Back in May 2019 we covered Kazuki Nakajima (then 6-0 (5) and now 9-0-1 (8)) in our regular "Introducing" series. Since we spoke about Nakajima he's been a busy boy and a rather successful one who is now knocking on the door of a title fight at either Bantamweight or Super Bantamweight. Just weeks after we gave Nakajima the "Introducing" treatment he began his campaign in the God's Left Bantamweight tournament. This was a 7 man tournament pitting a number of Bantamweights in a straight knockout competition, that promised a lot. It had a number of solid fighters in it all looking to make their mark. As well as including Nakajima the tournament also had Jin Minamide, Seiya Tsutsumi, Tetsu Araki and Kenya Yamashita. In his first bout in the tournament Nakajima made light work of Kenichi Watanabe, stopping him after just over 2 minutes. The bout saw Nakajima pressing forward early and trying to hammer his left hand through the guard of Watanabe. He hurt his man midway through the round but Watanabe recovered well to make a fight of things until being caught by a combination which turned his lights out. It was an eye catching finish and the perfect way to kick off the tournament for Nakajima. Nakajima built on his win over Watanabe by taking out Jin Minamide in a 1-round shoot out. This was was a hugely entertaining bout, and a real blast as a fan as both men let big shots go. It was the first time Nakajima had been in with a puncher looking to take him out and to his credit he was asked questions by Minamide, who let his hands go and gave Nakajima some things to think about. Despite the pressure from Minamide we saw Nakajima staying composed and dropping Nakajima with a sweet right hook for the bouts first knockdown. Minamide got back to his feet but was down a second time only moments later as Nakajima booked his place in the tournament final. In the final Nakajima faced his stiffest test to date, as he took on Seiya Tsutsumi. Tsutsumi took a different tactic to all of Nakajima's opponents. Rather than taking him on head on Tsutsumi used a lot of movement, played the role of counter puncher and made Nakajima chase him, fall short, miss and take the counter. It was a smart plan by Trsutsumi who's focus was speed, and skill and it really revealed how basic Nakajima was. Nakajima pressured and pressed and struggled to make any impact early on, he even seemed gun shy and worried about what was coming back at him at times. Despite the tough test Nakajima managed to get a foothold later in the bout dug deep and narrowly managed to keep his unbeaten record. Saying that however he seemed very, very lucky to escape with a draw. Despite seemingly very lucky to get a draw against Tsutsumi we then saw Nakajima being given the tournament win, something that seemed really unfair, given how fortunate he'd been to not lose his unbeaten record. Since his controversial win in the God's Left Tournament Nakajima has fought once, dipping his toes at Super Bantamweight, where he beat Kenta Nomura in 3 rounds. This was a controlled performance against an over-matched opponent. Nomura was the naturally bigger man but looked put of his depth from early on and was dropped twice, with the referee waving off the bout after the second knockdown. Following his most recent win Nakajima's promoter Hideyuki Ohashi spoke about Nakajima fighting for a Japanese or OPBF title in the near future. Given how he looked against Tsutsumi, who we do rate highly, and Nomura, we would hold back on a title fight for Nakajima. He's heavy handed and destructive, but his last two bouts have shown him to be very upright, stiff and almost robotic at times. He is surprisingly quick for someone so rigid, and he does have power, in both hands, but needs time to learn to relax in the ring, and work on becoming more fluid. Until that happens we do worry that Nakajima will fall short at domestic and regional title level. Although he's unbeaten, heavy handed and talented, we still feel he needs time and development, much like we did in May 2019. He's gone 3-0-1 (3) since then, but still has clear areas to work on, and hopefully work on them he will before he's in the ring again.
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When we talk about the most memorable Japanese boxers in the 1990's there a number of notable names that jump to mind, such as Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and Hiroshi Kawashima. Another name belongs in that list was the controversial, but always entertaining, Katsuya Onizuka (24-1, 17). Onizuka's career was a relatively short one, starting in 1988 and essentially ending in 1994, but "Spanky K" was a notable figure on the Japanese domestic scene. With some great fights under his belt, and some pretty notable achievements, we decided to highlight some parts of Onizuka's career as we bring you "The 5 most significant wins for...Katusya Onizuka". As is always the case here, we include the 5 wins we feel are the most significant in Onizuka's career. That doesn't always mean the best or the most exciting, but the ones that have most significance and meaning in regards to his career. Yutaka Sakamoto (February 27th 1989) The first bout we want to shine a light in here is a rather obscure one from 1989, but a very significant one for Katsuya Onizuka. That's his All-Japan Rookie of the Year win in 1989, which saw him stopping Yutaka Sakamoto in 2 rounds in the final. The bout saw Onizuka not only claim the Rookie of the Year award but also the Skills Award, and put himself on the boxing map. This is really a win that helped kick start his rise through the domestic ranks and put him on course to step up his competition, which he did the following year. Rookie of the Year is important in Japanese boxing, and as a result this is an important and significant win. Tatsuya Sugi (May 22nd 1990) Another early career win of Onizuka's that's worth of a mention here was his 1990 win over the then OPBF Super Flyweight champion Tatsuya Sugi was the then OPBF champion. Whilst Sugi's title wasn't on the line here the bout was a clear step up for Onizuka, who would stop Sugi in the 7th round and prove he belonged on that title level. The loss came 5 months after Sugi's title win, against Rolando Bohol, and 11 months after Sugi had fought for the Japanese Super Flyweight title, losing on cuts to Shunichi Nakajima. With the win Onizuka made a statement and took huge strides towards his first title bout, which came 5 months later. Shunichi Nakajima (October 15th 1990) Onizuka claimed his first title in his bout immediately following his win over Sugi, when he won the Japanese Super Flyweight title. On paper it might not sound like a significant win, but that's really not under-standing the whole situation. The man he beat for the title was Shunichi Nakajima, the man who had recorded 6 defenses of the title, a record number of defenses that still stands for the belt today, and had recently challenged for the WBA world title, losing in 8 rounds to Khaosai Galaxy. With the win over Nakajima, which came courtesy of a 10th round TKO, it put Onizuka on route to a world title fight. He would defend his national title 3 times before getting a shot, himself at the WBA world title. Thanomsak Sithbaobay I (April 10th 1992) When Khaosai Galaxy vacated the WBA Super Flyweight title Onizuka got a shot at the vacant title, but had to take on the criminally under-rated Thanomsak Sithbaobay. When training in Thailand, earlier in his career, Onizuka had been impressed by the Thai. The Thai went on to look great, and seemed to do more than enough to earn the decision, but the score-cards all favoured Onizuka, who got the first of many questionable decisions in his favour. The win, whilst badly tainted by the officiating, was a hugely important one for Onizuka, and began his world title reign, which would continue until he lost the belt in his final career bout. Armando Castro (December 11th 1992) It's fair to say that Onizuka's world title reign was a frustrating one. He had won the title in controversial fashion, against Thanomsak, and had scored some close and often controversial wins. It's interesting to note however that Onizuka's second defense, against Mexican veteran Armando Castro, is one of the most notable. This was Onizuka at his very best, dominating a talented and experienced contender, who had actually been Khaosai Galaxy's last challenger. Whils Castro was no world beater he remained a relevant fighter until 1996. After facing Onizuka the Mexican would later go on to challenger for the WBO Bantamweight title, against Alfred Kotey and even face the likes of Erik Morales and Naseem Hamed. Whilst Onizuka's later defenses were all controversial this was the bout that proved his was a top level fighter, at least for a time in 1992. Sadly he then scraped past against Jae Shin Lim, Thanomsak Sithbaobay and Seung Koo Lee, before losing the belt in 1994 to Hyung Chul Lee. Time feels like it's flying and we can't believe it's been a fortnight since we last had a "Fights we wish we had..." article. This week we move to the very lowest end of the scales for a bout between two men we wish we'd seen clash just a few short years ago. As we write this both men are still active, and world class, fighters, but they are now in very different divisions and the bout, for all intents, is now definitely not going to happen.
Kosei Tanaka Vs Knockout CP Freshmart At one point both Kosei Tanaka and Knockout CP Freshmart were in the Minimumweight division and both were regarded as being among the top 10 fights at 105lbs. On paper it was a match up that few were talking about, but in reality it would have made for a very, very interesting clash of styles, strengths and weaknesses. Looking back at the potential match up now, it appears only one guy could have won, but at the time it would have been a very intriguing match up. When? The window for this is, sadly, quite a small one and it's not really a wonder why the fight never took place. The only real time the fight was plausible would have been in late 2014 to the end of 2015. During this time Tanaka won the OPBF and WBO Minimumweight titles, made one defense of the WBO belt then left the division in 2016. During the same time Knockout CP Freshmart won and defended the WBA "interim" title. At the end of 2015 they were ranked #3, Tanaka, and #4, Knockout, by Ring Magazine and it looked like a potential clash for the future. Who? Japan's Kosei Tanaka is one of the most notable names in Japanese boxing right now and one of the guy figures of the lower weight classes. The talented, speed, boxer-fighter is a must watch fighter who can do it all, though often makes things much, much more difficult for himself than they need to be. At his best he's a sensational boxer, able to keep opponents at range with his incredibly speed and solid straight punches, along with his under-rated body punching. The rest of the time he's someone who finds himself caught up in unnecessary wars, giving away his technical and physical advantages. Since 2015 Tanaka has moved up the weights, winning world title titles at Light Flyweight and Flyweight and is now targeting a Super Flyweight world title. As he's moved up the weight he has put on some of his more memorable performances, including brilliant wins over Angel Acosta, Sho Kimura and Ryoichi Taguchi. Despite being unbeaten he has been notoriously inconsistent in his performances, struggling against the likes of Vic Saludar, Palangpol CP Freshmart and Jonathan Gonzalez, who have all dropped him. Thailand's Knockout CP Freshmart, also known as Thammanoon Niyomtrong, is a technically boxer who received a lot of attention for his fighting name, but has since gone on to distinguish himself as one of the best fighters at 105lbs. Early in his career he looked exciting and was scoring stoppages, but later on he has removed the exciting aggression he once had, and polished off his boxing skills to the point where he's become "effective but dull" to watch. Despite being a but boring to watch he has secured a pretty decent resume with wins over the likes of Carlos Buitrago, Byron Rojas, Rey Loreto and Xiong Zhao Zhong. Unlike Tanaka Knockout has remained at 105lbs for his entire career, as we write this, and seems unlikely to race up the weights like Tanaka has. Whilst that could hurt him in terms of legacy it doesn't seem like he's struggling too badly to make Minimumweight, where he looks strong and powerful. The one thing that is a question mark is his stamina, and despite often going 12 rounds he has often slowed down massively in the deeper stages of fights. It is worth noting that he is usually in a comfortable lead before taking his foot off the gas. How would we see it playing out? When it comes to Japan Vs Thailand one bit consideration is where the bout will take place. Japanese fighters have had a notoriously unsuccessful history in Thailand and with that in mind we wouldn't expect Tanaka's team to allow their man over to the "Land of Smiles" to face the unbeaten Knockout. As a result we're assuming this one would take place in Japan. We're also sticking with the time frame of late 2014-2015. At the point in time Knockout was a lock way removed from the fighter he is today. In 2014 he had looked very raw and crude when he narrowly beat Carlos Buitrago in what was a bit of a controversial one. He looked like he was improving through 2015 however when he beat Muhammad Rachman and Alexis Diaz. As for Tanaka he looked brilliant in his gut check win over Ryuji Hara then eased past Julian Yedras before a very, very tough come from behind win against Vic Saludar. The win over Saludar made it clear that he was taking too much out of his body to make weight, and he was a much lesser fighter than he had been 14 months earlier. The crude offense and relatively poor defense the Knockout had at the time would allow Tanaka to get his shots off and allow him to tag the Thai, but the pressure of Knockout and the weight problems Tanaka had could certainly play against the Japanese star. Likewise Knockout's physical strength and toughness would give Tanaka fits. We suspect that if the bout took place in the first half of 2015, or earlier, Tanaka would manage to have enough in his body to take a clear, but hard fought, decision over the Thai. Had it been in late 2015 however we would, looking back, have been seeing a very competitive bout. Tanaka's punch resistance looked poor against Saludar, he looked like he had very much lost his way, and it took a sensational body shot for him to pull out the win. There's a chance, in late 2015, that Knockout could indeed have have taken the drained, weigh cutting, Tanaka out. Would history of been changed? Assuming the bout takes place before, or in, December 2015 we wouldn't have seen Tanaka take on Vic Saludar, meaning Saludar may have had to wait much, much longer for a shot at the WBO belt. Regardless of the outcome we would expect to see Tanaka abandoning the division and not looking back. A bout with Knockout would make him realise it was too tough to make 105lbs we suspect he'd go on to make his mark at Light Flyweight, as he did anyway. His rise to a second, and third, world title would have been slowed down, and he likely wouldn't have tied Vasyl Lomachenko for the fewest fights to become a 3-weight world champion. Had Knockout beaten Tanaka he'd likely still be holding the WBO title today, instead of the WBA belt. This could have mean some interesting match ups with Knockout taking on the likes of Vic Saludar, Ryuya Yamanaka and Tatsuya Fukuhara, certainly better than some of his competition. His name would be spoken about a lot more, and he'd be more well known now than he is. In terms of wider history the Minimumweight division would look a lot different now, with Knockout either holding the WBO title or not a world champion at all, and the Thai would never have fought for the WBA title. In April we began our mini series looking at some of the most interesting names of Asian boxers. We continue that series once again today as we look at 5 more great names of fighters from Asia.
Once again we're including fighters for either their real names, a fighting name or an alias. S-Man (0-2) Sounding like some sort of super hero Indonesian fighter S-Man was an active fighter in 2006, when he fought both of his professional bouts. He lost his debut by decision, to someone we're going to discuss next, in April 2006 and a month later he was stopped by Hengky Elleuw before vanishing from the boxing world. Like many fighters featured in this list from Indonesia not much is known about S-Man, but given his boxing record the "S" sure didn't mean super! Rocky Killer (1-0) We just spoke about S-Man and mentioned that he lost his debut, that was to Rocky Killer another Indonesian fighter with a short career in 2006. In fact the only recorded bout of the man who kills rocks was his 4 round decision win over S-Man. Sadly other than that one recorded bout, which took place at the Indosiar Studio in Jakarta, there is nothing else known about Killer. A real shame that someone with such a good name had such a short career. Jimmy Kicks (2-3, 2) We remain in Indonesia here with Jimmy Kicks, would fought in the 1920's and 1930's. We suspect his record is missing bouts, given there is more than 14 years from his first professional bout to his final bout, though it's hard to be totally sure. From what we can see on his record Kicks actually win his first 2 bouts before failing to pick up a win, though of course he may well have picked up some yet to be recorded wins. Whilst "Kicks'" isn't the best name ever we do like the idea of a boxer called kicks, an aggressive move that's not allowed. Maybe, given we're confident it's a fake name, he should have chose "Punch". The real reason Kick's is include is actually for a couple of his opponents. Klomp (2-1) The debut opponent of Jimmy Kicks, way back in January 1924, was the wonderfully named "Klomp". Despite losing to Kicks it's worth noting that Klomp did fight twice more, beating fellow 1-name fighters Gerrits and Richters, both by decision. As for the name Klomp the word is a type of clog in the Netherlands, but lets be honest, it just sounds like he's a guy who makes a lot of noise when he walks around. By it's self the surname isn't that rare, it's a Dutch name with it's roots in the names of the Klomp type of footwear. With that in mind we are assuming Klomp was an Indonesian of Dutch descent. But that's just an educated guess. Despite the Dutch roots of the name we can't help but think he's a bad guy in some platforming video game. Fighting Rapp (0-2) The other opponent of Jimmy Kicks with a great name was Fighting Rapp, who was stopped by Kick's in August 1924. Rapp fought both of his recorded bouts in 1924, losing both by stoppage. As with many of these fighters from before World War 2 it's hard to know much about Rapp, though from what we understand he was a Singaporean fighter based in Indonesia. We don't have his real name, his date or birth or his death and it's likely we're the only people to have mentioned him. Whilst so little is known about him it must be said that he has a damn awesome name! Just a shame he wasn't a very good fighter. |
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