Colorado, USA
There was no action in Asia this past Saturday however we did have a trio of Russian fighters fighting in the US. Sadly from the trio only one managed to record a win, the unbeaten "Talant" Konstantin Ponomarev (27-0, 13). Ponomarev was battling against the tough and hungry Canadian fighter Steve Claggett (20-3-1, 14) in a very good looking bout that was competitive overall. The busier Ponomarev showed some lovely skills, movement and work rate though at times was so defensively porous that he seemed to get himself into a lot of trouble. It's clear that is the Russian is to become a star, as some suspect he could, then he'll need to tight up defensively, and quick. Things weren't so good for another man who entered the weekend unbeaten, Aik Shakhnazaryan (15-1, 6). Shakhnazaryan entered the weekend looking like a very promising prospect but was dropped twice by the unheralded Abner Lopez (22-4, 19) who recorded the biggest win of his career with a very good decision win. We hope this loss won't be the last time we see Shakhnazaryan as he does look fun to watch though Lopez deserves all the plaudits he gets and he won us over with his victory. Another Russian to come up short was Maxim Vlasov (30-2, 15) who was out pointed by the much touted Gilberto Ramirez Sanchez (31-0, 24). Vlasov had limited success early on as "Zurdo" Sanchez battered his ribs though later in the bout Vlasov managed to come on strong and found a home for his right hand. By then however it was too little too later for the Russian.
0 Comments
Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
The most notable Asian bout of the day happened in Thailand where PABA interim Bantamweight champion Panomroonglek Kaiyanghadaogym (41-2, 24) successfully defended his title and stopped Indonesian visitor Junior Bajawa (14-4, 7), with Bajawa retiring in his corner. We suspect, from what we've been told, that this bout win will set up Panomroonglek for a world title fight with a WBA title holder though at the moment we're unsure over which WBA title holder with suspicions that it could be Jamie McDonnell of the UK. In another televised bout from this card we've been told that Kongputorn CPFreshmart (4-0, 3) continued his winning run with a 3rd round retirement victory over Jomyuthlek sor Narongchai (10-3, 3). Metro Manila, Philippines Another show where we only have the main event result at the moment came in the Philippines where Rogelio Jun Doliguez (19-2-2, 14) lost a split technical decision to Dennis Tubieron (19-3-1, 8). Doliguez was dropped early in the bout and was later stopped after a nasty clash of heads forced the referee to end the bout. Again we're hoping for the under-card results shortly. Tokyo, Japan In Japan we had the second day of Rookie of the Year East semi-finals. This show, like yesterday's, saw the winners taking a step towards the All Japan Rookie of the Year finals later this year. In the Minimumweight division Yuki Kubo (5-1, 2) out pointed Akihiro Hikichi (3-4-3) with a clear cut decision. A less clear cut bout was in the Light Flyweight division where Sho Kimura (5-1-1) progressed despite only draw with Akira Kokubo (1-3-3), that was because Kimura won on one of the 3 cards, effectively taking a "minority" draw if you will. On paper it was the Flyweight division that had one of the best match ups as Sonin Nihei (5-0-1, 1) maintained his unbeaten record and got past the heavy handed Naoki Mochizuki (5-1, 4). At Super Flyweight we had our first stoppage as Hokuto Sakata (5-3-1, 3) took out the previously unbeaten Yugo Ueda (3-1, 2) in the third round. This was one of 5 stoppages on the show and we'll get to the others in a moment or two. The Bantamweight division featured one of the most competitive contests as Ken Kodama (4-0-1, 1) narrowly out pointed Junichi Obara (6-3-1, 1) with a split decision. We also had a split decision up at Lightweight where Shintaro Nakamura (5-2-1, 2) just over came Shoma Koga (3-2-1, 3). The second KO of the show came as Super Bantamweight as Yuki Matsudo (7-1, 3) scored an opening round KO against Hikaru Takaki (6-5, 5). At Featherweight we saw Naoto Miroya (6-1-1, 3) force a 3rd round retirement of Yu Takegaki (4-3-1, 1) whilst at Super Featherweight Yutaka Ekawa (5-2-1, 2) upset Hikaru Akutsu (4-1, 3) with a 2nd round KO. There was also a KO in the show ending Middleweight bout as Asahi Hatsumi (4-1, 2) took out Naoya Kaneko (3-3, 3) in 3 rounds. The remaining contests came in the Welterweight divisions. At Light Welterweight Yasuki Katagiri (4-0, 1) out pointed Shunsuke Fukushima (3-3-2, 2) in a very tight fight whilst at Welterweight Masaya Tamayama (4-0, 3) took a majority win over Hiroki Ashizawa (2-1, 2). Krasnodar, Russia The one card where we do have all the results for, for now at least, came in Russia as we had a card with some international attention. The main event saw American superstar Roy Jones Jr (59-8, 42) stopping the awfully mismatched Hany Atiyo (14-3, 10) in just 75 seconds in what was little more than a farce to give Jones an easy and impressive looking win. Unfortunately it was a farce even Stevie Wonder could see through. Prior to the Roy Jones Jr bout there had been 5 other contests on the show, all more entertaining than the disgrace that followed them. The first of the undercard bouts saw Soslan Tedeev (4-0, 4) continue his rise through the ranks with a 3rd round KO against the more experienced, and usually durable Bacho Kvaratskhelia (16-12-3, 6). The Georgian visitor suffered his first stoppage defeat in over 4 years, dating back to a stoppage loss to Serhiy Fedchenko. On paper this is very impressive from Tedeev who may be one of the many Russian fighters on the very of breaking through. In an equally as impressive victory Ruslan Faifer (4-0, 1) took a very clear decision over the substantially more experienced Yuriy Barashian (27-7, 18) to claim the vacant WBC Baltic Silver Cruiserweight title. Although the title doesn't have much of a meaning it is still a great win for Faifer who stepped up massively and beat a 2-time world title challenger in an 8 round bout. Whilst it's true that Barashian was a Light Heavyweight in his prime this was still a good win considering where Faifer is in his own career, the beginning. Another man with an impressive showing was Aik Shakhnazaryan (14-0, 5) who thoroughly dominated the brave and tough Sergio Mauricio Gil (16-4-2, 12). Gil was dropped twice, in rounds 5 and 10, though showed great heart to see out the 10 round bout when he could have quit. The scored of 100-88 all showed the domination by the unbeaten Russian who is ready to be moved towards a more meaningful fight. In another title bout David Avanesyan (18-1-1, 9) out pointed Ramon de la Cruz Sena (18-12-2, 11) to defend the WBC Baltic Welterweight title with ease. This was another widely scored contest in favour of the Russian winner who was never really in any trouble at all. The most oddly scored bout of the show was in the co-feature as Fedor Papazov (16-1, 10) took a very, very wide decision over the durable Felix Lora (18-13-5, 9). Lora was down in rounds 6 and 7 and had numerous points taken to result in score cards that read 98-87, 98-86 and 99-85 all in favour of Papazov. Yes that was a 10 rounder with scorecards as wide as 14 points! Staggering. This bout saw Papazov defending the WBC Baltic Lightweight title for the first time. New South Wales, Australia In Australia local fans had the chance to see their very own Davey Browne (20-1-1, 6) dominated Filipino foe Rey Las Pinas (19-10-5, 11) in a very 1-sided bout for the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council Super Featherweight title. We do need to wonder what the Filipino fighter was doing at 130lbs considering he's usually a Super Bantamweight, though it appears he was doing little more than surviving in a shut out loss. As we've mentioned we will be hoping to add the other bouts from the Philippines soon. Sadly with Saturday being a busy day we've decided to publish this "as is" ahead of the bouts tomorrow. Sorry for any confusion however. Friday was a busy day throughout the Asian boxing world with fights in Thailand, Japan and Russia. Although it was busy it did seem to lack genuine competitive bouts though plenty were at least a little bit interesting for one reason or another. Surat Thani, Thailand In regards to rankings the most important action was in Thailand where a world ranked fighter was in action and we got a title fight. The main event saw IBF Asia Super Flyweight champion Rusalee Samor (23-5-2, 10) defend his title against the previously unbeaten Indonesian Espinos Sabu (11-1-1, 5) with a 12 round decision victory. For Samor, who is ranked in the top 15 by the IBF this was a hugely important victory and one that could help him climb up the rankings, towards a world title fight with the winner of the upcoming Teiru Kinoshita/Zolani Tete bout. In other bouts on this show we saw two stoppages. One of those was Japan's Takamori Akita (9-4-1, 7) stopping Indonesia's Muhammad Imam (9-4, 3) inside a round whilst the other saw Patomsith Pathompothong (9-1, 4) stopping journeyman Rommy Wassar (8-16-7, 3) in 4 rounds. The only other bout on the show saw Thai veteran Fahsai Sakkreerin (41-5-1, 22) take a 6 round decision over the even more experienced Rivo Rengkung (32-19-5, 12) who has now lost his last 3. For Sakkreerin, who had lost 2 of his previous 3, this was a much needed win and whilst he's unlikely to ever get another world title eliminator his career can continue with him hoping to get back in the rankings and maybe even get a voluntary title fight down the line. Unfortunately for Indonesian fighters they went 0-4 on this show with all the losers being from Indonesia. Osaka, Japan In Japan we had a small, and somewhat over-looked, show at the brilliant Bodymaker Colosseum. The main event on this Japanese show so former world title challenger Junichi Ebisuoka (23-17-6, 10) fight to an 8 round majority draw with Tetsuya Hisada (21-8-1, 11). The draw, whilst awful for Hisada, saw Ebisuoka ending a 4 fight losing streak dating back more then 2 years. Although Hisada's record might not illustrate it these two were well matched and had previously fought in a close bout that saw Hisada taking a very narrow split decision way back in 2008. Surely this won't lead to Hisada Vs Ebisuoka III, will it? In another 8 rounder form this card we saw a relative one sided bout as Yuki Takemoto (15-18-2, 7) used his experience to over-come Yoshihiro Kinjo (7-19-2, 2). As with Ebisuoka, Takemoto is much better than his record indicates and this was his third successive win. As well as the pair of 8 rounders we also had a pair of 6 rounders. These included an expected result as Ryuji Kanza (7-1, 5) used his heavy hands to stop Takayuki Morimoto (5-8, 3) in 2 rounds and also saw an upset as Junya Nishikawa (7-4-2, 2) over-came Shogo Hayashi (5-2-1, 3) in a split decision. On the lower part of the card we had a trio of 4 rounders. These saw just a single stoppage as Yudai Yamashoji (2-1, 2) stopped the debuting Ryo Nishikawa (0-1) in the third round. Of the decisions both were very competitive. The closest saw Takahiko Nakajima (3-4-1) taking a split decision over the previously unbeaten Masatetsu Hirano (1-1, 1) whilst in the other bout Yuki Takahashi (3-0) take a very narrow, albeit unanimous, decision over Marcos Sogabe (3-9-1, 3). Krasnodar, Russia As well as the Indonesian show we also had some pretty interesting action from Russia. In the main event fans got to see the unbeaten Aik Shakhnazaryan (12-0, 5) score an impressive victory over journeyman Felix Lora (18-11-5, 9) who has one of boxing's more misleading records. Although Lora is usually a good test for a young and upcoming prospect he was easily beaten here by Shakhnazaryan who scored 2 knockdowns on route to taking a near shut out victory over 12 rounds. Shakhnazaryan wasn't the only impressive prospect in championship length fights on the show as the once beaten David Avanesyan (17-1-1, 9) took a 12 round decision over former world title challenger Kaizer Mabuza (25-11-3, 15) of South Africa. The only 8 rounder on the show saw the once beaten Felix Amoev (8-1, 4) take a very clear decision over the tough Volodymyr Borovskyy (21-57-2, 10) who was dropped early on but made his way to the final bell.. Cruiserweight-come-Heavyweight Ruslan Faifer (3-0, 1) also managed to extend his winning run as he over-came Ibragim Khalilov (4-2-2, 2) via a 6 round decision. For us the most interesting bout was that of the Uzbek Uktamjon Rahmonov (3-0, 1) who scored the only stoppage on the show as he beat Gegam Mkrtchyan (2-2) via a 3rd round retirement. Rahmonov looked pretty good at the Olympics before being beaten, in the quarter finals, by the eventual gold medal winner. Indiana, USA Russian Heavyweight Andrey Fedosov (25-3, 20) returned after 10 months out of the ring and scored a straight forward stoppage over the limited but experienced American Maurice Harris (26-19-2, 11) who was stopped in the second round. New York, USA In New York fans got to see the unbeaten Simeon Hardy (12-0, 9) made light work of the Uzbek born Azerbaijani Rahman Mustafa Yusubov (9-15, 7) who has now lost his last 6 dating back over a year. (Image courtesy of http://www.kiatkreerin.com) The biggest fights of this weekend are all on Saturday, no argument there, though Friday did have it's share of interesting bouts in Asia with a card in Thailand and a card in Japan. Bangkok, Thailand It was the card in Bangkok, Thailand that was first to take place and was televised, in it's entirety, on Thai Channel 7. Originally the only bout we knew was taking place was that of former world champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (34-5-1, 15), pictured, who was defending his WBC Asian Boxing Council Bantamweight title for the third time. Unfortunately Suriyan was in with an over-matched foe in the form of Albert Alcoy (14-18-7, 4) who stood no chance. Alcoy tried as he hard as he could though he was quickly despatched by the talented Suriyan who is almost certainly looking for another world title fight later this year. Although Suriyan was the "known bout" on the card it wasn't the show's opener. That honour instead fell to the unbeaten, though entirely untested, Kongfah Nakornluang (11-0, 5) who put in a dull and uninspired performance to out-point the awfully limited Safwan Lombok (1-23-1). We're wondering what Narkornluang Promotions are treating Kongfah with kiddy gloves, they are certainly doing him a dis-service and he really should be facing more notable opponents by now than fighters like Safwan. Whilst Suriyan is a former world champion their was also a current world champion on the show in the form of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (26-3-1, 24) who scored a straight forward stay busy victory over the debuting Den Nattapol Gym (0-1) inside a round. The bout was a mismatch though it was clearly used to keep Srisaket in shape and draw extra attention to the card with the current WBC Super Flyweight champion having some "name value". This was amazingly Srisaket's third victory of the year and it seems he is just staying active whilst details of his WBC world title defense with Carlos Cuadras are finalised. As well as the three bouts already mentioned the show had a pair of much lesser bouts. These saw Yodpichai Sithsaithong (10-11, 4) stopping recent world title challenger Lookrak Kiatmungmee (7-6, 4) inside a round, much quicker than the then WBC Minimumweight champion Xiong Zhao Zhong, and Chatchai Sithsaithong (2-5, 1) scoring his first KO as he defeated the debuting Fahpetchnoi Muangsima (0-1). Tokyo, Japan As well as the show in Thailand there was also a small card at the Korakuen Hall in Japan. The show, which featured 6 bouts in total had several interesting bouts. The first of the bouts we have the result for saw the hard hitting Kenta Nakagawa (7-2, 5) managing stop the limited, though powerful, Takeshi Hagiwara (7-8-3, 6) in just 3 rounds. This was just the second stoppage loss in Hagiwara's 18 fight career though it was just the second time he had faced someone with real power and he's probably not as tough as some would expect considering the low quality he's been in the ring with. The second bout we had the result for was from the bout involving Yuya Sugizaki (19-9-1, 6) and Kazuya Soma (6-5-2, 5). On paper it was a match up between Sugizaki's experienced and Soma's power and in the case the experience was the big difference between the two fighters with Sugizaki taking a unanimous decision over this big punching bit limited foe. It was in show's 5th overall bout that we actuallyhad the most important contest as former female world champion Tenkai Tsunami (20-9, 9) successfully claimed the previously vacant OPBF female Bantamweight title. Tsunami, fighting for the second time this year, used her experience and toughness to see off the hard hitting but limited Honey Katsumata (6-3, 6). Katsumata, who is a big puncher, had never fought near the level of Tsunami and the difference told as Katsumata was stopped in round 7, the first time she had gone beyond 6 rounds. The show closed out with an upset as Tsukasa Saito (18-3, 13) was stopped at the hands of the supposedly light hitting Hirotsugu Yamamoto (17-9-2, 3). The bout, which was in the final round of a scheduled 8, was just 22 seconds from going to the scorecards. On the undercard Shoji Ebisawa (5-1) managed to out point the limited Keita Kurihara (3-3, 3) over 4 rounds whilst novice Daisuke Uchikawa (1-1-1, 1) picked up his first victory courtesy of a 3rd TKO over the debuting Kimihiro Suda (0-1). California, USA In the US two Russian's were in action. The first of those was Khabir Suleymanov (16-4, 6) who was easily defeated by the unbeaten Roman Morales (18-0, 9). Suleymanov was dropped numerous times and looked incredibly poor in terms of skills, balance and durability and he did relatively well to actually see out the final bell. The second Russian in action was Rustam Nugaev (27-6-1, 17) who was very fortunate to defeat Mexico's Marvin Quintero (25-5, 21). Quintero seemed to win the first 4 rounds though unfortunately was forced to retire between rounds 4 and 5 with an injured hand. Prior to the stoppage it appeared that Quintero was bossing the fight with movement, combinations and accurate punching and Nugaev will certainly feel relieved that he had this lucky break, excuse the pun Estonia, Kohtla-Järve It wasn't all bad for Russian's on the road however and in Estonia, of all places, the very promising Aik Shakhnazaryan (11-0, 4) scored his biggest win. The Russian, fighting against Uzbekistan's Alisher Rahimov (25-3, 12) became the first man to stop Rahimov who was stopped just a minute in to round 2. Amazingly good win for the man known as "The Humanoid". (Photo courtesy of boxrec.com) |
Archives
October 2015
Categories
All
|