Amagasa wins, Toi scores a shock, Maligro blows away Sanpei and Tomomi returns with a win!

Today was an interesting day in Asian boxing with two cards that were notable for very different reasons. In Japan we had a very interesting card with a number of solid match ups whilst in Thailand we had a few bouts of interest.

Tokyo, Japan
The big show of the day came from Tokyo where Kyoei put on an excellent show that really should have applied to every type of boxing fan out there, of course barring those that ionly care about the big PPV stars.

The show began with a 4 rounder as Kohei Hasegawa (1-1, 1) scored a 3rd round TKO over the debuting Junpei Hakota (0-1). This was the only 4 rounder on the show and was one of 5 stoppages from the show.

A second stoppage occurred in the second bout of the show as female model-come-boxer Tomomi Takano (6-1, 5) stopped hapless Thai Dokmaipha Kiatpompetch (0-5) in the 4th round of a scheduled 6 rounder. This was Takano's first bout since being stopped by Kai Johnson and although this was a win it was hard to really tell how much the queen of weigh-ins had actually improved given that Dokmaipha and Johnson are from very, very different levels.

The only bout that actually went the distance saw Ryo Narizuka (7-4) take an incredibly close decision over Kazuaki Moriya (11-6, 1) in an incredibly competitive 8 rounder. Although the Narizuka/Moriya was the only one to go the distance it wasn't the only bout that that didn't end in a stoppage as fans saw Toyoto Shiraishi (24-8-2, 11) fight to a second round technical draw with Mako Matsuyama (7-8-2, 3), a real disappointment for Shiraishi who will still be eyeing another title fight in the next year or two.

In a major upset fans saw Kenta Toi (4-4, 1) score a shocking stoppage over Mikihito Seto (34-12-3, 18) in the second round. The 34 year old Seto hasn't been in great form recently but had challenger for a Japanese title less than 2 years ago, giving Hidenori Otake a very tough bout. For Toi this is a a career changing win, it may not net him a title fight but it's still huge and will almost certainly put him in the Japanese rankings.

On paper the best bout was a Super Featherweight bout between unbeaten men. That turned out however to be a short bout as Japanese based Filipino Johnreil Maligro (12-0, 9) quickly wiped out the touted Kazuma Sanpei (11-1, 4). This was an amazing bout on paper but Maligro's power was the difference and Sanpei was unable to take it for long, a real shame in some ways, but something that could boost Mailigro towards a Japanese title shot. 

The main event here saw OPBF Featherweight champion Hisashi Amagasa (28-4-2, 19) retain his title for the 3rd time, but only just, as he over-came a very spirited challenge from the under-rated Ryo Takenaka (11-3-1, 6). Takenaka gave Amagasa absolute hell, and was in the lead going into the final rounds. Sadly for the challenger however he was unable to stay the course and was stopped in the final round of a real tear up. Real credit needs to go to Takenaka for putting up a great effort whilst Amagasa dug hard and deep for this win. It was every boxing fans could possible wish for.

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand fans got a small cards but one with some title implications.

The main event of the card saw veteran Sirimongkol Singwancha (81-2, 52) take a 12 round decision to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Light Middleweight title. Sirimongkol, fighting against Filipino Dan Nazareno Jr (20-12, 16), took his time and fought very patiently to take a clear win though it did appear like he was deliberately fighting for 12 rounds rather than upping the pace.

Another televised bout from this card saw the heavy handed but very limited Chalermpol Singwancha (11-0, 9) take a 4th round win over a fighter we've been told was Kevin Solimani (0-1) in what was described as a massive mismatch.

A third bout from this card saw Kalae McShane (1-0, 1) score a 1-round blow out over Petch Twins Gym (1-5) with Petch being dropped 3 times in just 114 seconds. 

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

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