Tokyo, Japan
Today's only action came from the Korakuen Hall on a show that promised a lot and delivered plenty.

The only really insignificant bout was the show's first contest which saw Jun Nahara (1-1, 1) score his first professional win as he blew away Shuhei Hamano (0-3) in just 143 seconds. It was a scheduled 4 rounder between novices who are unlikely to really go anywhere but it worked as a quick warm up before we moved on to more interesting bouts.

The second bout on the card was contest between two Japanese ranked fighters. The bout saw Keita Nakano (13-9-3, 4), the #9 ranked Bantamweight, score a 4th round TKO against Kenta Toi (4-5, 1), who entered as the #7 ranked Super Bantamweight. Toi was rattled on round 3 and never seemed to really recover before being stopped very early in round 4.

The third bout, and on paper the first stand out bout, saw the much touted Ken Shiro (3-0, 2) take a 7th round TKO victory over a bloodied and cut Katsunori Nagamine (11-1, 6) in an unbeaten showdown. Nagamine, the 2012 All Japan Rookie of the Year champion at Flyweight, seemed to be out boxed, out sped and out muscled by Shiro who made a monster statement with this win and has effectively announced himself as a very special fighter. Don't be surprised to see Shiro battling for titles very soon.

A second bout between Japanese ranked fighters came in the show's 4th bout where Ryuichi Funai (23-6, 16), the #4 ranked Super Flyweight, blew away Ryuta Otsuka (14-8-2, 4), the #8 ranked Japanese contender, in the 3rd round. Otsuka did have some early success but a right hand counter dropped Otsuka hard and he failed to beat the 10 count.

The most significant bout was the show's 5th contest which saw Japanese Minimumweight champion Go Odaira (12-4-3, 1) retain his title with a unanimous decision victory over mandatory challenger Yutaka Sowano (9-6-1, 6). The bout was poor and never really came alive with Sowano looking gun shy early on before finally realising Odaira was there to be beaten. By the time Sowano decided to let his hands go he was already beaten.

In the final bout of the show fans saw OPBF and Japanese Middleweight champion Akio Shibata (25-8-1, 11) score a 4th round TKO victory over Indonesian visitor Michael Speed Sigarlaki (15-14-2, 13). The Indonesian, a late replacement for Yasuyuki Akiyama, came out swinging but it didn't take too long for Shibata to find his range and take control of the bout with his superior ability.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

The year of 2014 ended in a bang with 2 major cards on the final day of the year. In some ways they were very frustrating cards for westerners who struggled to get live streams of them but on the other they further proved what we all knew, boxing fans can never have enough. Hopefully the struggles to get streams will help Western TV realise what we already know, there is a huge demand to watch fights from the east.

Osaka, Japan
Of the two cards the most interesting came from Osaka where we had several bouts of note, including one bout that really was a bout that fans wanted to watch, and that ended up being a little special in some ways. Rather notably it was also the last bout of the year.

That bout saw Cuban boxer-come-TV exile Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10) successfully defending his WBA “super” and WBO Super Bantamweight titles in what was an entertaining, up and down contest. Rigondeaux was fighting against Japan's Hisashi Amagasa (28-5-2, 19), a man best known for being a very lanky Featherweight, the OPBF Featherweight champion in fact. The fight saw the challenger set off as he meant to go on and really tried to take the fight to Rigondeaux who was simply too good for him early on however 2 knockdowns by Amagasa in round 7 suddenly got everyone excited and the biggest upset looked on, at least for a few moments. In round 9 it was Amagasa who was dropped and over the following 2 rounds his face began to fall apart which what looks to have been a broken jaw and a broken orbital bone. Those disfiguring injuries eventually forced him to retire from the bout. For Amagasa this performance is likely to have made him an over-night name for the hardcore international fans whilst Rigondeaux's victory proved that he can be in exciting, entertaining and vicious bouts as well as the proving he is vulnerable.

Another world title bout on this show saw Katsunari Takayama (28-7-0-1, 11) create his own moment of history as he became the first Japanese fighter to claim a version of all 4 major titles. This happened when he won the WBO Minimumweight, along with the IBF version of the belt, to complete a career grandslam. Takayama won both belts when he forced the referee to save the brave but exhausted and Go Odaira (11-4-3, 1), who suffered the first stoppage of his career.

A third bout featuring a world class fighter on this show saw former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (16-1, 10) score a sensational KO against former WBA interim Flyweight champion Jean Piero Perez (20-8-1, 14). For almost 5 rounds Perez gave as good as he got in what was a free swinging effort but a single right hand in the final minute of round 5 dropped him hard and never managed to recover.

In a Japanese title fight fans saw the talented Sho Ishida (18-0, 10) successfully defend the Super Flyweight title for the first time with a 5th round TKO over the over-matched Masato Morisaki (9-4-1, 5).

The undercard portion of this show was a bit of a farce if we're being honest with 6 bouts which saw Japanese fighters battling against Thai opposition. The Thai's failed to win a fight, in fact only 1 of them managed to see out the schedule. The one that did was Rannada Sor Vorasing (0-1) who was shut out by boxer-model Tomomi Takano (7-1, 5) in one of two female contests. The other female contest was a blow out as Terumi Nuki (6-0, 3) blasted away Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-1) in just 107 seconds.

Nuki's quick blow out was one of 3 opening round blow outs on this undercard which also saw Ryuto Maekawa (10-0, 6) take care of Chanachai Sor Siamchai (0-2) in 133 seconds and the brilliantly promising Takeru Kamikubo (8-0, 5) wipe out Phetsaifar Lukmaelamperigym (0-6) in 158 seconds.

Another mismatch saw former world champion Ryo Miyazaki (22-1-3, 13) take care of Kajonsak Nattapolgym (0-1) in round 3 whilst another 3rd round victory saw Takahiro Yamamoto (15-3, 12) take care of Kamraiyok Or Wandavee (0-1).

Tokyo, Japan
The other show took place in Tokyo where we had a trio of world title bouts which all had their own story to tell.

The most interesting of those stories was that of the heavy handed Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18) who retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 9th round retirement victory over Argentina's game Israel Perez (27-3-1, 16). The bout was Uchiyama's first in exactly a year and saw him looking the boss in what was an interesting contest with a man who had come to win. The bout saw Perez try and win but eventually he retired as Uchiyama began to shake off the ring rust and go for the kill. From what we understand a post-fight story here revolved around the scoring, particularly by Gustavo Padilla who is reported to have had the bout even at 85-85, a frankly puzzling score card, though not his worst of the night...

...Padilla's worst score came in the WBA Super Flyweight title fight that saw Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13) retain his title with a split decision draw against Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10). The bout, scored a split draw, saw Padilla handing in a ridiculous 115-112 card in favour of Jimenez, a card so ridiculous that someone needs to look into him, especially given what he did in the Uchiyama/Perez bout. This contest was close, and a draw wasn't an awful result, though we did feel Kono deserved the win, however that card is just wrong. In the ring Jimenez used his movement and speed to keep Kono from unloading on him and exposed some flaws in the champions armour however he failed to really capitalise.

The other world title bout on this card saw a new champion being crowned as Ryoichi Taguchi (21-2-1, 8), a man previously best known for taking Naoya Inoue the distance, scored a clear 12 round win over Peruvian Alberto Rossel (32-9-0-1, 13) to claim the WBA Light Flyweight title. Taguchi started slowly but ran out a clear winner, dropping Rossel twice to cement his win.

The under-card here was much more interesting than the under-card in Osaka with bouts that weren't all mismatches and blow outs. One of the few stoppages saw Chikashi Hayashizaki (6-4-1, 2) score an unexpected stoppage of Takahiro Araki (5-4, 3), in the 4th round of a scheduled 6, whilst another stoppage on this card saw Minoru Iizuka (4-2, 4) score a 3rd round KO over the previously unbeaten Ryusei Nakajima (2-1, 1), in a scheduled 6 rounder.

The most competitive of the undercard bouts resulted in a 6 round split decision draw between Masayasu Nakamura (4-1-1, 4) and Takahiro Kinoshita (5-3-2, 2) in a bout that saw all 3 cards looking very similar to each other. Another very competitive but saw Shun Shimazaki (6-6-1) narrowly defeat Hisasho Owada (5-9-1) in another 6 rounder.

In the 4 rounders on the card fans saw the debuting Kazumasa Akagi (1-0) score a narrow decision win over Yukihiro Kaneko (0-3) whilst Kazuhiro Baba (1-2) claimed his first win with a razor thin win over Kazuki Aso (0-2).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
This past Wednesday in Japan fans got the chance to see a national champion in action as well as a female OPBF title fight and several other bouts of note in an interesting domestic card at the Korakuen Hall. 

The card kicked off with an all debutant affair that saw Light Welterweight hopeful Atsushi Ogiwara (1-0, 1) score a 2nd round TKO against Yuichi Takeda (0-1). The all debutant bout was one of two bouts scheduled for 4 rounds and the other one saw the unbeaten Haruaki Kamiya (3-0, 1) take a decision over Keisuke Fujii (3-5, 2).

Following the 4 rounder we then had a trio of B class finals, all of which were scheduled for 5 rounds. The most one sided of these match ups saw the heavy handed Daisuke Hayakawa (8-1, 7) wipe out Masahiro Ouchi (6-8) inside a round. On paper we had suspected that Hayakawa would have had his work cut out, considering that Ouchi had only been stopped once, instead however he was blitzed here.

The most competitive of the B class bouts saw Yoshihisa Yokota (7-10-1, 2) take a very narrow split decision over Kenji Fujiyama (5-4, 3). The bout, scored 48-47 by all 3 judges. The B class other bout saw Yutaka Kamioka (8-3-2, 4) take a slightly surprising win over Gaku Aikawa (6-2-1, 1) in a unanimous decision. 

In a bout between ranked Japanese fighters Moon Hyun Yun (15-4-2, 2) out pointed Ryota Itoyama (10-6-1, 5) via a majority decision. This win saw Yun ending a 3 fight winless streak dating back almost 2 years whilst Itoyama had now gone 3 fights without a win.

The first of two title fights saw a minor upset as Mika Oda (6-7-1, 1) ended a break of more than a year and over-came Saemi Hanagata (9-5-2, 4) via a majority decision to claim the OPBF female Minimumweight title. This bout was supposed to be the first defense for Hanagata though she was out worked down the stretch and unable to keep up with Oda who has scored a career defining win here.

The other title fight went as everyone should have expected and saw Japanese Minimumweight champion Go Odaira (11-3-3, 1) easily retain his title with a clear win over the out classed Hiroya Yamamoto (8-2, 3). The fight was moderately competitive over the first 5 rounds with 1 judge giving the challenger more credit that he perhaps deserved. In the second half of the fight however things were completely 1 sided and Yamamoto was fortunate that Odaira lacked the power to see him. Following the fight the story was that Odaira would be trying to get a world title fight in 2015 with Francisco Rodriguez named as his target!

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
One of our favourites "series" of shows is the "Dangan" series which range from Rookie of the Years shows, B class tournaments and some amazing title cards which have more depth that first meets the eye.

We had one of those top Dangan shows this past Monday with 4 bouts that all had some sort of relevance.

The first of those 4 bouts saw Japan's Yuta Nakagawa (13-4-1, 8) claiming the biggest victory of his career so far as he narrowly out-pointed Filipino Monico Laurente (24-11, 5) in an 8 round bout. Going into this bout Laurente was the #1 ranked OPBF challenger at Bantamweight whilst Nakagawa was unranked so we're expecting to see a big shuffle in the rankings next month.

Whilst Nakagawa's victory over a Filipino visitor was unexpected the second bout of note saw a very expected result as former OPBF Bantamweight champion Hiroki Shiino (11-3, 10) made very light wok of Filipino visitor Rodel Tejares (20-29-6, 5). Shiino, who was stopped last time out by Ryosuke Iwasa, had been out of the ring due to an injury and took all of his frustrations out on Tejares who was battered for 3 rounds.


Following the two big, albeit none title fights, we then move on to the first of two Japanese title fights. These kicked off with Japanese Minimumweight champion Go Odaira (10-3-3, 1) defending his belt for the first time. Odaira was less than impressive as he struggled past the limited Yuma Iwahashi (11-7-1, 1) in a bout that was some what poor despite being competitive. Odaira defended his title with a majority decision and seems likely to be facing Kosei Tanaka and Takuma Inoue next time out with the two super prospects both wanting to win titles sooner rather than later.

Odaira wasn't the only champion who retained his title as Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (10-0, 5) also defended his belt successfully. Naito took on the much more experienced Kyohei Tamakoshi (32-9-6, 12) and was dominant through out, though did struggle to pin his man down early on. As soon Naito turned it up in the second half of the fight he appeared to have Tamakoshi in trouble but the experienced man called on his past to see out the trouble moments.

As well as the 4 major bouts there was also a trio of lesser bouts. These included a pair of draws as Hisashi Owada (5-8-1) was held in a 6 rounder by Kenichi Ohara (4-8-1) and, in a 4 rounder, Toru Takahashi (2-8-2, 2) was held by Yoshikuni Hashiguchi (2-4-1, 1). These were both majority draws.

The only other bout on the show was an all debutant affair that saw Toshiro Tarumi (1-0, 1) scoring a 4th round TKO over Shota Irie (0-1).

Siem Reap Province, Cambodia
In Cambodia fans saw the return of the touted Cuban Reymi Aleye (6-0, 3) who made light work of Cambodian debutant Svay Rota (0-1). Aleye is touted as one of the best "Cuban's you've never heard of" and has been fighting out of the ALA gym in the Philippines recently despite living in Thailand. We hope to see him back in a Filipino ring soon as that's where he will probably develop his already highly attained skills.

(Image courtesy of http://danganboxing.com)

Although boxing has been somewhat limited this week, we've been looking forward to this weekend which has numerous bouts of interest spread around the world.

Bangkok, Thailand
For us the action, as it often does on a Friday, kicked off in Thailand with Channel 7 doing their usual job of televising a live Thai card. After last weeks issues with Thai Channel 7, cutting out in the middle of a title fight, we were all hoping that we'd get completed fights this week. Thankfully we did, albeit a short lived titled fight on as the talented Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (24-0, 18) swiftly took care of his Mexican Fernando Castaneda (21-8, 14). We had expected Teerachai to be forced to work hard to defend his PABA Welterweight title, but the Thai was simply too strong and too powerful. He used his thunderous power, and great 1-2, to finish off Castaneda inside a round as he further strengthened his claim for a world title fight.

As well as the title bout we had a number of other televised contests.

The broadcast began with an undercard bout fought in the Light Flyweight division. We believe the bout saw Kwanthai Sithmorseng (44-2-1, 23) scoring a 4th round TKO over the very over-matched Safwan Lombok (1-22-1) who had been down in the opening round and was unable to cope with the educated pressure of the Thai fighter.

After a break in the televised card to show, what we believe was news, the action continued and saw another mismatch as a Chatpetch Sithmorseng (6-3, 2) dropped Alwi Alhabsyi (13-21-3, 3) numerous times en route to a 5th round stoppage. Although the bout was a mismatch the finish was world class with a perfectly timed uppercut connecting on the face of the hapless opponent who was unfortunate to run into a man several levels above himself.

A fourth bout was also televised, at we believe a contracted 114lbs. This bout saw an over-confident Inthanon Sithchamuang (20-6, 11) defeating the very poor Thaminkhao Sor Tharnthip (3-8-1, 2). Fortunately for the Thai he was allowed to be overly-confident and was let off with numerous mistakes as his opponent was sadly under-qualified to test him and was stopped in the 3rd round. Oddly we believe that there was some form of a PABA opportunity up for grabs in this bout despite it being fought at the unusual 114lb weight limit.

The televised show finished with a fifth bout, this time fought at 108lbs with again some sort of PABA affiliation to the contest. The bout was one of the most competitive on the card, for what that's worth, though as with the previous 4 contests the winner was clear from the first round as the men were at completely different levels. The unbeaten Stamp Kiatniwat (6-0, 3) who took a 4th round TKO, was in control through out though it was nice to see a spirited effort from the Dawut Manoproonroj (0-1), who was apparently making his debut,

Tokyo, Japan
In the Korakuen Hall, holy ground of Japanese boxing, we had a Japanese national title fight, the first of the new year, as the vacant Japanese Minmumweight title was up for grabs. The title, vacated by Ryuji Hara, was expected to be very hard fought for. Instead however the bout saw Go Odaira (9-3-3, 1) completely dominate the hard hitting Masashi Tada (11-4-1, 7) in what turned out to be a genuinely 1-sided contest.

We had expected Tada to win though to see Odaira dominate him with scores of 99-92, 98-92, 98-92 really was impressive and although Odaira's record isn't great we'd not be shocked to see him holding on to this title for a while. Interestingly this was Odaira's 8th straight bout with out a loss with the most recent defeat on his record coming to Hara back in 2010. Notably this bout was an historic one, it was the first ever Japanese title fight fought with open scoring and we'd imagine we're going to see this become a regular thing with Japan being one of the early adopters of the system when the WBC first brought it in.

Although the main event of this show, "Dangan 92", was the Japanese title fight the show it's self featured a total of 7 bouts.

The card started with a series of 4 rounders. These saw 3 very well matched contests with Shunsuke Fukushima (2-1-2) narrowly overcoming the previously unbeaten Muneyoshi Kubo (1-1) by majority decision, a 4 round majority decision was also rendered in a bout between Makoto Kawasaki (4-1-1, 1) and Ken Otokawa (5-4, 3) whilst the other 4 rounder saw a split decision going to Joe Nakanishi (1-0) over fellow debutant Desierto Nagaike (0-1).

As well as the 4 rounders there were also a trio of 8 rounders. These saw Flyweight Yota Hori (10-2-2, 6) taking a hard fought decision over Musashi Suzuki (10-2, 4) in one of the A-Class tournament finals. Another of the A-Class tournament final came at Super Flyweight where Hayato Kimura (21-5, 15) took a decision over Kohei Kubo (16-5-1, 11), this was a bout we didn't imagine would go the schedule so credit to both men for taking the power of the other man in what looked like a potential thriller. The remaining bout, also one of the A-Class tournament finals, saw Kazuya Nakano (7-2, 6) taking his first decision victory, narrowly over-coming Takaomi Abe (15-3-2, 1).