In March 2019 we spoke glowingly about promising Light Flyweight Rikito Shiba (4-1, 2), who's name was being transcribed as "Rikuto Shiba". At the time we were really excited about Shiba, who looked a real talent on his way to big things. At the time he was 2-0 (1), he had looked highly talented, exciting, with good ring IQ and a lot of ambition. Sadly however things haven't gone amazingly well for him since we covered him in our "Introducing" feature. So lets take another look at Shiba as we revist Rikito Shiba.
When we spoke about Shiba last he was closing in on his April 11th bout against Hizuki Saso, in what was an eliminator the Japanese Youth Light Flyweight title. The talented Shiba would shine, stopping Saso in 2 rounds to book himself a bout with Tsuyoshi Sato for the title. Sadly that bout fell through when Sato had to pull out, though Shiba would later get his shot at the title. When Shiba got his bout for the Japanese Youth title he took on the touted Shisui Kawabata, instead of Sato. It was a very different type of bout to what a contest with Sato would have been, but Shiba did enough to take home the victory. The key different between the two men was a knockdown that that Shiba scored in the opening round. The bout went 8 rounds, allowing Shiba to test his stamina, but was a real test and one that saw him having to answer some real questions. After winning the Japanese Youth title Shiba got a chance to take a huge stride towards a bout for the senior Japanese title, as he took part in a Japanese title eliminator. In the opposite corner was the big punching Masamichi Yabuki, who sadly proved to be too strong and too powerful for Shiba, battering the youngster into submission in round 4. Shiba had proven to be game, but was really unable to cope with the power and size of Yabuki, with Shiba being dropped several times. Following the loss Shiba seemed to talk about walking away from the sport. It was as if the loss to Yabuki, a really good fighter, had extinguished his desire to box. Thankfully however Shiba has spoken about wanting to fight again and admitted that he was toon busy blaming things for his loss rather than taking responsibility. It now seems, from his recent social media posts, that he's hungry to be back in the ring and we're really looking forward to that. Although Shiba was bullied and battered by Yabuki the youngster still has a really bright future ahead of him. It's clear he needs to do a lot of work if he's to reach the heights we expected of him, but at just 24 years old he's not a fully matured young fighter. Yes he was beaten by Yabuki, but he has time on his side and has got plenty of time to develop. He's got a lot to like and if he's really able to accept that he is to blame for his loss, and he's responsible for working on things, he can still go a very long way. Yabuki isn't a bum and a loss to Yabuki isn't a reason to right off Shiba, who should come back stronger when he returns to the ring, later this year. The loss, so early on, for Shiba may be a blessing in disguise for the very talented young southpaw who we are really looking forward to see again. Hopefully with a level had and a renewed hunger to impress.
0 Comments
Back in March 2019 we cover Yuki Yamauchi as part of our "Introducing..." series, just as he was preparing for his third professional bout. The Shinsei gym youngster hasn't really exploded on the scene since then, but he is well and truly worth keeping on the radar going forward, and did manage to notch a couple of wins in 2019.
When we looked at Yamauchi last year he was 2-0 (1). He'd debuted around 8 months earlier, with a win over Jimboy Rosales and had notched a victory in his second pro bout over Alvin Medura. Those wins saw him head into 2019 with a bit of career momentum and it seemed that that momentum was going to grow through the year. Less than a week after we covered Yamauchi last year he went on to score his third win, defeating the previously unbeaten Claudevan Sese in 3 rounds to move to 3-0 (2). It was a good step forward for Yamauchi, and another good win for the youngster, who was scheduled to go 8 for the first time. He didn't need the 8, but it was good to see his team willing to put him in an in just his third bout. Sadly Yamauchi's career, like that of many young Japanese fighters last years, wasn't really built on through the middle of the year. Whislt we would have loved to have seen him fighting in in the summer at some point we instead had to wait until October to see him back out. Almost 7 months after his win over Sese. It feels very much like a missed opportunity from Yamauchi and his team, one of several we've seen for him since we covered him in "Introducing...". When Yamauchi finally returned to the ring in October 2019 he took on Ryuta Wakamatsu as part of the Knock Out Dynamite tournament. This was Yamauchi's Korakuen Hall debut and saw him stopping Wakamatsu in 3 rounds, taking a decent bonus for the stoppage. For many Yamauchi's bout with Wakamatsu was pretty much the first time they had a chance to see the youngster in action. Not only was it his Korakuen Hall debut, but also his Boxing Raise debut, and the southpaw looked the real deal immediately. He took the center of the ring and controlled the distance with his smart movement, hand speed and patience. It wasn't a flawless performance, but was a calm, mature one, that saw Yamauchi rely on his boxing skills to chip away at Wakamatsu and then burst his face up. Calm, controlling, and impressive. Sadly after stopping Wakamtsu in the Knock Out Dynamite semi final Yamauchi was actually unable to fight in the final this past January, when he was supposed to fight Ren Sasaki. It was another missed opportunity for Yamauchi, who could have built on the win over Wakamatsu. If we're being honest we suspect Yamauchi would have been too skilled for Sasaki, who was lucky to make it past semi-final opponent Morihisa Iju on the same show as Yamauchi's win over Wakamatsu. At the moment it's unclear when Yamauchi will be back in the ring. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later however, with the 24 year old really needing to make a move on with his career sooner rather than later. He's been a professional since July 2018 and has only managed 3 times since then. He's young, but should be a lot more active at this early stage in his career. We return for an "Revisiting" this week, and this time around we look at Hiroshi Kawashima protege Ryusei Kawaura (7-0, 4) who we covered on the February 18th 2019 version of "Introducing..."
When we looked at Kawaura last year he was 5-0 (4), and had come in to 2019 on the back of good wins over Marjun Pantilgan and Yuki Yoshimura back in 2018. He hadn't blown the world away but there was growing excitement over him, and his potential to follow in Kawashima's footsteps was seen as really exciting. He was being dubbed "Kawashima II" , and like his mentor was becoming a smart fighter with very good defensive IQ. His first bout of 2019 saw fighting around 3 months after we looked at him, and he easily out pointed the experienced Renoel Pael over 8 rounds in May. In fact not only did Kawaura out point Pael but he dropped him in a near shut out of the Filipino. Pael had no answer for the speed, movement and boxing brain of the Japanese hopeful, though did manage to ask some questions of Kawaura. There was a a few moments in round 3 where Pael seemed to land clean, and later on in the bout Pael brought some pressure. That pressure was good for Kawaura's development and certainly did no harm for the talented youngster, who had to use his brain to make Pael miss. The win over Pael shot Kawaura up the WBO Asia Pacific rankings. He entered that bout with a #14 ranking and by his next fight he was #6. The next bout, his most recent to date, saw Kawaura take on Joy Joy Formentera 6 months after Kawaura had beaten Pael. It was a real shame that Kawaura was out of the ring for half a year, and for a fourth straight year he fought in November. Despite the lay off Kawaura managed to clearly beat Formentera over 8 rounds. This was a real tactical all southpaw bout, and saw Kawaura go up against a talented and high skilled fighter. The Japanese fighter always looked in charge, based on his ring craft and IQ, but was against someone who asked boxing questions, and actually left Kawaura bloodied from the nose. This was the perfect type of test for the talented fighter who needed someone to challenge him as a boxer, rather than try to attack him as a fighter. Kawaura was the clear winner against Formentera but for a second fight in a row he had to prove what he could do, against a fighter with a similar, but less polished, style to his own. At the moment it's unclear when Kawaura will kick off his 2020, but if he only fights twice again this year it would be a travesty for his career unless he manages to secure a title fight of some kinda, then at least he would have a launchpad to be busier in 2021. He's still young at the age of 25, but he turns 26 at the end of March and will really need to kick on soon. He was 22 when he made his debut, and can no longer go on with this 2 fight a year schedule if he's to come close to reaching the level that his mentor did. One thing we expected was that Kawaura would have had a televised or streamed bout in 2019. That still hasn't happened but really needs to happen in 2020. We understand Kawashima and Kawaura wanting to control their own destiny but for him to be hidden away from fans who aren't in the venue for his bouts is a major issue in building his profile and name. Fingers crossed that will change this year, and he will have a televised bout before the end of 2020! Way back on February 11th 2019 we covered Masahiro Suzuki in our "Introducing..." series. At the time Suzuki was 1-0 (1) and had really blown us away with his showing against the dangerous Antonio Siesmundo, who had been stopped in the 6th round of a really good fight. At that point we had gotten really excited about the potential of Suzuki. Not a little over a year on, we're taking another look at Suzuki as we drag him into our new series "Revisting...". Suzuki's debut really did make us feel like we were watching a special talent. He had taken time to get used to the dangers Siesmundo had, figured out how to beat the hard hitting Filipino and then broken him down in a performance that showed he could think, he could box and he could punch. It was about as impressive a debut as we saw in Japan in 2018 and got us really excited about his potential. Sadly though the jets have cooled despite a successful 2019 from the World Sports Boxing Gym hopeful Just weeks after we looked at Suzuki last year he returned to the ring to take his second professional win, beating Kelvin Tenorio over 6 rounds. Although Tenorio had been stopped in 2 of his 4 previous losses this was actually a solid test for Suzuki who had a chance to show what he could do and like his debut this bout was shown on TV, albeit on tape delay. Tenorio asked different questions to Siesmundo and we saw a Suzuki having to force the issue, whilst remaining cautious of the wild shots that Tenorio threw in his direction. Although not a flawless performance it was a good win, especially for his second bout. Suzuki's third bout, a scheduled 8 rounder against the dangerous Kosuke Arioka, was sadly not made available to watch, at all, though saw Suzuki stopping Arioka in the 2nd round. Arioka, who hadn't been beaten in 2 years, was dropped early but came roaring back. Suzuki was shaken in round 2 before dropping Arioka for the second time. This time Arioka failed to beat the count, and Suzuki claimed his biggest win to date. Although not well known Arioka had actually been ranked #6 by the JBC at Lightweight entering this bout, and the win put Suzuki into the Japanese rankings. Although Suzuki's third bout wasn't viewable, except by being in the venue, his fourth bout was actually shown on Boxing Raise as part of the Hajime No Ippo 30th anniversary tournament quarter-final show. This bout saw Suzuki take on the unheralded Hokuto Matsumoto, who had been stopped 5 months earlier by Kenta Endo and was, on paper, not a tough a match up as Arioka or Siesmundo. Despite not being given much of a chance Matsumoto was in the ring with Suzuki to spoil the party and derail the rise of Suzuki. From the opening moments it was clear that Matsumoto's quick, sharp jab was going to be a frustrating challenge for Suzuki. There wasn't much power on the shot, but it was razor sharp and kept being thrust into the face of Suzuki. Suzuki pressed, and had success with heavier shots, but the consistency of Matsumoto's jab proved to be a real frustration maker. As the bout went on Suzuki began to ramp up his aggression, and was clearly leaving Matsumoto with a swollen jaw. In round 5 a headclash cut a Suzuki around the left eye, and although the bout went on for a bit we went to the scorecards due to the cut, which was a nasty one. In the end the scorecards narrowly favoured Suzuki, who took a split decision, to claim his 4th pro win. Despite being really impressed by Suzuki on debut we were a bit disappointed by his 2019, and the bout with Matsumoto particularly. He's clearly a talent but there is more work for him to do than we originally expected. There's power and skills there, but he needs time to develop and this year is likely to be similar to last year. In a decent world a rematch with Matsumoto would perhaps be the right thing to do, though there are a lot of other options out there on the domestic scene for him to develop against. We would expect Suzuki and his team to be looking at 3 fights this year, against gradually better opponent, but it could be a while before the youngster is ready for a domestic title fight. When we covered him in "introducing..." we expected to see him in the title mix for sure this year, but we no suspect he could be up to 2 years away from those types of fights. The third fighter we looked at last year in our "Introducing..." feature was Taku Kuwahara (then 3-0, 2), at the time he was relatively unknown except by those who really followed the Japanese amateur scene. He had shown some early promise, enough to get our attention, but lets have a look at what he has done since as we continue our "Revisiting" series. As mentioned when we looked at Kuwahara in January he was 3-0 (2) during 2019 he moved his record along quickly, going 4-0 (2) and ended the year with a 7-0 (4) record, whilst scoring two notable wins late in the year. He also moved from testing the water at Light Flyweight to being a committed fighter at Flyweight, where we see his career being long term. To begin 2019 Kuwahara was out of the ring until April, when he took out Indonesian fighter Aprilianto Rumahpasal. That was followed up with a win over domestic novice Kyomu Hamagami. On paper that bout with Hamagami was a step up, but in reality it was just a passing point before Kuwahara finally stepped up in class in September 2019 when he outpointed Jonathan Refugio. The win over Refugio was a masterclass from Kuwahara who shut out the Filipino veteran over 8 rounds. He dropped Refugio once, and despite being unable to stop the Filipino he dominated thoroughly, taking his first win against a world ranked opponent. That win was followed by another 8 round decision against a rugged Filipino as Kuwahara took a wide decision over Ricardo Sueno. Those wins helped to show what a talent Kuwahara was and saw him getting more and more press time in Japan, where he was being dubbed "Ioka II" due to his affiliation to the same educational facility of Ioka, and just like Ioka he was gaining a serious reputation as a brutal body puncher. With Kuwahara winning 4 bouts in 2019 it should be little surprise to hear that he managed to earn his first rankings. He first broke into the JBC rankings, following the win over Refugion, and then the OPBF rankings, following the win over Sueno. In 2020 we would expect Kuwahara to look towards racing through the rankings towards a title fight, and in reality he's likely to have any of the doors open to him, whether he wants to pursue a Japanese or Oriental title. We would expect Kuwahara, by the end of the year, to be ready to face either champion. Unlike the first two men we "revisited" Kuwahara's first bout of 2020 has been announced at the time of writing. On March 16th Kuwahara will take on under-rated Filipino Jaysever Abcede, who is not only ranked #13 by the WBC at Light Flyweight but also has a top 10 OPBF ranking at Flyweight and a WBO Asia Pacific ranking. Essentially making this not only a step up in class for Kuwahara but also a chance to take serious strides towards getting a world ranking and moving towards his first title bout. At the moment it's still relatively early in Kuwahara's career but given how he stepped up in late 2019, and how he now has his upcoming bout with Abcede, it's clear that Hideyuki Ohashi and the folks at the Ohashi gym are recognising his potential and looking to push him fast, potentially as the replacement for veteran Akira Yaegashi. He might not be that Elite level super talent that they have in Naoya Inoue, but he's still a fantastic fighter and at 24 years old they have a real prodigy on their hands. We would expect Kuwahara to win his first title before the end of 2020 and then begin to climb the world rankings in 2021, perhaps even landing a shot by the end of the year. The one thing he needs to get now, is eyes on him. So far he's only really had televised highlights, but hopefully he'll be given more TV time when he gets his first title fight, and from there we can see his skills develop along with his in ring experience. Although not yet a big name we expect to see 2020 being the year where Kuwahara goes from the periphery of the domestic scene right into the title mix, and sets out his stool for big things over the coming few years. The second fighter we featured in our "Introducing..." series was the then 19 year old Ginjiro Shigeoka (then 1-0, 1) he had made his debut in September 2018, and looked sensational in stopping Sanchai Yotboon in 3 rounds. Now, more than a year on, we'll "Revisit" Shigeoka and see how his career has gone since we introduced him in January 2019. Following his debut expectations were high for Shigeoka heading in 20219 and he exceeded those expectations with a sensational year that saw him move from novice professional to world ranked fighter. Watanabe Gym, clearly aware of the talent they had on their hands, strapped a rocket to him and he, more than any other fighter in the Introducing series last year, moved through the rankings in a way that got a lot of attention. In fact he got to much attention that towards the end of 2019 he was featured in Anson Wainwright's excellent "New Faces" series on Ring's website, with that being available to read here. So since we first looked at Shigeoka was has he done? Well the youngster has gone from 1-0 (1) to 5-0 (4), taken his first professional world title, stopped a former world title challenger, turned 20 and announced himself in the world rankings. Not a year at all for the former amateur standout. Shigeoka's 2019 kicked off with an opening round win over Gerttipong Kumsahwat, in what was an easy second pro bout for the youngster. That was followed up quickly with a decision win over the tough Joel Lino. Although Lino is no world beater he has been proving himself as a capable fringe regional level fighter and gave Masataka Taniguchi 12 good rounds in 2018 and later went on to give Toto Landero a really good test before stopping Arar Andales. A win over Lino in just his third bout was excellent and a clear sign of how good Shigeoka was, despite failing to secure the stoppage. In fact by taking a decision over Lino we saw Shigeoka answer some questions, such as proving he can fight over 8 rounds and had a back up for when his power wasn't too much for an opponent. In July 2019 Shigeoka got his first title fight, taking on Clyde Azarcon for the WBO Asia Pacific Minimumweight title. Up to this point Azarcon was 15-2-1, he had never been stopped and had mixed it with good competition, losing a close decision to Rene Mark Cuarto less than a year earlier. He was expected to be a test for Shigeoka, but instead the Japanese wunderkind just blitzed in 72 seconds, closing the show with a truly brutal body shot. This win was just 10 months after Shigeoka had made his debut, and saw him becoming one of the very few Japanese fighters to win their first title in 4 fights and in less than 12 months from their debut. Since winning the WBO Asia Pacific title Shigeoka has defended it once, stopping former world title challenger Rey Loreto in 5 rounds at the end of December. The Japanese youngster dropped Loreto in the first round, and again in round 5, before Katsuhiko Nakamura stopped the bout. Loreto was on his feet at the time of the stoppage, but the decision was made by Nakamura to save the Filipino from any further punishment. After the win over Loreto we saw Shigeoka break into the top 10 with the WBA and the top 15 with the WBC and WBO. At the time of writing it's unclear when Shigeoka will be fighting again, through it's expected to be in late Spring 2020, potentially against a fellow world ranked fighter as he begins his climb towards a world title fight. The youngster seems confident he could handle himself against a world champion, though his team have apparently suggested he gets a bit more experience first. With that in mind we would expect Watanabe to match him with world ranked fighters to prepare him for a shot in late 2020, potentially at the very end of the year. In the ring Shigeoka is proving to be an explosive fighter who can box or bang. He looks much better on the front foot than the back foot, giving him an area where improvements can be made before getting a world title fight. The most impressive thing about him is his power, which is incredible for such a youngster in the Minimumweight division. We do have worries, still, about Shigeoka moving up in weight, but he looks a star in the making at 105lbs and is talking like a fighter who wants to dominate a single weight class, rather than moving up the scales. To us that's a good sign, and shows that the youngster knows his frame isn't suited to a move up in weight, where he would be up against taller and longer fighters, rather than being over confident and pushing himself in a direction that isn't suited to him and his career. Just over a year ago we began our "Introducing" series, looking at a fighter that we thought needed a light shining on them, generally at the start of their career. Now, more than a year on, it makes sense to have a look back over some of those fighters, in what we're terming out "revisiting" feature. This gives us a chance to look at the progress the fighters have made since we first looked at them, and whether we are to re-evaluate their hopes in the sport. Given we started the "Introducing" series with with Mikito Nakano (who was 1-0, 1 at the time) it makes sense to begin this new series by looking back over Mikito Nakano's 2019 and looking at where he is now. In 2019 Nakano moved from 1-0 (1) to 4-0 (4) with a trio of stoppage wins. They weren't against sensational fighters, with his February win over Ekkalak Ratprakhon being particularly poor, but he did step up in class and stopped Filipino pair Arvin Yurong and KJ Natuplag, in what were very solid wins for this stage of his career. At the time of writing Nakano has broken into the OPBF Featherweight rankings, and has a #8 ranking with the regional title body. That is based primarily on his 3rd round TKO win over KJ Natuplag last November, with Natuplag entering with an OPBF ranking himself. That ranking suggests that Nakano and Teiken will be taking him the Oriental title route rather than the Japanese title route, and in all honest it seems a more open title picture for him to attack. As we write this the Japanese Featherweight title scene is an insanely tough one. The champion, Ryo Sagawa is a fringe world level fighter, his next defense will come in April against the very highly regarded Hinata Maruta, as part of the Champion Carnival. Below Maruta in the late rankings are Reiya Abe and Genesis Servania, with others ranked including Ryo Hino and Tsuyoshi Tameda. Whilst the OPF title scene isn't an easy one, one it's title is likely to become vacant sooner rather than later and it does give Nakano a way to move towards a belt. Another title option would be the WBO Asia Pacific title which we wouldn't be surprised by see Nakano look at as an option. This may be very tempting as some of the fighters ranked there are ones that Nakano would strongly favour himself against, even this early in his career. So how has he actually looked? Well after being not too impressed by Nakano on his debut we really have been won over by his showings in 2019. His win over Yurong showed him applying smart pressure through out, fantastic punch variety, crisp punching and the ability to move through the gears. There was still areas for him to work on but there was a lot of improvements from his debut and he was neutralising a pretty solid fighter with genuine else. It's worth noting that Nakano was apparently under pressure against Natuplag, in a bout that wasn't televised, but that isn't a bad thing and seemed to tell those in the venue that he could fight on the back foot when he needed to. That's a good sign, showing that he can be versatile and soak up the aggression of a dangerous fighter when he needs to. Nakano's first bout of 2020 hasn't been announced yet though it would seem likely he'd be fighting in the Spring, the Summer and then again towards the end of the year. Although we would plot his route for a title to one of the regional belts, it would be a surprise to see him fighting for a belt this year. Instead of fighting for gold in 2020 we would imagine Nakano and his team putting down a marker in the rankings and putting things in place for a shot in early 2021. Although impressing, and looking like a fighter who is improving with every fight Nakano only has 8 rounds to his name, and the 24 year old certainly needs more ring time this year. We would imagine his team are going to look at getting him in with a solid guy to take him rounds, and a bout with someone like Ryo Hino, Nathaniel May or Eugene Lagos would do him the world of good. We see Nakano as a future world champion, but only if he can get the tests he needs in the coming year or two. We'd like to see 2020 to be a year of development, 2021 to be the year in which he begins to make moves for his first titles, then potential world title fights in 2022 or 2023. We'd be surprised to see him being put on the super fast track, but we'd be equally surprised to see him fail to reach the top in the coming years. |
Oriental Opinions
This is just an opinion, maaaan! It's easy to share our opinions, and that's what you'll find here, some random opinion pieces Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|