We may be heading to Christmas but we've not had to wait to December 25th for boxing Santa to deliver some great stuff to us, with this past week being another that has a brimful of amazing action, fantastic moments, and a lot of surprises. So with that said lets have a look at the latest "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". The Good 1-All Japan Rookie of the Year It's not like the All Japan Rookie of the Year being amazing was any kind of surprise but even that it exceeded expectations with 2 bouts being particularly deserving of extra attention. The Light Welterweight shoot out between Kodai Honda and Yasutaka Fujita is one of those those must watch bouts, which has everything. It has drama, action, intensity, huge shots and great heart. This really is a very, very special fight Wihilst Honda Vs Fujita was the fight of the day it was given a run for it's money by the Welterweight clash featuring Yuta Ashina and Homare Yasui. If you have the chance make sure you watch both of those incredible fights before the week ends. 2-Mike Plania Filipino prospect Mike Plania took a huge step towards a world title fight as he dominated Nicaraguan foe Giovanni Gutierrez. Plania is a talented Super Bantamweight and his win this past weekend was a huge statement for the 22 year old, who is likely to be a real break out star in 2020, if he can receive the financial backing he needs to kick on. 3-Phoobadin Yoohanngoh Aged 15, yes that's a 1 and a 5 and isn't a typo, Phoobadin Yoohanngoh won "The Fighter" this past weekend in Thailand taking a 6 round victory over 22 year old Thotsaphol Thongplew. For those unaware "The Fighter" was TL Promotions answer to Rookie of the Year and matched a bunch of novice in a quick fire knockout tournament, spread over just a few weeks. Phoobadin managed to notch wins on 4 consecutive Saturdays to win the tournament. Whatever we think about fighters this young it's hard not to be impressed by the young prodigy, who is already 8-0 and has been a professional since July 2018, when he was just 14! 4-PBC's card on Saturday Night Whether it was intentional, fluke, or something in between Saturday night's PBC card headlined by the Harrison Vs Charlo rematch has to go down as one of the most entertaining cards of the year. It had everything ranging from huge upsets, to controversial refereeing calls, fantastic knockouts, amazing action and world class fighters. We wouldn't go as far as to call it the show of the year, but it's certainly in the running and was one of the most amazing cards top to bottom. If more shows ended up like this the sport would be much, much better and fans would care about the while show, not just the main event. Well done to all involved in putting on truly brilliant show. The Bad 1-Przemyslaw Binienda Tommy Fury might be a bigger celebrity in his homeland due to his appearance in Love Island, rather than his boxing career, but his opponent for this past weekend was little more than a joke, and should never be allowed to box in the UK again given his hapless performance here. Przemyslaw Binienda, really was awfully and in deserves to go into the boxing bin for his performance which was an embarrassment to the sport and the show. Whoever decided to put this on in the chief support bout should also be given some tough questions to answer. We understand Fury is a "cross over star" but the arena failed to react to his comments and it was clear that even his "fans" were so nonchalant about the win that it likely did more harm than good for his career. 2-Jhack Tepora Whilst there have been rumours about Jhack Tepora not liking training or taking the sport seriously, as soon when he missed weight for a bout not too long ago, few would have expected him to lose his unbeaten record in the way he did. The touted and talented Filipino was blitzed inside a round by the out of form Oscar Escandon, and stopped in the opening round by a body shot. Whilst a loss isn't the end of the world there does seem to be a lot more going on behind the scenes for Tepora, and this all needs to be sorted out if he's to reach his potential. He can bounce back from a loss, but given the rumours it may not be just a simple case of just rebuilding and instead it sounds like he will need to make notable changes in terms of his lifestyle as well. The Ugly 1-Ray Corona We've only got 2 ugly's this week but my my, they are repulsive. The first of those was referee Ray Corona, who should be forced to explain his actions during the Carlos Balderas v Rene Tellez Giron bout. The referee should have stopped the bout after the first knockdown, when Balderas clearly wasn't fit to resume after being dropped, hard in round 3. That was the first of several botched calls from the official who struggled to hide his favouritism through the contest. Allowing Balderas to continue in the state he was in could have left him taking shots that he was unable to defend against, and could have turned out horrific for his career, and longer term health. The fact that Corona stopped the bout the way he did in round 6, in a very similar situation, seemed to suggest Corona knew he had bottled the earlier call, but that didn't excuse what was a disgusting performance from the official. 2-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr Oh man where do we start on Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and his week? He should have been banned, for refusing a drugs test, ahead of his bout with Danny Jacobs but an injunction saw the ban essentially being bypassed. The bout should have been called off when Chavez came in 5lbs over weight. It should have seen the promoter and Jacobs call out Chavez for his unprofessional actions and cancel the bout, taking Chavez to the cleaners for breaching his contractual obligations. But instead the bout went ahead and Chavez, who had shown no respect to the sport in the build up to the fight quit, citing a hand injury. The crowd finally turned on the Mexican, and his father's expression said it all. Really this should be it for Chavez's career. He doesn't need the sport, and the sport sure doesn't need him. Instead however it sounds like Chavez is already pencilling in his next bout, for March. Any promoter who uses him going forward is to blame for the shit show that he's involved in, and they are as much to blame for using someone they know they can't trust, as he is for his actions.
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The Teiken Gym is one of the most well established gyms in Japan, and has had a number of notable world champions coming in and out of it's doors in Tokyo. At the moment however the gym isn't as strong as it once was and a gym that was once packed with champions, from Japanese nationals right through to world champions, is rather lacking. Whilst it's not great for the gym, it's certainly not all doom and gloom, and the gym is actually looking like it has a lot of reasons to be excited, as it has spent the last year or so snapping up good amateur talent for it's next wave of champions. Among those many amateur fighters is Katsuya Fukui (2-0, 1), who debuted back in September, on his 23rd birthday, and looks like he could be another name to keep a very close eye on going forward. As an amateur the young Fukui went an impressive 59-16 and won numerous competitions, including the 2014 Interschool Athletic Meet in Chigasaki, with Fukui beating Yusuke Mine in the final. That same tournament also held notable tournament wins for Yudai Shigeoka and Go Hosaka, and saw Hinata Maruta picking up second place in his weight class. Back in September Fukui's debut was televised as part of a live G+ broadcast under the Dynamic Glove banner. Fukui would take on capable Korean Sang Hoon Kim in a scheduled 6 rounder, and immediately was clear he was a talent. His composure and educated pressure shone. Whilst his accuracy was lacking at times, he was up against someone who was negative, a surprising trait for a Korean fighter, and it very much felt like Kim realised the quality of the debutant he was in with. After back tracking through much of the first round Kim was caught in round 2 as Fukui finally got to his man, landing a series of right hands up top, then dropping his man with body shots. It wasn't a flawless debut, it was never going to be given how negative Kim was, but Fukui still showed what he could do, and when facing less negative fighter we expect to see a lot more form him. Sadly Fukui's second bout wasn't actually televised. It instead came as part of a huge card, though missed out on TV exposure. The card however massive one, the WBSS Bantamweight final, with Fukui stopping Thai Chakkit Ratchakhot in 2 rounds. The Thai went down several times before being stopped in what was an easy second win, albeit in a huge venue as part of a massive show, for the youngster. At the moment it's not totally clear when Fukui will be back in the ring, though we suspect it'll be some point in Spring, potentially as part of another Dynamic Glove card with Teiken likely to push him relatively quickly. He's not yet a super talent, like some of their other prospects, but he's certainly a very, very capable young fighter with traits that could take him very far, if guided right. Having mentioned how Teiken look to be bringing through their next generation of champions it's worth noting that Fukui fit's in to a class of prospects at Teiken that also includes Kuntae Lee, Mikito Nakano, Shokichi Iwata and Hiroto Yashiro, all of whom were accomplished amateurs. This group looks likely to be among the core prospects for Teiken over the coming years, and will all be worth following as the gym looks to rebound from a rough patch in it's history. Many of the rounds we've given you in this series have been obscure ones, where rookies and novices have given us dramatic action and intense exchanges. Here we bring you something a little bit less obscure, but just as good! We travel back to the summer as OPBF Super Bantamweight champion Hiroaki Teshigawara faced off with former world title challenger Shohei Omori. This was a bout that promised a lot, and whilst it wasn't as competitive overall as we expected that doesn't take away from the fact the bout was fantastic, and the highlight of it was the 6th round. It was the round where we saw both men putting their foot on the gas and both being hurt, with momentum shots through the round. It was a round where both fighters took risks and both men had to prove their chins. After this round we started to see the fight become more and more 1-sided, as seemed to be the case in the final moments of this round, but as a stand alone round this is a great 3 minutes of action and shows how competitive the OPBF title scene is, and just how much the belt means to fights in Japan. Since this bout we've not seen Omori fight, but he is pencilled in for a contest early in the new year against Leshan Li from China. Teshigawara recently fought, stopping Shohei Kawashima, and looks set to have a huge 2020 under the guidance of the legendary Koichi Wajima. As we head towards a new year we've decided to look into our glass balls, our tea leaves and our palms to come up with 20 predictions which will be posted over the coming weeks for what we think will happen in 2020. So far our predictions haven't been the best though they've not all been wrong. In 2013 we predicted that Naoya Inoue, his brother Takuma and Kosei Tanaka would all win world titles. Between them they've won a few world titles, though Takuma has yet to win a proper world title. That same year we also predicted a growth in Chinese boxing, and this arguably happened despite the fact the Macau side of things has died off. We also predicted a growth in Asian fighters making a name for themselves in the US, this was before Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Naoya Inoue or Kazuto Ioka had fought on US soil, and before the wave of Uzbek's had began to attract US attention. Unlike the past, where we have made all of our predictions in 1 article, we'll be spreading these ones out with 1 prediction per article, and going more in depth than we have in the past. PREDICTION number 17 - More world title unification bouts One thing we've been very, very happy to see in 2019 was the amount of world title unification bouts that took place through the year. The fighters seem to have the ambition to unify rather than just doing what their promoters want them to do, and this has lead to a number of amazing fighters in 2019. Fights like Naoya Inoue Vs Nonito Donaire, Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis and Daniel Roman vs TJ Doheny were among the very, very best of what we got in 2019. In 2020 we predict we'll see more unifications, and we've already seen a lot being mooted. There's talk of Naooya Inoue facing one of the other Bantamweight champions in Spring, WBA Featherweight champion Can Xu has called for a bout with IBF champion Josh Warrington, WBC Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji has made it clear he wants to unify, and was scheduled to defend with IBF champion Felix Alvarado, likewise Hiroto Kyoguchi has stated he intends to unify at Light Flyweight and the Minimumweight division is ripe for a unification bout. Of course it's not as easy to get unification bouts as it should be, and talk is very cheap in this sport, but it does seem like there is, finally, ambition among the fighters to hold more than one belt. We are seeing a lot more fighters looking to prove they are the best, to fight the other top fighters and to build their profiles. We don't ever expect to see all divisions unified, and we don't expect to end 2020 with undisputed champions all over the place, but we do expect to see a lot more unification bouts. Be it through tournaments, like the WBSS, or fighters both wanting bouts we expect to see the champions clashing, and we hope that by the end of the year we begin to know who really is the #1 fight in more and more divisions. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) This past week has been a rather crazy one, with so much action crammed into so little time. We saw a Japanese Heavyweight fight in the UK, huge upsets featuring Filipino fighters, the Rookie of the Year final and so much more. Whilst the week wasn't full of high profile action it was one of the most packed weeks of the year, by some margin and a lot of fighters and bouts are being missed off this week. This was a tough week to be an award winner, but a great for fans as we complete the final week before Christmas!
Fighter of the Week Akinori Watanabe (39-7-1, 33) It wasn't a tough week for Akinori Watanabe, who retained his OPBF Light Middleweight title with a 2nd round KO win over Sitthidet Banti, but it was one where he scored, on paper, this biggest win, retaining a major regional title. The heavy handed fighter from the Kadoebi gym was expected to win with ease and he did just that, taking out the Thai challenger with a brutal body shot that left Banti in absolute agony. Fingers crossed that we see Watanabe in with a bigger test and a better challenge in his next defense. Performance of the Week Renz Rosia (16-9-1, 9) At the start of the week few would have expected us to be talking about a win for Renz Rosia but the Filipino domestic level fighter managed to record a career best win on Saturday when he out pointed 2-time world title challenger Aston Palicte. Rosia managed to out box, out skill, out and out fight the bigger, hard hitting Palicte, who looked second best through out. Rosia won't get a lot of acclaim for this win, but it suddenly gives his career a massive shot in the arm. Sadly however it does leave Palicte's career in a real hole, and it's the sort of loss which will be hard for him to bounce back from, given how comprehensive it was. Fight Kodai Honda vs Yasutaka Fujita The Rookie of the Year on Sunday was consistently entertaining, but one bout really stood out. That was the 140lb clash between Kodai Honda and Yasutaka Fujita, a bout that will be deserving or a re-watch, and another rewatch. It was just something sensational, with 4 knockdowns, both men going down twice, and an incredible intensity to the first round. Fujita started like a house on fire and Honda tried to respond, being dropped twice in the opening round, before finding a way to turn things around. This really is a must watch 4 round war. Round Kodai Honda vs Yasutaka Fujita (Rd1) The fight of the week, had the round of the week with the opening round of the Honda Vs Fujita bout being absolutely incredible, with Fujita setting an incredible pace and Honda trying to respond, fighting fire with fire. This is the sort of round that has every fan on their feet with their jaws on the floor, and the fact Honda would go on to fight back in the way he did in the following rounds just adds to how amazing this round is. A really sensational 3 minutes of action. KO Daniel Dubois KO2 Kyotaro Fujimoto There really wasn't any option was there? Englishman Daniel Dubois turned the lights off for Japanese Heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto in what was one of the best KO's this year. A huge, single right hand to the jaw took the Japanese fighter out in brutal fashion. This is one which will be replayed time and time again. It's just a shame the Asian fighter was on the wrong end of it, but this was a brilliant KO. Prospect Odiljon Aslonov (1-0, 1) Forner Uzbek amateur standout Odiljon Aslonov made his debut on Saturday in Russia and instantly looked like one to watch, as he battered Russian journeyman Varazdat Chernikov into submission. This was a debut where Aslonov's intention wasn't just to win, but to show what his strengths were, and from the first moments he was showing destructive and brutal body work, breaking down the Russian, who was completely outclassed. This heavy handed fighter looks like a beast and is one to make a real note of going forward. Upcoming fight Moruti Mthalane (38-2, 25) vs Akira Yaegashi (28-6, 16) Monday's IBF Flyweight title fight, pitting defending champion Moruti Mthalane against Japanese star Akira Yaegashi, is a hard one to call. We expect Mthalane to win, no matter what, but how he gets the win really does befuddle us. We can see both a very early win for the South African, with Yaegashi officially being shot, or a late dragged out win for Mthalane, who finally breaks down a gallant Yaegashi in a FOTY contender. It's that potential for this bout to be something special that has seen up pick this bout, though we wouldn't be surprised to see if being a blow out for the South African,similar to Yaegashi's 2017 loss to Milan Melindo. Our latest "Round Review" comes from Korean in a bout that could go down as one of the most over-looked fights of the decade. It's rare for us to say we could include any round from a fight, but the reality is that the KBM Super Bantamweight title fight between Han Bin Suh and Jong Won Jung really could have had almost any round selected for this series. The two men took about a minute to introduce themselves before engaging in what was legitimately one of the most intense, action packed fights of the year. For the most part they stood in close range and took it in turns to tee off with combinations in the middle of the ring. It would go one way, then the other, then back again. This was a bout that reminded us how amazing the Korean fighting spirit is, how the Korean mentality makes for amazing fights and amazing rounds. For this series we've picked round 3, but really this is one of those bouts that fans deserve to make time to watch the whole thing from. View this as less of a "Round Review", as a trailer for a sensational fight with so much leather thrown, like two little dynamo's. One thing to note about this bout, is this incredible war took place on the same week as Manny Pacquiao fought Keith Thurman...and we legitimately think this fight was better! A huge thanks goes out to KBM for sharing this fight in full, and if you've even as much as a passing interest in Korean boxing we advise you keep an eye on the great work they do. As we head towards the new year we've had a big look at the current scene and come up with "20 fights we'd like to see in 2020", yeah another series ahead of the new decade! As is always the case with what we do, these articles will have an Asian flavour, and every bout we mention in the series will have at least 1 fighter from Asia involved. So for those of you expecting us to talk about Deontay Wilder Vs Anthony Joshua, that won't be listed. What we'll be looking at is well matched contests with either some form of back story, a great stylistic clash or bouts with some form of significant meaning. If they tick all the boxes then that is even better! Each fight will be given it's own article and each of these will come with an introduction to the fighters, and why the bout is being featured in the list. Fight #5 Akinori Watanabe (39-7-1, 33) Vs Hironobu Matsunaga (16-1, 10) Unlike some fights we will feature in this series, which are more "pipe dreams than potential reality" today's is one that is actually quite an organic fight to make, would see both men fighting to unify titles and would be a wonderfully dramatic fight between men who are aggressive, exciting and always come to fight. It may be a long way removed from world level, but sometimes we need to let the action do the talking, more than the titles on the line, and this is one such bout. At 34 years old Akinori Watanabe is enjoying a career Renaissance of sorts, following 3 losses in 5 bouts between November 2015 and the start of 2018. That revival has seen him claim, and defend, the OPBF Light Middleweight title and we suspect he still has eyes on the Japanese title, a title that he came close to winning in 2018 when he fought to a brutal draw with Nobuyuki Shindo. The man now holding that national title is Hironobu Matsunaga, who we'll get on to in a minute, and it would be a great match up to see the two go at it in the summer at Korakuen Hall. Although no world beater Watanabe has always been a lot of fun to watch, with explosive power, vicious combinations, an aggressive mentality and a sense of fragility, in regards to his chin. Win or lose he has always been fantastic to watch and we would love to see him in a unification bout in the new year. At 32 years old Matsunaga is on the wrong side of 30 himself, but appears to have aged like a fine wine since his 2014 loss to Yuki Beppu in the All Japan Rookie of the Year final. Since that loss he has won 10 in a row, scored notable wins over Hisao Narita, Je Ni Ma, Koshinmaru Saito and Nobuyuki Shindo, whilst also winning, and defending, the Japanese Light Middleweight title. In the ring he looks like a terror, marching forward with a highly aggressive style, and although he's technically rather flawed he's tough, strong and doesn't let fighters off the hook when he has them hurt. Instead he presses, presses and presses more, making him a fantastic fighter to watch, and he has emerged a real dangerman on the domestic scene in the last couple of years. What we would have here is a fight of wills, with both men looking to out will, out fight and out power the other. Watanabe is the hard hitter and the more technically rounded fighter, but Matsunaga is like a steam train when he gets going, and if he sees out the first round or two we expect to see him beginning to march down Watanabe. Watanabe will have to respond, holding his feet and engaging in a fire fight. This is a relatively organic fight to make, with it being a national and regional title unification, it's between arguably the #2 and #3 in Japan, with Takeshi Inoue being #1 in the division, and style wise this has "WAR" written all over it! What do you mean annual awards? ...it's only mid-December!
Over the last week or so we've seen the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) announce their shortlists for their annual awards. At the time there was more than 2 weeks of 2019 left and it again left us asking why? Why can they not wait until the end of the year? Why can they not wait until all the fights have been and gone? Why can they not allow everyone a fair chance? As we all know by now Japan hosts action on New Year's Eve, and whilst none of those bouts look likely to deliver us a Fight of the Year contender, but it's not just Japan that has fights between now and the end of 2019. In fact there are other countries playing host to some fights that do look like they could be legitimate contenders. For example on December 20th, a day before this article goes live, we had Julio Cesar Martinez Aguilar face off with Cristofer Rosales, in a bout with real potential to be something very special. Likewise on December 28th Jean Pascal clashes with Badou Jack, in a bout that promises fireworks. Of course some awards are essentially over. There is nothing between now and the end of the year which could possibly effect the Fighter of the Decade, the Fighter of the Year, the The Good Guy or even Trainer of the Year awards. But where we do have things that could fit into the short list, we really need to hold on, be patient. There is no need to rush things, and it can be ridiculously stupid. A great example of how stupid short listing things is before the end of the year was seen in 2014, when Naoya Inoue missed out on the short list, despite the year being one where he claimed world titles at Light Flyweight and Super Flyweight. He wasn't on the ballot that year, because his final win of the year, a KO2 win over Omar Andres Narvaez, came way after the short list had been compiled. The year however still had time left in it! Jonathan Morris's famous quote "Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can; Seldom found in woman, Never found in man." Can certainly be brought into boxing, and changed somewhat. We don't like seeing things "marinate", but there is also no need to rush something that recognises what boxing has given us over the previous year. Of course it's not just the BWAA who are to blame here, and we suspect many other lists will be released between now and January with various websites, journalists and the ilk announcing their Fighter, Fight, Knockout, Round, Prospect, etc... of the Year. Come on folks, just a touch of patience, it will go a long way...and give you extra time to watch what's happening in the sport. If you're about to do a list, put your damn pen down, wait until the year is over, you know what is around the corner! By all means do a short list, but your full on list can wait a few extra day! For those who have already decided on their lists, we suggest giving Keon Woo Kim's brutal KO1 against Moon Han Ji and Mammoth Nakayama's sensational 5th round KO of Lerdchai Chaiyawed a watch for any KO list, and Yuki Beppu's sensational win over Ryota Yada deserves a watch for any Fight of the Year list. We probably won't change your mind, but you should give them a watch regardless! Who goes up against Rookie of the Year? In a change of note we have a second point of contention this week...who on earth goes up against Rookie of the Year? This year there are two shows in Osaka on the same day as the All Japan Rookie of the Year, in a decision that seems foolish! We understand that time is limited, and trying to squeeze everything into the year can be tricky, but to us the Rookie of the Year is one of the biggest annual events in boxing. To go up against it is sacrilege! We're not complaining about the quality of the cards, which will be promoted by Muto and Nakazato, but it does seem like the shows are shooting themselves in the foot sharing a day with such a tremendous part of the Japanese boxing calendar! Now with that out the way, I shall see you all with the next one of these in the new year, so have a great Christmas folks, and a happy new year! And watch as many fights as you can between now and 2020! I will be! It's rare to see a debutant in a thriller, but earlier this year Yuki Yazawa was in an absolute incredible bout to begin his career. The youngster kicked off life as a professional boxer by taking on Kazuki Nakamura, who was 0-0-1 in the pros, and what few would have expected was for Yazawa's very first round to be an ultra-dramatic one, with multiple knockdowns, some show boating, and a big dollop of karma! The bout saw Nakamura start aggressive, almost rushing at the debuting man, and it was clear that he was full of confidence. He was trying to get into Yazawa's head straight away, and his self belief was evident from the opening moments to the bouts conclusion. Within the space of 3 minutes we ended up with 3 knockdowns, and so much condensed action that this deserves multiple rewatches. This wasn't the best of action from a technical stand point, but in our eyes great rounds come under 3 different classifications. Action based, drama based and the wonderful hybrids that combine both. This was pure drama. Since this bout Yazawa has suffered a 4 round decision loss to Takuya Inamori whilst Nakamura has recorded a 4th round TKO win over Reiji Kanasaki. Regardless of what either men, who are both the wrong side of 30, go on to do in their careers we really doubt either man will have a round anything quite like this. 20 Predictions for 2020: PREDICTION number 16 - WBSS Season 3 to feature a smaller weight class12/20/2019 As we head towards a new year we've decided to look into our glass balls, our tea leaves and our palms to come up with 20 predictions which will be posted over the coming weeks for what we think will happen in 2020. So far our predictions haven't been the best though they've not all been wrong. In 2013 we predicted that Naoya Inoue, his brother Takuma and Kosei Tanaka would all win world titles. Between them they've won a few world titles, though Takuma has yet to win a proper world title. That same year we also predicted a growth in Chinese boxing, and this arguably happened despite the fact the Macau side of things has died off. We also predicted a growth in Asian fighters making a name for themselves in the US, this was before Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Naoya Inoue or Kazuto Ioka had fought on US soil, and before the wave of Uzbek's had began to attract US attention. Unlike the past, where we have made all of our predictions in 1 article, we'll be spreading these ones out with 1 prediction per article, and going more in depth than we have in the past. PREDICTION number 16 - WBSS Season 3 to feature a smaller weight class Recently we predicted more tournaments, and have regularly confessed our love of tournaments and what they stand for in boxing. Be it tournaments at the very highest level, such as the WBSS of the lower level, with novice tournaments like Rookie of the Year, we love the idea behind tournament boxing. We know their has been issues with Season 2 of the WBSS, with rumoured financial struggles, and pretty obvious issues with scheduling, which almost every finalist has complained about, but in the end the tournaments at 140lbs and 118lbs both delivered. They may not have been as smooth as we'd have all liked, but they were worth the wait! Given the eventual successes of the WBSS Season 2 finals, and the eventual linking up of WBSS and Sky Sports in the UK, we're expecting a third season and it makes sense for the team behind WBSS to again try to build the brand across various geographical fan bases. In Season 2 we had the Bantamweight tournament involving fighters from Japan, Australia, Puerto Rico, the UK, South Africa, Russia, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. Amazingly 8 different countries were accounted for by the nationality of the fighters and all 8 men were entering the competition with the belief they could win. We could have something very similar if we again allowed the little men to shine. For example at Flyweight we could easily end up with Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Philippines, China and Pakistan. Or at Light Flyweight, arguably the best division for a WBSS tournament, we could have fighters from Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Cuba, South Africa, Panama, Nicaragua and Venezuela all mixing. The lower weight classes are also, financially, less risky, and promotionally probably more simple. The fighters get paid less, so will expect less, their promoters are typically less about games and more about making names. Fighters like Kenshiro Teraji, Carlos Canizales, Hiroto Kyoguchi and Felix Alvarado, all at Light Flyweight, and Flyweights like Kosei Tanaka, Moruti Mthalane, Cristofer Rosales and Muhammad Waseem, have all looked to increase their name recognition in one way or another. Having them in global tournaments would be huge for their profiles. The best thing about tournaments in these lower weights is that they could be much, much easier to stage. If the WBSS team worked with the bigger promoters in Japan, like Watanabe, Teiken and Hatanaka, the shows could, in theory, essentially feature 2, if not 4, of the knockout bouts in 1 super show, or 2 smaller yet still great shows. This would make scheduling things a little bit easier. Imagine, if you will, a spring card featuring 4 quarter-final bouts for one tournament, a summer card with the semi-finals and then a winter show with the finals in. It would be clear, coherent, and clean. It would be simple to follow, and within 12 months we would have found out who the best fighter in a division is. Alternatively 2 shows for the quarter finals on back to back weekends, the semi finals on the same as each other then the final. We can't get that type of thing in the higher weights, where ego and promotional conflicts cause issues, but in the lower weights this is a possibility, and a money saving one. One that doesn't involve as many moving parts, such as booking double the venues and working on double the TV dates. We predict that one of the lower weights, and more specifically a weight class below Bantamweight, will be run in the next WBSS. We would prefer the Light Flyweight division to the Flyweight one, but either would be great. The division won't appeal to the US audience necessarily, but given the reception the "Drama in Saitama" got it's obvious the US doesn't need to be the primary target for the WBSS. If the march ups are good enough, and the promotional work is strong enough, and the narrative is clear enough, fans, world wide, will care. Also some of the money saved by doing the little guys could be invested in to some shoulder programming, to try and educate the wider boxing audience about the fighters involved, their stories, their styles and their ambitions. There is a whole market out there for for fans who simply haven't been exposed to the little guys and the WBSS has the power to change that. |
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March 2024
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