of money was in the coffers, didn't understand the intricacies of boxing, and were aimed at the wrong demographic for their service. They may have seen themselves as a disruptor but the reality is they were trying to interrupt a market that simply wasn't there in the way they thought it was and those that wanted to watch for free knew how to. They were incredibly naive to the sport they were getting themselves involved in. The long term plan was obviously to tie fighters into long term global contracts, and then launch world wide, at some point. That was the long game, and one where boxing could indeed play a major role. After all it is one of the most global sports. Fighters from around the globe compete against each other and it's a notable sport in places currently without DAZN, like the UK, Mexico, Philippines and Thailand. There was potential for those large contracts to pay off. That however seemed to be a longer term plan and by the time it seemed ready to come we were already multiple fights into the GGG and Canelo deals, and of course had a global Pandemic. It also ignores the fact that certain global countries may not have the Internet infrastructure needed to provide the service properly. The 18 or so months that the US market had the service before launching globally almost certainly cost them here. There was no point having global rights but only being able to use them in for 5 or 6 territories. They could sell the rights, sure, but tying people into their service was the key, and was a missed opportunity. When we look back over DAZN it was mistake after mistake. It was issue after issue. It was bad decision after bad decision. It was a great idea for boxing fans, but was ran the wrong way around. It was ran with too many loss leaders as the selling points, it's was sold to the wrong audience, it was sold in the wrong way and it wasn't sold to a wider enough fan base. The smarter plan would have been to buy up content, link up with multiple promoters, and tell them to play nice, and tell them to keep their financial dealings quiet. Don't brag about how much you can blow, that will only drive up the price. Had they gone and opened the doors to multiple smaller promoters on a global basis, managed to secure regular content, had 3 or 4 nights a week with action, even at a smaller level, it would have attracted fans, it would have sold the long term potential, it would have been far cheaper for DAZN themselves, and it would have allowed them to build a core fan base, before throwing open the purse strings. It wouldn't have made a huge splash, but it would have given them a foundation to build the sport, to build their audience, to build their future stars, and to get the bigger stars at the right time. The SportsBusiness Journal report: https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/06/05/Research-and-Ratings/Viewership-trends.aspx *** Earlier I mentioned the J-League contract DAZN signed way back when the service launched in Japan. That saw them paying almost $2b for a 10 year deal with the J-League. That works at around $200m a year, for around 300 matches a year, spread over a most of the year. That deal, in recent weeks, has been extended but with a drop in annual cost of 11.1% and maybe that needs to be something boxing needs to look at going forward. It was also a deal that provided 10 months of action and kept subscribers subscribed, rather than having them drop in and out a few times a year, like the boxing lead model did, with people only subscribing when big fights were on. |
Oriental Opinions
This is just an opinion, maaaan! It's easy to share our opinions, and that's what you'll find here, some random opinion pieces Archives
March 2024
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