This past Friday was a busy day with fights across our area.

Tokyo, Japan
In Japan fans saw a Watanabe card that may not have oozed big names but domestically it was a highly important card that will have helped piece together some bouts for 2015.

The main event of the card saw the bleached blonde Hayato Kimura (22-7, 15) take a 5 round technical decision over Kanae Onogi (6-7-1, 3) in what was, on paper, a total mismatch. Although on paper this was far from an even bout it was a case of getting Kimura a win after back to back losses to Marlon Tapales, technical decision 5, and Michael Dasmarinas, an 8 round unanimous decision. Whilst we'll admit we don't see him progressing to winning a national or OPBF it's still good to see Kimura getting the W under his belt after what has been a nightmare year for him.

In one of the other feature bouts fans saw the always entertaining Rikiya Fukuhara (30-7-1, 22) score an opening round blow out against Thailand's Thiendaeng Manoprungroj (1-5, 1). The bout was a complete mismatch but it was effectively a tune up bout before Fukuhara gets a rematch with Satoshi Hosono in 2015. In Fukuhara's first bout with Hosono, which can be seen here, he was stopped in 7 rounds but he is unbeaten since then and seems very hungry for the rematch.

The other 8 rounder on the show saw Ryuichi Funai (22-6, 15) score a 4th round TKO against the out matched Toshikuni Wake (8-14-3, 2). Funai did have a scare early on when he was caught by a hard right but that was his only worry and he quickly took control of the bout from there on stop his over-matched foe.

The only other early result we have from this card was a genuine upset as Kota Oguchi (10-13, 1) managed to take a split decision over Kununobu Shimamura (16-4-1, 11). This was Oguchi's 2nd successive win following 9 losses in a row and it seems that something in him has finally clicked whilst for Shimamura this is a very damaging loss for his career.

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand we saw a former world champion in action as former WBO Bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu (47-3, 31) narrowly over-came Tanzania's Fadhili Majiha (15-5-4, 7) to claim the interim WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight title. We do wonder how Majiha qualified for an Asia Pacific title fight though the bigger worry is how much Pungluang has left considering just how much he struggled here and it may be that his loss to Tomoki Kameda earlier this year has actually ruined him, a real shame but a possibility all the same.

Moscow, Russia
In Russia there was 9 bouts in total including some very interesting bouts with very recognisable names at the top tier of the sport.

The undercard began with with a 6 round contest at Featherweight between the unbeaten Evgeny Smirnov (4-0, 1) and the more experienced Michael Nyawade (12-3-2, 8). The bout saw Smirnov taking the win with a decision though has left questions about his lack of power considering Nyawade had been stopped in his previous 2 losses. 

In a major Middleweight bout Arif Magomedov (12-0, 9) dominated the previously undefeated Michael Zerafa (15-1, 7) to continue his fast and impressive rise through the ranks. We know Magomedov isn't a big name in the Middleweight division though we suspect he will become one in the near future given his talent and his talent, power and promise. In a second 10 rounder we saw the unbeaten Sergey Ekimov (12-0, 6) make light work of the experienced Miguel Velozo (17-3-2, 5) with a 5th round TKO to give Velozo his first stoppage loss in 22 fights.

The final of the 10 rounders Heavyweight contender Manuel Charr (27-2, 16) stopped American Michael Grant (48-6, 26) who refused to come out for round 6 and never really looked interested in the fight even at the opening bell.

In the least interesting of the 3 bouts scheduled for 12 rounds we saw Lightweight Eduard Troyanovsky (19-0, 16) destroy former WBA Lightweight title holder Jose Alfaro (27-9-1, 12) in 5 very one sided rounds to claim the WBA International Lightweight title. A second 12 rounder saw Cruiserweight hopeful Rakhim Chakhkiev (20-1, 15) score a KO of Italian veteran Giacobbe Fragomeni (32-5-2, 13). Fragomeni, a solid contender in his own right, was made to look like an old man fit for retirement after this loss in which he really was dominated by Chakhkiev.

The main event saw former WBA Heavyweight title holder Alexander Povetkin (28-1, 20) score an excellent 10th round KO against Carlos Takam (30-2-1, 23) to claim the WBC Silver Heavyweight title.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

A day that begins in Australia and ends in Mexico can be an insanely long day in the boxing world. Sometimes it's not really worth it but this Saturday really was worth it as we had one of the best fights you will see in 2014!

Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Although it was the last bout of the day, by some margin, we can't help but start the results with the war in Mexico between Katsunari Takayama (27-7-0-1, 10) and Mexico's Francisco Rodriguez Jr (15-2, 10). The bout, a rare unification contest at 105lbs, saw the IBF and WBO titles being unified by Rodriguez who won a very hard fought decision in a bout many are dubbing the fight of the year. From the first round to the last the bout swung one way then the other, one man looked in charge then the other did, the action, relentless and pulsating from the off was the sort of thing worth staying up for and although Takayama, a man we love, lost on the scorecards he enhanced his reputation as a warrior. We're hoping for a rematch though we'll be honest and say that we don't imagine it happening which is a shame but considering how good the bout was we'll be remembering this one for a very long time. If you're interested in watching this fight we have the video here.

Crimea
In the hotly disputed area of the Crimea we had a Russian promoted card that featured a "world title" fight that was little more than a criminal mismatch between one of the rising Russian stars and someone who has seen much, much better days.

The card began with a trio of low level decision bouts. These saw debuting Heavyweight Pavel Doroshilov (1-0) take a decision over British veteran Danny Williams (46-23-0-2, 35) to announce himself as a man to keep an eye on. Although Williams is a "shot" fighter he's still an interesting opponent to debut against, especially when you consider who many other fighters have been debuting against in recent weeks.

In a 6 rounder Azerbaijan's feather fisted Ramal Amanov (6-0) took a disputed majority decision over the more experienced Wilfrido Buelvas (15-3, 9). This wasn't the only debated decision on the card with Dilmurod Satybaldiev (5-1, 2) narrowly taking a split decision over Konstantin Piternov (15-6, 6).

Although some of the decisions on this show were debatable no one would argue with the decision that went in favour of the very promising Arif Magomedov (12-0, 8) who totally dominated Britain's Patrick Mendy (15-7-1, 1). Mendy, who fought to a draw with Dmitry Chudinov last year, was dropped in rounds 2, 7 and 8 as Magomedov did everything but stop his foe. By the end of the bout the scorecards didn't really matter as it was so one sided, though somehow onely 1 judge gave it a shut out with scores of 120-105, 119-106 and 118-117 all being returned from the judges. The video of this fight is available here.

In the main event Dmitry Chudinov (14-0-2, 9) simply destroyed French veteran Mehdi Bouadla (30-6, 11) to retain the WBA "interim" world title. Chudinov dropped Bouadla 5 times in less than 3 rounds forcing the referee to wave off the bout and save Bouadla from any further punishment. Bouadla was down once in the opening round then twice in rounds 2 and 3 as he found out just how hard Chudinov punches. The video of this fight is here.

Gauteng, South Africa
We had two title fights of note in South Africa earlier and sadly neither of them went "our way". 

For Russian fighter Denis Grachev (13-4-1, 8) the action was exciting though he was unable to over-come the unbeaten Ryno Liebenberg (16-0, 11) who took a clear decision to claim the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. Grachev brought a lot of pressure in the fight but was unable to land the clean blows needed to over-come the clean counters of Liebenberg who deserved the decisions, though he cards were frustratingly wide in favour of the home fighter.

For Filipino fighter Roli Gasca (22-5-1, 6) things were equally disappointing as he gave his all against the heavy handed Thabo Sonjica (20-2, 14) in a bout for the IBO Super Bantamweight title. Gasca, who was up against it when the bout was signed, found himself up against a man who failed to make weight and that was simply too much for him, despite a good effort. Sonjica came in above the Featherweight limit and was naturally bigger anyway. That size came in handy and despite being dropped in round 7 Sonjica was simply too strong, dropping Gasca in round 11 to secure a clear decision victory, though one which will come with many people feeling disappointed in the South African fighter.

New South Wales, Australia
The boxing began in Australia today with 2 cards. The most important of the bouts involving an Asian "down under" took place in New South Wales as Filipino fighter Ryan Sermona (16-6 9) attempted to make the first defence of his WBC International Super Featherweight title. Unfortunately for Sermona, who took on the light hitting Corey McConnell (14-1-1, 2), he became just the second stoppage victim of McConnell after suffering a cut that caused the referee to stop the bout. It's a shame for Sermona to lose his title like this but hopefully he will be able to secure a rematch with the Australian.

Queensland, Australia
The other bout of note in Australia saw Aussie debutant Luke Hall (1-0) over-come Thailand's win-less Arnon Yuchareon (0-5). Arnon managed to win 1 of the 4 rounds on all 3 cards losing 39-37, surprisingly this is as close as he's got to winning a professional boxing contest since he turned professional 6 months ago.

Pennsylvania, USA
In the US fans were rightfully impressed by the performance of the unbeaten Vasily Lepikhin (16-0, 9) who put on a text book display of boxing to defeat the heavy handed Robert Berridge (24-2-1, 20) over 5 rounds. It was an incredibly solid performance from the unbeaten Russian fighter who seems likely to become a genuine contender over the next few fights. Again if you are interested in the video of this bout we have it here.

(Image courtesy of Nakazato boxing)

Yesterday was an interesting day for boxing though the most interesting story of the day was less about a fight that happened but rather one that didn't. This left a shadow over the sport for us, and for many others, though there was plenty of genuinely good action that shouldn't be forgotten for the single act of stupidity by one particular fighter.

Phitsanulok, Thailand
The earliest action of the day was in Thailand as Channel 7 televised an interesting show. Much of the action was Muay Thai though we did have a couple of boxing contests on it both of which had genuine significance in the sport.

The biggest name in action on this Thai show was WBC #1 ranked Minimumweight Wanheng Menayothin (34-0, 11) who made light work of Indonesian journeyman Domi Nenokeba (11-17-1, 7). Nenokeba appears to have established his place in boxing with 17 successive losses include 2 to Wanheng who really must be wondering if the WBC will ever give him a title show after being the #1 contender for a considerable length of time now.

The other boxing bout on this card saw Muay Thai fighter-turn-boxer Palangpol CP Freshmart (3-0, 3) rack up his second good stoppage win in as many months. Palangpol put on an aggressive display as he stopped the usually durable Indonesian Heri Amol (34-17-4, 14), who famously dropped Kazuto Ioka. Palangpol apparently claimed the WBA Asian Flyweight title with this victory and should move into the PABA rankings as a result.

Moscow, Russia
Whilst the Thai card was the first of the day we were all more excited about the action from Moscow which had the potential be something a little bit special. We had been anticipating the rematch between WBA Cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev (25-2, 19) and Guillermo Jones (39-3-2, 31) though that was unfortunately scrapped at the final hour after Jones was forced off the card after a positive drugs test.

Although the main event was cancelled the show still went ahead with the other 6 bouts from the card.

Of the bouts that did happen the best, on paper, looked like the battle of unbeaten Middleweights as the big punching Arif Magomedov (11-0, 8) took on Colombia's highly touted Alex Theran (16-1, 9). We had expected this to be an excellent match up but the big punching Russian just decimated Theran who was dropped, battered, cut and beaten. Although reports in Spanish language sources suggest Theran was cut by a headclash it seems that the Colombian was on to a hiding to nothing and realised it as he quit in his corner after 3 rounds. This victory grants Magomedov the WBA Fedelatin Middleweight title and a probably WBA world ranking.

Another unbeaten fighter on this card was Umar Salamov (10-0, 9) who stopped the brave but out-matched Gasan Gasanov (7-3-1, 5). Gasanov pushed the action early on but was dropped twice in round 4 before being stopped by the big punching Salamov. Stood at 6'3" and aged just 19 Salamov looks like yet another Russian to keep an eye on at 175lbs though will likely fill into an excellent Cruiserweight. At the moment the unbeaten man holds the WBO and IBO Youth titles and is already getting his links to the major organising bodies.

In another title fight Andrey Knyazev (10-1, 5) successfully defended his Russian Cruiserweight title stopping the game Ruslan Semenov (5-27-1, 3) in 4 rounds. We've been lead to believe that this was a very harsh stoppage in a fight that was being fought on a very even keel.

The lower part of the card saw Ilya Rolgeyzer (3-0) defeat Roman Mirzoev (2-9, 1) in a relative dull bout whilst the debuting Sergey Lipinets (1-0) thoroughly dominated Franklin Varela (21-15, 10) who did very well to survive the course.

With the main event being cancelled the biggest bout on the show was a contest between well regarded Lightweight pair Andrey Klimov (17-1, 8) and Francisco Contreras (22-5, 17). Although the bout looked good on paper it turned out to be a shocking contest full of fouls, hugging, holding and very little clean action. Whilst Boxnation didn't show this contest we can't help but feel relieved. 

Podolsk, Russia
On a second Russian card there were several smaller bouts. One of those saw Maxim Maslov (14-1-1, 8) taking a decision over the tough but limited Arturs Kulikauskis (13-19-3, 6) whilst the unbeaten Igor Ivanov 98-0-1, 2) was unexpectedly held to a draw by Ukrainian Oleg Korobko (4-1-2, 1) who is odd 2-0-1 in Russia.

Yucatán, Mexico
Another Russian fighter who was in action was the unbeaten Andrey Meryasev (16-0, 11) who scored the biggest win of his career by defeating Argentina's Carlos Manuel Baldomir (49-16-6, 15) in a neutral venue of Mexico. Baldomir, best known for his shock upset over Zab Judah is no longer the fighter he once was and at close to 43 years old it's no surprise he was beaten by the younger fresher man.

(Picture, of Wanheng, courtesy of boxrec.com)