Bangkok, Thailand If we were to say that this past Thursday was a quiet day in Asian boxing we really wouldn't be bending the truth at all, despite the fact we had a world title bout and a bout featuring one of the most promising Thai prospects, both televised. The world title bout in question was a WBC Minimumweight title bout saw the unbeaten Wanheng Menayothin (36-0, 12) prove that his record wasn't a paper one and that he had genuine talent as he over-came Mexico's Oswaldo Novoa (14-5-1, 9) to claim the world title in a thrilling contest. The boat was Novoa's second defense, since upsetting Xiong Zhao Zhong in China earlier this year for the belt, and although he was fighting in Thailand he showed no intention of giving up the belt in a real "ding dong" of a contest. At least until round 9 when the conditions and Wanheng both got to him forcing him to remain on his stool at the end of the 9th round. If you like hard fought bouts with a lot of heavy shots then this one is for you. On the same card fans saw the very talented Kongputorn CPfreshmart (5-0, 4) score an early victory over a mismatched foe who was decimated with a body shot from hell. The bout wasn't competitive in the slightest and it really was all Kongputorn prior to the stoppage which was very painful looking. Sadly at the moment we don't have the name of Kongputorn's opponent. One other bout on this card saw Kongfah CP Freshmart (9-0, 4) take a decision over Filipino visitor Cris Alfante (10-4, 3) in a regional WBC title fight. Sadly for Alfante it saw him suffering a third successive loss this year following losses to Florante Condes and Knockout CP Freshmart. (*Note Kongputorn's boxrec.com record is very wrong and misses several fights of his sadly however we're not sure even our record of the supremely talented Thai is actually right.) Queensland, Australia Unfortunately it wasn't all fine and dandy in Australia for Thai's as Pramool Boonpok (1-8-1) lost for the 8th time in 10 fights. Boonpok was narrowly out pointed by the limited Will Parsons (4-2, 2) in a 4 round bout that appears to have judges scoring the bout all over the place. (Image courtesy of Thairec.com)
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Today has been a very busy day in Japanese boxing with 2 notable domestic cards. Hyogo, Japan The less significant Japanese show of the day came from Hyogo where we still had several interesting contests. The main event of the card saw OPBF female Light Flyweight champion Kei Takenaka (8-0, 3) dominate a Thai opponent to record her first defense of the title. The fight was a real mismatch with Takenaka dominating from the opening round and never looking like she was in any trouble at all against the Thai who looked completely out of her depth. Sadly for Takenaka her lack of power saw her fail to put away the Thai who we believe was 10-5 (1) coming into this bout. The co-feature saw another dominant display from a Japanese fighter who clearly beat an over-matched Thai foe. This one saw Shinichiro Morikawa (17-4-1, 12) score a 3rd round victory over Kaenpetch Manoprungroj (4-2, 2) after a devastating left hook to the body left the Thai in too much agony to continue. For us the most interesting contest on this card was actually a 6 rounder that featured the debut of former amateur stand out Kazuma Yokoya (1-0, 1) who dispatched Thailand's Fahpetch Sor Praithong (8-7, 1) at the end of the opening round. The bout was a mismatch with Yokoya, a very touted prospect, dominating his Thai opponent from the opening bell and dropping him early in the round. The Thai showed bravery to continue but was dropped again at the end of the round from a body shot and failed to beat the count, officially counted at at 3:07 of the opening round. Tokyo, Japan Whilst there was a title fight and a huge debut in Hyogo the biggest show of the day was at the Korakuen Hall where we had the East Japan Rookie of the Year finals. This show, which consisted of 12 bouts, decides the Eastern Japan representative at the upcoming All Japan Rookie of the Year in December. The opening bout of the show saw Yuki Kubo (6-1, 2) claim a narrow decision over the previously undefeated Masayuki Ichikawa (5-1, 2) to become the East Japan Minimumweight Rookie of the Year. Ichikawa dropped Kubo early in the bout but couldn't finish him off and instead the knockdown seemed to inspire Kubo who went on to out-box Ichikawa for much of the contest to claim a decision with scores of 47-46 and 48-45, twice. At Light Flyweight Kenji Ono (6-1, 3) narrowly over-come the bull like Akira Kokubo (1-4-3) who again showed that records were for DJ's. Kokubo brought the pressure and work rate and really put Ono under-pressure, though Ono did just enough to take a narrow win over Kokubo with a split decision. The cards, which read 39-38, twice to Ono, and 37-39 to Kokubo show just how close this one was. On paper the stand out bout came at Flyweight where the heavy handed Kenya Yamashita (6-0, 4) battled against Sonin Nihei (5-1-1, 1) in what was, going in, a battle of unbeaten men both looking to score the biggest win of their career. The bout, like many on the show, was very hard fought with Yamashita narrowly taking a split decision that really could have gone either way. Despite the loss for Nihei we suspect both men have very bright futures ahead of them and a rematch at title level is certainly not out of the question considering what they showed here. In the Super Flyweight division we saw the show's first stoppage as Shogo Yonenaga (6-1, 3) took a 4th round stoppage victory over Hokuto Sakata (5-4-1, 3). The bout was fought at a wonderfully high tempo from both men, unfortunately for Sakata he was dropped late and ruled unfit to continue as he was unsteady on his feet. On this performance we're very excited to see Yonenaga in action again though we do wonder how far he can really go despite this excellent victory. In an impressive Bantamweight performance we saw Ryohei Takahashi (4-1-1, 1) score a clear and decisive decision victory over the previously unbeaten Ken Kodama (4-1-1, 1). From the opening bell Takahashi seiezed the iniative and boxed at a fierce tempo behind his jab in an outstanding performance that really did catch the eye. We were genuinely impressed by the work rate but do need to wonder about how his lack of power may hold him back in the future. The Super Bantamweight division saw a genuine one-sided bout as Yuki Matsudo (8-1, 4) thoroughly dominated Yoshifumi Tamaki (5-2-1, 2) over the course of 5 rounds. The all Southpaw bout started even but Matsudo really upped the pace as the bout went on there was no doubt about the winner, despite one or two momentary scares fo the slightly more experienced man. On paper one of the shows more interesting bouts on paper was the Featherweight contest, sadly however it turned out to be the shortest as Reiya Abe (7-1, 4) took just 113 seconds to see off Naoto Moriya (6-2-1, 3). Abe dropped Moriya early in the opening round and a follow up barrage finished the bout with Moriya looking unable to come with Abe who looked sensation. Although numerous fights on the show were exciting nothing compared with the all action Super Featherweight clash between the very fun to watch 17 year old Yuichiro Kasuya (5-0, 1) and the tough Yutaka Ekawa (5-3-1, 2). The bout was an insanely hard fought war between two fighters who knew what a win here meant and really let their hands go in a fight that excited the fans. It was thrilling with neither fighter ever looking safe from hard for long. At the end Kasuya won a unanimous decision with all 3 cards reading 47-45 though the only thing that was clear about the fight was that this was a special one. We hope to have the video of this shortly as it really was something special. We had another thriller in the Lightweight division as the much touted Andy Hiraoka (6-0, 3) was forced to work incredibly hard to over-come the determined Shintaro Nakamura (5-3-1, 2). The bout saw Hiraoka need to pick himself up from a knockdown and battle incredibly hard to over-come his shorter but older opponent in what was clearly the toughest contest of his career saw far. The teenage prospect, who won 48-47 on all 3 cards, will know that this was a serious learning experience and he should feel that it he's proven a lot more in this one fight than he had in his previous 5. We had another very exciting battle at Light welterweight as Naoharu Kida (6-0, 3) won an all action phone-booth war against Yasuki Katagiri (4-1, 1). The two men refused to budge and just let their hands do it all in a bout that was amazingly difficult to score either way and almost impossible to look away from as the both just unloaded in a back and forth war. The thrilling action saw Kida just nick the bout with a split decision though with scores of 48-47 from all 3 judges it's clear just how close this one was. Rematch in 2015 please! In an undefeated showdown at Welterweight fans saw Hironobu Matsunaga (6-0, 3) retain his unbeaten record with a clear win over Masaya Tamayama (4-1, 3). The bout was a high paced boxing contest between two well school fighters, unfortunately for Masaya it just always seemed like the southpaw stance of Matsunaga was too much for him and allowed the Yokohama based man to control swathes of the bout behind his razor like southpaw jab. The Middleweight division saw the aggressive Hisao Narita (7-1, 4) over-come Asahi Hatsumi (4-2, 2) in what turned out to be another exciting bout. Narita struggled early on but really put his foot on the gas as the bout went on before eventually doing enough to impress the judges into giving him the bout with a close decision. Narita appears to be a fun guy to watch but we're unsure about how he will fare in the long run, especially with his aggressive style. For those wondering about the MVP it was awarded to Yuichiro Kasuya for his excellent victory in his war with Yutaka Ekawa. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and is from Yokoya's debut) Some days are busier than others and we're happy to say that this past Saturday was hectic to say the least with a massive number of fights taking place with Japanese fighters involved in them. Chicago, USA The two highest profile bouts from Asian fighters came in the US as we saw two of the three Kameda brothers in action. The first of those saw former 3-weight world champion Koki Kameda (33-1, 17) make light work of Omar Salado (24-9-2, 15) with a 4th round stoppage. This was Koki's US debut and it was also his first bout in almost a year following his victory in South Korea against Jung-Oh Son. It appears clear that Koki was shedding ring rust here but it was a mismatch and it's hard to know how he would compete against the top Super Flyweights if he was matched with one of them. The second bout of note was the biggest Asian bout of the night as Koki's youngest brother Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19) put his WBO Bantamweight title on the line against mandatory challenger Alejandro Hernandez (28-11-2, 15). The bout appeared to be dominated by the more technically sounds, faster and aggressive Kameda though some how the judges all had it close with scores of 115-113 being rendered on all 3 cards, unfortunately one went to Hernandez to give a split decision in a bout that really wasn't close. Unfortunately for Tomoki this bout could have undone the good will of his stoppage victory over Pungluang Sor Singyu from earlier in the year. Tokyo, Japan One of the three Japanese shows came from the Korakuen Hall and it was arguably this one that was the most important. The main event here saw Japanese Light Flyweight champion Yu Kimura (15-2-1, 2) successfully retain his title with a 7th round technical decision over Atsushi Aburada (9-7, 5). This was Kimura's second defense and was a comfortable one with the champion only losing the first round before settling behind his sharp and accurate jab. As soon as Kimura had his jab going it was a straight forward bout for the champion who got his hand raised early after Aburada suffered a cut over the left eye and was eventually ruled unfit to continue. Kimura, a world ranked fighter, may well look for a world title fight in 2015 though if the opportunity doesn't arise we'd not be shocked by him continuing to defend the Japanese title. In the co-feature fans saw the #2 ranked Japanese Flyweight Tetsuma Hayashi (25-2-2, 9) score an excellent knockout against the over-matched Ryutaro Taira (8-5-2, 3). The shots that finished off Taira were a devastating series of body shots that left him him on the canvas in agony. After the fight Hayashi said that next year he would be aiming to win a Japanese title and in all honesty we would love to see Hayashi fight current Japanese champion Suguru Muranaka. In a notable upset Filipino fighter Jonel Alibio (18-18-5, 10) managed to score a shock win over the heavy handed Yuichi Yokoyama (14-3, 13). Alibio entered this bout with just 1 win in his last 12 and was on a run of 4 straight losses in Japan though he showed the class to stop Yokoyama in the 4th round. Incidentally this was Alibio's first win in Japan since he stopped Naoki Matsuda in November 2010 to claim the OPBF Featherweight title. We saw another upset as Takumi Suda (11-10-2, 3) shocked the hard hitting Huiroyuki Otsuka (7-3, 6) in just 158 seconds. Suda went straight to work and and dropped Otsuka early before a continued attack forced the referee to save the much fancied Otsuka. For Suda this was his first win since 2009 and saw him ending a 6 fight losing streak. Whilst the streak sounds like a bad one it included losses to Shin Ono, Warlito Parrenas, Masayuki Kuroda, Yu Kimura and Yasutaka Kuroki. In another 8 rounder fans saw Masaru Sueyoshi (8-1, 5) over-come Shota Suito (9-4-1, 1) with a clear decision to extend his current winning streak to 5 bouts following his sole defeat to Masayuki Ito back in July 2012. To open the the card we saw Masaaki Shiraishi (1-0, 1) take an opening round blow out victory over Daisuke Tanigawa (0-1) in an all debutant contest that lasted just 22 seconds and we also saw Masanobu Nakazawa (16-1-1, 6) take a 5th round retirement stoppage against Ken Otokawa (6-5, 5), in a bout scheduled for 6. Fukuoka, Japan A second Japanese show took place in Fukuoka and was headlined by a WBC female Minimumweight title fight between Japan's very own Yuko Kuroki (12-4-1, 6) who successfully defended her title with a very hard fought and competitive split decision over Mexican challenger Katia Gutierrez (19-5, 4). The bout was a very tough first defense for Kuroki but it was an excellent contest all the same between an aggressive fighter, Gutierrez, and a skilled fast boxer, Kuroki. The competitive nature of the bout saw both women talking about a rematch post fight and we'd not be disappointed by that in 2015. The chief support bout here ended in another upset as the unbeaten Shohei Okuda (11-1, 4) was shockingly upset in the 3rd round of a scheduled 8 rounder. Okuda, a much fancied 23 year old prospect, was expected to easily over-come Ryusei Yoshida (25-6, 12) but was made to looking shockingly bad by the veteran. Okuda was cut over the left eye, dropped in round 3 and then stopped by a follow up attack as his unbeaten record was destroyed in style by Yoshida. A third notable bout on this card saw Aiki Koto (8-1-1, 4) narrowly defeat Koki Ono (7-3, 4). The bout was a really competitive 8 rounder though Koto did just enough to deserve the majority decision over the 8 round distance. The bottom of the card consisted of 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds, including 2 more females bouts. The female bouts went the distance with the the first of those being a debut win for Sana Hazuki (1-0) who narrowly over-came the win-less Sayaka Aoki (0-2), the other saw Shione Ogata (3-5) out point Ayaka Sato (1-3, 1). Another undercard bout that went the distance saw the debuting Super Featherweight hopeful Go Matsuda (1-0) out point Yoshiki Shoda (0-1). The only under-card bout not to go the distance saw Yoichi Kojima (3-1-1, 2) take an opening round stoppage against the previously undefeated Toshiki Yanari (2-1, 2). Hyogo, Japan A third Japanese show took place in Hyogo where the main event was at a much lower level than the other two but was still a very interesting contest. The aforementioned main event saw the once beaten Hikaru Matsuoka (8-1-3, 1) defeat the criminally under-rated Filipino tough guy Richard Pumicpic (15-7-2, 4). Pumicpic, who had given Ryosuke Iwasa hell earlier this year, was simply too small to be all that competitive with Matsuoka who used distance to easily defeat the Filipino fighter on the scorecards. We had expected this bout to be much closer than it was though unfortunately it was relatively straight forward for Matsuoka. It wasn't all bad for Filipino's on this show however and Super Flyweight hopeful Giovanni Escaner (12-3-1, 8) scored an unexpected 7th round stoppage victory over Japanese veteran Junichi Ebisuoka (23-18-6, 10). Ebisuoka is now win-less in 6 bouts and his long career is likely coming to an end whilst Escaner will be hoping this will will help him get his career back on track after 3 losses in his previous 4 bouts. The only other stoppage on this card saw Jonel Gadapan (9-7-1, 5) score an upset win over the previously unbeaten Yuji Itani (4-1, 4) who was stopped in the second round of a schedule 6 rounder. The only other 6 rounder on the show went the distance as Kenta Sugimoto (7-7-1) took a 6 round unanimous decision over Hiroki Taniguchi (6-4-1, 2). In the 4 rounders fans saw Arata Matsuoka (2-2, 1) take a majority decision over Ryoki Hirai (3-3-1, 1) whilst Daichi Nakajima (2-2) took a split decision over the previously unbeaten Shoehei Matsuo (1-1). Distrito Federal, Mexico In Mexico there was two bouts of note with a Filipino and a Japanese fighter in action. The Filipino was former world title challenger, Silvester Lopez (22-9-2, 16) who was unfortunately stopped, for the second time this year, by Rey Vargas (22-0, 19) in the 8th round. The bout, for the WBC Youth Silver Super Bantamweight title, was another set back for Lopez who has now lose 5 of his last 8 and suffered a trio of stoppages. We loved watch Lopez come through but it now appears time for him to take a serious break from the ring before he becomes little more than a typical journeyman. The other man was Shoki Sakai (17-5, 11) who came up short against the always interest Nery Saguilan (31-4-1, 11) in a bout for the WBC US silver Lightweight title. Saguilan, who had claimed the title earlier this year with a win over Seiichi Okada, was forced to work very hard to over-come Sakai in a very competitive bout that suggested the records of both men were misleading with Sakai being better than his record suggest and Saguilan being worse than his looks on paper. (Image, from the Hayashi bout, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Friday might have been Halloween but is wasn't a scary day for many with numbers fighters picking expected wins in Asia. Thailand In Thailand we had two cards with the most interesting of those being headlined by the unbeaten Kaewfah Tor Buamas (18-0, 12) who retain his WBA Asia Super Featherweight title with an easy and clear win over Indonesian challenger Tony Arema (3-6). The Thai was comfortable through out and picked up the pace in round 6 before Arema retired in his corner accepting his loss. Sadly this sort of a mismatch is all to common place in the Thai scene and we do wonder what a bout like this really does for Kaewfah. Thailand A second Thai card saw Petch Sor Chitpattana (27-0, 18) successfully defend his WBC Youth Silver Bantamweight title with a third round victory over a yet unidentified foe. Whilst on the same card veteran Noknoi Sitthiprasert (50-4, 29) scored his 50th professional win. Sadly we've yet to identify his opponent either. Ulsan, South Korea The biggest Asian card of the day took place in South Korea where we had a mysterious 6 bout card. The main event on the show saw Jung-Hoon Yang (9-6, 2) successfully defend the South Korean Welterweight title with a 10 round decision over Ma-Roo Jung (2-3-1). The scorecards here were interesting to say the least with a card of 99-94 put in by one judge indicating there was a clear winner but a number of competitive cards. The chief support bout saw Yong-Hwan Jun (3-3, 1) take a clear decision over Kyun-Ho Nam (0-2-1) with Nam being dropped twice in the opening round. The undercard consisted of 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. These saw Joo-Young Kwon (2-0) extend his unbeaten record with a decision over the debuting Woong-Chan Song (0-1) whilst a second debutant Woo-Min Kim (1-0) took a decision over Joon-Young Yoon (0-2). Neither of the other 2 under-card bouts went close to seeing the distance as as Tae-Kyung Um (1-4-2, 1) took a 2nd round TKO over Sung-Min Jo (0-1-1) whilst the unbeaten Jae-Man Kim (2-0, 1) scored a 35 second blow out against debutant Jung-Ho Kim (0-1). Vladikavkaz, Russia In Russia we had a 5 bout card headlined by a regional Cruiserweight title bout between Murat Gassiev (19-0, 13) and Engin Karakaplan (12-5-1, 5). Gassiev made very light work of Karakaplan who scored a 99 second victory to claim the IBF Inter-Continental Cruiserweight title. Other than the main event all the other bouts went the distance. These included a 6 round decision victory for the hard hitting Alexey Zubov (6-0, 4) who over-came Isroil Qurbonov (8-9-1, 3). A second 6 rounder saw a Soslan Tedeev (5-0, 4) take a clear win over Sadiki Momba (17-5-2, 5), despite being deducted a point in round 3 for a rabbit punch. In an 8 rounder Evgeny Pavko (7-0-1, 3) took a decision over Mikheil Avakyani (26-17-4, 12) whilst the once beaten Rauf Aghayev (15-1, 5) took a competitive win over Ruslan Berchuk (9-5, 5). Queensland, Australia In Australia we saw two Filipino's in action with mixed fortunes. In an bout for the WBA Oceania Super Featherweight title fans saw the Australian based Filipino Jack Asis (32-18-5, 17) extend a 12 fight unbeaten streak with his 11th win since February 2011. Asis made extremely light work of Isaias Santos Sampaio (19-9, 19) who came with a punchers reputation but certainly couldn't take a decent shot himself. The second bout saw Amor Tino (14-20-4, 4) fail in his unexpected attempt to claim the WBA Oceania Light Welterweight title. Tino was a late replacement for Fernando Ferreira da Silva who injured himself on the day of the weight in and sadly the lack or preparation was obvious as Tino struggled immensely with the talented Kris George (7-0, 5). George dropped Tino in rounds 1 and 6 and and the Filipino lost his mouth piece numerous times en route to a wide 10 round decision loss. (Image courtesy of boxrec.com) |
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