The year of 2014 ended in a bang with 2 major cards on the final day of the year. In some ways they were very frustrating cards for westerners who struggled to get live streams of them but on the other they further proved what we all knew, boxing fans can never have enough. Hopefully the struggles to get streams will help Western TV realise what we already know, there is a huge demand to watch fights from the east. Osaka, Japan Of the two cards the most interesting came from Osaka where we had several bouts of note, including one bout that really was a bout that fans wanted to watch, and that ended up being a little special in some ways. Rather notably it was also the last bout of the year. That bout saw Cuban boxer-come-TV exile Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10) successfully defending his WBA “super” and WBO Super Bantamweight titles in what was an entertaining, up and down contest. Rigondeaux was fighting against Japan's Hisashi Amagasa (28-5-2, 19), a man best known for being a very lanky Featherweight, the OPBF Featherweight champion in fact. The fight saw the challenger set off as he meant to go on and really tried to take the fight to Rigondeaux who was simply too good for him early on however 2 knockdowns by Amagasa in round 7 suddenly got everyone excited and the biggest upset looked on, at least for a few moments. In round 9 it was Amagasa who was dropped and over the following 2 rounds his face began to fall apart which what looks to have been a broken jaw and a broken orbital bone. Those disfiguring injuries eventually forced him to retire from the bout. For Amagasa this performance is likely to have made him an over-night name for the hardcore international fans whilst Rigondeaux's victory proved that he can be in exciting, entertaining and vicious bouts as well as the proving he is vulnerable. Another world title bout on this show saw Katsunari Takayama (28-7-0-1, 11) create his own moment of history as he became the first Japanese fighter to claim a version of all 4 major titles. This happened when he won the WBO Minimumweight, along with the IBF version of the belt, to complete a career grandslam. Takayama won both belts when he forced the referee to save the brave but exhausted and Go Odaira (11-4-3, 1), who suffered the first stoppage of his career. A third bout featuring a world class fighter on this show saw former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (16-1, 10) score a sensational KO against former WBA interim Flyweight champion Jean Piero Perez (20-8-1, 14). For almost 5 rounds Perez gave as good as he got in what was a free swinging effort but a single right hand in the final minute of round 5 dropped him hard and never managed to recover. In a Japanese title fight fans saw the talented Sho Ishida (18-0, 10) successfully defend the Super Flyweight title for the first time with a 5th round TKO over the over-matched Masato Morisaki (9-4-1, 5). The undercard portion of this show was a bit of a farce if we're being honest with 6 bouts which saw Japanese fighters battling against Thai opposition. The Thai's failed to win a fight, in fact only 1 of them managed to see out the schedule. The one that did was Rannada Sor Vorasing (0-1) who was shut out by boxer-model Tomomi Takano (7-1, 5) in one of two female contests. The other female contest was a blow out as Terumi Nuki (6-0, 3) blasted away Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-1) in just 107 seconds. Nuki's quick blow out was one of 3 opening round blow outs on this undercard which also saw Ryuto Maekawa (10-0, 6) take care of Chanachai Sor Siamchai (0-2) in 133 seconds and the brilliantly promising Takeru Kamikubo (8-0, 5) wipe out Phetsaifar Lukmaelamperigym (0-6) in 158 seconds. Another mismatch saw former world champion Ryo Miyazaki (22-1-3, 13) take care of Kajonsak Nattapolgym (0-1) in round 3 whilst another 3rd round victory saw Takahiro Yamamoto (15-3, 12) take care of Kamraiyok Or Wandavee (0-1). Tokyo, Japan The other show took place in Tokyo where we had a trio of world title bouts which all had their own story to tell. The most interesting of those stories was that of the heavy handed Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18) who retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 9th round retirement victory over Argentina's game Israel Perez (27-3-1, 16). The bout was Uchiyama's first in exactly a year and saw him looking the boss in what was an interesting contest with a man who had come to win. The bout saw Perez try and win but eventually he retired as Uchiyama began to shake off the ring rust and go for the kill. From what we understand a post-fight story here revolved around the scoring, particularly by Gustavo Padilla who is reported to have had the bout even at 85-85, a frankly puzzling score card, though not his worst of the night... ...Padilla's worst score came in the WBA Super Flyweight title fight that saw Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13) retain his title with a split decision draw against Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10). The bout, scored a split draw, saw Padilla handing in a ridiculous 115-112 card in favour of Jimenez, a card so ridiculous that someone needs to look into him, especially given what he did in the Uchiyama/Perez bout. This contest was close, and a draw wasn't an awful result, though we did feel Kono deserved the win, however that card is just wrong. In the ring Jimenez used his movement and speed to keep Kono from unloading on him and exposed some flaws in the champions armour however he failed to really capitalise. The other world title bout on this card saw a new champion being crowned as Ryoichi Taguchi (21-2-1, 8), a man previously best known for taking Naoya Inoue the distance, scored a clear 12 round win over Peruvian Alberto Rossel (32-9-0-1, 13) to claim the WBA Light Flyweight title. Taguchi started slowly but ran out a clear winner, dropping Rossel twice to cement his win. The under-card here was much more interesting than the under-card in Osaka with bouts that weren't all mismatches and blow outs. One of the few stoppages saw Chikashi Hayashizaki (6-4-1, 2) score an unexpected stoppage of Takahiro Araki (5-4, 3), in the 4th round of a scheduled 6, whilst another stoppage on this card saw Minoru Iizuka (4-2, 4) score a 3rd round KO over the previously unbeaten Ryusei Nakajima (2-1, 1), in a scheduled 6 rounder. The most competitive of the undercard bouts resulted in a 6 round split decision draw between Masayasu Nakamura (4-1-1, 4) and Takahiro Kinoshita (5-3-2, 2) in a bout that saw all 3 cards looking very similar to each other. Another very competitive but saw Shun Shimazaki (6-6-1) narrowly defeat Hisasho Owada (5-9-1) in another 6 rounder. In the 4 rounders on the card fans saw the debuting Kazumasa Akagi (1-0) score a narrow decision win over Yukihiro Kaneko (0-3) whilst Kazuhiro Baba (1-2) claimed his first win with a razor thin win over Kazuki Aso (0-2). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Tokyo, Japan In recent years we've seen a tradition of big boxing shows on New Years Eve with TBS and TV Tokyo both putting on cards, which they are doing again this year. Thankfully however this year we got a bonus with Fui TV airing a special showcase of talent in an Ohashi promoted card on December 30th and the card really was something special. In fact it may well have decided the Fighter of the Year, the Performance of the Year, the Trainer of the Year, the Breakout fighter of the Year, and turned a Japanese 21 year old into the most spoken about man in boxing, at least for a day or two. It was a day where Mayweather, Pacquiao, Khan, Cotto and Canelo were forgotten names. Ducking was put on the back burner, and instead we got something that we all love, some special action in the ring. We'll start with main event from the show which saw Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue (8-0, 7) become an even bigger sensation than he already was. Earlier this year Inoue set a Japanese record for fewest fights to a world title, winning the WBC Light Flyweight world title in just his 6th professional bout. Today he set a world record for winning his second divisional world title in just his 8th professional bout, breaking the previous record of Paul Weir by a single fight. Not only did he claim a second divisional world title but he did it in amazing fashion brutalising Argentinian veteran Omar Andres Narvaez (43-2-2, 23) in just 2 rounds to claim the WBO Super Flyweight title. Narvaez had been a long standing champion, he had looked sensational in stopping the teak tough Hiroyuki Hisataka 16 months ago and looked great in clearly beating Felipe Orucuta, despite one ludicrous card, last time out. Inoue however man handled him dropping him twice in the opening round and twice again the in second with Narvaez staying down after the 4th knock down of the fight. With his win Inoue has effectively ripped up any "Fighter of the Year" awards and stamped himself as the most impressive fighter this year. Naoya Inoue wasn't the only Inoue to win on the show and his younger brother, Takuma Inoue (4-0, 1), did the same as he schooled Omar's younger brother Nestor Daniel Narvaes (20-3-2-1, 9). Narvaes had previously pushed Toshiyuki Igarashi close in a WBC Flyweight bout but was made to look slow, clumsy and off balance a lot here was Inoue used sensational speed to make him look very poor. Although we know Naoya is already a star it's fair to say that Takuma may well be one himself in a year's time. Another Ohashi Gym youngster who picked up a win was Ryo Matsumoto (13-0, 11) who claimed the OPBF Super Flyweight title with a dominant win over Rusalee Samor (25-6-2, 11). For much of the fight Matsumoto was happy to go through the motions and just pick off Samor with accurate rangy shots though when he choose to pick up the pace later on he really started to put a beating on the tough Samor who was eventually stopped in the 12th round. Unfortunately it wasn't a clean sweep for Ohashi as the amazingly popular Akira Yaegashi (20-5, 10) was unable to claim the WBC Light Flyweight title. Yaegashi put up a brave effort but was unable to over-come the very talented Pedro Guevara (24-1-1, 16) who finished the bout with a body shot that left Yaegashi in agony and his career on the rocks. We suspect this could be the end for the popular Japanese warrior, who also lost last time out to Roman Gonzalez. We love Yaegashi here and it's not fun to watch him taking any more damage and we hope that, at the very least, he takes some time to rest his body considering the hard and damaging fights he has had in his great career which has seen him winning world titles at both Minimumweight and Flyweight. As well as the 4 Ohashi Gym fighters in action there was also two Teiken fighters, further solidifying the working relationship between the two promoters. The first of these was Jorge Linares (38-3, 25) who scored a 4th round KO of Mexico's Javier Prieto (24-8-2, 18) to claim the WBC Lightweight title and become a 3-weight world champion. The performance was solid without being spectacular and it seemed clear that Linares was worried about Prieto's power and wild swings though managed to take advantage of Prieto's flaws, as he did when he landed the KO blow, a hard right hand around the ear. The other Teiken fighter was Ryota Murata (6-0, 4) who put on a dominant performance but a frustrating and odd one as he clearly beat American fighter Jessie Nicklow (24-5-3, 8). For much of the bout Murata looked stronger, more powerful and more skilled, but he also looked disjointed and as if he was trying to get used to a new style. Gone was the intense pressure and inside fighting that had been a trademark of his amateur days and in it's place was boxing and movement, though it was never smooth boxing and instead it looked like Murata wasn't quite sure if he was doing what he was supposed to. Sadly for the Japanese Olympic champion his win was also marred by cuts suffered from headclashes. On the whole this may not have been the promotion of the year, but it wasn't far off and it was one of the best this year, one of the most exciting and one of the few Japanese cards that seemed to have a lot of interest from the west. Maybe, just maybe this and the shows tomorrow will help the wider boxing media take note of what is going on in Asia. If not it's the biggest over-sight in sport. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) On December 28th there were 3 Asian cards in 3 different countries. Osaka, Japan The biggest of the three shows on Sunday came from Osaka where we had two very interesting bouts. The biggest of those was a Japanese Light Middleweight title bout that saw Yuki Nonaka (27-8-2, 9) successfully defend the Japanese national title with a very narrow and controversial split decision victory over Charlie Ota (24-3-1, 16). The bout, Nonaka's first of his second reign, really was a bout that split opinion though many opined that if the bout wasn't in Osaka, Nonaka's home city then Ota would probably have gotten the nod. Unfortunately for Ota this is a second notable set back in as many fights and it seems likely to be made worse by Nonaka fighting Takayuki Hosokawa next time out with the winner of that bout likely to be pushed well into the IBF top 10. We are hoping to have video of this bout in the coming days to try and see if it was a home town decision as some have told us or whether it was one of those close bouts that could have gone either way with no one really deserving to lose it.. Whilst the headline bout was highly competitive the same could not be said about the co-feature, which we expected to be a scintillating affair. Instead this was a blow out which saw Filipino tough guy Rey Labao (27-6, 18) take out former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Masao Nakamura (18-3, 18) in the second round. Nakamura was lucky to survive the opening round, despite being dropped twice and groggy, though couldn't survive long into round 2. For Nakamura this is a serious set back and, like Ota, is his second successive loss following a decision loss earlier this year to Masayuki Ito. Despite the co-feature being the blow out all the other bouts on the card went the distance. This included a good win for former OPBF title challenger Eita Kikuchi (16-4-4, 7), who claimed a narrow win over Kojiro Takada (13-8-3, 9) in an 8 round affair. Another 8 rounder saw the criminally under-rated Satoshi Niwa (16-18-3, 2) score a slight shock over Yuki Strong Kobayashi (8-4, 4) with a split decision. Another split decision, albeit in a 6 rounder, saw Shachihoko Dragons Keita (4-3-1, 1) fight to a split draw with Yoshiki Kawamura (4-6-1, 3). The only other 6 rounder on this show saw Kenta Shimizu (8-4-1, 4) take a win over Masaki Hirai (4-13-3, 2). In the only 4 rounder the debuting Masahiro Sakamoto (1-0) took a decision over Yusuku Hiranuma (1-1). Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines fans got an interesting show with 7 bouts in total including several title bouts, one of which ended in a notable upset. We'll start with that upset which saw former world title challenger Silvester Lopez (23-6-2, 17) claim the WBC International Bantamweight title with a 7th round KO of the previously unbeaten Rex Wao (10-1, 8). Although Silvester had competed at a much higher level his career was seriously on the rocks coming into this bout. He had lost his previous 2 bouts and scored just 3 wins in his last 10 bouts dating back more than 2 years. Lopez's poor form didn't stop him dropping Wao in the opening round and eventually stopping the touted “Igorot Warrior”. Another title bout saw the rampaging Tosho Makoto Aoki (19-12-2, 16) claim the IBF Australiasian Lightweight title with a 2nd round KO of Indonesia's Rengga Rengga (7-2, 1). For Rengga this was a second successive stoppage loss, following an opening round defeat to Masatoshi Kotani whilst Aoki is on the run of his career with 6 successive stoppage wins, including 4 in the Philippines. We believe a third title fight took place on this show as Dennis Tubieron (19-3-2, 8) and Carlo Magali (18-7-3, 9) threw down, though we're unsure what title was on the line, and it may be that no-title was eventually fought for. As the actual fight it resulted in a majority draw in what was scored very closely. On the undercard we saw a bit of everything. That included a 21 second blow out win for the unbeaten Rolly Sumalpong (7-0-1, 4), who swiftly dispatched Michael Landero (16-13-4, 5) and another opening round victory for Mujtaba Kamal (1-1, 1), who claimed his first win by stopping Romnick Dejano (2-8, 1). The under-card also included some very competitive action as Romel Oliveros (2-0-1, 1) was held to a draw by Vincent Bautista (1-2-2) and John Ray Logatiman (3-1-1) scored a solid win over the previously unbeaten Alvin Medura (2-1, 2), with Medura being dropped in the opening round. Indonesia In Indonesia fans got an obscure card, and one that we sadly don't have all the results for, at least we don't believe we do. The one result we do know is that Roy Tua Manihuruk (16-12-2, 12) scored a 7th round victory over a man we believe to be Rusmien Kierah (13-7-2, 2). Unfortunately the records of both men are disputed and we may be missing copious fights for both. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Osaka, Japan The run in to the new year is a packed one and this past Saturday we saw just how busy it was with 4 separate Asian cards, the most notable of which was in Osaka. The headline bout here was a major Heavyweight bout on the Japanese domestic scene as former Light Middleweight champion Nobuhiro Ishida (27-10-2, 11) continued his assault on the Heavyweight division. Ishida, fighting for the third time as a Heavyweight, managed to record his first stoppage in the division as he forced the retirement of former Japanese title challenger Kotatsu Takehara (10-11-3, 4). Takehara had had his face busted by the shots of Ishida which were landing clean from the opening round. For Ishida this win is likely to get him his long desired Japanese title fight and give him a chance at becoming a 2-weight Japanese champion, and amazing achievement for the 39 year old from Osaka. In the chief support bouts fans saw Kazuki Hashimoto (10-4, 6) make light work of Thailand's Petchklua Tornattasak (0-1), with an opening round blow out, and Shun Ishibashi (9-16-1, 4) score an upset win over Satoshi Ozawa (9-6-1, 2), with Ozawa retiring after round 3. Amazingly Ishibashi's win was just his second in over 6 years and ended a run of just 1 win in 11 bouts! In the sole 6 rounder fans saw Ryota Yada (6-3, 4) take a very narrow decision over Yuta Maruoka (9-3, 4). The bout was razor thin with Yada taking a majority decision by a a single point on 2 cards. To begin the show fans had a pair of 4 rounders. One of these saw Naotoshi Nakatani (4-0, 3) take a hard fought and narrow unanimous decision over Tesu Kanayama (2-1) whilst the debuting Akito Terada (1-0) claimed a split decision over Ryosuke Nasu (1-1-1). Haikou, China As well as the show in Japan there was also a card in China with title implications. The main event of this card saw China's very own Xian Wei Qian (6-4-1, 1) successfully defend the WBC Asian Boxing Council Featherweight title with a 10th round stoppage against Thailand's Thewa Onesongchaigym (5-2, 1). This was a rematch of Thewa's only previous loss and resulted in his first stoppage defeat. Another rematch saw Xiang Jing (8-3-2, 1) narrowly over-come Filipino visitor Ben Mananquil (10-1-2, 2) with a split decision win to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight title. The two men had fought to a draw earlier this year but this time around Mananquil came up short. Prior to he bout Mananquil had unfortunately missed weight and was unable to win the title even if he had won the fight. A third title fight saw Andrey Kalyuzhnyy (6-1, 4) score an 8th round TKO over Thailand's Kajornsak Sithsaithong (7-4, 7) to claim the IBF Youth Super Middleweight title. This was the second meeting this year between the two with their first bout resulting in a 32 second blow out win for Kalyuzhnyy. On the undercard fans saw several bouts with inexperienced fighters. One of those was Lightweight hopeful Sun Xiang Xiang (3-0, 1) who recorded his first stoppage as he over-came Thailand's Phompetch Twins Gym (6-2, 3) with a 3rd round TKO. The other two bouts with novices featured female fighters with Chen Jiayu (1-0) claiming a win in an all debutant contest against Wang Congcong (0-1) and Cai Zongju (3-1, 1) taking a decision win over Ma Li (0-1). Thailand The details we have from Thailand at the moment are very limited though we have been told that former world champion Sirimongkol Singwancha (82-2, 53) managed to record his 53rd career stoppage as his opponent refused to come out for round 3. Prior to this stoppage this had been a 1-sided beat down by Sirimongkol who is now unbeaten in 39 fights! On the same Thai card fans also saw the heavy handed Chalermpol Singwancha (11-0, 9) score a chilling KO against Filipino fighter Nelson Gulpe (8-4, 3) who went left in a heap. Padang, Indonesia In Indonesia we had yet more action. Included on this show was a 12 round decision victory for Sandi Korga (4-6, 1), who over-came the limited Yosmar Kefi (3-6, 3). The other bout on this show saw Afrizal Tamboresi (3-0, 1) over-come the win-less Yudi Saputra (0-2) with an 8 round win. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Thailand
On December 26th, a date known as "Boxing Day" in Great Britain, Thai fans had a small, but notable and genuinely interesting, show that featured 2 of the most promising young fighters in Thailand as well as a former world title challenger. The former world challenger was Panomroonglek Kaiyanghadaogym (42-2, 24) who out pointed the ultra-busy Samuel Tehuayo (18-29-2, 3), who has now gone 1-11 for the year. Panomroonglek has been said to be in talks about getting a world title fight in 2015 and although we can't see him beating any of the top Bantamweights right now he may as well chase a big fight at this point in his career. Notably this was the Thai's 5th straight win since his 2013 loss to Koki Kameda in a bout for the WBA Bantamweight title. As for the prospects one of those was the excellent Kongputorn CPFreshmart (6-0, 4) who went the scheduled distance with the tough Filipino Joel Kwong (1-8, 1). Kwong may not be the best fighter but he's been giving some of the best in Thailand really good work outs in the last 18 months, having gone the distance with Ratchasak KKP, Sod Kokietgym, Petch Kokietgym and Petchbarngborn Kokietgym. We are big fans of Kongputorn and a work out like this will not do him any harm at all, especially as it helped to show up some of his defensive holes and will give him areas to work on. The other prospect in action was Kongfah CP Freshmart (10-0, 5) who stopped his opponent with a devastating uppercut. Unfortunately we've not got the name of Kongfah's foe but we do know that this was Kongfah's second brilliant KO of the year following his eerie knockout against Sangthong Chor Pakdee back in August. Kyoto, Japan In Japan we had the final show before Christmas as Woz put on a small but interesting domestic card. The main event saw Kota Tokunaga (14-2, 9) take a clear decision win over Kazumasa Kobayashi (8-5-1, 5). For Kobayashi this this was his 4th loss in 5 bouts and he is now win-less in more than 3 years and unfortunately for the 31 year old we do have to suspect he'll be calling an end to his career sooner rather than later. As for Tokunaga this is seen as a Japanese title prelude and he's now expected to fight Yoshitaka Kato in 2015. In the chief support bout fans saw the heavy handed Yuki Yonaha (4-2, 3) claim his first decision win as he narrowly over-came Hiroki Taniguchi (6-5-1, 2). All 3 cards were close for the 6 rounder though Yonaha was a deserving winner, despite being tested hard. The rest of the card was 4 rounders and almost all of the bouts were razor thin decisions. The closest of those saw Shota Taguchi (2-1) take a split decision win over Shinsei Honke (1-5), with all 3 cards reading 39-38. Another split decision saw Norio Shimizu (1-1) take his first win with a win over the debuting Toshiki Shimatani (0-1) whilst another split decision saw Kazuma Ishikura (4-3, 1) who beat Seita Mochizuki (3-7). Yet another close decision, albeit a majority decision saw Daisuke Takeichi (3-3, 1) beat Kiyonori Matsumoto (2-4). The only clear decision on this show's under-card saw Makoto Kawasaki (5-2-1, 1) claim a clear victory over Yuki Nakanishi (1-2, 1). Thailand As well as the Japanese show there was also 4 bouts in Thailand, sadly the names of some of those fighters are beyond our grasp of the Thai language, sadly that leaves us with just 2 bouts that we fully “got”. One of those saw former world champion Kwanthai Sithmorseng (48-3-1, 26) score a stoppage against Indonesian journeyman Heri Amol (34-22-4, 14). Amol did his job of trying to entertain though seemed unable to ever deal with Kwanthai's movement or sharp punches and retired between rounds 6 and 7. The other bout we know saw Amin Kratingdaenggym (10-1-1, 8)* score an 8th round knockout against Indonesia's Hero Tito (9-5-1, 3). The bout had a free swinging affair before Amin eventually connected with a left hand that sent Tito tumbling down and eventually having the bout stopped. *We believe Amin previously fought under the name Amin Sor Wangmoo (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Sunday was a very busy one with fights across Asia. Tokyo, Japan In Tokyo we had the 2014 All Japan Rookie of the Year finals which featured 10 bouts in total, following bouts at 135lbs and 140lbs both being cancelled due to fighters pulling out. In the Minimumweight division fans saw the unbeaten Reiya Konishi (7-0, 4) continue his winning streak as he over-came Yuki Kubo (6-2, 2) with a clear decision. The talented 21 year old from Kobe just seemed to have too much of everything and we're really looking forward to seeing him in the mix with the ranked domestic contenders. At Light Flyweight things were highly competitive as Kenji Ono (7-1, 3) took a razor thin decision over Seita Ogido (6-2-1, 1). The cards, which ended in a split decision, all read 48-47 showing just how competitive it was round after round. The Flyweight division saw a battle between unbeaten men though saw the Koguchi promoted Kenya Yamashita (7-0, 4) defeat Shun Kosaka (9-1) with a clear decision. The talented Yamashita, an 18 year old with real promise, has now beaten 3 successive unbeaten men and we suspect his recent sparring with the likes of Suguru Muranaka has helped him develop into yet another promising Flyweight prospect. Don't be shocked if we see both of these guys fighting in the domestic title mix in the coming years. Masayoshi Hashizume (7-0, 4) continued his success as he won in the Super Flyweight tournament with a 3rd round technical decision against Shogo Yonenaga (6-2, 3). Sadly a clash of heads forced the bout to an early conclusion though it did seem like the exciting Hashizume was in charge prior to the conclusion. Sadly it seems likely that both men will be inactive for the next few months as the cuts they each suffered looked very nasty at the end of the bout. In the Bantamweight division we saw Ryohei Takahashi (5-1-1) continue his winning run as he over-came the heavy handed Keisuke Tabuchi (8-2-2, 6) with a very clear decision victory. Takahashi's lack of power will likely limit him when he steps up a level. Although Tabbuchi came up short there is a chance he'll go further in the sport given his heftier blows which will likely help him as he steps up in class. At Super Bantamweight we saw a slight surprise as the light hitting Shohei Kawashima (9-0-2, 2) scored just his second stoppage in 11 fights. The light hitter managed to stop Yuki Matsudo (8-2, 4) in the early stages of round 4 with a huge right hand that sunk Matsudo who was unable to beat the count. This win for Kawashima saw him winning the Skills Award for the tournament. In the Featherweight division Reiya Abe (8-1, 4) took home the crown as he out pointed Kyohei Tonomoto (5-2, 2) in a clear decision. Another clear decision saw Yuichiro Kasuya (6-0, 1) out point Masashi Wakita (4-3-1, 2) in a bout that won Kasuya the “Fighting Spirit” award. Aged 18 Kasuya looks likely to be involved in a lot of exciting bouts in the future, hopefully he can develop some power to go with his exciting style. The winner of the MVP award was the heavy handed Yuki Beppu (8-0, 8) who stopped Hironobu Matsunaga (6-1, 3) in the 2nd round in the Welterweight bout. Beppu, an exciting and heavy handed fighter had to take some hard shots himself in this thrilling contest though his belief in his own power was well founded. Matsunaga was down late in the opening round and never seemed to really recover before being stopped very early in round 2. At Middleweight Hisao Narita (8-1, 4) won a very tight one with Toshihiro Kai (4-7-2, 1). We had expected Narita to win this one easily but Kai really gave a great effort and made things very competitive. Metro Manila, Philippines In the Philippines fans saw one of their most exciting local fighters in action. That was OPBF Light Flyweight champion Jonathan Taconing (20-2-1, 17) who made light work of Oscar Raknafa (12-8, 5). Raknafa retired in the 4th round after having taken a bit of a beating. On the undercard here results have been scarce, though we do know that Abraham Bullagay (1-0-1, 1) fought to a draw with the win-less Manny Mamacquiao (0-4-1). Batangas, Philippines A second show in the Philippines had equally as interesting action. In the main event here fans saw Jhon Gemino (12-3-1, 5) take a very narrow split decision win over the previously unbeaten JR Magboo (16-1-2, 7) to claim the GAB Super Bantamweight title and record his most significant win to date. For Magboo this will a bad loss concede, even if it was close. In the co-feature fans saw Roberto Gonzalez (25-2, 16) score an 8th round TKO over Jose Ocampo (17-9-1, 12) in a bit of a blood bath. Gonzalez was cut early from a headclash before he battled back and cut Ocampo on the right eyelid with a punch in round 8. The cut on Ocampo's caused an early conclusion to the bout with the doctor ruling him unfit to continue. Another of the support bouts that ended early saw Bonjun Loperez (9-2-1, 5) score a victory over Oliver Gregorio (9-4-2, 5) after Gregorio retired with a damaged shoulder. A third support bout saw Renz Rosia (11-2, 5) take a majority decision over Jayson Rotoni (13-15-1, 7), though the cards were a bit all over the place here. In the sole 8-rounder Reneria Arizala (12-1-1, 5) made very light work Lowell Saguisa (7-18, 3) with Saguisa being stopped after just 83 seconds. A bulk of the undercard was made up of 6 rounder,of which we had 3. One of those saw Michael Rosal (5-3, 3) take a very close win over Jesson Inso (9-5-1, 3) in a bout that was essentially decided by a knockdown scored by Rosal in round 3. Another of the 6 rounders saw Balweg Bangoyan (19-9, 8) score a 5th round KO against Rey Ramos (6-7-2, 3) whilst Philip Luis Cuerdo (6-1, 3) made very light work of Juanito Hondante (2-5, 1). The show also featured a pair of 4 rounders. One of these saw the debuting Edlin Sese (1-0) score a decision win over Jerwin Mejes (1-1, 1) whilst the other saw Ariel Arevalo (3-1-2, 1) score a very clear win over Jeffrey Garcia (0-3). Seoul, South Korea The lowest profile show was in South Korea as fans had 9 bouts, including several international bouts that saw Koreans battling against Japanese fighters. Interestingly from the 6 bouts between fighters from the two countries Korea won 3 bouts, whilst Japan won 2 and 1 resulted in a draw. Of the 9 bouts on the show 4 of them were 4 rounds. These saw Chae Yong Lee (1-0, 1) score an opening round stoppage against Sung Il Jo (0-1). Another of the 4 rounders saw the previously win-less Do Hyung Kim (1-2) take a clear win over Jung Yul Lee (0-2). The other 4 rounders both ended in draws with Kyung Hee Han (0-0-1) drawing in an all debutant bout against Min Young Kim (0-1) and Gang Hoon Lee (1-1-2, 1) being held by Ryo Nakano (1-2-1) in the first of the 7 South Korea Vs Japan bouts. The most impressive win for Japanese fighters saw Akira Ono (6-3, 5) quickly see off Jae Man Kim (2-1, 1) who was dropped 3 times in the opening round. The only other Japan win saw Ryosuke Hayase (5-1, 1) take a split decision over Hyun Woo Lee (5-2, 1). For Korean fighters there 2 stoppage wins with the most impressive of those being a 75 second blow out by Jae Ho Kim (5-1, 1) who swiftly saw off Kenji Fujiyama (5-5, 3). The other stoppage win for Koreans saw Woo Min Won (6-1, 3) score a 3rd round win over Shingo Yabu (4-4-2). The only decision win for a Korean fighters over a Japanese visitor saw Jong Hwa Lee (9-2-2, 1) easily defeat Katsunori Imai (5-6-1). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Saturday was one of the least busy Saturday's this year and yet there was still a lot of action
Carolina, Puerto Rico The most significant bout to involve an Asian came from Puerto Rico, unfortunately however it didn't turn out like we'd have hope. Sadly what we saw was Filipino fighter Mark Anthony Geraldo (31-5-3, 14) score the most clear cut loss of his career as he was dominated by the talented McJoe Arroyo (16-0, 8). The win for Arroyo should see him securing himself an IBF world title bout against Zolani Tete and in fairness to Geraldo we wouldn't have fancied his chances against the talented South African even if he had won here. Pontianak, Indonesia The most interesting show in Asia came from Indonesia where fans got 5 fights, including a very notable main event. The aforementioned main event saw the popular Daud Cino Yordan (33-3-0-1, 24) return to the ring after a frustrating 12 months of inactivity. Not only did Yordan return to action but he did so in style as he stopped former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Ronald Pontillas (17-7-3, 8) in 5 rounds with a gut breaking body shot. Pontillas, a genuine tough guy, was in absolute agony as the referee gave a full 10 count. The win for Yordan sees him picking up the interim WBO Asia Pacific Lightweight title. On the under-card fans saw a small upset as Rommy Wassar (11-17-7, 5) out pointed Zun Rindam (11-8-1, 5) over 8 rounds, this was the only mildly surprising result on the entire show. Of the bouts that went “the expected” way saw Yohannes Yordan (14-2-3, 3) score a 5th round TKO over Rony Mangga Praouw (0-2), who has now been stopped in both of his losses. Another “expected” result saw Ferdinand Unitly (2-0, 1) score an 8 round decision win over Antonius Anton (0-1-1). The other bout on the card saw Stevanus Nana Bau (1-1, 1) score his first win as he stopped Supriyadi Doyok (0-1) in the second round New York, USA Mongolian born US based fighter Bayan Jargal (17-6-3-1, 11) suffered just his second stoppage defeat in 27 bouts as he was taken out in the 9th round by the unbeaten and touted Cletus Seldin (15-0-0-1, 12). This was the second meeting between the two men following a no contest earlier this year, courtesy of a headclash. Arizona, USA Fans in Arizona saw the limited Azamat Umarzoda (1-7-2) prove his toughness as he became the first man to go the distance with David Benavidez (7-0, 6). Queensland, Australia In Australia fans saw Thai journeyman Pramool Boonpok (1-10-1) continue his bad form as he was shut out by the debuting Luke Travers (1-0). Sadly for Pramool this was his 3rd straight loss. Whilst it's fair to say the Thai has been active, fighting 12 times this year, we do need to question whether or not he should reconsider his career options. This past Friday was a busy day in the world of Asian boxing, both regionally and internationally. Mendoza, Argentina In Argentina fans saw a WBA Flyweight title fight that saw interim champion Yodmongkol Vor Saengthep (34-2, 20) attempt to unify his title with “regular” champion Juan Carlos Reveco (35-1, 19). Sadly for Yondmongkol he was stopped in the 5th round as Reveco unloaded on his and forced the referee to step in. Prior to the stoppage both men had scored knockdowns with Reveco going down in round 2 and Saengthep down just prior to the stoppage. Quebec, Canada In Canada was saw several Russian's in action and all of them seemed to have very different nights. The most disappointing of the Russian's was Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-3, 16) who looked awful, genuinely awful, as he challenger Adonis Stevenson (25-1, 21) and put up a nothing effort. Sukhotsky did little more than follow the champion who landed left hands at will before stopping Sukhotsky in round 5 after scoring a trio of knockdowns in the round. Another notable Russian on the card was the unbeaten Artur Beterbiev (7-0, 7) who over-came Jeff Page Jr (15-1, 10) with a 2nd round TKO. Whilst on paper the result was a good one the performance was terrible from Beterbiev who was dropped in the opening round and showed little more than crude power as he came out swinging for the fences whilst setting nothing up. It was, in many ways, a humbling performance from one of the most touted up-and-comers in the sport and will hopefully serve as a reminder that he needs to use his boxing ability as well as his power. A third Russian was the debuting Vislan Dalkhaev (1-0) who scored a clear win over journeyman Csaba Toth (13-25-1, 8). Samut Prakan, Thailand The feature bout in Thailand saw former world champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (28-6-1, 17) bounce back from his recent loss to Shinsuke Yamanaka with a very easy win over the horribly over-matched Tony Arema (3-6). Arema was never able to put the That under any pressure and midway through the opening round Suriyan landed a nasty left to the body which put Arema down in agony, where he stayed for the count. Strangely this bout was for the WBC Asian Boxing Council Bantamweight title and see Suriyan getting immediately back into the mix for a world title fight in 2015. In a stay busy fight we saw former WBC Super Flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (31-4-1, 28) score a straightforward win over limited journeyman Jemmy Gobel (18-16-5, 13). Srisaket tried to pick his shots in a controlled opening round as it appeared he was attempting to get some rounds under his belt though Gobel didn't take the chance to test the Thai, despite landing some clean uppercuts in the opening round. In round 2 Srisaket went to work and broke down Gobel with steady and hurtful body shots that quickly had Gobel in trouble, a follow up attack up top dropped the visitor who stopped soon afterwards. Another bout on this card saw the limited, but unbeaten and exciting, Kongfah Nakornluang (18-0, 10) over-come the win-less Vichannoi Chaiyonggym (0-3) with a 6 round decision in what was an unexpectedly close fight. As is often the case Kongfah made life very difficult for himself but very entertaining for us and we don wonder how many times he can get away with having such damaging fights though we can't complain about the entertainment as he is great value every time he's in the ring. Possibly the stand out performance came from debutant Jirapan Nakornluang (1-0, 1) who dominated fellow debutant Toto Lookmuangbangklang (0-1) en route to securing a 4th round TKO. If we were to suggest that Jirapan was the most complete Thai prospect we've seen recently we wouldn't be lying and he looks like he has the potential to be the real deal. He showed a nice sharp jab at range and really great body work up close, that body was eventually what ground out Toto. This guy is one to watch. The remaining bout on the show saw Denchai Por Korbkua (1-1) claim his first professional win as he over-come the more experienced Namphol Sithsaithong (7-9, 5) to take home a 6 round split decision. The scoring was a bit all over the place here unfortunately. Hyogo, Japan We're sorry it's taken us a while to get all the results from this show, which was the only Japanese show last Friday and came courtesy of Shinsei Promotions. In the main event fans saw the very promising Shun Kubo (6-0, 4) score his best win to date as he took a decision over the world ranked Luis May (15-8-1, 7). Both men had knockdowns rules against them, though the one against Kubo did seem harsh, and May had a point deducted to leave us with weird looking scorecards but it was a clear win for Kubo who has announced himself with this win. Although clearly a novice Kubo has called out Japanese champion Yukinori Oguni and has made it clear that the domestic title is his aim for next year. An interesting co-feature saw Toshiya Yokogawa (7-7-1, 6) score a shock win over Tokiya Nishioka (9-4-2, 5) with a 2nd round KO. Another bout from the top of the card saw Takahiro Shigee (12-1-1, 10) score a 5th round TKO against Petchfankaen Keelanakornpatom (0-1), this was Shigee's first bout since he was stopped by Rodrigo Guerrero. The least interesting of the 8 rounders saw Kenta Sugimoto (8-7-1, 1) score his first stoppage as he over-came Saengpetch Lukmatulee (0-1) in the 2nd round. The undercard here featured 5 bouts scheduled for 4 rounders with only a single bout failing to go the distance. The one bout that didn't go to the final bell saw Makoto Mizoshita (3-1, 2) score an opening round blow out against Hiroki Yatomi (2-1, 1). In bouts that went the distance we saw Shintaro Yano (1-0) take a debut win with a split decision Shin Tomita (1-1-2), another close decision saw Taichi Sugimori (3-1) take majority decision over Ryusuke Tanaka (3-3, 1). The closest bout saw Ryo Sumiya (1-1-1) fighting to a draw with Shohei Matsuo (1-1-1). The only clear decision saw the unbeaten Kenta Sakata (2-0-1) take a clear decision over Kodai Nakashoya (0-2) (Image, from the Kubo fight, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Thursday saw shows in both Japan and the Philippines and there was plenty of notable action. Tokyo, Japan The biggest of the two shows came from Tokyo where we had a bit of everything, from prospects looking to emerge through the ranks to veterans looking to win titles and continue their careers. We'll start with that title bout which saw the 37 year Filipino fighter Dennis Laurente (49-5-5, 30) claim the OPBF Light Middleweight title with a 6th round TKO of Japan's 37 year old Tadashi Yuba (46-10-2, 33). Yuba, a former 5-weight Japanese champion, looked his age here as Laurente stormed inside and broke him up before knocking him down where the referee stopped the bout. For Yuba this could be the end whilst Laurente has become a 2-weight OPBF champion winning this belt 13 years after winning the OPBF Lightweight title. In a Heavyweight clash fans saw Japanese champion Kyotaro Fujimoto (11-1, 6) widely out point Frenchman David Radeff (5-9-2, 2). Fujimoto did a number on Radeff but couldn't quite finish off the Frenchman who was returning to Japan following a previous loss to Nobuhiro Ishida and it now seems likely that we will see a much talked about rematch between Ishida and Fujimoto. In a highly competitive contest former Japanese title challenger Kinshiro Usui (22-4, 10) beat form Japanese champion Masaaki Serie (25-8, 10) with a split decision. For Usui it was a great win given he has been out of the ring for over 3 years though unfortunately for Serie t continues his downward spiral which has now seen him losing 3 of his last 4 and retirement does look likely for him given his current down turn. In an interesting 8 rounder at Flyweight fans saw Yuta Matsuo (7-1-1, 4) take a hard fought decision over Yota Hori (12-3-2, 7). Another 8 rounder at Flyweight saw Katsunori Nagamine (10-0, 6) continue his unbeaten run by clearly defeating Ryuto Oho (6-2-1, 2). The promising Nagamine had been inactive for over a year coming into this bout though still had no problems building on his 9 fight winning streak. In the opening bout on the show fans saw Yoshia Tome (1-1-1) score his first win as he took a narrow victory over Shunya Saito (0-1-1). Iloilo, Philippines In the Philippines got their own show though it was at a much lower level than the card in Japan. In the main event here fans saw Juren Labordo (14-2, 9) score a 7th round TKO against compatriot Jaymart Toyco (14-7, 10) whilst in the co-feature the unbeaten Arjan Canillas (9-0-2, 7) scored a 3rd round TKO over Roy Sumugat (9-11-1, 3). In the sole 6 rounder Geo Santisima (4-2, 3) scored an opening round KO against John Rey Melligen (3-3, 2). On the undercard we saw a trio of fighters remain unbeaten. One of those was Virgel Vitor (2-0, 1) who took a decision over the win-less Jimboy Rosales (0-2), another of those was Melvin Jerusalem (3-0, 2) who stopped the debuting Jomar Ceneta (0-1) in the second round, the other bout saw Gerard Suico (2-0, 2) score an opening round KO over Ronald Ombing (0-1) (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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