 On April 16th we'll see Japanese female Bantamweight champion Kanako Taniyama (4-1-1, 1) make her first defense, as she battles against Miki Mitsuda (5-7, 4) at the EDION Arena Osaka. For Taniyama the bout is a must win if she's to progress above domestic title level whilst for Mitsuda the bout serves as a chance to become a 2-weight national champion and avenge her most recent defeat, which came in late 2020.
The now 35 year old Taniyama turned to professional boxing in 2018, following a successful career as a kick boxer, and a background that also involved karate. Due to her previous combat sport career she was moved quickly, and in just her third professional bout she challenged for both the OPBF and Japanese Bantamweight titles. She ended up drawing in that bout, and coming up short in a second shot at the titles, before finally winning the Japanese title in her third shot, last June. Sadly for Taniyama and her team, she hasn't managed to make a mark in the professional ranks like she and her team would have hoped. She's not bad, by any stretch, but she's also not as good as hoped, and at 35 she'll be on the slide sooner rather than later. In the ring Taniyama is a strong looking fighter, who does have some genuine ability. She moves nicely around the ring, creates angles, has a crisp jab and does a lot of things right. She looks like a natural fighter in the ring and is athletic, well trained and understands the concepts of boxing. Sadly though she does seem to run out of steam a lot, and puts a lot of effort into creating space to box early on in bouts. Intense pressure against her can have success, and she also struggles to get respect from opponents, due to the fact she doesn't really sit on her shots and get full purchase on them. Her footwork is nice, but it does stop her sitting down on shots and really getting weight behind things, and this can be a problem against fighters taking the fight to her. Aged 30 Mitsuda is still a fighter in, or at least around, her prime years. Sadly for her, her career hasn't every really flourished or have much sustained success. She lost 4 of her first 5 bouts and was 3-5 after 8 bouts but in 2019 had a major breakthrough win, winning the Japanese Featherweight title with a TKO win over Asami Jinnari, in what is a career defining win for Matsuda. Sadly though her reign was short lived, and she lost the title in her first defense, before then then losing to Taniyama. On thing that is interesting about Mitsuda's record is that whilst she has suffered 7 losses, 5 of them have been by Split or Majority decision, and with some luck she could have had a very, very different looking record. Between the ropes Mitsuda is very dangerous, strong, imposing and not someone to mess with. It's rare for women to have high stoppage rates, but Mitsuda has scored 4 of her 5 wins inside the distance and the reason for that is simple. Her right hand is thrown with really nasty intent. She's not the best boxer out there, in fact her boxing skills are quite basic, but her right hand is scary powerful and like someone playing a video game, she really likes to load up that right hand and spam it at times. To go with her dangerous right hand is some nice upper body movement, and a willingness to take one to land one. When she lands clean she hurts fighters, and that will be her focus again here. Of the two Taniyama is the much more polished fighter, and has all the technical advantages. That however won't change the fact that Mitsuda will know she needs get inside, and she needs to land that powerful right hand, a lot. If she can do that, to both head and body, she could end up breaking down Taniyama, and impressing the judges. She will need to walk through a lot of jabs and some straight shots from the champion but the challenger certainly has a chance here. Whilst Mitsuda has a chance, we expect to see her mostly chasing shadows. The movement of Taniyama will be a major difference between the two and will be enough, over the first 4 rounds, for her to take some sting out of Mitsuda, and impress the judges. We see this being competitive, compelling, close but the good start from Taniayama will be enough for her to take the win. Prediction - SD6 Taniyama
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 On June 7th we're set for a notable, albeit short, card from Watanabe Gym with three title bouts, which were originally scheduled for May but needed to be delayed due to the State of Emergency in Japan. One of those bouts is rather uneven looking Japanese Female Bantamweight title fight, with Kanako Taniyama (3-1-1, 1) facing Yuko Henzan (8-10-4, 2) for the vacant title. Although the least significant of the three bouts, it's an interesting one, and one that both fighters will likely see as a must win bout. At least if either of them wants to potentially land a world title fight before retirement.
On paper the match looks like it's two fighters in very, very different places. Tamiyama, with just 5 bouts to her name, looks like a woman at the start of her career, whilst Henzan, with a 22 fight record, looks like a journey woman, going nowhere. In reality however both women are 34, neither can afford another set back and another loss, for either, would push them a very long way from a title fight, of any kind. They are also very similar in size, and their desire to claim a title will be huge here. Of the two fighters Taniyama is the more notable. She was a stand out kick boxer before turning to professional boxing in late 2018, with a lot of hype and expectation on her shoulders. After scoring two quick wins she got her first title fight and fought to an 8 round draw with Tomoko Okuda for the JBC and OPBF female Bantamweight titles. The bout was hotly contested and resulted in a rematch around 4 months later, which was another hotly contested bout, with Okuda taking a 7th round technical decision, giving Tamiyama her first loss. Since then Okuda has gone on to win the WBO female Super Flyweight title, whilst Taniyama herself has gone on to bounce back with a win over Mitsuda. In the ring Taniyama is a fighter who presses forward, comes with aggressive intent and is very much a kick boxer turned boxer. She's crude, she's rough around the edges, but is very much an aggressive, fun to watch fighter who tries to impose her will on the bout. She's not the quickest, in fact she has had issues with her legs in the past from her days as a kick boxer, but cuts the ring off well and comes to fighter, every time she's in the ring. Henzan on the other hand has been a professional since 2010, and has fought a genuine who's who. Due to that willingness to fight pretty much anyone she has picked up a lost of losses, including defeats to Miyo Yoshida, Fan Yin, Li Ping Shi and Wakako Fujiwara. During her career she has fought for OPBF and WBO honours, and actually did pick up the OPBF Bantamweight title in 2018, though her reign lead to nothing of note. In the ring she's technically very limited, very light hitting, and relatively open. However she's not an easy fighter to beat or look good against because she's tough, she's tiny and comes forward looking for a fight. She lets her hands go on the inside and really does seem to enjoy a fight. She's a limited boxer but a genuine fighter who will go toe to toe when she needs to and lets body shots go on mass. Sadly however she is under-sized, she lacks physicality and is very flat footed. Because both are slow of foot, both like to fight and both like to let shots go up close we're expecting this one ton be a genuinely exciting bout. Not the most highly skilled, or intelligent fight, from either, but an exciting, "TV Friendly" fight, with the two women engaging often and trading blows. Sadly for Henzan we suspect her lack of real phsycality will be an issue and she'll come off second best when the two do trade. She'll be the one backing up, the one being pushed around and the one taking the heavier blows. She'll certainly always fight back, but we have the feeling she'll also come up very, very short. This will be fun, a genuine tear up, but we supect it'll also be a clear win for Taniyama who just has that extra class and extra physical strength. Prediction - UD6 Taniyama  Back in September Japanese fight fans in Sakai saw local fighter Tomoko Okuda (5-2-2, 1) earn a controversial draw against Kanako Taniyama (2-0-1, 1) in a bout for the Japanese and OPBF female Bantamweight titles. It seemed that Taniyama, the busier, more aggressive, fighter had done enough to earn the win. The judges thought otherwise and gave the local fighter the benefit of the doubt, well at least two of them did with both of those judges scoring the bout even over-ruling a 78-74 card for Taniyama.
On January 28th they go again, this time with Taniyama having home advantage with the bout taking place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The first bout, although controversial, was interesting through out. Okuda looked to box on the outside, keeping the bout at range and counter the aggression of Taniyama. Taniyama on the other hand wanted to make it a fight, pressing in bursts, and forcing the pace through out. Although Taniyama was the aggressor she did take a lot of clean punches herself, from the more technically correct Okuda. Those shots left Taniyama with a badly swollen left eye that she fought through. The final round, of what was an 8 rounder, was a mess as the two tiredly fell into each other during some wild exchanges. We expect to see a similar dynamic here. Taniyama pressing, trying to drag Okuda into a fire fight. We would however be very surprised if Taniyama's eye swelled up like it did in their first bout, and we would also be shocked if the judges in Tokyo gave Okuda the same benefit they ones in Sakai did. Instead we expect Taniyama's aggression, heart and determination to impress judges, and help her take the decision. One interesting difference between this bout and their first, other than the venue, is the length. Their draw came in an 8 rounder, and this is only 6. So the mess of the final round, where there was a lot of clinching between wild exchanges, isn't likely to be seen here. It's also worth noting that after 4 rounds last time out the two were level on all 4 cards, meaning a hot start here could be key in taking the Japanese female Bantamweight title. Still in saying that, we do still favour a Taniyama decision. Prediction - UD6 Taniyama |
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