When we talk about Korean boxing the truth is that there is no great Korean out there right now, the last Korean world champions all finished their career's in the 00's. Sadly the country went from having In Jin Chi, Jong Kwon Baek and Yo Sam Choi to having no world class fighters for the better part of 20 years. That trio all left a mark at the top of the sport but since then there has been very little to talk about, unless you enjoy female boxing.
The saddest tale from that trio is former WBC Light Flyweight champion Yo Sam Choi (32-5, 19). The talented Choi fought between 1993 and 2007 and, at one point, looked to be the sole man trying to keep top level boxing going in South Korea. Sadly though he would pass away in 2008, and with his passing the hopes of Korean boxing essentially faded away. There has been some hopeful fighters since then, such as Min Wook Kim and Ji Hoon Kim, but they were a long way short from the success of Choi. Today we look at Choi's career as we bring you the 5 most significant wins for... Yo Sam Choi Kenzo Ando (December 3rd 1996) In November 1995 Choi suffered his first professional loss, losing in a Korean title bout against Sang Ik Yang. He rebuilt from that with a couple of domestic wins which lead him to his second title bout, a shot at the OPBF Light Flyweight title. Not only was this a step up but it was also going to be a step out of South Korea, as he travelled to Osaka to battle Kenzo Ando for the vacant title. Just to add a bit more pressure, the main event of the card was a WBA world title bout. Despite everything that surrounded the bout Choi did what was needed to take a decision over Ando to claim the OPBF title and become the Oriental champion with an excellent international debut. Saman Sorjaturong I (October 17th 1999) Almost 3 years after winning the OPBF title, and with 3 defenses under his belt, Choi took a huge step up as he took on WBC champion Saman Sorjaturong. The Thai champion, then boasting a 41-2-1 (31) record, had recorded 10 defenses of the WBC title since taking it from Humberto Gonzalez in the 1995 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. Not only had Sorjaturong been a solid champion but he had also been unbeaten in over 6 years coming in to this bout. Despite that form it wasn't enough to over-come Choi, who took a clear decision over the Thai. The Korean took the victory and the WBC Light Flyweight title with the best win of his career. Impressively Choi fought a portion of this bout with a broken jaw, showing just how tough he was. Saman Sorjaturong II (January 30th 2001) Strange things happen in boxing and at some point after Choi's first win over Sorjaturong negotiations took place for them to have a rematch...in North Korea in December 2000. The person putting that event together sadly died, and rather than creating history in Pyongyang the two men would end up running their bout over in Seoul, with Choi getting the better of the Thai once again. This time around Choi would stop the Thai in 7 rounds to retain the WBC title and record his second defense of the title. Whilst the win was huge for Choi and his career, extending his reign and getting a second win over the excellent Thai, it was bad news for Sorjaturong. After this bout the Thai was pretty much a spent force and he went 1-4 before ending his career after a 2005 loss to Koki Kameda. Shingo Yamaguchi (February 23rd 2002) One of the greatest historic rivalries in Asian boxing is the South Korea Vs Japan one, which had given us so many great fights in the 1980's and 1990's. Since the 00's however those amazing fights, particularly at world level, became more and more rare. The fact Korea has lacked world class fighters over the last 20 years has been the big issue here. The last time Korea took a win over their Japanese counterparts at the top level was Choi's 2002 win over Shingo Yamaguchi, in what was Choi's third defense of the WBC title. This bout was not only historically important in the Korea Vs Japan rivalry but also came about in a rather odd way. The bout was put on in short notice after financial issues had seen a summer 2001 bout between Choi and Jorge Arce fall apart. Choi needed to defend his belt sharpish or be stripped. The bout was promoted by Katsuo Tokashiki, in Japan, and helped extend Choi's reign. Sadly for Choi he would face Arce just 5 months after this and be stopped in 6 rounds by the exciting Mexican, ending Choi's title reign after just 3 defenses. Heri Amol (December 25th 2007) We end this look at Choi's most significant wins with a win that is significant for all the wrong reasons, that's his 2007 win over Heri Amol in Seoul. On paper the bout looked like a straight forward match up for the talented, though now 35 year old, Choi. Amol was nothing more than a regional journeyman who had lost 3 of his last 4 and wasn't considered to have the skills or power to test Choi, the then WBO Inter-Continental champion. For most of the fight that proved accurate with Choi running out the clear winner in the first 11 rounds. In the final seconds of the bout however he was dropped by an Amol right hand. He beat the count and was on his feet when the bell rang to close the fight. Sadly just moments later he stumbled in his corner and soon afterwards lost consciousness. Sadly he would never wake up, passing away in early 2008 from the injuries he suffered here. Whilst Choi had won the bout he had lost his life. The result of the Choi's death left a lasting mark on Korean boxing, which has never recovered from Choi's passing. Thankfully however there are positives to take from this as Choi himself donated his organs, saving several other lives, making a significant difference to families across Korea.
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What a weird week we've had this week. We had some amazing action, some real times to be happy, we had a real life hero in the sport, some amazing performances. We also had some people not giving it a real try, some mismatches, and some officiating that left so much to be desired.
With that said lets look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this week! The Good 1-A-Sign show surpasses expectations The week began on a high with a brilliant Japanese domestic card being streamed live, around the world, by A-Sign Boxing. This card really had a bit of everything. It had skills on show, thanks to the highly talented Hyoga Taniguchi and Kosuke Tomioka, it had drama in the thrilling bout between Ryugo Ushijima and Ryukyu Oho, action in the brilliant main event between Shoki Sakai and Hironori Shigeta, and a sensational performance from teenager Jin Sasaki. This was brilliant, free, and a great sign of what great match making can do. Hats off to Ichitaro Ishii and the team at A-Sign Boxing. 2-Jesse Rodriguez wows The Light Flyweight division is one of the sports most interesting, but sadly seems to get almost no attention at all in US and in Europe. This past Saturday however we saw Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez put on a show that saw him look amazing and had people actively talking about the 108lbs weight class. Rodriguez look absolutely amazing as he destroyed Janiel Rivera, dropping him 3 time in just over 2 minutes. Aged just 20 the US have a real potential star in the lowest weight classes, and the weight classes have someone that could open the door to a US market. Whether we see him getting big in the US or not, he's certainly one to watch. A brilliant, destructive, exciting prospect. 3-Samir Ziani and Alex Dilmaghani trade blows in a war Talking about brilliant and exciting the European Super Featherweight bout between Samir Ziani and Alex Dilmaghani was something amazing. This had everything we could want to see in a fight. The early rounds were competitive, there was controversy with Dilmaghani using his elbow, there was then determination and fire from Ziani who stepped up the tempo, there was some awful refereeing in the later stages, and then Ziani pulled it out with a TKO with just seconds left. If you've not seen this one you really need, it was a true FOTY contender 4-Such much boxing for free! It's fair to say that we hate PPV, and have never hidden our dislike of PPV. We understand subscription services, and whilst they still aren't perfect they are generally very good value for money, and we will never have a problem paying for a service like Boxing Raise. Saying that however the best thing is free boxing and in the last 7 days we have had a lot of free boxing. There's been live shows in Japan, Russia, the UK and Thailand and a tape delay broadcast in Japan. The old idea of PBC making boxing "free" was great but now we are actually getting a lot of free boxing, and it's set to continue, with more free Japanese and Thai shows coming up in the next few weeks. We might all have had a horrible year, but thank you boxing gods for all the free content! 5-Deandre Ware, the real life hero It was great to hear about American fighter Denadre Ware playing life saver this week, with the fighters good heart and medical training kicking in as he gave CPR to Top Rank official Pete Susens. It's a shame he didn't finish the weekend off with a win, but regardless of the result of his bout he proved himself a real hero. Well done Deandre, and it's fair to say the whole boxing world respects what you did! Whilst the 32 year old might not be a world class fighter he's a world class person, and that is much, much more important. The Bad 1-Shota Hara's effort We loved the A-Sign, genuinely it was brilliant, but Shota Hara's effort against Kosuke Tomioka was terrible. He seemed unwilling to make a fight of things and as a result the bout became an awkward one to watch. We all know Tomioka is being viewed as a special talent, but Hara looked like he had no intention of trying to fight here. A real shame as the event deserved a fun, fan friendly opening bout and instead got an awkward stinker between a counter puncher and a fighter unwilling to do anything. 2-Chainoi Worawut in another mismatch We need to start this by saying we like Chainoi Worawut, a lot. Sadly however he is being given too many light touches to pad his record. He's world ranked and holds a number of minor WBC titles, so it's time he was matched like a fighter going places rather than a fighter beating up poor competition. Joel Kwong, who Chainoi beat this week, shouldn't have been in the ring with the unbeaten Thai and whilst he tried he really was no match for the Thai. Come on WP Boxing and Nakornluang, lets see Chainoi facing a test now, rather than a full year of mismatches and easy wins. The Ugly 1-Tony Weeks and the commission forget the rules The ending of the WBO Super Featherweight title fight between defending champion Jamel Herring and challenger Jonathan Oquendo was a clusterfuck. The bout was a messy slop fest at times, due to Oquendo barging in head first, and although Herring showed some great skills they were glimpses, and he didn't do enough to make Oquendo think twice about being a human billy goat. That however wasn't the big issue with the bout, that was the ending. The ending saw Tony Weeks essentially offering Herring a way out of an ugly bout with a win, which he took. The cuts around his eye were a mess and had come from fouls. However the question is how did both Weeks and the commission officials both forget the rules here? It should have been a technical decision, not a DQ. The mental gymnastics to get to the DQ is beyond us. Had the doctor stopped the bout based on the damage, which he really should have done, we'd have gone to the scorecards, and we'd have had a clear decision for Herring. Do not get us wrong, Herring was the deserved winner, and the much better fighter, but for an experienced referee like Weeks to blow this was just ridiculous. 2-Andre Ward's scoring Staying with the Herring Oquendo fight, we need to wonder what on earth Andre Ward was watching. Ward, who recently signed an extensuion with ESPN, left us confused when he seemed to have no idea how much of an inside Josh Taylor was, but this week confusion rose to new levels. In a fight where Oquendo's clean punches could be counted on one hand, whilst his headbutts would needs all your fingers and toes, Ward somehow had the bout scored 76-74 for Herring. What was he watching? Ward may have been one of the best fighters of his time but the reality is that he is really disappointing as an analyst, and has now had a few very odd scorecards whilst working on ESPN. Given ESPN have some excellent people working on their "B Team", for the international feed we really do wonder how Ward, and Timothy Bradley, have managed to keep their feet at the table for the main broadcasts. 3-Idris Virgo acts like a pillock If there was a class clown this week it was Idris Virgo. The 27 year old British fighter showed that he was a total prick in the way he treat Scott Williams ahead of their fight. For an unbeaten prospect to treat a journeyman the way he did was pathetic and shows a real lack of decency. We understand fighters trying to sell themselves, and make themselves marketable, but Virgo has just made people think he's an absolute pillock. Given the level he's fighting at it would have made far, far more sense for him to focus on improving, rather than turning the British boxing world on him. He perhaps should ask Prince Patel how the "be a prick with an ego" tactic has works. Idris should maybe take a leaf from Deandre Ware in his to be! 4-Giuseppe Quartarone's bizarre attempt to be a referee Italian official Giuseppe Quartarone was the third man in the ring for the brilliant bout between Samir Ziani and Alex Dilmaghani and seemed to be the only negative from the fight. He let Dilmaghani off with elbows early on, and then ignored a clean knockdown, before letting a clearly out of it Dilmaghani continue, in the hope that the Englishman would make it to the final bell. Absolutely awful decision making to the point where he made accusations about him being bias very easy. This is the same referee that neutralised Joseph Parker's inside work against Anthony Joshua in 2018 and he's made our "Shit list" this week. He was terrible! In late August former Japanese amateur standout Reo Saito (0-0) became the latest in a growing line of Japanese amateur fighters announcing that they had turned professional. By announcing his decision Saito followed the likes of Rentaro Kimura, Keisuke Matsumoto and Ryutaro Nakagaki in the pros. Like a number of other top fighters turning professional he decided to turn professional under the long established Teiken Gym, and will likely be making his debut towards the end of the year.
With a real lack of fights this coming week, we thought this was an ideal time to take a look at Saito, explain why fans should be excited about him, and what he will bring to the professional ranks, as we continue to shine a light on fighters in this "Introducing" series. Sadly we've not been able to track down all the details regarding Saito's amateur career, though we have managed to track results dating back all the way to 2015 for the youngster. The first tournament we've found results for when it comes to Saito is the 2015 Japanese High School Invitational Tournament, which saw Saito win the whole thing at 60KG's. Interestingly another winner here was Yudai Shigeoka, down at 46KG's. The following year Saito continued his success, winning Japanese High School National Championships in March 2016. Other winners there included Ginjiro Shigeoka, Keisuke Matsumoto and Hayato Tsutsumi, a classy trio alongside Saito. Of coruse that wasn't Saito done for the year, oh no. Just a few months later he would claim the Japanese High School National Tournament with Ginjiro Shigeoka and Hayato Tsutsumi also taking top honours. Also in 2016 Saito competed at the Asian Youth Championships in Kazakhstan, reaching the quarter finals where he lost to Indian fighter Ankush Dahiya, the eventual silver medal winner. He also reached the quarter finals of the AIBA Youth World Championships in Russia that same year, losing to eventual winner Delante Johnson of the US. By the time we went into 2017 Saito was quickly becoming one of the fighters to keep an eye on. He was showing excellent potential, having great domestic results, and seemed to have the tools to make the move to the pros somewhere down the line. He was however still very young, and a fighter who was still improving. He wasn't close to the finished article, but was getting more and more experience under his belt. That experience lead him to success at the 2017 Taipei City Cup, where he was one of 3 Japanese winners. Despite his success in Taipei Saito actually went out at the semi-final stage in the Japanese National Championships in 2017. He was unfortunate to lose to Rentaro Kimura in arguably the toughed division in the competition. He however remained part of the amateur set up after though, though specific results are harder to come by, however he was still in his teens by this point, and still had a lot of potential to show as he went to University. When Saito announced his decision to turn professional he took to social media, explaining that he had dropped out of University this past July and had signed with Teiken as a professional boxer. He said he was starting from scratch and it seems clear that he does have the potential to be a massive star in the sport. To go along with the results we of course need to talk about his style and this is the most exciting thing when it comes to Saito. His style is very much made for the professional ranks. He likes to get inside, he likes to have a fight, go to the body and throw short sharp combinations. His style is one that will be exciting to see in the professional ranks, but certainly needs work. Back in 2018 we did see him being stopped in the amateurs by Ri Jinu and it was his defense that let him down there. That needs to be tweaked, but if he can sort that out, which should be done at the Teiken gym, there is huge potential for this one hotly tipped youngster. Now aged 22 there is no reason to think that Saito can't be a force to be reckoned with on the domestic and regional scene. World titles may be out of his reach, but we would be shocked if he never manages to claim some form of title before his career ends. After missing much of this year in regards to Weekly Awards we now return to this series as we celebrate the best of the last week! If we're being honest it's been a good week, and we really have had a bit of everything in a week that has been really interesting, without having anything massive happen in the world of Asian boxing.
Fighter of the Week Shuichiro Yoshino One thing we like to see is a fighter answering new questions, proving something about themselves and showing there is more to them than we had previously assumed. One fighter who did that this week was our Fighter of the Week Shuichiro Yoshino. The talented triple crown winner defended his three titles with a polished, mature and effective performance against Valentine Hosokawa. For the first time in years Yoshino was up against a man he couldn't hurt, and instead of getting stuck in a war he boxed, he thought about what he was doing and showed a real maturity to his boxing. Not only that but he also went 12 rounds for the first time, getting really valuable in ring experience. This was as a good a learning experience as Yoshino could have wanted and it was exactly what he needed. Performance of the Week Yasutaka Fujita We had a lot of short, impressive performances in Japan this week, including that of Jin Sasaki and Aito Abe though we don't think any were quite as impressive a the 19 second blow out win for Yasutaka Fujita, against Kensuke Nakamura. Coming in to this we had actually about how Fujia would look, given his last outing saw him lose in the 2019 All Japan Rookie of the Year final against Kodai Honda. We needn't have feared as he became only the third man to stop Nakamura, and did it with what was essentially the first meaningful punch of the bout. The finish came from a cracking left hook that dropped Nakamura who got to his feet and stumbled around. This is how you bounce back from your first loss and against a usually durable domestic foe. Fight of the Week Shoki Sakai vs Hironori Shigeta There was bigger fights, and there fights with more drama, but there was few fights that had us as excited as the 8 round brawl between Shoki Sakai and Hironori Shigeta, who gave us an exhibition in inside fighting . Sakai, a veteran of over 35 fights, was making his Japanese debut and had to prove as he took on Shigeta, a former Rookie of the Year winner. The mentalities of the two men proved vital to the action as both men showed a willingness to exchange up close and give us some great intense action. The bout was pretty competitive, though it was very much a "clear but competitive" win for Sakai, and a real fun one. It won't be in the running for Fight of the Year, but is well worthy of a watch if, or when, you get the chance. Round of the Week Ryugo Ushijima vs Ryukyu Oho (RD1) We had some great rounds across the shows in Asia, with several rounds of the Shoki Sakai Vs Hironori Shigesta fight being sensational, but the best round, for us, was the action packed and dramatic opening round of Ryugo Ushijima's bout with Ryukyu Oho. The round saw both men being dropped and some wild exchanges. From the off Oho wanted to press and Ushijima was dragged into a fire fight that saw both men taking some solid punishment. If you missed this one it's well worthy of a watch, and it a fantastic example of what happens when match making goes right! The bout did peak early, sadly, but that peak was always going to be hard to match. KO of the Week Aito Abe KO1 Kentaro Omori Not for the first time recently we managed to get a sensational KO on an relatively obscure show as 19 year old Aito Abe crushed Kentaro Omori in just 17 seconds of their Rookie of the Year bout. Abe came out like a man with a point to prove and Omori with stood the assault for a few seconds, before a huge right hand on the temple ended the show. This was short, this was sharp and it was brutal. For those with boxing raise this is well and truly worth a watch and Abe certainly appears to be someone we can expect a lot more KO's from as time goes on. Prospect of the Week Jin Sasaki We saw a lot of prospects in action this past week, but for us the one that impressed the most was Jin Sasaki, who showed exactly why those in Japan are so excited about him and his potential. He came out looking like a star in the making, blitzed Shun Akaiwa in 45 seconds, and made people sit up and take note. We knew he was good, he had impressed us earlier in his career, but we didn't know he was this good. Aged just 19 he is certainly one to keep an eye on for the future, and showed some incredible power, speed and aggression here. Upset of the Week Pungluang Sor Singyu KO7 Campee Phayom In one of the final bouts of the week we saw former 2-time WBO Bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu score only his second win in 4 years! The veteran did it by stopping Campee Phayom, and claimed the WBA Asia Super Featherweight title as his reward. The bout was a pretty competitive one at times, though the experience and toughness of Pungluang began to show through as we moved into the middle rounds and he began to grind down the 22 year year old fringe contender. The pressure of Pungluang broke through in round 7 when he took out Campee in style and scored the shock win. Whilst looking on paper this may not be a massive shock the fact Pungluang was 1-5 in his previous 6 and was fighting well above his best weight, makes this a genuine surprise result. As well as being a surprise it's a huge set back for Campee Back in May 2019 we spoke in depth about the talented Kai Ishizawa (then 5-0, 5 now 6-1, 6) as he featured in one of our "Introducing" articles. At the time Ishizawa was preparing for his 6th professional bout, a contest against Indonesian visitor Silem Serang, and was hoping to build on his impressive 2018 win over Yuga Inoue. Then aged just 22 Ishizawa was making waves. He was the Japanese Youth Minimumweight Champion, he was showing himself to be a very exciting, hard hitting, though somewhat unpolished, fighter. He was teak tough, had rocks in his hands and kept coming forward, with belief that his aggression and power would be too much for anyone. That had been proven against Inoue and against Tatsuro Nakashima, in his two best wins Unsurprisingly Ishizawa had no issues at all with Serang, who was stopped in the 4th round by Ishizawa in June 2019, on a card that was televised in G+ and headlined by Junto Nakatani. From the opening round Ishizawa pressed forward, showed a stiff jab, cut the distance behind a high guard and went about breaking down the Indonesian. Serang was in survival mode from pretty much the first minute, but eventually he was broken down, dropped and stopped. After moving to 6-0 (6) Ishizawa then got a big step up fight as he took on former world title challenger Masataka Taniguchi in a Japanese Minimumweight title eliminator. The winner of that bout would then be set to get a shot at the belt in early 2020 as part of the Champion Carnival. As we all now know the Champion Carnival has been delayed due to on going global crisis, but the rewards were big for the winner of this. Sadly for Ishizawa the bout with Taniguchi was too much too soon. The gutsy youngster had some moments, in fact he dropped Taniguchi, but was made to look too inexperienced, too raw and too much of a crude novice against the talented Taniguchi, who took a clear decision over the previously unbeaten man. This meant that Taniguchi was then in line for a Japanese title fight whilst Ishizawa had to go back to the drawing board and learn from the setback. Sadly we've not seen Ishizawa return to the ring following his first loss, but the hard hitting youngster seems like the type of young fighter who will learn from a loss like this, much like Taniguchi has from his defeats. At the time of writing Ishizawa's next bout hasn't yet been set, though the hope is that he will be back in the ring sooner rather than later, even if it is just a simple and straight forward comeback win after his loss to Taniguchi. Aged just 23 we really we see Ishizawa having a lot of potential, and hopefully he, and his team, can develop that potential over the next few years, and have him in the mix for domestic titles by 2022, and potentially regional titles the following year. He's young, promising, exciting, aggressive and strong. He just needs to physically mature and develop his defense and ring IQ if he's to make the most of what still promises to be a very, very exciting career. When we talk about Filipino boxer's called "Manny" we immediately think Manny Pacquiao. Before Pacquiao, however, there had been other Filipino "Manny's" in the sport. One of the more notable of those was Manny Melchor (38-35-6, 6), who's record looks terrible, though he made some genuine impacts in the sport during his 15 year, 79 fight career. Yes, he was no Pacquiao, but he was a world champion, who faced a who's who, and scored a number of notable wins.
Melchor's career stretched from 1987 to 2002 and for a chunk of that time he was a notable player in the Minimumweight scene Here we bring you the 5 most significant wins for... Manny Melchor Eric Chavez I (December 30th 1990) In September 1989 Filipino Eric Chavez had held the IBF Minimumweight title, thanks to a 5th round KO win against Nico Thomas in Indonesia. He had lost the title, in his first defense, to Fahlan Sakkreerin just 5 months later. The loss was a controversial one and Chavez would get a rematch with Fahlan, but lose a decision in that rematch. They were his only 2 losses heading into his December 1990 bout with Melchor, and he boasted a very good 28-2-3 (18) record. Melchor on the other hand was 15-14-3 (5). Melchor was, for all intents, a stay busy fight or a tune up for Chavez. But no one told Melchor he was there to lose, and he refused to play his part, taking a career changing majority decision over the former world champion. This win was a win that really injected Melchor's career with some hope and ambition. Eric Chavez II (September 21st 1991) Although Chavez had been a world champion less than a year before his first bout with Melchor his career seemed to be on the downside when the two men had a rematch the following year. Not only had Chavez lost to Melchor at the end of 1990 but he had also suffered a loss to Andy Tabanas in early 1991. Despite that Melchor wanted to prove his first win over Chavez wasn't a fluke, and almost a year after their first clash the two fought again. This time the close majority decision was turned into a unanimous decision for Melchor who did the double over the former world champion. Amazingly Chavez would turn in one of career best performances years after this loss, when he pushed Rosendo Alvarez close in a WBA title fight in the summer of 1996, showing that there was still something there with him, even if Melchor had scored 2 wins against him. Pretty Boy Lucas (December 13th 1991) Just months after Melchor scored his second win over Chavez he moved on to facing a another contender, the then 27-1-2 (9) Pretty Boy Lucas. Lucas was a year removed from a split decision draw for the IBF Minimumweight title, against the then defending champion Fahlan Sakkreerin Snr, in Thailand. Lucas was very much in the mix for another world title fight, and would actually end up with one in 1992 against Ricardo Lopez. Despite Lucas being well in the title mix it was Melchor who came out of this one with his arm raised, as he scored another upset win and took a split decision over Lucas. The win for Melchor saw him giving Lucas his first loss in more than 4 years, with Lucas being unbeaten since a March 1988 bout with Samuth Sithnaruepol. The win again proved that Melchor, whilst inconsistent, was able to compete against world class fighters, at least on his day. Fahlan Sakkreerin Snr (September 6th 1992) With Melchor having beaten Chavez, twice, and Lucas, he was very much in the discussion for a world title fight. Few would expect him to win a world title, but he was in the title mix on merit, following his 3 very big divisional wins. He finally got his world title fight when he was matched with IBF champion Fahlan Sakkreerin Snr, the man who had taken the IBF title from Chavez and then defended it against both Chavez and Lucas. On paper this looked like it was going to be a straight forward defense for the then 21-1-1 (9) champion however Melchor wasn't one for giving people what was expected. Instead he travelled to Thailand and managed to out point the Thai local over 12 rounds to claim the IBF title and become a world champion at the age of 23. Amazingly coming in to this bout Melchor was 19-15-4 (5) and against Sakkreerin must really have been given no chance. Sadly Melchor's reign was a short one, losing the belt just 3 months later to Ratanapol Sor Vorapin. Masamori Tokuyama (November 25th 1996) More than 4 years after upsetting Fahlan Sakkreerin Snr in Thailand we saw Malchor claim another huge upset as he out-pointed the then unbeaten Masamori Tokuyama at Korakuen Hall. Tokuyama, then 11-0 was technically taking a step up in class, but it was a step up that he was supposed to make with no problems. Tokuyama was unbeaten, fighting at home, and seemingly hitting his stride. Whilst Melchor may have been experienced, with this being his 63rd professional bout, but he wasn't supposed to be a real test for Tokuyama. Once again no one gave Melchor the script, and he ended up taking a decision over the then 22 year old Tokuyama. As the years went on this win grew and grew in stature, unlike Melchor's other wins. This was due to the success of Tokuyama, who would later go on to win the OPBF and WBC Super Flyweight titles. This was one of only 3 losses Tokuyama suffered in his 36 fight career and really stands out as a sign of how good Melchor could be. Whilst Melchor did hold a world title, and did score some solid wins, there will always be a question mark about how good he could have been, if only he fought to his potential more often. There was talent there, but with wins in less than half of his career bouts he has one of the worst records of any former world champion. Something not really befitting of a man who beat Eric Chavez, Pretty Boy Lucas, Fahlan Sakkreerin and Masamori Tokuyama. In terms of ability he's better than his record suggests, but that doesn't change the fact that he suffered 35 career losses in his 79 professional bouts! In recent years the Flyweight division has been a weird division, with no one really making it their division. We've have fighters like Juan Francisco Estrada, Brian Viloria and Roman Gonzalez all fighting some top names there, but in reality we've not seen someone look to make the division their home since Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Many of the top fighters in the division have merely passed through the division, with the likes of Kazuto Ioka, Donnie Neites and Kosei Tanaka all making relatively short stays there. As a result we've missed out on a lot of bout that could have taken place there. Today we look at one such missed opportunity for the division.
Johnriel Casimero Vs Zou Shiming The bout we want to talk about today is a show down between Johnriel Casimero, another man whose stop in the division was a short one, and Chinese star Zou Shiming, who had the potential to face pretty much anyone he wanted. Not only was this a potential all-Asian match up but it was also one that would have pitted two very different styles against each other, could have acted as a unification bout and would almost certainly have helped bring one fighter to the public attention years before he really broke through to a wider audience. When? In reality the window for this one is quite a short one. We would have pencilled in an early to mid 2017 date for it, though in reality there is a bit more flexibility to it than that. Casimero won the IBF Flyweight title in May 2016, doing so in China, and Shiming won the WBO Flyweight title 6 months later in the US. Sadly neither man managed a lengthy reign, with Casimero defending the title once before moving up in weight in 2017 whilst Shiming lost in his first defense, to Sho Kimura. Despite that there was a window for the bout and, had Casimero been offered a Shiming Showdown, we suspect he would have remained at the weight for longer than he did. Who? Filipino slugger Johnriel Casimero is one of the sports true road warriors and a multi-weight world champion. He won his first world title at Light Flyweight, surviving a post fight riot following a bout with Luis Alberto Lazarte, and would later go on to stop Amnat Ruenroeng and Zolani Tete to claim world titles at Flyweight and Bantamweight respectively. At his best he's a speedy, hard hitting, awkward and unorthodox puncher with true bang in his shots. At other times however he's a disinterested fighter who's very frustrating to watch and seems to be stuck in first gear. Zou Shiming on the other hand is China's most accomplished amateur boxer who turned professional with Top Rank to much fanfare, though the good will of this Chinese hopeful didn't last long. Sadly for Shiming his amateur style was engrained and he turned professional far to late, and with too many nagging injuries, to ever become the star Top Rank had wanted. He was a quick, skilled fighter, but one who had little power, lacked the physicality and potentially even fought at the wrong weight, as he would likely have looked a lot better had he been able to move down to Light Flyweight. Going back to when, and even explaining the where. With Casimero winning his IBF Flyweight title in China, and being a well known road warrior, and with Shiming being a Chinese fighter this bout would have made for a great event in late January 2017 as part of the Chinese new Year celebrations. How would we see it playing out? This is a bout where I we saw the best of both men we could be in for a very, very interesting match up between two talented fighters with very different styles. Shiming's speed and movement could be a problem for pretty much anyone, and his brain is a valuable asset at this level. Sadly though his lack of power will be a problem and he always struggled to keep fighters honest. Against a fighter like Casimero, who often lunges and throws unpredictable shots we see Shiming's boxing brain being neutralised quickly and Shiming needing to rely on his amateur fencing style. If Casimero is not at his best we could be in for a bit of a stinker. He could sleep walk through much of the fight, letting Shiming run up an early lead and then we'd see Shiming in sruvival mode late on, cruising to a decision. It's a result we don't imagine would do the sport any good, but it's a very real real possibility with Casimero's inconsistencies. On the other hand if Casimero was in the right mood he would stalk, cut the ring off, and press Shiming. We suspect an aggressive Casimero would take out Shiming in the middle to late rounds, with his power, speed and aggression being too much for the Chinese fighter. One thing to note, is that for a bout like this, we would expect to see Casimero well and truly on form. Would history of been changed? Yes! History would look a lot different today had we got this bout. If Shiming won, and it's not the result we would expect, we would likely have seen Chinese boxing have a huge shot in the arm and we suspect we would have seen more sustained and continued investment in the countrie's boxing scene. It would however have only been a matter of time before things crashed down around Shiming, who was in his mid 30's and suffering from injuries. Had Casimero won we would be looking at his career, and the Flyweight division, very differently. Had Casimero won he would likely have never faced Charlie Edwards, as his two titles would have drawn the attention of bigger names. He would have been a well known international name before his 2019 upset win over Zolani Tete. He would likely have never made his rather pointless foray into the Super Flyweight division, or if he had he would have gone straight into a big bout, not an eliminator with Jonas Sultan, which he of course lost. More tellingly if Shiming had lost the WBO belt to Casimero we would almost have certainly not see Sho Kimura announce himself and become a world champion, with Kimura ending the reign of Shiming's to become the champion. If that bout failed to happen we would likely have gotten Casimero facing Toshiyuki Igarashi in a WBO mandatory, in a fight that would have truly stunk, and never ended up with the thrilling bout between Kimura and Kosei Tanaka. In fact we may never have seen Kosei Tanaka even win a Flyweight title. Whilst we would have loved seeing Casimero make a name for himself in 2017 with a win over Shiming, which is what we would expect had this bout taken place, we can't complain too much about the reality we got. If anything, we got the better reality,, thanks to the Kimura Vs Tanaka fight! We return to looking at names of fighters with the 6th in this series of looking at the best in boxing names. This time we're going to focus on Indonesia, which has gone pretty over-looked in the series so far, barring Don King Fortune, but boy does it have some great names.
As is always the case the fighters we pick aren't picked to be disrespectful, but to merely look at their names, and their careers, at least as much of their careers as we can. Sadly with these being Indonesian fighters it's likely all the records are incomplete. Jeremy (1-1) One record we suspect is incomplete is that of Jeremy, no surname given, who fought between 2006 and 2009. Given how how western the name is we're assuming that Jeremy is either a foreigner who ended up in Indonesia or a fan of Pearl Jam who took their fighting name from the track by the American grunge band. The only thing really known for sure about him is that he fought Samuel Tehuaya in 2009, losing that bout, and beat a fellow novice in 2006. Wimpie (1-2-1) In the 1950's there was an Indonesian fighter who went by the name "Wimpie". Again no surname given, and no "real name" listed. We are almost certain that boxrec has an incomplete record for Wimpie, who supposedly debuted in July 1954 in a 10 rounder, a draw with Phillipus. In fact he then fought 2 complete 10 rounders in September 1954, and then ended his career in 1957 with a loss to Mac Hurrricane, more about him another time. Given the name, and it's meaning in English, it's certainly not a great name for a boxer, and we do suspect he had a lot more losses to his name than the 2 listed on boxrec. Golden Boy Hoff (2-1, 1) Another fighter with a very incomplete looking record is that of Golden Boy Hoff, who apparently ran up a 3 fight record over a 7 year window. When we first saw the name we assumed Golden Boy Hoff was a relatively recent fighter, looking to cash in on David Hasselhoff's nickname but surprisingly "Hoff" fought from 1964 to 1971, with all 3 of his bouts taking place in Malaysian. Rather impressively he did stop Hisao Minami in 1964, who would later win Japanese and OPBF titles, defeat Ki Soo Kim and challenge for a world title. Whilst Hoff is here for his name it's nice to see he has a very notable win on his record. Lazarus (2-3) A much more recent fighter is Lazarus, who fought in the early part of the 00's, supposedly debuting in 2003 and fighting through to 2005. Given the biblical name, after all Lazarus was the beggar from a parable of Jesus, the name is certainly an interesting one and we wouldn't be surprised to learn that the fighter in question was incredibly poor. Once again it's unclear on what "Lazarus's" full name, or real name, was and his competition certainly wasn't much to talk about. His name however is a very intriguing one and leaves more questions than answers. James James (0-1) We move forward even further in time, to 2016, when James James apparently made his debut. We know New York, New York was so good they named it twice, but we're unsure why James used his name twice. We typically have a rule where we don't trust fighters with two first names, so sorry James, we ain't trusting that's your real name! Interestingly the man James fought in his only recorded bout is still fight, with that being domestic journeyman Stevanus Nana Bau, so there is a strange link to the modern day here. It's fair to say that August has continued to see boxing's return to Asia grow and grow. The bouts may not have been the best but there was plenty of very good bouts and inter match ups, with a good number of events made available to stream internationally and a lot of very talented prospects moving forward with their careers, including 5 notable debuts. We're still a long, long way from the sport being anywhere close to what it was at the start of the year, but we are continuing to see steps taken as the sport continues moving forward.
Fighter of the Month Ryo Sagawa Although there was a good number of fights in August there really wasn't any huge fights. There was no world title fights and there was a limited number of title bouts in general from Asia. The one fighter who did stand out for their performance was Ryo Sagawa, who had to work hard, but shined in his win over Yuri Takemoto, to retain the Japanese Featherweight title. He took his time, got a read on Takemoto, then went through the gears and broke down Takemoto with some vicious body shots. It's a shame we never got to see Sagawa defend his belt against a top challenger here, but we can't take away from how impressive he looked and how much of a talent he appeared to be here. A real star in the making, who needs better opponents than the game, but out classed, Takemoto. Fight of the Month Daisuke Watanabe vs Shingo Kusano There was some fantastic bouts during August but the one that genuinely stood, by some margin, as the best for us was the 8 round action thriller between Daisuke Watanabe and Shingo Kusano. The bout, which was the final of the Hajime No Ippo 30th anniversary tournament, had everything we could want to see in a bout. We had a nice clash of styles, fantastic back and forth, competitive action and a bout that got better as it went on. The first few rounds were brilliant as both men looked to take control. This saw Kusano coming forward originally, before Watanabe turned the tables. The we saw Kusnao turn counter puncher, and have success, before being dropped in round 5. After 5 great rounds the bout caught fire big time in round 6 and gave us 3 none stop rounds of action. This is up there with the best bouts of 2020 world wide, a fantastic fight! Honourable mentions Ryo Sagawa Vs Yuri Takemoto Erzhan Turgumbekov Vs Albert Batyrgaziev KO of the Month Tsubasa Murata TKO2 Yuya Miyazaki Despite the fact this was a packed month there wasn't really many true KO's, though one we did see that stood out was Tsubasa Murata's absolute beauty against Yuya Miyazaki in the Central Japan Rookie of the Year. Coming in to this no one would have expected what we got, but in round 2 Murata landed a brutal straight right hand that dropped Miyazaki. The shot was a beauty but the way Miyazaki went down was even better, first falling to one knee, and then flat out face first. If you have Boxing Raise we strongly suggest you hunt this down as it is something special. A truly stunning KO by the 21 year old hopeful who showed surprising power in one of the best 1-punch KO's of 2020. Prospect of the Month Tursynbay Kulakhmet (1-0) The toughest category this month was the prospect of the month, which was a category where people kept throwing their names into the running. For us the winner was Kazakh sensation Tursynbay Kulakhmet, who looked absolute brilliant in his debut. The former amateur standout was expected to be given a test by Sagadat Rakhmankulov, but instead toyed with his man, broke him down and caused him to retire between rounds. Kulakhmet looks like the type of fighter who will be fast tracked, and on the back of this performance there is no reason for MTK to hold him back. Fingers crossed we see him in with a notable name next time out, perhaps even someone like Jeff Horn, who has more than just a bit of name value and is very much on the slide. If you only look at single prospect from Asia this month Kulakhmet's the one, though it was a very close run competition with the likes of the fighters mentioned in our honourable mentions who are all worth checking out! Honourable mentions: Yoshiki Shimomachi, Jinki Maeda, Kamshybek Kunkabayev, Jin Sasaki, Ryotaro Nakagaki Upset of the Month Dauren Yeleussinov (8-1-1, 7) Vs Juan Carlos Raygosa (17-15-3, 6) The upset of the month is strangely not recorded on boxrec, at the time of writing, despite taking place more than a week ago. Despite not being on Boxrec it's hard to deny that this was a shocker as unbeaten Kazakh hopeful Dauren Yeleussinov was shocked by Mexican journeyman Juan Carlos Raygosa. It was expected that the unbeaten Kazakh would shake some ring rust here and take a clear decision over the experienced but limited Raygosa. Instead it was Raygosa that took the initiative and claimed the win. The victory for the Mexican saw him pick up the WBC "international" Middleweight title as well as the W. Honourable mentions George Tachibana UD5 Shuhei Tsuchiya Dmitrii Khasiev TKO8 Stanislav Kalitskiy Round of the Month Daisuke Watanabe vs Shingo Kusano (RD6) We go back to our Fight of the Month for the best round of the month as well, and that was the 6th round of the brilliant clash between Daisuke Watanabe and Shingo Kusano. This was the round where the bout went into over drive and saw the two men begin to throw caution to the win and unload on each other on the inside. Rounds 7 and 8 were similarly great, but not quite as exciting, as both men began to slow down. The round was a total war and is up there with the very best rounds of 2020. If you missed the bout we advise you watch it in full on Boxing Raise, and we suspect round 6 will be the one you go back and rewatch a few times, as you try and figure out how the two men took the punishment they traded her. A truly brilliant round of action. |
Oriental Opinions
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