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Puno Boxing Gymnasium, Gimpo
The final Korean show took place on Sunday at Puno Boxing Gymnasium as Puno Fight Promotion hosted a rookies show featuring 8 bouts all of which where scheduled for either 4 or 6 rounds, though none of which are likely to have any significance on the world stage. The card featured 5 bouts scheduled for the 4 round distance. These saw just 3 bouts completing the full scheduled and included a victory all the way up at Middleweight for Sun-Ok Choi (2-1, 1) who defeated the previously unbeaten Jung-Hyun Huh (1-1) whilst at Light Middleweight Joo-Young Lee (2-1) managed to out point Se-Ho Joo (1-1, 1). The one remaining 4 rounder to go the distance saw Hyun-Tae Kim (2-0-1, 2) fighting to a draw with Wang-Suk Lee (1-1-1, 1). Although only 3 of the 5 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds actually went the distance there was just a single stoppage on the show. This came in a Super Flyweight bout as Da-Won Suh (3-3, 1) stopped the debuting Yoon-Ho Jang (0-1). The other bout that failed to complete the scheduled distance saw Sung-Dong Kim (2-1, 1) taking a 3rd round technical decision over Ki-Hyun Yang (0-1). In the 6 rounders we saw just 1 of 3 bouts go the distance with Sang-Joon Park (5-3-2) fighting to a majority draw with Joon-Yong Lee (3-1-3, 2). The shortest of the 6 rounders saw Sa-Ya Lee (4-2, 2) scoring a 2nd round TKO over the experienced Jong-Won Won (7-13-1, 3), who was the most experienced fighter on the show. The only other bout scheduled for 6 rounds finished with a 4th round technical decision in favour of Sang-Hoo Kil (3-2-2) who defeated the win-less Tae-Young Go (0-4-3).
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Binangonan Recreational & Convention Center, Metro Manila
The final Filipino card of the year was this past Saturday as "In This Corner" put on a year ending show at the Binangonan Recreational & Convention Center. The card, which featured 9 fights, may not have been a high profile one, or one that even had a national title fight on it, though it was still a highly interesting show, at least on paper. For us, as we mentioned when we were doing our pre-show write up, the most interesting bout on paper was the one between Dan Nazareno Jr (19-10, 15) and Eusebio Baluarte (19-11, 12). Unfortunately the bout was better on paper than in reality with Baluarte lasting less than 2 rounds as he was found incapable of taking the power of Nazareno Jr. Baluarte, who had been stopped in 8 previous contests seemed hurt every time Nazareno landed and as a result the bout looked like a foregone conclusion from the first round. Unfortunately the second most interesting bout on paper also ended earlier than we'd have hoped. This bout, which pitted former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Ronald Pontillas (16-6-3, 7) against Leonardo Doronio (12-9-2, 7) was halted in round 5 after a major clash of heads left both men with a nasty cut. The head clash forced us to the cards which favoured Pontillas with a unanimous technical decision. If the two bouts we were interested in the most were disappointing then we'll also have to hold our hands up and say we were mightily impressed by Virgil Puton (12-3, 5) who unexpectedly stopped veteran Richard Olisa (23-24-2, 12) in just 4 rounds. Olisa, an experienced foe who had been the scheduled distance with Harmonito Dela Torre, Mike Tawatchai, Takuya Kogawa and Denkaosan Kaovichit was expected to take Puton rounds though the 24 year old managed to score his 5th stoppage in 8 bouts. Further down the card we had 2 other stoppages. The quicker of those saw unbeaten puncher Richard Claveras (5-0-2, 5) take out Roy Lagrada (2-6-1, 2) in just 165 seconds whilst the other saw the debuting Toto Landero (1-0, 1) take out Mark Macabales (0-2) with an impressive body shot. In terms of decision contests the under-card had 4 including an 8 round victory for Eranio Semillano (8-5, 3) who was a clear winner over journeyman Arjet Caballes (6-29-5, 3) and a 6 round victory for the unbeaten Anferne Palarca (3-0, 1) who defeated Jay-Ar Diama (0-1-4) and brought the end to one of boxing's most unique records. The remaining decisions, both 4 rounders, saw Philip Luis Cuerdo (3-0, 1) shut out the win-less Aprilito Agcopra (0-3-1) whilst Lorence Rosas (1-0-1) fought to a draw with Louis Araneta (0-0-2). Indo-China Market, Mukdahan
This past Friday in Thailand saw a small and relatively under-the-radar card in Makdahan that, although small was significant in the fact it featured 2 PABA title fights, one of which featured a former world champion, and also a bout featuring a former female title challenger. The highest profile bout of the card saw Tepparith Kokietgym (25-3, 15) successfully claim the PABA Bantamweight title with a second round stoppage over Indonesian Ricky Manufoe (22-19-2, 10). Tepparith, a former WBA Super Flyweight champion, really was far too good for Manufoe who shouldn't have really been given this opportunity by the PABA as it had mismatch written all over-it. Tepparith wasn't the only Thai in a title mismatch as his compatriot Petchbarngborn Kokietgym (23-7-1, 10) made very light work of Jemmy Gobel (18-23-5, 12), who was also stopped in the second round. This bout, for the "interim" PABA Super Flyweight title, was just as much a mismatch as the Tepparith fight with Gobel, also of Indonesia, standing no chance of the upset. Although there was never a chance of an upset in the title fights we did see an upset in the card as the 21 year old Kledpetch Lookmuangkan (6-2, 1) managed to upset the experienced Kanittha Kokietgym (20-6, 7) by taking a 6 round decision. Kanittha, a former WBC female Minimumweight title challenger who was stopped by Naoko Fujioka, suffered probably the most damning loss of her career with her previous losses all coming to fighters who went on the achieve notable success. Saying all that however Kledpetch may end up having a very successful career herself and building on this decision victory. In the one other bout on the show Petcheakachai Sithjaeo (1-0, 1) stopped fellow debutant Phichitchai Phrongmaduawittayakom Sc (0-1). Like the two title fights on the card this was a second round TKO. Siam Paradise Entertainment Centre, Bangkok
As the year came to a close Thai fans managed to see the year end on a high with a solid card at the Siam Paradise Entertainment Centre in Bangkok. The show, a 7 fight card, was one that was worth making a note of with several notable fighters in action as well as a title bout. The sole title fight on the show, and the main event, saw the unbeaten Petch Sor Chitpattana (23-0, 15) successfully defend his WBC Youth silver Bantamweight title with a 10 round decision over Chinese novice Xian Wei Qian (2-3-1). Whilst Petch will feel disappointed for going the distance he will feel more than happy at having ended the year with his 7th victory of 2013. In a second bout scheduled for 10 rounds fans got to see South Korean Myung-goo Yuh (14-4-1, 9) stop the limited Fahpikard Twins Gym (2-6). Yuh, returning to Thailand for his second bout within a month took advantage of Fahpikard's vulnerabilities taking him out in the 4th round to inflict the 5th straight stoppage loss on to the record of Fahpikard. Surprisingly the most well known name on the card wasn't involved in a 10 rounder but instead a 6 rounder. This was the case for the very highly regarded Wanheng Menayothin (32-0, 10) who took a 6 round decision over Madit Sada (5-12-1, 1). In all honesty this was a disappointing way to end the year for Wanheng who has racked up 7 wins in 2013 but has yet to make any sort of a step up. Ranked #1 by the WBC it really is time that Wanheng looked for his chance at a title fight with Xing Zaho Zhong or even WBO champion Merlito Sabillo. If 2014 sees Wanheng treading water then it may be fair to write him off as man who is likely to wast his potential and his talent. Wanheng wasn't the only man fighting in a 6 rounder, in fact his bout was one of 5 scheduled for the 6 round distance. Of those the shortest lasted less than a round as the experienced Noknoi Sitthiprasert (48-4, 28) swiftly took out the debuting Alexis Barateau (0-1) in what proved to be a total mismatch. We believe this is the 46th straight victory by Noknoi who last lost in March 2005. Unfortunately, as with Wanheng, it's time that Noknoi stepped up and looked to make a name for himself on the world stage. Whilst Noknoi and Wanheng are now established on the Thai stage one man just beginning his promising career is Kongfah CP Freshmart (3-0, 2) who scored his 3rd win in as many months as he defeated fellow novice Saksamuth Sakpracha (0-2) via a 3rd round KO. Kongfah, who does look supremely talented, does need to step up sooner rather than later though unlike his compatriots he has a lot of time to develop his skills before needing to be moved up. Also on the card was Petchwanchai Sor Visetkit (11-6, 6) who scored a 5th round KO over the limited and fragile Mongkol Patanakan Gym (0-6), who has now been stopped 5 times from his 6 starts. The only other bout on the show was a female bout which saw Korean Hee-Jung Yuh (10-2, 4) defeat Thailand's very own Lookkwan Sithpracha (0-2). This was over in round 4 with Yuh scoring her first win on foreign soil. Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Although the big Wave show that was headlined by Shindo Go defending her WBC Flyweight title had the biggest single fight on December 22nd the biggest show of the day was in Tokyo at the Korakuen Hall as the annual "Rookie of the Year" finals took place. The show, which featured 11 bouts in total, saw the best Rookies from the West of Japan fighting the best Rookies from the East in one of the most important shows of the day and one of the shows steeped in genuine tradition. For those that aren't aware of the Rookie of the Year competition, it's pretty much a staple of the Japanese boxing calendar and is a competition that takes place across the year. The tournament, which is run through the year, is something that a huge number of rookies take part in in the hope of becoming the Rookie of the Year in their division and in the whole of Japan. The first man to be crowned his division's Rookie of the Year was unbeaten Minimumweight Takumi Sakae (7-0, 4) who impressive blew away opponent Yoshinori Wakahara (6-4, 3) in 2 rounds. Sakae had been given a tough test in his semi-final bout in November by Kenta Shimizu though appears to have made very light work of Wakahara here in what was one of the shortest bouts on the show. At Flyweight we had another unbeaten man winning the title as Ryuto Oho (6-0, 2) took a 5 round decision victory over Yukiya Hanabusa (5-2-1). This was Hanabusa's first loss since he dropped a decision on his debut back in December 2011 and sees his 6 fight unbeaten streak snapped. The Super Flyweight division was the first not to see the winner being an unbeaten man as Tomohiro Nagakari (5-1) managed to over-come the previously unbeaten Jo Tanooka (7-1-3) in a very competitive and hard fought bout. Although Tanooka was unbeaten he had come close to losing in his 3 previous bouts with his decision over Seiya Fujikita being controversial. Although Tanooka had lost his unbeaten records many others didn't, including Bantamweight rookie Tatsuya Ikemizu (8-0, 2) who over-came Yukichi Hara (6-3, 3) in a clear contest. Ikemizu took control of the bout from early on and although one judge had the bout close at 48-47 there was only one man who had done anywhere near enough to have claimed a victory. At Super Bantamweight we saw the only case of unbeaten men colliding as Bunta Mitaka (6-0-2) took on the previously unbeaten Gaku Aikawa (4-1-1). With neither man having a stoppage on their record this bout had decision written all over it and it was no surprise when the bout went to the cards after 5 close rounds. Unfortunately for Aikawa he was the one who come up on the bad side of a split decision in a bout that could well have gone either way. It wasn't just the Super Bantamweight fight that was close but also the Featherweight bout which saw Shingo Kawamura (8-1, 3) narrowly defeat Shingo Kusano (7-3-1, 3) with a majority decision. The bout was close though again the right winner does seem to have gotten the decision. Not all the bouts were close and at Super Featherweight we were left with a decisive winner courtesy of the unbeaten Kazuma Sanpei (9-0, 3) who scored a 2nd round stoppage over Shohei Fujimoto (8-3-3, 7). The big hitting Fujimoto failed to land his own power shots on Sanpei who managed to find a space for his shots. We also had a stoppage in the Lightweight division where Ryuji Ikeda (6-1-1, 2) scored an unexpected stoppage over the previously unbeaten Ryosuke Takami (4-1, 3). Takami was stopped at the end of round 3 giving Ikeda a very rare stoppage victory. Despite the unexpected stoppage at Lightweight we had an expected stoppage in the Light Welterweight division with the hard hitting Jumbo Oda Nobunaga Shoten Petagine (8-1, 7) stopping the somewhat fragile and light hitting Shingo Yabu (4-3-1) who has now been stopped in 3 of his 8 professional contests. The Welterweight division saw a minor upset with Ryoji Tanaka (6-2-1, 2) managing to defeat the previously unbeaten Dai Taoka (7-1, 4) via a very clear unanimous decision. Interestingly this was Taoka's 5th bout of the year and he may well have been less than his usual self due to the active schedule which saw him in action in August, September, November and December. The Heaviest bout on the show also turned out to be the shortest as Middleweight punchers collided in a bout that saw Koki Tyson Maebara (5-1-1, 5) stopping Wataru Seino (4-2, 4) in just 171 seconds. This was the 3rd stoppage victory this year for Tyson who has bounced back well from a stoppag defeat to Keisuke Kanazawa in January. Industrial Hall, Gifu
As well as the Big Wave show on December 22nd there was also a show in Gifu. This show, the smallest show of the day, was a very small one with 7 bouts though few were worth really talking about. The one stand out bout saw the most notable upset of the show as Kazuya Murata (8-4, 3) managed to out point the previous unbeaten Futoshi Usami (11-1-1, 8). Usami, who came in to the bout riding the crest of a wave, was simply unable to establish himself in a bout that saw Murata fighting to win, which he did via a majority decision. Although unable to control the bout Usami was never totally out of it and this was reflected by the 3 scorecards which read 96-94, 95-94 and 95-95 showing just how close the contest was. Whilst Usami suffered and upset it's fair to say it wasn't the only one. The upset, coming in one of the two bouts that went 6 rounds, saw Toshikuni Wake (7-13-3, 2) manage to take a clear decision over the much more experienced Yusuke Morishima (22-22-5, 7). The bout, which was competitive in parts, only had 1 winner in the form of Wake who took the fight with scores of 58-55, 58-55 and 58-56. The second of the 6 rounders saw a split decision as Hiroki Taniguchi (5-2-1, 1) took a thin decision over Hikaru Ando (5-5-1, 3) in one of the most competitive bouts on the show. The rest of the card, 4 bouts, was scheduled for 4 rounds with only a single contest failing to go the distance. The 3 decision contests saw Reiko Sugiyama (2-4-2, 1) take his first decision victory with a win over the win-less Akihiro Suzuki (0-2), the unbeaten Takashi Matsumoto (2-0) take his second decision with a victory over Yoshiaki Inoue (0-3-1) and the debuting Yuya Shimakura (1-0) out point Yosuke Goto (0-4) all in some what predictable results. In the only bout, on the entire show, that didn't go the distance Yujiro Nakamura (4-6-1, 2) scored a second round stoppage over Masahiro Hayakawa (0-4-1). Unfortunately with a number of fighters who had never won a bout this show didn't look great on paper and proved that it wasn't great in actuality, though we did get to see an upset or two and that's never a bad thing. Big Wave, Wakayama
This past Sunday saw 3 Japanese shows, one of which was at the Big Wave in Wakayama, a show promoted by Wakayama Kuratoki Promotions and headlined by a female world title fight and featured 7 bouts in total. The headline bout saw WBC female Flyweight champion Shindo Go (13-2, 8) retain her title with a decision victory over determined Mexican challenger Judith Rodriguez (6-6, 4). Although this was Rodriguez's 4th straight loss she did prove that she's a better fighter than her record and recent form suggests and Go will be very pleased to have gotten the hard fought win on her record. Notably the main event was 1 of 3 female bouts on the show. The most notable of the other 2 was the debut of Tomomi Kida (1-0) who took just 46 seconds to defeat Shione Ogata (1-5). Whilst Ogata is nothing special few would have expected Kida to have blasted her out so quickly in what was a genuinely impressive feat. The other female bout saw Rumiko Hamamoto (2-1-1) come out on top against Tomoko Hayashi (1-2, 1) with a unanimous decision. The 2 female bouts on the undercard were 2 of the 5 under-card bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. The other 4 rounders saw Aoi Saijo (3-5, 3) stopping Takuya Hashimoto (3-3, 3) at the very end of the first round with an official time of 3:08; Hiroki Yatomi (2-0, 1) stopping Shoki Nozawa (0-4) in just 133 seconds and Yu Konomura (1-1-1) managed to take a decision over Hirofumi Yamashita (0-2). In the only other bout on the show, a 6 rounder, Yushi Fujita (5-6-1) managed to claim a decision victory over Chikashi Hayashizaki (4-4-1, 1). This bout, the co-feature, was moderately competitive and saw Fujita ending a 2 fight losing streak, for Hayashizaki this was his second successive loss and he's now more than a year removed from his last victory Chaleena Hotel, Bangkok
This past Monday might have been viewed as "too close to Christmas" for some boxing fans but in Thailand the sport continued as it does through the rest of the year with a small, 4 fight, card put on by Kokiet Group Promotions. The show, which lasted just a combined 8 rounds, may have been "boxing continuing" but there was more to it than just that. For us the most notable fight was a Light Flyweight contest that saw Paipharob Kokietgym (22-0, 17) returning to action after more than a year out of the ring. Paipharob, a former WBA "interim" champion, made light work of Indonesia's Heri Amol (32-14-4, 13) who retired on his stool at the start of round 3. Amol, a former PABA and OPBF title challenger has now lost 3 of his last 4 fights and has been stopped in back-to-back fights suggest that he may need to think about retiring. As well as a former WBA "interim" champion there was also two WBA Asia title fights. These saw Ratchasak Kokietgym (19-2-1, 9) becoming the first WBA Asia champion at Bantamweight as he stopped Panca Silaban (26-17-6, 12) in the second and Fonluang Kokietgym (17-1-1, 6) becoming the first WBA Asia Super Bantamweight champion courtesy of a stoppage over Budi Risky (7-3, 4), also in round 2. The least significant bout on the show lasted just 161 seconds as Yokthong Kokietgym (15-3, 11) made light work of the debuting Daen Kalasin Soonkeelabangmod (0-1) in what proved to be a total mismatch. As far as we're aware this is the final card before Christmas so to all our readers we want to wish you a great Christmas, see back here soon though! Abeno Ward Center, Osaka
Just over a year ago Hiroshige Osawa (24-3-4, 13), the then OPBF and interim WBO Asia Pacific Featherweight champion, was given a 12 month suspension. Osawa had fought in a bout, in South Korea, that the JBC had been unhappy with and a bout that they felt warranted a suspension from the ring. This past Friday saw Osawa, returning to the ring with his punishment served. Unfortunately for he out-classed Tetsuya Nishinaga (11-8-1) it was now time for Osawa to hand out the punishment. Osawa, not having things all his own way, didn't dominate from the off but knew Nishinaga lacked the power to hurt him, despite landing with several southpaw left hands. It wasn't the left hands of Nishinaga that were the effective punches though, instead it was the stiff right hands of Osawa which being the trademark punches of the round. It was those right hands that were landing with regularity and it was those right hands that were breaking up the face of Nishinaga who was left a bloodied mess by the time the referee had decided to call a halt to the proceedings in round 9. With the ban now served and the comeback successful you can bet that Osawa is now eying up a return to title glory. The OPBF Featherweight belt, now held by Hisashi Amagasa, may be a difficult one to recapture though we do imagine that Osawa will be wanting an OPBF title somewhere down the line. Although the show was headlined by Osawa his bout was just 1 of 9 on the show. Yes it was the biggest but not the only one. The chief support bout, and the only other contest scheduled for more than 4 rounds, saw Yutaka Oishi (11-3, 6) taking a very hard fought decision over the surprisingly stubborn Hiroshi Ohashi (7-7, 3). On paper Ohashi should never have been close but there there was only a round separating the men from a split draw. As already mentioned, the rest of the card consisted merely of 4 rounders. Of the 7 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds only 3 went the distance. These saw Ryuji Hayashi (1-1) scoring his first win with a unanimous decision over Takayasu Noichi (0-2), Shoma Okamoto (1-0) taking a split decision debut victory over fellow debutant Shota Nakajima (0-1) and Kensei Hirano (1-0), also fighting in an all debutant bout, take a majority decision over Tenta Kiyose (0-1). The remaining 4 bouts went just a combined 8 rounds. The short length of these bouts was due to 2 opening round stoppages. The question of these saw Kengo Kamaya (2-1, 2) taking out Ryota Ikawa (0-5) after just 145 seconds, whilst it was impressive it was only 2 seconds quicker than Ryo Kanda (1-0, 1) debut victory over Masahiro Higashida (0-2). The 2 longer bouts both went into round 3 as Kohei Iwai (1-2-1, 1) stopped the debuting Daiju Oeki (0-1) and Kyohei Okutani (3-1, 3) stopped the previously unbeaten Takashi Abe (1-1-1). Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
At the start of this year one Japanese KO artist was having hardcore fans around the world talking with genuine excitement. Unfortunately 2013 wasn't a year to remember for him however as he suffered back-back stoppage losses, now it seems however that Shuhei Tsuchiya (15-2, 13) has ended the year on a high. The hard hitting fighter began 2013 with a perfect record of 14-0 (12) he seemed set to break out in 2013 and challenge for some form of title by the end of the year. Unfortunately Tsuchiya ran in to the experienced Shoji Kawase and was stopped in the 9th round by Kawase, who himself had come unstuck in a Japanese title fight. Thinking about getting back to winning ways quickly Tsuchiya was upset by super-prospect Masayoshi Nakatani. It seemed that Tsuchiya was going to be the forgotten man of 2013, that was until yesterday when the hard hitting slugger stopped the over-matched Kazutaka Takakuwa (9-8, 2). Tsuchiya started fast and dropped Takakuwa in the opening round, he then went out to finish things in the second. With his aggression and willingness to load up on the right it was clear he wanted to take Takakuwa head clean off. Instead however he needed to settle for a TKO stoppage via a cut. Of course whilst we loved Tsuchiya's return that wasn't the only bout on the show. The show actually featured 7 bouts in total including 2 other bouts which were scheduled for 8 rounds. Surprisingly, considering how easy Tsuchiya made things look, they both went the distance and actually both wet to majority decisions. From the 2 majority decisions one was a slight shock as Takahisa Nayuki (11-9, 2) narrowly out pointed Hitoshi Ichiba (7-6-1, 3). It was far from a major upset but Nayukoi had won just 2 of his previous 6 contests. The other 8 rounder saw a more expected winner as Nobuyuki Shindo (15-2, 5) out pointed Daisuke Sakamoto (7-8-1, 3). Although Shindo got the win he needs to be worried about how close this was. Sure wee knew Sakamoto was better than his record indicated but he was coming to the ring after more than a year out and was moving up in weight, neither of which was he really made to pay for. The highest of the undercard bouts was, much like the two support bouts, a close one as Shingo Koike (6-2, 2) narrowly over-came Ryosuke Ono (5-8-2) by split decision. This 6 rounder saw the judges all agreeing that it was razor thin, though 2 of the 58-57 cards favoured Koike giving him the split win. On the rest of the undercard there was another close decision as Masayuki Ichikawa (3-0, 1) took a majority, yes there was 3 on the card, over Akihiro Yamanaka (1-2). Thankfully this was the only close 4 rounder as Kazuyuki Nakayama (4-4-1, 1) clearly out-pointed Yamato Kikuchi (2-5-2) and the debuting Tadashi Kamiyama (1-0, 1) stopped fellow debutant Tesshin Okada (0-1) with just 22 seconds of round 4 gone. |
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