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)

This past Sunday was never going to match up to the Saturday that came before it, that was just impossible. It did however still have plenty interesting action with notable events taking place in both Japan and Russia.

Kanagawa, Japan
The most notable card for us was in Kanagawa as fans got to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the hugely popular Tsuneo "Piston" Horiguchi. The card, which was nothing special in terms of actual match ups, was one that was there was a celebration and as a result was a joyous occasion as much as anything else.

With 10 bouts on the show it was a long one on paper though 6 of the 10 bouts were scheduled just for 4 rounds. 

From those 4 rounders just 3 went the distance and one of those was an all debutant affair that saw Teruhisa Komori (1-0) out out point Shuhei Hamano (0-1) in a very competitive contest. Although Komori's victory was a close one it wasn't the only close bout from the 4 rounders which also saw Tomokazu Ueda (4-1) struggle to a victory against Mineharu Sakaguchi (1-4-3) and Hiroyuki Yago (2-0) over-coming Araki Yamazaki (1-3, 1). Although all 3 of these bouts ended in unanimous decisions all could easily have have been draws with the very competitive rounds through out the bouts.

Although 3 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds went the distance the other 3 lasted a combined 6 rounds. Of those 6 rounds 4 were taken up by the all debutant contest between Hiroto Kayama (1-0, 1) and Yuichi Kitayama (0-1) which ended when Kayama stopped Kitayama with 69 seconds remaining. One of the other stoppages saw Tetsuya Hirokawa (2-3, 2) stopping Genji Ishida (1-3) in 173 seconds whilst it took just 92 seconds for Naoyuki Sakamoto (1-0, 1) to get his career to a bang with a stoppage of the win-less Takashi Shinmyozu (0-4).

Up a step from the 4 rounds the card had a pair of bouts scheduled for 6 rounds. These bouts both saw the judges being called on as Ryuto Araya (6-2-1) took a 4th round technical decision over Ryota Koizumi (6-10-1, 4) whilst Ghanian born Japanese based fighter Quaye Peter (5-4-2, 3) had to settle for a split dear with Shingo Yabu (4-3-2). This was Peter's first fight since he lost to the debuting Koki Koshikawa back in March.

Following the 6 rounder we then had a pair of 8 rounders. The first of those saw Wataru Miyasaka (8-2-1, 2) out point Shogo Ojima (10-3-1, 2) in a clear victory whilst the other saw Japan's Kazuaki Irisawa (8-5, 5) stop the over-matched Petchdum Manopchaygym (0-2) in 5 rounds.

As well as the competitive bouts on this show we also had exhibitions from a trio of Ohashi promoted world champions. These included a very entertaining "bout" between Naoya Inoue and Akira Yaegashi who put on a thrilling exhibition contest for the second time in the space of just a few short weeks after doing the same at the "Boxing Day" event. The other world class fighter in an exhibition was Ayaka Miyao, the WBA Atomweight champion.

Fukuoka, Japan
The Kanagawa show wasn't the only Japanese one and in the Kyuden Gym in Fukuoka city fans got treat to another, much lower profile show that saw 6 stoppages from 8 contests.

The bouts that went the distance saw Masahiro Harano (3-2-3, 1) fighting to a split decision draw with Fever Maki (4-1-1, 2), over 4 rounds, and Naoya Haruguchi (5-4, 2) pretty much shutting out Hideaki Yamaji (4-5, 2) in a bout that looked more competitive on paper than it ended up being in reality.

Of the other 6 bouts, all of which were scheduled for 4 rounds, we saw stoppages in either the 3rd or 4th round. These included a 3rd round TKO victory for Yuki Beppu (5-0, 5) who continued his stoppage run by defeating Koki Tomio (3-5, 3), another 3rd round stoppage as the hard hitting Shisato Okuma (7-1-2, 6) stopped the over-matched Yudai Yamakawa (2-3, 1), Takayoshi Kurokawa (1-0-1, 1) took  his first victory, again courtesy of a 3rd round victory as he stopped the debuting Seita Nagano (0-1) and, in the shows only female bout, a 3rd round stoppage for Kasumi Fujimitsu (2-0, 2) who beat the still win-less Sayuri Koto (0-2).

The bouts that extended into the 4th round saw Yusuke Fujimura (3-1-1, 1) stopping teenager J Soul Shogo (1-2, 1) and Reiya Konishi (4-0, 3) taking the unbeaten record of Yuki Shimizu (2-1, 1).

Mytishchi, Russia
The action continued in Russia where we actually got the most high profile contests of the day.

This card, which featured 6 bouts saw several interesting contests though it did also see some lesser bouts. One of those lesser bouts saw Andrey Sirotkin (4-0, 1) taking a 6 round decision over the debuting Mark Chipinov (0-1) whilst an equally uninteresting, though more badly matched contest, saw the visiting Micki Nielsen (14-0, 11) physically abuse the very limited Igor Pylypenko (4-17-2, 1). Nielsen dropped Pylypenko inside a round the forced a stoppage in round 3.

Although Nielsen looked sensational in his bout their was disappointment from Isa Akberbayev (12-0-0-1, 8) who forced a retirement of Morris Okola (4-1, 2) but look less than sensational prior to Okola retiring from the contest. Another man who was less than dazzling was Azerbaijan's Ramal Amanov (5-0) who took an 8 round decision over Michael Odhiambo (12-6, 9) though was dropped in the process.

The chief support bout was female world title bout as leggy blonde beauty Svetlana Kulakova (9-0-1, 1) challenged Ana Laura Esteche (10-3-2, 2) for the unified WBA female Light Welterweight title. Unfortunately Kulakova her good start and good ended were marred by some nightmare rounds in the middle as she had to settle for a split decision draw with the Argentinian visitor.

The main event on this show saw Dmitry Chudinov (13-0-2, 8) batter Danish fighter Patrick Nielsen (22-1, 12) to claim the WBA interim Middleweight title. In theory this puts him a step away from a fight with Gennady Golovkin though we'd be shocked to see that bout made with Chudinov's team not being that foolish.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)