On a busy Saturday in the boxing world there was more fights of note than we usually. Amongst the action was a trio of Filipino shows .

Nebraska, USA
The key fight, for us, on Saturday night was in the US as unbeaten Middleweights collided. This bout saw the talented but frustrating Russian Matt Korobov (24-0, 14) out point Venezuelan prospect Jose Uzcategui (22-1, 18). Korobov managed to drop Uzcategui twice in round 7 but failed to finish him in what was essentially another performance that did Korobov little favours in regards to fans who seemed to view him worse after the win than they did before he got in the ring.


Davao del Sur, Philippines
The most well known name in action amongst those Filipino shows was former WBC Flyweight champion Sonny Boy Jaro (37-13-5, 27) who made relatively light work of Tanzanian visitor Ichal Tobida (10-12, 8). Tobida, who had travelled to Davao del Sur from his homeland, tried to give Jaro a fight but in the end the tough and heavy handed Filipino managed to stop Tobida in the 5th round to capture the Asian Boxing Federation Super Flyweight title.

Jaro's bout wasn't the only one involving a title as the unbeaten Adones Cabalquinto (16-0, 9) retained his GAB Light Welterweight title with a stoppage against the over-matched Giovani Rota (7-7, 4). This was the 6th stoppage loss for Rota and suggests that he wasn't really suitable opponent for Cabalquinto who was, not too long ago, linked to an OPBF title fight. Hopefully Cabalquinto will drop the GAB title sooner rather than later and focus on fighting for the OPBF belt with fights against the likes of Ja Ik Goo, Shinya Iwabuchi, Min Wook Kim and Hiroki Okada all out there for him.

The rest of the results on this card are scarce though one of the bouts saw Genesis Libranza (3-0, 2) stopping Jessie Suacasa (2-3, 1) to maintain his unbeaten run whilst in another bout the debuting Renemark Cuarto (1-0) took a 4 round decision victory over Rodante Suacasa (1-7-2, 1).

We're hoping to get the rest of the results from this show over the next day or two.

Lanao del Norte, Philippines
Whilst Jaro was the biggest Filipino name in action he was far from the only notable one and in Metro Manilla fans got to see the very promising Marlon Tapales (26-2, 9) defeat the limited but determined Fadhili Majiha (15-4-4, 7). Tapales dropped Majiha once in the bout as he retained his WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight title and moved one fight closer to a WBO title show down.

Tapales was the main attraction on this show and in fairness many of the other fighters on the card were somewhat unknown outside of the Philippines. These included the hard hitting Jenny Boy Buca (8-1, 8) who stopped Raymond Dayham (5-2, 4) in the 8th round of a scheduled 10 rounder. The only other 10 rounder saw Edward Mansito (10-1-2, 5) taking a decision over over Alvin Makiling (10-10-3, 3).

In the only 8 rounder on the show Belmar Plaza (3-1-3, 1) took an 8 round unanimous decision over fellow novice Jaysever Abcede (3-3, 1). 

All 6 of the other under-card bouts also went the distance. These included only one close contest as Jonathan Francisco (6-3, 2) took a split decision over Jonas Sultan (4-2, 2) in a 6 rounder. Another of the 6 rounders saw Jhon Rey de Asis (5-1, 3) taking a decision over the experienced Michael Bastasa (6-14-3) whilst the the unbeaten Dexter Alimento (3-0, 1) managed to out point Kim Dangan (2-3, 1). The most notable of the 6 rounders however was the that of promising debutant Bryan Capampangan (1-0) who over-came Michael Acevido (2-6-1, 1).

Capampangan wasn't the only debutant and in a 4 rounder Jaylord Montesa (1-0) defeated Eric Mansira (1-14, 1) whilst in the other 4 rounder Reynold Valencia (3-7-1, 1) over-came Joy Joy Formentera (2-2).

Metro Manila, Philippines
The third Filipino show was in Metro Manila and was headlined by the world ranked Renan Trongco (15-4, 9) who made very light work of Jopher Marayan (6-5-2, 2) who was stopped in the second round of a bout that really was a mismatch.

Whilst Trongco is potentially a rising star in the Philippines he wasn't the most well known fight on the show, that was former WBC Super Flyweight title challenger Silvester Lopez (22-7-2, 16) who managed to take out domestic journeyman Arjet Caballes (6-31-5, 3) in the second of a scheduled 6 rounder. 

As with the card in Lanao del Norte much of the card was 6 rounders, in fact 8 of the 13 bouts were 6 rounders, including the aforementioned Lopez fight. Amongst the others was an opening round victory for the promising Cris Paulino (14-1, 4) who took out Lowell Saguisa (7-16, 3) in double quick fashion, 4th round TKO for Jon Jon Estrada (4-1-1, 3) who stopped Valeriano Gabriel (2-6) and another 4th round TKO for Junjie Lauza (5-10-1, 2) who stopped Zoren Pama (5-11-3, 2).

Another of the 6 rounders which failed to go the scheduled saw Eric Panza (5-2-1, 1) defeat Joel Lagusan (3-10, 1) via a technical decision. 

In bouts that did go the 6 round distance fans saw Dennis Tubieron (18-3-1, 8) surprisingly struggle to over-come Rey Ramos (6-6-2, 3) in a bout that very surprisingly finished in a split decision. Another decision saw the unbeaten Jonathan Dela Cruz (4-0, 1) defeat Danny Manosa (2-3-2, 1) whilst Bryan Macamay (9-2-2, 5) defeated Menard Zaragosa (6-18-1, 4).

In 4 rounders Mark Baribar (1-0-1) fought to a draw with the debuting Vic Magdayao (0-0-1), the unbeaten Cris Ganoza (3-0) took a decision over Roberto Mendano (0-1), whilst Anthony Villanueva (1-0, 1) stopped the win-less Alberto Pentecostes (0-3) in the second round whilst the debutant Alvin Medura (1-0, 1) took out Oscar Lim (0-1) inside a round.

Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic
We'll go full circle here and whilst we started this with an unbeaten Russian, Korobov, we will also end it with an unbeaten Russian, this time Fedor Chudinov (11-0, 9) who dominated the previously unbeaten Andy Perez (19-1, 18). Perez was down in rounds 1,2 and 3 before finally being stopped by the rampaging Chudinov who, on this performance, looks a more exciting talent than Korobov. 

(Image, of Korobov, courtesy of toprank)

A great week of action ended on Friday with a lot of Thai action including a Thai show and Thai's in Australia.

Ayutthaya, Thailand
The most notable action was in Thailand and televised on Channel 7. 

The main event from this card saw Thailand's very own Petch Sor Chitpattana (25-0, 16) given a very serious test by Filipino "Cinderella Man" Gerpaul Valero (17-15-3, 11). Valero, challenging for the WBC Youth Silver Bantamweight title, managed to drop Petch early in the contest and through 4 rounds he kept the contest very competitive with as he took the fight to the unbeaten champion. Unfortunately in the later rounds the contest Valero showed signs of exhaustion and Petch came on strong to take a 96-93 decision on all 3 cards. 

In one of the 3 support bouts fans got to see South Korean Myung-goo Yuh (18-4-1, 13) make very very light work of the thoroughly out-matched Morakote Patanakan Gym (8-4, 4) who was stopped in just 2 rounds by the hard hitting Korean, who was surprisingly fighting in Thailand for the 6th time. Yuh isn't a world class fighter but even he seems to realise that for a Korean fighter to make any type of name for himself he will have to travel and that's been something he's happy to do to get fights, hopefully more Korean's will follow suit.

Another of the support bouts saw the WBC #1 Minimumweight contender Wanheng Menayothin (35-0, 11) take a pretty straight forward, though uninspiring, victory over Indonesia's Samuel Tehuayo (17-2-2, 3). Wanheng went through the motions for the first 4 rounds though came alive in round 5 and tried to stop Tehuayo. Tehuayo, to his credit, survived the storm but was a clear loser, despite inflicting a cut, albeit from a clash of heads, on Wanheng who saw out the round despite the pain and blood.

The other bout on the show saw former Muay Thai fighter Kongputorn CPFreshmart (2-0, 2) stopping novice Lomnauo Sakberlin (0-1-1) in 4 rounds. Although boxrec.com have this down as an all debutant contest we have reported on the previous bouts of both men which, oddly, have passed boxrec. by.

Victoria, Australia
As well as the action in Thailand there was also Thai's in action in Australia. Unfortunately for these Thai's things didn't go as well as they did for some of the guys in Thailand.

In Victoria the fans saw Yodmongkol Singmanasak (12-14-1, 7) suffer a very disappointing defeat at the hands of novice Martin Toma (1-1) with Toma taking a 4 round decision over the significantly more experienced Yodmongkol. This was Yodmongkol's 6th loss in Australia and we're starting to wonder if he will ever win "down under".

In a bout fought at Heavyweight fans saw the 42 year old Komgrit Nanakorn (17-22, 7) suffering his 17th loss in Australia as American Pierre Karam (19-4-1, 6) took an 8 round decision over the Thai. Komgrit, to his credit, did get up from a knockdown but he now needs to think about his future as he can't keep taking shots at his age.

(Image courtesy of boxrec,com)

Although the fights dropped a level today the action continued in great fashion with bouts of varying significance taking place involving Asian fighters. Sadly we've only currently got specific results we're awaiting "late results" from the Philippines.

Victoria, Australia
The first set of results that we got were from "Down under" where it was a good day for Filipino fans as PABA Light Welterweight champion Czar Amonsot (27-3-3, 17) stopped Thailand's Thong Por Chokchai (23-9-1, 15) and retained his belt. Before the first bell went we knew that the title was not on the line for Thong who unfortunately failed to make weight yesterday, coming in almost 3lbs above the 140lb limit. The weight didn't help Thong and he stopped in the third round by the more talented champion.

In all honesty the card wasn't a good one for Thai's and it wasn't just Thong who picked up a loss but also Thongthai Rajanondh (16-19, 4) who was stopped, in 2 rounds, by Ibrahim Balla (5-0, 4) who won the Victoria State Super Bantamweight title with this victory.

Tokyo, Japan
As well as the Australian action we also got early results from Japan where a 9 fight card took place at the Korakuen Hall. 

The main event here saw Tatsuya Takahashi (17-5-3, 12) doing what was expected of him and quickly seeing off Thai visitor Pramod Sor Vorapin (0-5) who suffered his 5th stoppage loss. Pramod, who had been stopped in all 4 of his previous losses, lasted less than 3 rounds with Takahashi who recorded back to back wins for the first time since 2011.

In the chief support bout Dai Iwai (15-3-1, 5) was given an unexpectedly tough test by domestic journeyman Keita Ito (8-18-2, 4). This was supposed to be a straight forward win for Iwai, at least on paper, but instead he was pushed all the way in a bout that suggests Iwai is no where near being ready for a domestic title challenge against Rikki Naito. 

Although the main event and chief support looked like mismatches we did get some very decent looking bouts on paper, albeit it at a low level. Amongst those was a surprisingly 1-sided decision victory for Keisuke Ota (8-7, 1) who easily out-pointed Takaki Sakurai (5-5-1, 1) over 6 rounds. In the show's only other 6 rounder Yuto Hashiguchi (6-3-1, 5) showed off his power as he finished Hitoshi Ando (4-7-1, 3) in the 5th round.

The rest of the card was all 4 rounders with the most competitive of those ending in a majority decision draw between Takumi Matsuda (1-1-1) and the debuting Koji Benjamin Watanabe (0-0-1). Watanabe did link to a video of his fight via his ustream channel though unfortunately none of our team were able to watch it, though from what we under-stand he acquitted himself excellently despite failing to record a win on his debut.

The Matsuda/Watanabe fight wasn't the only competitive one and Naoya Sato (2-0) was very fortunate to get get the win over Ibuki Kitade (1-2) in a contest that could easily have resulted in a draw.

Thankfully there was no arguments over who won the other 3 bouts. One of which was a blast out for Sosuke Sakata (2-1, 1), who needed just 94 seconds to take out Yuya Nemoto (1-4), another was a dominant decision victory for the previously win-less Yasuhiro Koyama (1-2), who beat Manabu Yamaguchi (0-1-1) and a clear decision victory for Hiroki Ishii (1-2-1) who beat Takuya Kurata (0-2).

Metro Manila, PhilippinesThere was also action in the Philippines this past Wednesday with several title fighters.

Amongst those title bouts was a WBC international Bantamweight title fight that saw the unbeaten and exciting Rex Wao (10-0, 8) stopping the light hitting Virden Rivera (7-1-1, 2) to claim the title. Wao is a very exciting fighter and one that we're hoping to see more of though at the moment it's unlikely he's going to be rushed too much despite this title win and a likely boost in the WBC rankings.

Another title fight on this show saw Ernie Sanchez (14-5-1, 5) unexpectedly held to a split draw by journeyman Randy Megrino (15-17-3, 8). This bout, for the WBC Youth Featherweight title, was expect to see Sanchez finally winning his first professional title though the draw has denied him that opportunity and see him extend his win-less streak to 3 fights, albeit with 2 losses to very good Mexican's.

In a third 12 round contest Carlo Magali (18-7-2, 9) managed to out point Rey Perez (19-5, 4) to claim a unanimous decision in what is a slight upset.

The card also featured some 4 round contests, included in those was a TKO victory for Warlight Dapidran (3-0, 2), the cousin of Manny Pacquiao. Dapidran managed to stop the debuting Jerry Salivio (0-1) though unfortunately he has done little to boost his standing with a third successive victory against a debutant. In another contest fans saw former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Allan Tanada (13-2-3, 5) unexpectedly struggle against Mark Sales (20-37-3, 6). The bout was fought above Tanada's usual weight but he still wasn't expected to struggle like this.


Compostela Valley, Philippines
On a separate Filipino show we had a further 3 contests. These were headlined by a 4th round KO victory for Engelbert Moralde (7-2, 5) who over-came the limited Nicardo Calamba (6-17-3, 3) in the only stoppage on the show.

The other two bouts saw Ronnie Tanallon (4-1, 1) taking a 6 round victory over Rez Padrogane (2-5, 1) whilst in a 4 rounder Markquil Salvana (2-0, 1) defeated Frejun Dela Cruz (2-2-1).


(Image, courtesy of boxingnews.jp, comes from the Takahashi/Sor Vorapin bout)

Tokyo, Japan
For the second successive day Japan fans had notable action at the Korakuen Hall.

Whilst yesterday's show was mostly about the Japanese Featherweight title today was about the OPBF Featherweight title, as defending champion Hisashi Amagasa (27-4-2, 18) took on Thailand's Maxsaisai Sithsaithong (14-5, 3). Unsurprisingly the defending champion made relatively light work of his smaller, less skilled, less powerful opponent who was stopped in round 8 when Amagasa began hammering home with power shots and forced the referee to save the Thai.

Whilst Amagasa was certainly the main event fighter he wasn't the fighter who got the most attention going in to the show, that honour was instead bestowed on Tomomi Takano (5-1, 4) who stole the show at the weigh in, as seen in the video below. Unfortunately for the stunningly attractive Takano her looks and pre-fight antics weren't enough to defeat the more determined and more experience Kai Johnson (5-5-3, 2) who wore down Takano and stopped her in the 5th round to inflict the first loss on to Takano.

Takano was was one of a trio of notable unbeaten fighters going in to the show, she wasn't the only one to lose but not the only one given a tough time. Another given a very hard fight was Ryuto Maekawa (9-0, 5) who narrowly over-came Takushige Sato (5-5-1, 2) by winning a 6 round majority decision. Aged 18 we understand that Maekawa is a youngster though he's also an experienced one having made his debut more than 3 years ago in Thailand. Whilst he's now 5-0 in Japan he has struggled against Japanese opponents and he's certainly not as good as his record suggests he is.

The other unbeaten fighter was Kazuma Sanpei (11-0, 4) who maintained his unbeaten record in an 8 round unanimous decision that saw him only just out pointing Jun Hamana (9-2, 3). The loss for Hamana ended a 5 fight winning streak though his performance did suggest that both he and Sanpei will be worth following over the next few years. 

The Sanpei/Hamana fight was one of two contests that were scheduled for 8 rounds, in fact it was one of two hotly contest 8 round affairs with the other resulting in a draw between the experienced Mikihito Seto (34-11-3, 18) and Takenori Ohashi (11-3-1, 7). The bout was really close and fairly scored a draw which will be a disappointment to both, but was a fair result.

In the show's opening bout fans saw another well contested contest as the debuting Masamine Oyama (1-0) narrowly over-came fellow debutant Kohei Hasegawa (0-1) in a 4 round contest.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp, video courtesy of Kyoei Boxing)

Today was a very interesting day in Asian boxing with a pretty interesting Japanese card, courtesy of Ohashi gym, and a small but notable card in Yemen as the Yemeni boxing season seems to be picking up again.

Tokyo, Japan
The most notable show of the day, by a long way was the Japanese show which marked an excellent day for the Ohashi Gym. The card, which followed the press conference to announce the Akira Yaegashi/Roman Gonzalez super fight, was reallya show case for the Ohashi fighters with a number of top Ohashi guys on show.

The main event featured one of those Ohashi fighters, former world title challenger Satoshi Hosono (26-2-1, 20), who made the first defence of the Japanese Featherweight title as he saw off the previously unbeaten Gosuke Seki (15-1-2, 3). Seki came to the ring with confidence but was cut in round 4 and then later stopped as the cut got progressively worse and forced the referee to act. For Hosono this was an expected win though we're hoping it will act as a warm up to a possible world title fight later this year though we see politics pushing that back until next year.

Another of the Ohashi fighters on the show was Ryuji Hara (18-0, 10) who, despite being the OPBF Minimumweight champion, didn't have his title on the line as he took on Indonesia's tough Faris Nenggo (8-5-3, 2). Nenggo was never really in the contest but did well to survive 10 rounds with Hara who will likely be focussing on getting a world title fight sooner rather than later, just like Hosono.

Another of the very promising Ohashi fighters on show was Ryo Matsumoto (11-0, 9) who swiftly took out late replacement opponent Zun Rindam (11-5-1, 5). Zindam had come into the bout with just over a weeks notice but it was hoped he's last more than a round or two, instead he lasted just 90 seconds! 

Another of the notable fighters from the Ohahsi gym was Seiichi Okada (18-4, 11) who managed to score a 4th round TKO over the very over-matched Shunsuke Sato (7-16-2, 4). On paper this was just as much of a mismatch as it was in the ring however Okada had lost 3 of his previous 4 and did need a confidence boosting win after his bad run.

Surprisingly the show's 3 opening bouts all ended in stoppages as well with the longest lasting of those being a 6th round stoppage by Junpei Hara (15-5-2, 9) who over-came Tomoya Yamada (11-5, 3) in a bout that looked competitive on paper. It took less than 5 complete rounds for Yoshimichi Matsumoto (5-1, 4) to see off Yasumasa Eguchi (6-10-2, 3) whilst in the opening bout Tetsuya Nemoto (3-3, 2) made light work of Kenta Yokoe (3-8-1, 1) with a second round TKO.

Sanaa, Yemen
As well as the show in Japan there was also a show in Yemen which featured 2 bouts. Whilst there was, again, no Ali Raymi, it did see stoppages.

The most notable of the fighters in action was Prince Maz (7-0, 5) who was fighting for the second time in the space of just 4 days. Maz managed to see off another man who was returning to the ring quickly following a fight on the same day in the form of Akram Jafwi (6-2, 1) who was stopped in the third round of the bout.

The other bout on this show saw the 15 year old, yes you read that right, Ali Rafik (2-0, 2) take out the debuting Yasir Yosif (0-1), also 15 years old, inside a round.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and shows the talented Ryo Matsumoto landing a hard right hand)

Saturday was a huge day for boxing fans though the action continued on Sunday with a low level Japanese show that won't have gotten much international attention but was still worthy of note to fans, at least those in Japan.

Oita, Japan
The show, an Orio promoted show, featured a total of 7 fights, the most notable of which featured Japanese ranked Super Bantamweight Yuta Uetani (15-5-1, 7) who made extremely light work of the limited and inexperienced Yuta Sasaki (6-4, 1), Sasaki was up against it from the opening bell and it showed as he was stopped in just the second round of scheduled 8 rounder.

Uetani was one of two men who recorded stoppages with the other being the debuting Takumi Kondo (1-0, 1) who, like Uetani, recorded a second round stoppage by taking out the win-less Koji Unten (0-3).

The closest of the bouts saw Daisuke Terumoto (1-0-1) taking a split decision victory over Yoshiaki Kishioka (0-3), with Kishioka losing by decision for the first time following back-to-back stoppages. The only other bout that could have been described as competitive was a genuine upset as Tatsunori Yoshizaki (4-4, 2) over-came the previously unbeaten Takumi Hara (2-1, 1) in a very competitive contest.

All the other decisions on the card were one sided with Daisuke Shukuri (1-1) clearly over-coming the win-less Satoshi Hasuda (0-2), the unbeaten Yuya Kondo (2-0, 1) defeating Hiroyuki Sato (0-6) and the debuting Seiya Matsunaga (1-0) shut out Toshihiko Ogata (0-2-1), all in 4 rounders.

Sometimes a day in boxing is insanely busy with fights coming thick and fast with bouts taking place all over the world. This past Saturday was one such day with notable fights taking place in the USA, South Africa, the Philippines, Belgium and Switzerland. If we say it was a multi-national day it really wouldn't be a lie.

California, USA
The fight of the night, at least as a spectacle, was in the US as Yoshihiro Kamegai (24-2-1, 21) and Robert Guerrero (32-2-1-2, 18) fought a bloody, violent phone booth war that lived up to the tag of being the "main event" on a major show. The two men seemed to cast aside defence and boxing and instead just stood in front of each other, breaking each other up to the body and smashing each others faces.

Despite the effort of Kamegai the judges all saw Guerrero taking the win. At the end of the day though the fans were the winners and hopefully the action and style of this fight will see Kamegai brought back to the US sooner rather than later. There are lots of fights Stateside for a guy like Kamegai to be involved in and plenty of them could be made easily and be just as entertaining as this one was.

Mote Carlo, Monaco
Whilst the fight in the US was the best of the day the "most significant", at least in the division it was fought in, was in Monaco as South Africa's popular and talented Hekkie Budler (26-1, 8) defended his WBA Minimumweight title with a stoppage of Thailand's experienced Pigmy Kokietgym (52-7-2, 22). Pigmy tried to take out Budler with big right hands though at the end of the day the South African was too sharp, too accurate and too big for the Thai who struggled to get close. Although competitive at stages Budler finished the fight in style with a devastating body attack that dropped Kokietgym for the count in round 8.

The win for Budler makes a dream fight between himself and Katsunari Takayama seem like a real possibility for either this year or early next year as long as Takayama can overcome Francisco Rodriguez Jr on August 9th. If things go as planned a bout between Takayama and Budler would be a triple title unification with the IBF, WBO and WBA belts all on the line for the winner.

Cebu, Philippines
Whilst the biggest fights too place outside of Asia there was still some action closer to home with an explosive ALA show in the Philippines.

The show was headlined by the Pagara brothers who both scored notable stoppage victories and wowed fans with their aggression and power. 

The first of the Pagara's in action was the unbeaten "Prince" Albert Pagara (21-0, 15) who made very light work of the over-matched Hugo Partida (21-5-2, 16). Partida was drown 3 times in quick succession and referee Bruce McTavish was forced to stop the bout. It was clear from the first right hand that Pagara landed that this wasn't going to last and that proved to be the case with Partida completely unable to take his power. The win for "Prince Albert" helped him claim the IBF Inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title and may well have helped the younger Pagara to a world ranking at last.

For Albert Pagara the bout was about winning a new title, for his brother Jason Pagara (34-2, 21) the fight was all about defending his WBO International Light Welterweight title, which he did with ease dropping Mario Meraz (20-4, 16) twice and forcing the referee to wave of the bout at the end of the 4th round.

The Pagara's wren't the only men to score stoppages and earlier on the card there was also a stoppage victory for the former world title contender AJ Banal (31-2-1, 22) who had to get off the canvas in the first round stop Indonesia's Defry Palulu (10-1, 9) in the second. Palulu's power looked genuine but there is still serious work to do for him however the body shot that Banal landed was a beauty and and very few would have taken it well.

The only disappointment on this show saw Jimrex Jaca (39-7-4, 22) and Masayoshi Kotake (9-8-2, 5) fighting to a 3rd round technical draw. The bout had the potential to be a show stealing war but a head clash put paid to that and the bout simply couldn't go on.

Glattbrug, Switzerland
In what, on paper, looks to have been an upset Japan's Aniya Seki (24-3-2, 2) was stopped in the second round by Mexico's Judith Rodriguez (7-7, 5). Unfortunately this bout really showed the difference between the two women despite the records suggesting the opposite. Rodriguez, despite her scratchy record, had only lost to world champions, and had often run them close. Seki however was somewhat untested and it showed when Rodriguez took the fight to her and used his very genuine power and strength.

The loss for Seki, just her second stoppage loss in 29 fights, saw her losing the WBC female Silver Super Flyweight title and quite probably her dreams of a world title fight.

Vienna, Austria
Female action wasn't just in Switzerland but also in Austria as two Thai fighters took on European opponents.

The less competitive of the bouts saw Buangern OnesongchaiGym (11-7-1, 2) suffer her third stoppage loss so far this year. Buangern was fighting against the unbeaten Oezlem Sahin (18-0-1, 6) and was stopped in the 6th round in what was a battle for the WIBF, WBF and GBU female Minimumweight titles. The loss, more than anything, summed up that Buangern isn't a championship level fighter and, rather than getting beaten again, she needs to go back to the gym and work on her skills. We all know she's not tough enough to survive with a decent fighter so will her team please stop throwing her to the wolves!

In a much more competitive contest Nonggift Onesongchaigym (6-2-1, 1) gave a great account of herself despite losing a decision to home town fighter Eva Voraberger (18-3, 9). Voraberger is a fighter we've been told was very good prior to this fight so we'd assume that Nonggift, at just 18, has a very bright future and it would be far from a surprise to see her picking up a title of some type in the near future. This bout, for the WIBF and WBF female Super Flyweight titles, might be a set back but we honestly think this loss could the the making off the Thai youngster.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Although there wasn't many major fights this past Friday there was still plenty of action with shows in Thailand, Japan and Australia

Phattalung province, Thailand
The main event of the Thai show saw the exciting and always fun to watch Rusalee Samor (24-5-2, 11) successfully defending his IBF Asia Super Flyweight title with a 4th round TKO over Indonesian veteran Ricky Manufoe (23-21-2, 10). For Samor this was the first defence of the belt and his 4th straight win since suffering a highly debatable loss to Rex Tso in Macau last July as for Manufoe this was his 15th loss in Thailand.

The show featured two other bouts alongside the main event. One of those bouts saw the world ranked, IBF #10 Light Welterweight, Patomsuk Pathompothong (28-2-1, 18) over come the very over-matched Geisler AP (5-3, 3). Geisler has now lost, by stoppage, every time he has fought outside of his native Indonesia and it's fair to say his rumoured 20-0 amateur record was against incredibly poor domestic opponents.

In the only other bout on the show we saw yet another Indonesian lose as Domi Nenokeba (11-18-1, 7) was beaten on points by Thailand's very own Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (24-3, 15). For Fahlan this was his first bout since he was clearly out pointed by Takuma Inoue earlier this year and whilst the win here won't have undone the damage of that loss it will still have helped the Thai youngster rebuild his confidence.

Western Australia, Australia
Whilst Thai's were successful at home they didn't fare very well away from home and in fact two Thai's were beaten, in quick fashion, in Australia.

One of those was Baikon Lokromklao (1-3), who was stopped in a round by the debuting Shane Carroll (1-0, 1). The other was female debutant Wiilaiwan Namuanghchan (0-1) who lasted just 109 seconds before being stopped on the 3 knockdown rule by Louisa Hawton (2-0, 1)

Tokyo, Japan
One of the two Japanese shows was at the Korakuen Hall as the Rookie of the Year East continued. 

This show featured 11 bouts in total with numerous novices in action, the most notable of whom was Andy Hiraoka (4-0, 2) who managed to take a 4 round decision over Yoshihito Takahashi (2-2, 2) in a Lightweight bout. We've been told to keep close eyes on Hiraoka and hopefully we'll not feel let down later this year.

Hiraoka was one of 6 unbeaten men in action on the show. One of the others was Yasuki Katagiri (3-0, 2) who defeated Katsuya Abe (2-4), also by a 4 round decision. Another man to win a decision to retain his unbeaten record was Ken Kodama (3-0-1, 1) who defeated Yuya Kinjo (3-5). Another of the unbeaten men was Yugo Ueda (3-0, 2) who defeated Kazuto Nakane (2-2, 2) inside a round. Like Ueda fans also saw Shinjiro Kawada (2-0, 2) scoring an opening round KO as he swiftly despatched Takahiro Onjuku (2-3, 1). The only man who lost his unbeaten record on this show was Masaharu Hanaka (3-1-1, 2) who was stopped in the 4th round by Shunsuke Fukushima (2-3-2, 2).

A number of the other bouts also went the distance. These included a 4 round unanimous decision victory for Asahi Hatsumi (3-1, 1) who defeated Keisuke Kanazawa (2-3, 1), another unanimous decision saw Hokuto Sakata (4-3-1, 2) over-come the hard hitting Tatsuo Sakamoto (3-2-1, 3). In a split decision Daiki Yoshimatsu (5-2, 1) over came the amazingly named Wildboar Ueda (3-4, 2) whilst another split decision saw Kenji Ono (4-1, 2) defeat Naoyuki Tsukada (3-2-1, 2).

The only other result from the same show saw Hisao Narita (6-1, 4) stopping Akira Naganuma (2-3, 1) in the second round.

Osaka, Japan
The other Japanese show was in Osaka with the main event being a bout between former world title challenger Masae Akitaya (9-4-2, 2) and win-less Thai Yokfah Krungthepthonburi (0-6). Akitaya used her experience to out point her win-less foe though didn't look nearly ready for another world title bout, then again she was of course returning to the ring for the first time in well over a year and no one would have expected her to be fighting at her sharpest.

Akitaya wasn't the only female on the card as Shione Ogata (2-5) managed to claim a rare win over-coming the debuting Ayako Inamori (0-1) in what was 1 of 7 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds.

Only 2 of the shows 8 total bouts failed to go the distance. These included an opening round blast out for Kento Osumi (1-0, 1) who over-came Masaru Hasegawa (0-2) and a second round victory for Daijiro Yuki (2-0, 1) who managed to beat Kengo Kamaya (2-2, 2).

The most competitive of the contests saw Tenta Kiyose (1-1-1) battle to a draw with Noboru Osato (2-2-3, 1) in a majority decision draw, it was the only genuinely competitive bout on the show which saw 3 other Unanimous decisions. These included a victory for Takashi Abe (2-1-1) who over came Takashi Okura (2-3, 1), a victory for the unbeaten Takeru Kamikubo (3-0, 1) who beat Yuki Sueyoshi (1-2) and a debut win for Naoki Okamura (1-0) who was victorious over Masanari Iwane (1-5).

(Image, or Samor, courtesy of boxrec.com)

Bayamon, Puerto Rico
The biggest fight this past Thursday was in the Puerto Rican city of Bayamon as the previously undefeated Froilan Saludar (19-1-1, 12) took on Puerto Rico's very own McWilliams Arroyo (15-1, 13) in a bout to become the IBF mandatory challenger at Flyweight. Sadly it ended in heart break for Saludar who started well before being flattened by a single shot in the final minute of round 2. The shot not only put Saludar down for the count but rendered him senseless for a few moments with his eyes looking glazed over. His heart kicked in and he tried to stand but to no available.

Whilst the result in Bayamon was clearly important for Filipino fans it was also a big one for Thai fans with Arroyo now being the #1 contender for the unbeaten Amnat Ruenroeng in a fight that looks incredibly interesting. Amnat would probably be favoured over the Puerto Rican but it does seem that Arroyo has got the power to hurt guys and the Thai would have to be cautious about it.

Sanaa, Yemen
In the first Yemeni show in, well, a while, we were all hoping to see the return of KO sensation Ali Raymi, the 20-0 (20) KO machine who has never been beyond a round. Instead we ended up with just 2 low level bouts, the most interesting of which saw Prince Maz (6-0,4) taking a 3rd round DQ victory over the much lighter hitting Abdu Sameer (5-2, 1). This as Sameer's 2nd loss in 3 bouts and and we're wondering if we'll see him in the ring again any time soon.

The other bout saw Akram Jafwi (6-1, 1), a former Ali Raymi victim, taking a 4 round shut out decision over Othman Qasim (6-2, 2).

With no sign of whether Raymi will continue his career we're at a loss as to what the Yemeni boxing scene may have for us in the future, though we will continue to follow it and hope that it grows to actually developing a genuine world title contender.