This past Saturday wasn't a major one for Asian boxing fans but there was still a host of action, much of which was involved fighters at or around the OPBF title level.

Tokyo, Japan
The most notable of all the matches involving an Asian fighter took place at the Korakuen Hall as the unified Japanese OPBF Middleweight champion Akio Shibata (23-8-1, 9) retained his unified crown for the first time. Shibata was always expected to over come his opponent, Hikaru Nishida (10-7-1, 3), but was forced to use all hsi experience to over-come a fighter that we believe will come again in the future. Nishida, although not a world class fighter, is a man who will give everyone at this level a hard bout and we doubt Shibata will be in a rush for a rematch.

Whilst Shibata is a unified OPBF/Japanese champion we did see a former world champion on the undercard in the form of former IBF Minimumweight champion Florante Condes (27-9-1, 23). Condes, travelling to Japan, took on former Japanese Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (20-2-1, 8), seemed on the verge of scoring a shock stoppage over the gutsy Japanese fighter but Taguchi showed all his heart to recover from a very hard knockdown in the second round. Taguchi's heart saw him recovering over the following round to take a very hard fought decision but neither man came out of this bout with any shame and we're going to look forward to seeing both in action again.

One man who did manage to see off his hurt opponent was Hayato Hokazono (18-4-1, 11) who took out Osamu Hashimoto (9-7, 1) in the 6th of a scheduled 8 rounder. Likewise Yuji Wauke (18-4-1, 9) managed to take out his opponent, Jonel Gadapan (8-7-1, 4), needing just 5 of the 8 scheduled rounds to close the show.

The quickest of the contests saw the monstrously hard hitting Yuichi Yokoyama (14-2, 13) take out Tatsuya Yanagi (10-2, 4) in just  169 seconds as the power of Yokoyama was felt in a big way. Yanagi managed to recover his feet but he was counted out doing so following a huge straight right of Yokoyama's.

In a 5 round bout Yoshihisa Yokota (6-10-1, 2) took a decision over Yamato Nakagawa (4-4, 2) whilst in the opening bout Shinya Ito (2-01) took a 4 round decision over Shinnosuke Yoshimori (1-2, 1) in what was the show's opening bout.

Metro Manila, Philippines
In the Philippines fans had the chance to catch a 7 fight show in Metro Manila. The main event on this show saw recent OPBF Featherweight title challenger Vinvin Rufino (35-16-3, 16) retain his GAB Featherweight title but trade knockdowns in a very competitive bout with Cristian Abila (11-13-3, 3). Rufino was dropped in the 11th round but managed to even it out by scoring a knockdown of his own in the following round to give us a bout what was more competitive than the records of the fighters would have suggested going into the contest.

Whilst Rufino had failed in his OPBF title challenge earlier this year the co-feature had a man who had taken his chance with both hands and claimed the Light Flyweight title with a stunning victory over Virgilio Silvano back in March. That was the hard hitting Jonathan Taconing (19-2-1, 16) who stopped the previously unbeaten Jaipetch Chaiyonggym (3-1, 2) with a devastating body shot in the 3rd round.

Another man who scored a body shot KO was the unbeaten Randy Braga (13-0-1, 3) who stopped the very poor Dexter Mendoza (11-14-2, 3) in just 47 seconds!

Some of the bouts, other than the main event, on this show did go the distance, including the sole 6 round bout which saw Glenn Suminguit (13-2, 7) take a very wide decision over Jomar Borbon (4-18-2, 2), a very narrow 4 round majority decision for the unbeaten Roderick Flores (3-0-1, 1) over the debuting Jayson Dogelio (0-1) and a debut victory for Marlon Paniamogan (1-0) who took a shut out over Jaymark Borbon (0-1).

The only other 4 round bout on this card saw Raymond Yanong (2-1, 2) defeating Christian Rayta (0-2), who retired at the end of the second round.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Saturday was a busy day for fighters from Russia and the Philippines and although not everything went to plan it was certainly a noteworthy day.

Metro Manila, Philippines
The biggest Asian card of the day took pace in Metro Manila with a staggering 13 bouts on the show.

The highest profile bout on the show featured former IBF Minimumweight world champion Florante Condes (27-8-1, 13) who claimed the IBF Pan Pacific Minimumweight title thanks to a 7th round KO over Cris Alfante (10-2, 3). Condes, who has now won 2 fights following more than a year out, seems likely to to try and rebuild himself in to world title fight though it is admittedly still early in his comeback.

Although Condes's win was expected the card did have some shocks. One such shock saw the hard hitting Rex Olisa (10-23-1, 8) stopping the once touted Bebong Manalo (8-2, 5) in just 3 rounds. Although Olisa has a poor record he is tough, has power and is dangerous. If fighters think they will be having an easy day with Olisa they are very much mistaken.

One bout that went the way we'd have expected saw the win-some lose-some Jonathan Ligas (7-5-1, 1) manage to out point the win-some lose-lots Elbert Guardario (8-24-1, 2) via a hard fought 10 round decision. Likewise Virden Rivera (7-0-1, 2) 10 round victory over Jovill Marayan (8-16-3, 3) was also expected, especially when you consider the lack of power in Rivera's shots.


In the shows only bout to be scheduled for 8 rounds we saw an accidental clash of heads call a halt to proceedings in round 6. This saw Romulo Ramayan Jr (6-3-3, 3) and Lester Abutan (5-1-2, 2) needing to settle for a draw with each other.

One of the most expected results of the day saw former OPBF title challenger Dennis Tubieron (17-3-1, 8) stopping the over-matched Samuel Apuya (7-17-1, 4) at the end of 2 rounds in one of the 6 round bouts. The other 6 rounders also saw the "expected" winners coming out on top as 
Kenjie Monenio (6-3-3, 1) stopped Mabert Paulino (2-17, 5), Roldan Aldea (7-1-1, 3) out pointed Jomar Borbon (3-17-2, 1) and Lionel Mark Duran (12-10-2, 5) took a decision over the relatively hapless Roy Albaera (2-22-5).

In the shows 4 rounder bouts we saw mixed results for debutants. We Joe Noynay (3-0) widely defeat his debuting opponent Vicencio Rubas (0-1), in an all debutant bout Mark Baribar (1-0) took a clear decision over Joshro Lindon (0-1), whilst Jun Blaso (1-0, 1) marked his debut with an early victory over Jomar Manlangit (0-2).
The only of the 4 rounders with out a debutant saw Pablo Gabunia (4-2, 2) wipe out the win-less Charlie Gabriel (0-5) inside a round.



Moscow, Russia
If there was something that we seemed to get a lot of today it was Russian Crusierweights with an impressive array of them in action.

Amongst them was the WBC Asian Boxing Council Cruiserweight champion Maxim Maslov (13-1-1, 8) who defended his belt courtesy of a clear and dominant decision over Azerbaijan's 30 year Anar Mammadov (6-2). Mammadov, fighting in his first title bout, really did look like a novice and failed to win a round on any of the cards.

Another title bout involving a Russian Cruiserweight saw recent world title challenger Rakhim Chakhkiev (18-1, 14) claim the WBC Silver Cruiserweight title with a dominant victory over the over-matched, though game, Juho Haapoja (10-5-1, 13) who was stopped in the 9th round. 

In a third title bout Grigory Drozd (38-1, 27) quickly took out France's Jeremy Ouanna (14-9, 3) inside a round. The bout, a clear mismatch on paper, lasted just 160 seconds.

As well as the Cruiserweight bouts in Moscow there was 3 other bouts. The highest profile of those saw Sergey Ekimov (9-0, 3) taking a decision over Britain's light punching Nathan King (13-22, 1) whilst another saw the unbeaten Mikhail Smirnov (6-0, 3) took a 6 round decision over the debuting Davron Mamedov (0-1).

The remaining bout saw Super Bantamweight debutant Evgeny Smirnov (1-0, 1) scoring a debut victory over the more experienced Vladislav Sagalakov (2-12, 1) who was stopped in the second round.

Liverpool, England
Staying with Russian's they unfortunately didn't have a great time outside of Moscow. This was partly shown in Liverpool where former world title challenger Valery Brudov (41-5, 28) was stopped in the 12th round. Brudov, attempting to claim the WBO international Cruiserweight title, gave a great effort against Tony Bellew (21-2-1, 13) though was stopped by the fofmer Light Heavyweight title challenger. The bout, a good one over-all, may end up being Brudov's final as a professional given that he is now 37 and hasn't really got anywhere to go for another big pay day.

Pennsylvania, USA
The lack of Russian success on foreign soil was also seen in the US where Light Heavyweight Denis Grachev (13-3-1, 8) lost to the talented Isaac Chilemba (22-2-2, 9). Chilemba, himself a former opponent of Tony Bellew, was too complete for Grachev who was repeatedly tagged by straight shots from an often moving target. Grachev, to his credit, proved he was tough though his technical limitations did let him down massively here.

California, USA
It wasn't all bad for Russian's though with Maxim Vlasov (29-1, 14) restoring a bit of faith for Russian boxing fans due to a decision win over American journeyman Derrick Findley (20-13-1, 1). It was an expected victory but still a good one following the losses for Russian's fighting out of their homeland.

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
As well as the poor results for Russian's fighting outside of Russia things didn't much better for Filipino's fighting outside of the Philippines and in South African Jether Oliva (20-2-2, 10) came up short in an IBO Flyweight title bout. Oliva, fighting former IBF champion Moruti Mthalane (30-2, 20), put up a stirring effort but didn't quite do enough to convince enough of the judges to give him decision, though Filipino judge Danrex Tapdasan did give the fight to his countryman.

Although Oliva lost he certainly didn't harm his reputation and many who saw this will want to see him in another major contest sooner rather than later.

Baja California Sur, Mexico
Things were worse for Filipino Silvester Lopez (21-7-2, 15) who, in Mexico, suffered his second stoppage loss inside a year. Lopez, fighting against Mexico's hard hitting Rey Vargas (19-0, 16), lasted until round 8 though was unable to repeatedly take the heavy shots of the destructive Mexican. 

Lopez, a former world title challenger, has now lost 3 of his last 4.

We hope to bring you results from two cards in the Philippines sooner rather than later, though they are currently unavailable.

(Picture, of Lopez, is courtesy of Boxrec.com)

Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
The first OPBF title fight of the new year took place today and saw a new champion crowned as Masayoshi Nakatani (7-0, 5) managed to claim the biggest victory of his career. Nakatani, stepping up big time to challenge Yoshitaka Kato (26-5-1, 7) for the OPBF Lightweight title, may have been viewed by many as taking the fight too soon though showed exactly why so many rate so highly.

Despite coming in to the bout with just 21 rounds of career experience Nakatani looked like a veteran at times. He made the most of his sizable reach and height advantages to make Kato fight from range and also made the defending champion pay for his lack of accuracy in the later rounds with great counters.

With this victory we expect Nakatani to move into the world rankings. Prior to the bout Kato was ranked by both the WBC and WBO (#10 in both) and it'd not be a shock if Nakatani moved into a similar position when the rankings for those organisations were updated. Sure he's not ready for any of the active world champions but he's certainly a man who we think will be fighting on the world stage over the following few years. With his size, power, skill and developing experience this kid will be going a very long way.

In the chief support bout, at least in terms of professional contests, there was a rare stoppage victory for the promising Yukinori Oguni (12-1, 3). Oguni, a former OPBF Super Bantamweight champion, took time to get going though didn't really struggle with Yuki Fujimoto (7-3-1, 2) who suffered his first stoppage loss via an 8th round stoppage. Although Oguni was stopped last year by Shingo Wake we've no doubt that this young kid has the potential to make his mark on the world stage.

The least surprising result on the card saw Yusuke Sakashita (11-4-2, 7) take a stoppage over Thai tomato can Petchek Sithkorpolkanpim (0-12) who suffered his 11th career stoppage via this second round loss.

In a disappointing result the highly touted Kenji Kubo (3-2-1, 1) fought to a split decision draw with Kota Sato (9-5-1, 4). Kubo, who began his career with a very impressive decision over Nouldy Manakane, appears to have flopped and is now starting to look very unlikely to ever live up to his potential. Of course credit needs to go to Sato here though in all honesty it's hard to hide our disappointment over Kubo's career.

If Kubo suffering a draw was disappointing then it's fair to say that Yusuke Suzuki (4-1, 3) scoring a 3rd round KO over Takaaki Ishikawa (10-5, 5) was a delightful surprise. Of course Ishikawa hasn't got the greatest chin, suffering 5 stoppage losses now, but it was still a very solid win for Suzki who is still a novice himself.

As well as the competitive bouts on the show there was also the Heavyweight spar of Nobuhiro Ishida (25-9-2, 10). Ishida, a former Japanese Light Middleweight champion, shared the ring with Yamato Fujinaka (4-3, 1) and seemed to do relatively well. There were issues with his sparring but it's expected that he will be given a Japanese ranking and he will be able to challenger Kyotaro Fujimoto on April 30th. It's not yet confirmed but indications are suggest that the JBC ranking committee WILL grant Ishida a Heavyweight ranking.

Barangay. Namayan Basketball Arena, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines
As well as the show in Tokyo there was also action in the Philippines thanks to Aljoe Jaro. This card, which had made headlines before it had even started, turned out to be a pretty interesting one for numerous reasons.

With 13 fights on the show, yes, you read that right 13 fights, it was bound to have talking points and that's certainly what we got.

The lowest level bouts on the card were a trio of 4 rounders. These saw Joel Tamayo (1-1) taking his first victory courtesy of a 4 round decision over the debuting Jeromias Aguinaldo (0-1); Joyjoy Formentera (2-1) winning a tight split decision over Jeffrey Alejandre (1-2) in an excellently made bout, and a good stoppage victory for the promising Rolly Sumalpong (3-0, 1) who stopped Rodney Ramirez (0-1-1) in the 4th and final round.

The card amazingly had 7 bouts scheduled for 6 rounds. Surprisingly only 3 of those bouts actually went the distance. These distance bouts saw Rowel Rosia (6-2, 3) score a very credible win over Lionel Legada (11-6-1, 5) with a unanimous decision, Danilo Gabisay (5-2, 3) scoring a narrow victory over Regan Delos Santos (2-2-1, 2) with a majority decision whilst the unbeaten Joey Canoy (4-0-1, 3) was unexpectedly held to a draw by Felipe Cagubcob Jr (1-1-4) who is starting to become an expect in scoring draws.

Of the other scheduled 6 rounders the longest lasted 5 rounds as Jonathan Francisco (5-3, 2) struggled to finish off Mac Mac Canisio (2-4-1). This was somewhat the opposite of Lloyd Jardeliza's (5-0-3, 4) 159 second blow out of the fragile Marco Niones (3-11-1, 1) who suffered his 9th stoppage loss.

For us some of the most noteworthy results came in the other 6 rounders. One of those was a 3rd round victory scored by the very promising Neil John Tabanao (6-0, 5). Tabanao, fighting Warren Mambuanag (6-4-2, 3), showed why he is so highly regarded as he dropped Mambuanag in the opening round before finishing him in round 3.

The second noteworthy result in the 6 round bouts saw former IBF Minimumweight champion Florante Condes (26-8-1, 22) stopping journeyman Marzon Cabilla (9-11-1, 4). On paper this shouldn't be noteworthy though it is for several reasons. Firstly this was Condes's first bout in well over a year and his first win since 2010. Both interesting facts, though the key is that Cabilla was supposed to be a better opponent, despite being a very late replacement, than Condes's original opponent Rey Morano who the GAB refused to sanction for the bout. If Cabilla, who lasted just 133 seconds, was better then just how bad do the GAB think Morano is?

In the shows sole 8 round bout, the unbeaten Ardie Boyosi (9-0-1, 6) stopped the experienced Prell Tupaz (8-23-4, 1) in just 111 seconds as he showed off why his is touted as a really credible prospect. Tupaz might have collected losses but he has rarely been stopped and actually came in to this bout following an 8th round technical decision loss to one time world title challenger Sylvester Lopez.

We believe the card had 2 bouts scheduled for 12 rounds. One of these saw Jomar Fajardo (13-4-1, 6) claim the new Asian Boxing Federation (ABF) Light Flyweight title courtesy of a 3rd round stoppage over the limited Robel Villegas (9-8, 3), whilst the other again brought question marks to the GAB.

Former WBC and Linear Flyweight champion Sonny Boy Jaro (35-13-5, 25), originally scheduled to fight Pit Anacaya, instead took on Charlie Cabilla (13-13-4, 2) and took him out inside a round. Cabilla, a late replacement for Anacaya who the GAB said was an unfit opponent for Jaro, was also unfit though with the matchmaker given less than a week to sort out an opponent it's questionable as to what the GAB expected.

Auditorio Benito Juárez, Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico
In Mexico things went as expected for a trio of Filipino's who were thrown in hard and expected to sink.

Things for Vergel Nebran (11-7-1, 7) went exactly as most would have expected, with the Filipino being stopped by former WBC Super Flyweight world champion Tomas Rojas (42-14-1-1, 28). In fact if anything was surprisingly here it was how long Nebran lasted, refusing to be stopped early on he survived until round 8 against the rangy Mexican fighter.

Rojas wasn't the only former world champion beating up on a Filipino foe as Ramon Garcia Hirales (19-4-1, 12), the former WBO Light Flyweight champion, over came Lionel Mark Duran (11-10-2, 5) in what looked like a mismatch on paper. Although the expected winner won Duran impressed by refusing to be stopped

The closest a Filipino came was Adones Aguelo (20-9-2, 12) who gave Mexico's Nery Saguilan (27-4-1, 10) a good run for his money in a competitive 10 round bout. Aguelo, who was narrowly beaten, proved he was on an even keel with Saguilan and a rematch in a neutral venue may well see the decision reversed.