Today Japanese fans at the Komagatani gym in Hyogo saw two new WBO champions being crowned. One of those was Katsunari Takayama, who claimed the WBO Minimumweight title with a technical decision over 18 year old Riku Kano, with the bout being stopped in the 6th round. The other was Australian warrioress Louisa Hawton (7-0, 3) who managed to out box and out fight the naturally bigger Kei Takenaka (11-0, 3). The opening round was a cautious one, with neither wanting to take too many risks too soon. Takenaka tried to make the most of her size advantage, fighting behind a quick, but often wayward, jab, whilst Hawton looked for an opportunity to attack but didn't rush in. It was a technical type of round with neither wanting to make the first big mistake. Unfortunately for Takenaka it seemed like she missed her early opportunity to strike and soon afterwards Hawton had found her groove, realising that Takenaka's key advantage was just her size. From then on Hawton went on the front foot, landing aggressive shots from round 2 and securing an early lead over Takenaka, who looked rather lost at times due to the aggressiveness and speed of the visitor. The Japanese local knew she was behind going in to the middle rounds and tried to change the tempo of the bout, but she was met by Hawton who raised her own game to out battle Takenaka. It was as if Hawton was able to do everything Takenaka could do, better than her and that showed again in the later rounds with Takenaka being staggered in round 10 and being forced to look for counter shots. By the final it was clear that the title, which had been vacant at the start of the day, was heading to Australia with Hawton, who claimed her first world title with a unanimous decision. The scorecards read 98-91, 97-92 and 96-93, with only the closeness of the third card really getting any criticism. Sadly for Takenaka, who has claimed she wants to retire before her 31st birthday, this is a serious setback in her dreams to become a world champion before she walks away from the sport.
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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) Every so often we get a bout that we just know will be good, today we had one such bout as WBO female Bantamweight champion Naoko Fujioka (15-1, 6) [藤岡 奈穂子] took on former WBC female Flyweight champion Shindo Go (16-4, 11) [真道ゴー], and the two fighters gave us possibly the female fight of the year. The bout started with Go on the offensive and in both of the opening two rounds it seemed the challenger hurt the champion. Fujioka was forced to hold and ride out the early storm whilst looking like an ageing fighter. From round 3 however the champion began to figure out the challenger, time her assaults more carefully begin to take over the bout, whilst Go had to fight with a badly damaged born around the eye. Whilst Fujioka was racking up the rounds through the middle of the fight Go always looked dangerous, until the end of the 8th round when Fujioka finally scored a knockdown, and almost a knockout with the bell essentially saving Go. Coming out for the final two rounds the challenger gave everything but couldn't deter the wonderful champion who recorded her first defense of the title with scores of 97-92 and 98-91, twice Following the win Fujioka noted that her new target in the sport was to become a 5-weight champion before retiring. Sadly for Go this could potentially be a career ending bout, with the fighter set to under-go sexual realignment surgery later in the year. Notably Go was taken straight to hospital after the bout due to the eye injury. (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) This past Wednesday saw two female world title bouts in Japan. One of those saw the popular Tomomi Takano being stopped in 4 rounds by Daniela Romina Bermudez at 115lbs, the other was an all Japanese title fight, between WBO female Minimumweight champion Kumiko Seeser Ikehara (8-1-2, 3) and Momoko Kanda (9-8-2, 3). Unlikle the Super Flyweight bout, this one, went the distance featured some competitive action, though did end up with a clear winner. To begin with it was the champion who took control however Kanda managed to mount a spirited fight back and seemed to show her best in rounds 3, 7 and 10 as she managed to make Ikehara answer a number of questions. Unfortunately for Kanda's effort she never quite found the consistency that she needed to really push Ikehara who was well worth the unanimous decision, with scores of 97-93, twice, and 98-92. For Kanda this was a loss in her first world title bout whilst Ikehara now has 3 defenses of her title and is likely hoping to secure a bigger profile bout next time out. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) It's often said that boxing is about levels. That was seen on Wednesday when Tomomi Takano (8-2, 5) found herself coming a long way short of world class, as she was battered by WBO female Super Flyweight queen Daniela Romina Bermudez (18-3-2, 6) in just 4 rounds. The bout was Takano's first world title bout and her inexperience at this level as she was completely with out an answer to Bermudez. In the opening round Takano looked uneasy despite having some success. Her success, from her straight punches, seemed to come as much from what she was doing as from what Bermudez was doing, with the challenger easing herself into the bout and trying to ease herself into the bout. In round 2 Bermudez got out of neutral and it looked like that alone scared Takano who did well to hold her own at times, was made to look very uncomfortable by Bermudez who was finding her way inside all too easily. In round 4 Bermudez stepped it up again and this time she landed a combination that ended only when Takano was dropped. The knockdown swiftly resulted in the towel being thrown in. Following the loss Takano was said to be planning to rest and would then consider her future. From this performance however it could well be that her skills have reached their limit and her short reign as an OPBF title holder may well be the high point of her career. For those wanting to watch the final moments of the fight, we've included the video below. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Earlier today in Japan fans had the chance to see the popular Naoko Fujioka (14-1, 6) strengthen her claim as one of the best female fighters on the planet as she became Japan's first female 3-weight world champion, and just the third Japanese fighter to ever achieve the feat. The talented Japanese fighter, who claimed her first world title down at 105lb, stepped up to the Bantamweight division today and easily over-came the game but out matched Korean fighter Hee Jung Yuh (15-3, 6), the wife of future world title challenger Young Kil Bae, the laim the WBO title. From the first round it was clear the women were in different levels. Fujioka immediately found the range and timing for her jab, her movement, accuracy and speed were too good and as the rounds progressed she showed off more and more from her arsenal, with left hooks to the body being particularly noticeable. Given the dominance by Fujioka the crowd seemed to turn from wanting to see their fighter win to seeing her score a KO, and she really went for it. Unfortunately Yuh was to show her toughness and see out the schedule, though did by scores of 100-90, twice, and 99-91. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) WBO female Minimumweight champion Kumiko Seeser Ikehara (7-1-2, 3) made the second successful defense of her title earlier today as she took a split technical decision against veteran Kayoko Ebata (8-6, 4). Sadly, much like Ikehara's first defense, this bout ended with the champion having a nasty cut and bringing an early conclusion to what was an exciting looking contest.
From the opening round this bout was engaging with both fighters giving their all and being competitive with each other from the opening bell. Ikehara seemed to have the edge in power whilst Ebata seemed the speedier, but there was little to distinguish the two who were really putting on a show early on. It seemed that every time one fighter had some success the other would fire back and have some of their own. It was competitive and exciting. Then, suddenly and unfortunately, the bout came to an end with both fighters being cut badly from a headclash. Although both were cut Ikehara certainly ended up with the worst of it and it was her cut that caused the early conclusion to the action. The competitiveness of the contest made the arena tense as we awaited for the cards which read 67-66, 67-66 and 66-67 giving Ikehara the narrowest of narrow decision wins. Earlier this year we saw the fantastic Mako Yamada win the WBO female Minimumweight title with a sensational performance against Su Yun Hong. Sadly instead of defending that title and proving she was as good as she looked in that performance Yamada announced her retirement from boxing to focus on other things in life. Yamada's retirement left the title vacant. Earlier today saw that vacancy filled as Japan's Kumiko Seeser Ikehara (6-1-1, 3) took a split decision over Gretchen Abaniel (15-6, 6). The fight saw Abaniel intensely coming forward though Ikehara did well to unload her shots in a very active contest that saw both women unloading shots. The bout's all action back and forth saw both giving as good as they got in most rounds though in round 8 Ikehara made her size and power count. The power and strength of Ikehara seemed to be enough to take the decision though unexpectedly the bout was ruled a split decision with scores of 98-92 and 97-93 both in favour of Ikehara whilst the third, the dissenting voice, gave the bout to Abaniel with a card of 96-94 for the Filipino. What made these cards a little bit strange is, from what we understand, the one judge who scored it to Abaniel was Japanese judge Katsuhiko Nakamura whilst Filipino judge Salven Lagumbay actually scored the bout for Ikehara. The one neutral judge came from Thailand. For Ikehara this was a crowning glory of her career and saw her becoming a world champion at the first time of trying. She isn't the fighter Yamada was but still winning a world title is a great achievement. As for Abaniel this is her second world title defeat in Japan inside a year. She's not at the end of the line though she will perhaps realise that she needs to stay at Atomweight, where she has fought in the past, and needs to pick an easier mark for her next bout. (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) |
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