This past Friday was a hectic day with action in Thailand, Japan, Dubai and Asian fighters fighting in Australia.

Ratchaburi, Thailand
The most significant card of the day was in Thailand where we got the only world title bout of the day.

The show, like many in Thailand, began with a single preliminary bout. This saw WBO Asia Pacific Featherweight champion Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (56-2, 37) score a 6th round TKO win over Indonesian visitor Boido Simanjuntak (18-29-1, 7). It seemed clear from the opening bell that Chonlatarn was too good for the Indonesian who showed some guts but was eventually ground down in the 6th round. Whilst this was an expected win for the former 2-time world title challenger the result was rather disappointing given that Super Flyweight contender Srisaket Sor Rungvisai stopped Simanjuntak in in just as many rounds a year ago.

The main event was the aforementioned world title bout. The contest was for the WBO Bantamweight title and saw Pungluang Sor Singyu (51-3, 35) become a 2-time champion as he stopped Japan's Ryo Akaho (26-2-2, 18). On paper it looked a really good bout but unfortunately Akaho was never really able to get into it before being stopped in the second round. There were complaints about infringements from Pungluang but it seemed like Akaho had lost the bout before a punch was even thrown. Amazingly this continues the terrible run that Japanese fighters have had in world title fights in Thailand.

Another notable name on this card was “Manny Pacquiao Look-a-like” Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym (32-1-2, 17) who defeated journeyman Thaminkhao Sor Tharnthip (4-14-1, 3) by stoppage early in their bout. Kwanpichit, who lost to Zou Shiming last year, is now 5-0 (5) since his loss to the Chinese star.

The undercard here featured two prospects. One of those was Saentanong Onesongchaigym (7-0, 3) who continued his perfect start by over-coming Teeradech Sor Praithong (0-1). On paper Saentanong looks like a genuine prospect but sadly digging below the numbers shows that all 7 recorded bouts have come against debutants. The other prospect was Thewa Onesongchaigym (10-2, 5) who scored a stoppage win against Saksiam Or Sompote (0-1). Although Thewa has a couple of losses on his record he is on a 5 fight winning run and has seemingly put back-to-back defeats to Xian Wei Qian well behind him.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Whilst the most significant single bout was in Thailand it's fair to say that some of the most notable fighters were actually in Dubai as part of an ALA promotions show.

The main event of the evening saw the fast rising Albert Pagara (24-0, 17) make very light work of Mexico's Jesus Rios (31-8-1, 25). Rios, who had failed to make weight for the bout, had talked a good fight in the build up but lasted less than a round with the talented Pagara who really does look like one of the sports top prospects.

Albert wasn't the only Pagara in action as older brother Jason Pagara (36-2, 22) managed to take a technical decision win against Ramiro Alcaraz (15-5-1, 9). Pagara, who is world ranked at 140lbs by the WBO, really isn't up to the same level as his younger brother though will likely more attention when ALA make their promotional debut in the US.

A third main bout on this card resulted in an 8 round decision win for veteran Jimrex Jaca (40-8-4, 22) who out pointed Pablo Lugo Montiel (21-6, 17) in a relatively competitive bout.

This card also had 4 bouts on the under-card. One of those saw Larry Abarra (4-3-1, 3) score a stoppage against the fragile Tony Arema (3-7-1), who has now been stopped in 5 of his losses. Another stoppage on this card saw the promising Deo Krizito (2-0, 1) take out Thailand's Fapetch Manopchaigym (1-1). The only other stoppage on this undercard saw the debuting Lasisi Bamidel (1-0, 1) defeat Singnoi Simanasak (1-2).

In a bout that went the distance Muhammad Akram (4-0-1, 1) out pointed Nicholas Mwangi (0-1).

Tokyo, Japan
The Thai show was probably the one with the highest profile single bout and the show in Dubai was probably the strongest in terms of over-all name appeal. It was however a show in Japan that left a lasing impression, despite it being a flop for the promoter who saw only one of their 7 fighters pick up a win.

The one fighter to win from the promoter who put the show on was Hikaru Nishida (13-8-1, 5) who stopped former world title challenger Makoto Fuchigami (21-11, 12) in the 5th round of their bout. The contest was a rematch of their 2014 bout, which saw Nishida claim a narrow win. For 3 rounds it seemed like Fuchigami was going to avenge his loss as he boxed beautifully against a strong and determined, but basic, Naishida. In round 4 however Nishida began to turn the tide before forcing the referee to save Fuchigami in round 5, ending what was a Round of the Year contender.

The Nishida/Fushigami rematch was the co-main bout along with a brilliant Super Bantamweight bout between Yasutaka Ishimoto (26-8, 7) and Gakuya Furuhashi (17-6-1, 7). Whilst the the other main bout was a 5 round round war this one was a tactically sharp, high octane boxing contest with both men throwing a lot of leather in a brilliant, competitive and genuinely enthralling contest. The result was a close win for Ishimoto, who took the decision despite being deducted a point for holding in the penultimate round.

The two main bouts were both streamed on a ustream channel along with one of the under-card bouts. That under-card bout saw the much talked about Kohei Kashino (2-1, 1) suffer his first defeat at the hands of the under-rated Hizuki Saso (5-1, 1). Saso took over this bout in round 3 before stopping a tired Kashino in the 4th round of their Rookie of the Year bout.

Another much talked about fighter being stopped here was Riyako Goshi (3-4) who was stopped in round 3 by Chie Higano (4-3, 1). Goshi has been popular due to her out of the ring activities and her unusual ring outfits but the attention she got was massively more than her talent deserved.

Kashino wasn't the only fighter to lose his unbeaten record here as stablemate Yui Oikawa (2-1) also suffered his first defeat. Oikawa was relatively unfortunate to lose a very close majority decision to Sho Nagata (5-1, 2), who advanced to the next round in the Rookie of the Year.

Another bout with novices saw teenager Taiju Shitatori (2-0, 1) out point Ryo Nakano (1-3) whilst a 6 rounder saw Masayuki Ichikawa (6-2, 2) take a wide decision win over Masayuki Sakurai (3-9-2).

Victoria, Australia
In Australia we saw two title bouts featuring Asian fighters.

The more significant of those two bouts saw Czar Amonsot (29-3-3, 17) retain his PABA Light Welterweight title as he took a 4th round technical decision win over Rusmin Kie Raha (14-8-2, 3). Amonsot, a Filipino based in Australia, managed to add the lightly regarded WBA Pan African title to his collection, though we do wonder how a Filipino and an Indonesian qualify to fight for an African belt.

The other bout saw another Australian based Filipino in action, sadly however Roberto Lerio (16-22-1, 6) couldn't match the result of Amonsot. Instead Lerio was on the end of a clear decision loss to the unbeaten Ibrahim Balla (8-0, 5), who claimed the Australian Super Bantamweight title with this win.

This past Friday was a busy day for Asian boxing with fighters in action in both the west and the east, including two Thai shows.

Bangkok, Thailand
In the most significant of two Thai shows fans got the chance to see some of the more notable fighters from the Nakornluang stable of fighters.

The most notable fighter in action was former WBC Super Flyweight world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (33-4-1, 30) who made light work of the horribly matched Madit Sada (9-21-1, 3). Sada was the proverbial lamb to the slaughter, and like a lamb he put up little resistance before being stopped in the 3rd round by Srisaket, who did little more than sharpen his tools.

Another somewhat notable fighter on this card was Kongfah Nakornluang (20-0, 12) who retained his WBC Youth silver Super Flyweight title as he easily beat Indonesian challenger Ricky Morales (4-1-1) who looked under-sized, inexperienced and was generally no match for Kongfah. As is common Kongfah looked huge in comparison to his foe and we really are curious as to how he makes Flyweight

Another early finish on this show saw Denchai Por Korbkua (2-2, 1) score his first stoppage win as he took out Petchboon Sithsaithong (2-2, 2) in the 3rd round. This was a high tempo and enjoyable affair though Petchboon seemed unable to cope with the pressure and aggression of Denchai, who was sloppy but fun to watch.

The only bout on the show that went the distance saw the previously win-less Toto Lookmuangbangklang (1-1) over-come the debuting Songkramchai Etinakorn (0-1) over the 6 round distance.

Chachoengsao, Thailand
A second Thai show, televised on Channel 11, featured a couple of unbeaten Tor Buamas prospects who both continued to advance their perfect records.

One of those prospects was Kaewfah Tor Buamas (18-0, 12) who over-came Indonesian visitor Boido Simanjuntak (18-28-1, 7) in 4 rounds of their Lightweight encounter. Simanjuntak has now lost 10 in a row and is win-less in more than 2 years however he is the best fighter Kaewfah has beaten so far. Although unbeaten Kaewfah has had a very uninspiring career thus far, and it's time he kicked on and stepped up a level.

The other prospect was Pharanpetch Tor Buamas (15-0, 11) who defeated the Chaosamut Padjaigym (0-1) in 3 rounds. Pharanpetch has faced better opponents than his stablemate but, just like Kaewfah, he really needs to begin stepping up his opposition as bouts like this are relatively pointless for such a talented fighter.

Chiba, Japan
In Japan we had an equally low level show in Chiba where fans had 7 bouts, unfortunately though only one of those bouts had any noteworthy quality.

That one notable bout saw Japanese hopeful Tsukasa Saito (20-3, 15) make light work of Thailand's win-less Fasanghan Or Benjamad (0-8) who continues his run of stoppage defeats. Fasanghan was stopped in the 2nd round by Saito who will be hoping to move towards a Japanese title fight later in the year.

In the main support bouts fans had a couple of 6 rounders. One of those saw Corrales Kawashima (5-5-1, 2) level off his record with a 2nd round stoppage win against Hiroshi Miwa (4-7, 2) with Miwa suffering his 7th stoppage loss. The other 6 rounder sadly ended in unsatisfactory fashion with a 2nd round technical draw in a bout between Haruka Itakura (4-1-1, 1) and Katsunori Imai (5-6-2).

The 4 under-card bouts here were all 4 rounders. One of those bouts saw Yoshihiro Furukawa (1-1, 1) claim his first win as he stopped the still win-less Kazuya Nomura (0-4-1) in the 3rd round. Another early win was scored by Ken Matsuzawa (1-0, 1) who stopped Hiroki Arakawa (0-2) in round 2 of their contest. A more competitive bout saw Toshiaki Akimoto (1-0) take a narrow win over Mirai Imagawa (0-1) whilst Atsuhsi Suzuki (0-0-1) and Yuki Ishikawa (0-0-1) fought to a split decision draw in an all debutant affair.

California, USA
The most significant bout of the day was also the last and came in the US where the popular Yoshihiro Kamegai (25-3-1, 22) battled against former world title challenger Alfonso Gomez (25-6-2, 12) in a bout that was highly entertaining and action packed. Early on Gomez was too smart and won a number of early rounds on his movement. As the bout progressed Gomez slowed and Kamegai managed to come back into it. Sadly for Kamegai much of his efforts were ignored by the judges who had the bout scored far too wide.

Victoria, Australia
In Australia there were several Asian fighters in action, including an all-Asian fight.

That all-Asian bout saw Australian based Filipino Czar Amonsot (27-3-3, 17) over-come Thai visitor Padjai Yongyuthgym (18-2-2, 12) in a 6 round bout. The world ranked Amonsot was effectively staying busy here though hopefully next time out he will face a stiffer opponent.

The other Asian on this card was Filipino journeyman Rodynie Rafol (12-7-2, 5) who lost a 6 round bout against the popular though faded Michael Katsidis (31-7, 24). Although Katsidis won he did struggle and it's clearer than ever that he needs to walk away from the sport before he gets beaten by a fighter at this level.

Although the fights dropped a level today the action continued in great fashion with bouts of varying significance taking place involving Asian fighters. Sadly we've only currently got specific results we're awaiting "late results" from the Philippines.

Victoria, Australia
The first set of results that we got were from "Down under" where it was a good day for Filipino fans as PABA Light Welterweight champion Czar Amonsot (27-3-3, 17) stopped Thailand's Thong Por Chokchai (23-9-1, 15) and retained his belt. Before the first bell went we knew that the title was not on the line for Thong who unfortunately failed to make weight yesterday, coming in almost 3lbs above the 140lb limit. The weight didn't help Thong and he stopped in the third round by the more talented champion.

In all honesty the card wasn't a good one for Thai's and it wasn't just Thong who picked up a loss but also Thongthai Rajanondh (16-19, 4) who was stopped, in 2 rounds, by Ibrahim Balla (5-0, 4) who won the Victoria State Super Bantamweight title with this victory.

Tokyo, Japan
As well as the Australian action we also got early results from Japan where a 9 fight card took place at the Korakuen Hall. 

The main event here saw Tatsuya Takahashi (17-5-3, 12) doing what was expected of him and quickly seeing off Thai visitor Pramod Sor Vorapin (0-5) who suffered his 5th stoppage loss. Pramod, who had been stopped in all 4 of his previous losses, lasted less than 3 rounds with Takahashi who recorded back to back wins for the first time since 2011.

In the chief support bout Dai Iwai (15-3-1, 5) was given an unexpectedly tough test by domestic journeyman Keita Ito (8-18-2, 4). This was supposed to be a straight forward win for Iwai, at least on paper, but instead he was pushed all the way in a bout that suggests Iwai is no where near being ready for a domestic title challenge against Rikki Naito. 

Although the main event and chief support looked like mismatches we did get some very decent looking bouts on paper, albeit it at a low level. Amongst those was a surprisingly 1-sided decision victory for Keisuke Ota (8-7, 1) who easily out-pointed Takaki Sakurai (5-5-1, 1) over 6 rounds. In the show's only other 6 rounder Yuto Hashiguchi (6-3-1, 5) showed off his power as he finished Hitoshi Ando (4-7-1, 3) in the 5th round.

The rest of the card was all 4 rounders with the most competitive of those ending in a majority decision draw between Takumi Matsuda (1-1-1) and the debuting Koji Benjamin Watanabe (0-0-1). Watanabe did link to a video of his fight via his ustream channel though unfortunately none of our team were able to watch it, though from what we under-stand he acquitted himself excellently despite failing to record a win on his debut.

The Matsuda/Watanabe fight wasn't the only competitive one and Naoya Sato (2-0) was very fortunate to get get the win over Ibuki Kitade (1-2) in a contest that could easily have resulted in a draw.

Thankfully there was no arguments over who won the other 3 bouts. One of which was a blast out for Sosuke Sakata (2-1, 1), who needed just 94 seconds to take out Yuya Nemoto (1-4), another was a dominant decision victory for the previously win-less Yasuhiro Koyama (1-2), who beat Manabu Yamaguchi (0-1-1) and a clear decision victory for Hiroki Ishii (1-2-1) who beat Takuya Kurata (0-2).

Metro Manila, PhilippinesThere was also action in the Philippines this past Wednesday with several title fighters.

Amongst those title bouts was a WBC international Bantamweight title fight that saw the unbeaten and exciting Rex Wao (10-0, 8) stopping the light hitting Virden Rivera (7-1-1, 2) to claim the title. Wao is a very exciting fighter and one that we're hoping to see more of though at the moment it's unlikely he's going to be rushed too much despite this title win and a likely boost in the WBC rankings.

Another title fight on this show saw Ernie Sanchez (14-5-1, 5) unexpectedly held to a split draw by journeyman Randy Megrino (15-17-3, 8). This bout, for the WBC Youth Featherweight title, was expect to see Sanchez finally winning his first professional title though the draw has denied him that opportunity and see him extend his win-less streak to 3 fights, albeit with 2 losses to very good Mexican's.

In a third 12 round contest Carlo Magali (18-7-2, 9) managed to out point Rey Perez (19-5, 4) to claim a unanimous decision in what is a slight upset.

The card also featured some 4 round contests, included in those was a TKO victory for Warlight Dapidran (3-0, 2), the cousin of Manny Pacquiao. Dapidran managed to stop the debuting Jerry Salivio (0-1) though unfortunately he has done little to boost his standing with a third successive victory against a debutant. In another contest fans saw former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Allan Tanada (13-2-3, 5) unexpectedly struggle against Mark Sales (20-37-3, 6). The bout was fought above Tanada's usual weight but he still wasn't expected to struggle like this.


Compostela Valley, Philippines
On a separate Filipino show we had a further 3 contests. These were headlined by a 4th round KO victory for Engelbert Moralde (7-2, 5) who over-came the limited Nicardo Calamba (6-17-3, 3) in the only stoppage on the show.

The other two bouts saw Ronnie Tanallon (4-1, 1) taking a 6 round victory over Rez Padrogane (2-5, 1) whilst in a 4 rounder Markquil Salvana (2-0, 1) defeated Frejun Dela Cruz (2-2-1).


(Image, courtesy of boxingnews.jp, comes from the Takahashi/Sor Vorapin bout)