On November 13th Japanese fight fans at Korakuen Hall, along with those willing to pay an excessive price to watch on Twitcasting, will get the chance to see Japanese Female Featherweight champion Kimika Miyoshi (15-12-1, 6) take on Yoshie Wakasa (6-2, 2). For Miyoshi the bout will serve as her second defense of the title, which she won in September 2018. Wakasa on the other hand will be hoping it's third time lucky, following two previous losses in title shots.
 
The champion is the much, much more well known fighter. The 36 year old veteran has been a professional since 2008 and has had a rather remarkable, if somewhat over-looked career. She he won OPBF female titles at Bantamweight, Featherweight and Super Featherweight, and is now enjoying a reign as the Japanese national champion. As well as he title successes she has fought numerous times at world level, and shared the ring with the likes of Yazmin Rivas, Hyun Mi Choi and Shannon O'Connell.
 
Although no world beater Miyoshi is a handful. She's tough, rugged, has a good work rate, surprising power, and a lot of experience. There is a question as to when father time will catch up with, but we have seen top female fighters having success well into their 40's so we wouldn't assume her age would be a major issue, and instead suspect she still has several years left in her body.
 
In Wakasa we have an interesting challenger, but someone who has failed to get over the winning line in recent bouts. She began her career in 2014 and won her first 6 bouts, before coming up short against Miyo Yoshida in a Japanese Female Bantamweight title fight in 2019. That loss was then followed by a loss to OPBF Female Featherweight champion Wakako Fujiwara in September 2019. With those two losses we are now more than 2 years removed from her last win, and it's hard to know where her confidence is at.
 
At 32 years old Wakasa is the younger fighter, but she's no spring chicken, and she's certainly not a fighter who has done much in recent bouts to scream that she's a champion. Despite that she shouldn't be written off. Like Miyoshi the challenger is a rugged, tough type. She's clumsy, she's slow, but she comes to fight and knows how to make things ugly.
 
Given how both fighters are ones who like to fight up close, both neglect their jabs both like to fight we expect this to be a really rough fight, and probably a very ugly one. But we expect both fighters to be pretty well matched over all, and for the fight to be a pretty entertaining at times. A fun mess, if you will.
 
Sadly for the challenger we have got to predict a win for Miyoshi. Her experience, and higher level of competition will prove vital here. Both are similar in many ways, but the huge gulf in experience will, we suspect, play a big difference maker.
 
Prediction - UD6 Miyoshi

This coming Monday we'll see OPBF female Featherweight champion Wakako Fujiwara (8-3-2, 3) return to the ring as she hunts her second defense, and takes on the once beaten Yoshie Wakasa (6-1, 2) at the EDION Arena Osaka. On paper this bout does show the lack of depth in female boxing, but that's not to take away from a bout that should be very entertaining and hotly contested.
 
The champion is 38 but has proven to be a late bloomer. She was stopped on debut, and was 1-2-1 after 4 bouts, but since then she has gone 7-1-1, with her only loss in that stretch coming to world champion Hyun Mi Choi this past June. Not only has Fujiwara's record turned around but she's go one to avenge one of her losses, stopping Kana Fukuda in 2017 to avenge her debut loss, and has scored two wins over veteran Kimika Miyoshi, a 3 weight OPBF champion. Unfortunately for her she's what we'd describe as a "battler", with a lack of world class power. She can box, but tends to find herself involved in wars on the inside, which are entertaining but she up her lack of boxing IQ. Like many female fighters at this level, skills seem to come second behind work rate, which is fun to watch, but does magnify the difference between the fringe contenders and the truly world class.
 
Aged 31 Wakasa is no youngster herself, but she is still significantly younger than the champion. She debuted more than 5 years ago and began here career with 6 straight wins, though they were mostly against limited opponents with the best being Asami Jinnari and Tomoko Okuda. last time out she stepped up, massively, to take on Miyo Yoshida and suffered a wide decision loss to Yoshida in a Japanese female Bantamweight title fight. When you consider that she's going up from 118lbs, for that bout, to 126lbs for the bout, that's a big ask for Wakasa, who will be up against her second best opponent so far. 
 
There's a chance that, over the next few years, Wakasa will cement herself as a title level fighter. Here however we see her taking on someone in form. who's, stronger, bigger and more experienced. Fujiwara is unlikely to ever win a world title herself, but we see her taking a very, very comfortable decision over her fellow Japanese fighter here, even if she does end up resorting to using her size to take the win.
 
Prediction - UD8 Fujiwara ​

To kick off the new "Female" section of Asian boxing we couldn't have picked a more interesting female "world" title bout.

In one corner we have Japanese veteran Fujin Raika (25-7-1, 10), pictured below, and in the other other corner is unbeaten Korean Hyun-Mi Choi (7-0-1, 2), pictured opposite. Both are former world champions and both are looking for a chance to stamp some authority on the Super Featherweight division as they battle for the WBA "interim" title,

Of the two fighters it's fair to say that Raika, 37, is the more tested fighter having been a professional for more than a decade. Her career, a legendary one, has seen her sharing the ring with a veritable who's who such as Chevelle Hallback, Jelena Mrdjenovich and Ann Saccurato.

Although she is seen as being on the slide Raika does bring real experience a genuine toughness and a natural size advantage having competed regularly at the Lightweight limit in recent years and also having fought as high as Light Welterweight. These qualities will always make her a tough fighter to deal with and if she gets inside she can let her hands fly.

At just 22 years old Choi is by far the younger, fresher fighter. Of course she is trading that off against her relative lack of experience though she has been a WBA Featherweight champion, in fact this will be her 9th straight contest for a world title though it will also be her first bout at the Super Featherweight limit having been a career Featherweight.

Stood at 5'7" Choi will have a height and reach advantage over Raika though it's incredibly important that shes uses it and stays on her toes. She's a lovely straight puncher when she gets in to a rhythm though it can sometimes take a few rounds for her to get her boxing going and this could see her having some problems.

This fight really does seem a bit of a boxer v brawler contest.

The brawler, Raika, in this case is the bigger fighter and a bigger puncher though is several years removed from a notable victory. She has proven, against really good fighters, that she's a handful and has shown a willingness to do what it takes home or away to try and win.

The boxer, Choi, on the other hand is a fighter who is developing from a young girl to a fully grown woman. Her move up in weight is as much down to her frame filling out. She may have been fighting at Featherweight but she always looked big at 126lbs.

As with many fights of this stylistic match up the boxer will need to have the power and speed to keep the brawler from just walking in and unloading. Inside Raika will be able to bang away at the long midsection of Choi and will be a real danger woman.

For Choi this is about what does with her feet just as much as her hands. She'll be quicker with her feet and hands though she'll need to have the awareness to avoid walking herself into the corners where Raika will be able to have a field day. Choi hasn't the power to put Raika away, very few have, though she'll need to get her attention early and make sure Raika respects her. If she can't get the respect of Raika this will be very difficult.

Although Choi will find this bout very difficult, her toughest since her split decision victory over Claudia Andrea Lopez, we imagine she'll just have enough down the stretch to take a close and very competitive decision against the Japanese veteran.