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Earlier today at Korakuen Hall we saw a new WBO Atomweight world champion being crowned as Nanae Suzuki (11-4-1, 1) [鈴木菜々江] dethroned Mika Iwakawa (10-6-1, 3) [岩川 美花], in a rematch of a bout from 2020.
In their first bout Iwakawa showed her boxing skills early on, but Suzuki came on strong as the bout went on, and arguably did enough to claim the win back then. Notably neither fighter had fought since that bout, and at 38 it was assumed Iwakawa had potentially started to age coming into this bout. That was proven to be true pretty early on, as Iwakawa's movement and footwork from their first bout was absent here early on. Instead of Iwakawa boxing and moving, she was dragged into a was immediately, from a hungry and determined Suzuki. The challenger didn't land much in terms of quality, but got off to the start she would have wanted, making Iwakawa fighter her fight. That continued through much of the bout, and although Iwakawa tried to spoil at times, and fought back hard, her well rounded boxing skills were pretty much absent. To her credit however Iwakawa bounced back from a tough opening round to have success in rounds 2, 3 and 4 thanks to her cleaner, more accurate work. With the pace being as intense as it was, and it really was a high tempo start to the fight, the question was how long could Iwakawa's legs keep up the pace. In round 5 the tempo began to catch up with the defending champion, and Suzuki out worked her through much of the middle part of the fight, using volume to catch the eye and neutralise the quality of Iwakawa. The strong middle rounds for Suzuki saw her take a lead, before she began to get sloppy, giving Iwakawa a chance to finish strong, and have the space she needed to show her boxing skills. By then however it was too little too late for the defending champion. After 10 rounds the bout went to the judges. It was clear the fight was close, and had swung back and forth, but it seemed Suzuki had done enough, a view shared by two of the judges, who gave her the bout 96-94, with Iwakawa getting the same score from the dissenting judge.
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The first title fight of the weekend saw WBO Atomweight champion Mika Iwakawa (10-5-1, 3) [岩川 美花] make her first successful defense as she narrowly over-came the hard working and none stop pressure of Nanae Suzuki (10-4-1, 1) [鈴木菜々江], to claim a split decision.
The opening round saw Suzuki look the press the action, with relentless pressure. Although she was pressing and pushing forward, she was struggling to land anything of note, and when Iwakawa turned it on late in the round she showed the gulf in class between the two women. Sadly that round was one of the highlights of the early parts of the fight with many of the other early rounds descending into a bit of a sloppy messy. For the most part Suzuki was pressing, Iwakawa was countering well and then holding. It was dire early on. That was until round 5 when Iwakawa started to use her legs more, creating space and seemingly feeling the pressure get to her. From there the bout suddenly started to turn around, and in round 6 we saw action heating up, with both fighters letting their hands go more and giving us a thrilling exchange. The action continued to get better in round 7 as Iwakawa realised she had to fight fire with fire. It made for a very entertaining round of back and forth action. It was certainly more entertaining than some of the earlier action but was also a sign that Suzuki was drawing Iwakawa into her fight. Suzuki's pressure just didn't relent and she kept marching on and on. In round 8 that pressure made Ishikawa get back on her toes as she looked for space. Space wasn't going to be easy to come by thanks to Suzuki's incessant forward march. By the start of round 10 it was clear that Suzuki's aggression, pressure and messy yet none stop forward march had made things incredibly close. She never looked close to being Iwakawa's equal in terms of skills, but her will to win, her stamina and her energy had made life incredibly hard for the champion. The champion seemed to land all the better shots, but she was taking huge breaks in rounds and only showing glimpses of what she could do. After 10 rounds we were to the scorecards and there was a split decision. The scores read out were 97-93, 96-94 to Iwakawa and a dissent score of 97-93 to Suzuki. Despite a solid start for Iwakawa the real story of the fight was the pressure of Suzuki, who was relentless and made things incredibly close. Sadly her lack of clean work did play against her. Despite the loss she will be back, and did seem to win over fans online, who likely hadn't seen her before but were impressed by her none stop effort. Given Iwakawa is 37 this was probably a bit of regrettable match making from her point of view. She was in there with a bundle of energy and she could never really find her groove against the pressure and aggression of the challenger. The gulf in skills showed through out, and Iwakawa is on a different level in terms of skill, but Suzuki's will to win made things incredibly tough.  Earlier today Japanese fight fans in Kyoto saw the WBO Atomweight title change hands, as veteran Nao Ikeyama (18-4-3, 5) [池山直] was dethroned by the unheralded Mika Iwakawa (8-5-1, 3) [岩川美花] in a thrilling 10 round war.
The 48 year old champion, who had held the title for more than 4 years, was expected to secure her 7th defense and score her second win over Iwakawa. Instead however Iwakawa came out on top of a pulsating back and forth battle that left fans knowing the two fighters had given their all. Iwakawa got off to a good start, taking the opening round with her work rate, in the second Ikeyama came back managing to control the distance slightly better before the fight just became an all out, tit-for-tat battle of attrition. The difference between the two seemed to be the variation of Iwakawa, who effectively switched her stances in round 4, and gave Ikeyama a lot to think about then showed her defense a few rounds later when Ikeyama tried to take control of the action, and she did rock Iwakawa who bounced back and recovered amazingly well With neither giving an inch the crowd were on their feet in the final round as the two fighters delivered the grandstand finale. Sadly for Ikeyama however it wasn't to be enough, with Iwakawa taking a split decision, with two cards of 96-94 in her favour whilst the dissenting judge had it 96-94 in favour of Ikeyama. After the bout Ikeyama made it clear she would be retiring, but wanted to stay involved in the sport making it sound like she would either work at, or set up, a gym. As for the new champion she spoke about wanting to unify titles and inherit the strength of Ikeyama, who's late career surge really was impressive. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp)  Earlier today Japanese fight fans at the Korakuen Hall had the chance to see a thrilling WBO Atomweight world title fight, resulting in veteran Nao Ikeyama (18-3-2, 5) [池山直] narrowly hanging on to her title. The 47 year old champion, was making her 6th defense of the title, and was facing former foe Saemi Hanagata (13-6-3, 7) [花形 冴美], following a draw last year. And once again the judges struggled to separate the two wonderfully matched fighters. In the early stages it seemed like the younger Hanagata was just doing enough to net the rounds, and was in the lead on all 3 cards after 4 rounds, with scores of 39-37 on all the cards. Although she was leading the judges were having problems deciding on which rounds to give the champion, with one judging giving her round 1, another giving her round 2 and the other giving her round 4. In the middle rounds it was Ikeyama who came on strong, winning rounds 5 and 6 on all 3 cards to put her self level. From then on it really was anyones with Hanagata winning round 7 unanimously and Ikeyama taking round 10, but the judges being split on rounds 8 and 9. Thsi resulted in a split decision draw with scoresof 96-94, 95-95 and 94-94.  Whilst neither fighter will feel happy about the draw neither can really complain as they cancelled each other our brilliantly at times, with neither getting much of an upper hand for long. The bout was fought on margins and when all was set and done a draw was a fair result, in what was a real back and forth contest with both fighters landing solid shots on the other.
With this being a second draw between the two women in around 13 months the logical step would be a third clash, though we could understand both looking else where as these bouts were punishing, and with neither clearly being able to prove themselves the better fighter it could be worth leaving the serious tied at 0-0. With her 48th birthday just around the corner Ikeyama really does continue to amaze, matching younger fighters as she did here, showing great stamina through out and battling herself out of an early hole. It is however worth wondering how long she can have these tough battles before her body ages over-night, and when that happens it could well be to a lesser fighter than Hanagata. Sadly for Hanagata this was a 4th set back in a world title bout, where she is now 0-2-2. She has proven she really does belong at this level and will also take a lot from the fact it took her mentor Susumu Hanagata until his 5th world title fight before he finally won a title, claiming the WBA Flyweight title back in 1974 when he defeated Chartchai Chionoi in their second bout. For those interested in this bout it will be on subscription service Boxingraise.com. (Images courtesy of boxmob.jp)  Some wins are more fulfilling than others and it's fair to say that WBO Atomweight champion Nao Ikeyama (18-3-2, 5) [池山 直] will have been unfulfilled by her most recent win, a win that saw her scoring a 5th round TKO victory over former WBA champion Ayaka Miyao (21-7-1, 5) [宮尾 綾香], and despite it being the best win of Ikeyama's career it will also be one that will leave her the most empty. The bout, which promised so much given the action styles of both women, was seen as a real treat for both fans at the Korakuen Hall and fans who use subscription service Boxingraise. It was the chief-support bout for Dangan Ladies 3 and was one of two world title bouts that were set to help ignite the Atomweight division. Instead it left fans feeling under-whelmed, and despite getting 4 rounds of action it wans't the bout that many had hoped for. The bout started well with both fighters showing their skills and aggression early on, Miyao tried to her jab whilst the 47 year old Ikeyama managed to work her way in and out. In the second round Miyao seemed to begin taking over, getting her engine going and giving the champion some real worries. It was clear that Miyao had the ability to really let loose with her high work rate and could give Ikeyama, a more aggressive fighter, some real problems.  Rounds 3 and 4 were nip and took affairs with neither fighter really getting the best of it, though Miyao did seem to land a really notable shot towards the end of round 4 which looked like it could have sewed the seeds for a future break through. Sadly for Miyao the break through never came and instead it seemed that Ikeyama was fired up, taking the fight to Miyao hard in round 5.
In round 6 Miyao hit the canvas, with her right knee looking like it was the cause of her falling. The brave challenger recovered to her fight but was in incredible pain and a follow up by Ikeyama sent the challenger down to the canvas again, this time forcing the end. Some have suggested that Miyao's injury could be a very serious ligament issue, and could potentially threaten her career, with the fighter being stretchered out of the ring and looking in pure agony. For Ikeyama the win was a huge one on paper though one that she won't have felt too pleased by, and her face as her arm was raised seemed to be one of discontent rather than jubilation, showing the concern to her fighting sister. (Image courtesy of boxnob.jp)  Fans at he Korakuen Hall today were treat to several treats, including two female world title bouts. Whilst the WBO female Bantamweight title fight between Naoko Fujioka and Shindo Go may go down as the female fight of the year, the co-feature, a bout between WBO Atomweight champion Nao Ikeyama (17-3-2, 4) [池山直] and exciting challenger Saemi Hanagata (12-6-3, 6) [花形 冴美], was also thrilling.
The bout saw Ikeyama, the oldest world champion in Japanese boxing history, narrowly retain her title with a split decision draw whilst Hanagata suffered her third setback in a world title bout. From the off the bout was a real fight with both letting their hands go. It wasn't classically pleasing but it was engrossing, action packed and enthralling with neither knowing when to back down, or when to back off. With the style of the bout, and the all action mentality of both it was clear that the bout was going to be a hard one to score and that was seen in the cards which read 96-94, 95-95 and 94-96 to give a fair, but frustrating, split decision draw. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)  This past Saturday in Sri Lanka fight fans saw history being created as the 46 year old Nao Ikeyama (17-3-1, 4) became the first world champion to successfully defend a world title in the country. The Japanese veteran claimed her place in history by taking a clear unanimous decision over experienced Filipino Jujeath Nagaowa (13-16-1, 8).
The bout, which took place in a stunning venue, was a competitive bout with Nagaowa not allowing Ikeyama to control the pace and instead the two were forced to trade shots. Although it wasn't Ikeyama's "style" the champion was able to out land and out work the cruder Filipino, who again showed why she keeps getting notable fights. Whilst the bout did create history by becoming the first world itle fight in Sri Lanka, it does seem like that's not the only piece of history Ikeyama wan't to record and a rumour now is that she may be set to become the first world champion to defend her title in Myanmar, another country that has yet to really see professional boxing. With the win Ikeyama keeps her WBO Atomweight reign alive whilst Nagaowa has once again proven that she will always force a fight and will almost certainly get another big one in the near future. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)  Age seems to be a talking point in boxing right now. Last weekend the 37 year old Floyd Mayweather retained his unified Welterweight titles and this past Friday the 39 year old Omar Andres Narvaez retained his WBO Super Flyweight title. Those two fighters seem like little boys however when compared to Japanese veteran Nao Ikeyama (15-3-1, 4) who retained her WBO Atomweight title earlier today with a narrow and hard fought decision over fellow Japanese fighter Masae Akitaya (9-5-2, 3).
Despite her age Ikeyama looked like a ball of energy and fought the entire contest at an unbelievable. This was simply too much for Akitaya who was dropped in round 2 and generally forced to fight off the back foot. The challenger, a relative spring chicken at "only" 36, tried to answer back and often succeeded with slightly more crisp and accurate work though at the end of the day she was simply unable to meet Ikeyama's pace. As a result the champion took a unanimous decision to retain her title. With the win Ikeyama became one of the oldest champions in history to defend a world title. She might not quite have matched Bernard Hopkins but she has hit the form of her career and with performances like there is a chance she could retain that title for quite a while. She might not be classically skilled but with her relentlessness she's going to be very difficult to beat. As for Akitaya she actually made history as she became to first fighter to fail in title efforts at all 3 Atomweight titles. This loss has followed a technical draw with the indomitable Momo Koseki and a loss to the all-action Ayaka Miyao and unfortunately it seems likely she will become one of those fighters who never gets over the line and never becomes a world champion despite fighting a number of fights at the top level. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)  Today was an historic day for the WBO and the Atomweight division as, for the first time ever, the WBO crowned a champion the smallest division in professional boxing. Surprisingly we think they may also have crowned the oldest ever "first time" champion as recognised by one of the big 4.
That fighter was the 44 year old Nao Ikeyama (14-3-1, 4) who added the newly created WBO Atomweight title to the lightly regarded WIBA title she he held, for a short period, back in 2007-2008. Ikeyama's victory was a real shock as she took on the previously unbeaten Filipino Jessebelle Pagaduan (6-1, 4) who was not only unbeaten going in to this bout but was also 15 years younger than Ikeyama. We, like many, had thought this was a forgone conclusion and the younger, fresh Pagaduan was going to walk through the older fighter, out work her, out speed her and generally dominate with youth. Instead however it was a masterclass like a teacher gives a young student and Ikeyama, despite her age, was still too quick for Pagaduan, not only that but she was also too good for the younger fighter who was made to look completely out of he depth. Although older and with a lot more miles on the clock this bout proved, a lot of Bernard Hopkins bouts do, that skills can over-come age, knowing how to box can be the key to winning. That's not to say that Ikeyama is half the fighter that Hopkins is but this was nothing short of a fighter proving that father time can be held off if a fighter is simply on another level to their opponent. For Pagaduan this is embarrassing though probably less embarrassing than if she had faced Momo Koseki who would have mauled her, roughed her up and mentally broke her. As it was Ikeyama just took a clear decision with cards of 98-92, 99-91 and 99-91 again, there was no doubt over who deserved the victory. With Ikeyama saying she would retire if she lost we're expecting to see her make at least 1 defence of the title, though we're unsure who the WBO will accept as an opponent for their newest champion. By the time of her first defence Ikeyama may well be 45 years old though if she can fight as well as she did here then there may well be no need for her to even consider retirement again any time soon. (Image courtesy of http://www.zukunft.co.jp) |
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