Tokyo, Japan
Earlier today in Japan saw Ohashi put on a show at the Korakuen Hall. The show wasn't a major one, but it did feature a very notabke main event a couple of interesting support bouts.

In the main event we saw the very highly touted Takuma Inoue (5-0, 1) claim his first title as he won the OPBF Super Flyweight title, previously vacated by stablemate Ryo Matsumoto, with a clear decision win over experienced Filipino Mark Anthony Geraldo (31-6-3, 14). The fight started amazingly well for Inoue who was in complete control after 8 round, though laxed off a bit late on and allowed the card to close up in the latter stages. Although the win was a clear for the Japanese 19 year old he will likely know there is still a lot to learn about the sport, and he also won't have been happy to have suffered his first knockdown, albeit a very flash one in the final round.

The main support bout saw world ranked Super Flyweight Go Onaga (25-2-2, 18) score a 7th round TKO win over domestic foe Masafumi Otake (14-14-3, 7). From what we understand Onaga is interested in the winner of the upcoming IBF Super Flyweight world title fight and may well travel to face the winner of that bout later in the year.

Another notable supporting bout saw the promising Kenichi Miyazaki (9-1-1, 2) take a clear 8 round decision win over Kazuhiro Nakamura (9-6, 3). This was Miyazaki's 4th straight win since suffering his sole loss and it seems like he has put that behind him and is climbing the ranks pretty well now. For Nakamura this was his second loss in 3 bouts.

On the under-card there was a trio of 4 round bouts. The only one of those that ended in a stoppage saw Reo Watanabe (2-0-1, 1) take a 4th round TKO win over Tomoki Akutsu (1-3). Another of the 4 rounders saw Naoki Koishi (3-2) take a unanimous decision win over Naoki Oura (2-2-1, 2) whilst the unbeaten Shuji Kato (2-0, 1) narrowly over-came Rasher Aoki (3-3, 1) with a had fought split decision.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Sunday wasn't a great day for boxing in Asia. There was two shows in Japan but neither really consisted of anything substantial, in stead they were mostly mismatches and neither will be remembered for anything great happening on them, unfortunately.

Hyogo, Japanese
One of those two shows came from Hyogo where fans had the chance to see a small but notable show with a former world title contender and a former multi-time Japanese title contender. The show however lacked in terms of competitive action.

The main event saw Teiru Kinoshita (21-1-1, 5) easily defeat Thai visitor Nongbeer Sor Bangkru (0-6) in the 4th round of their scheduled 8 rounder. Kinoshita is a former Japanese Super Flyweight champion though is best known for coming up short against talented South African Zolani Tete last year in an IBF world title bout. Since that loss he has scored back-to-back stoppages and seems to be intent on fighting for a world title again, somewhere down the line.

In another mismatch at the top of the card fans saw Kazuya Murata (11-4, 5) easily get rid of Rangrot Saknarong (0-1) in round 3. This was Murata's 6th straight win and it seems like it's time for him to step up the competition. Strangely he's failed to really build on the success of his 2013 victory over Futoshi Usami, who fought for an OPBF title at the end of last year.

An other mismatch saw former Japanese and OPBF title challenger Kenichi Horikawa (28-13-1, 5) over-come compatriot Munehito Kijima (6-7-1) in the 4th round. The 35 year old Horikawa has been in with a who's who of Asian boxing though has never managed to “win the big”. Despite losses to Ryuji Hara, Yu Kimura, Akira Yaegashi and Florante Condes he's always given his all and we wouldn't be shocked to see him get one more big fight before his career is over.

On the undercard we had another early finish as Hiroyuki Takahara (2-0, 1) easily over-came Kyohei Okutani (4-3, 3) in the second round. We did however have some competitive action on this part of the card with the debuting Kosuke Nakamura (1-0) narrowly out pointing Toshio Tamura (1-2, 1) whilst Ryoki Hirai (4-3-1, 1) widely out pointed Shota Fujii (1-11), who has now lost 8 straight.

Okinawa, Japan
The other Japanese show came from Okinawa where we against mismatches at the top of the card with people capable of winning title fighting against mismatches Thai opposition.

In one of the main bouts we saw former OPBF Super Featherweight title hope Masatoshi Kotani (16-2, 12) easily see off Non Sithsaithong (12-8, 7). The Thai began his career 11-3 though has now gone 1-5 in his last 6 with with stoppage loses becoming a frequent thing for the 20 year old. We hope Kotani faces stiffer competition next time out and we also hope that if Non is to continue his career he takes on some safer fights before he ends up being badly hurt.

Another mismatch saw former Japanese Super Flyweight title challenger Go Onaga (24-2-2, 17) see off the horrible matched Saengkeng Saknarong (0-2) in 3 rounds. After the fight Onaga suggested he'd be willing to travel for a world title fight, hinting that perhaps a deal is done with IBF champion Zolani Tete.

A third bout scheduled for 8 saw Japanese based Filipino Dado Cabintoy (15-4-2, 8) score a 3rd round TKO against Prayoot Saknarong (0-3). This was Cabintoy's 5th straight win though those numbers look less impressive when you consider this was the third win-less for in that run and and his last 6 wins have come against foes with a combined record of 9-21-1.

The only competitive bout on the card was the sole 6 rounder which saw Yusuke Iju (6-4-2, 3) battle to a majority draw with Yoshiki Kawamura (4-6-2, 3). Two of the judges had this a draw, with scores of 57-57 and 58-58, whilst the dissenting judge had Kawamura a wide winner with a card of 59-55.

The under-card bouts all ended in stoppages and in fact the 4 bouts went just a combined 11 rounds. The shortest of those lasted just 33 seconds as Nobuhiro Oshiro (2-0-1, 2) blew away Hiroki Arimura (0-1) to extend his unbeaten run to 3. It took less than a round for Taiyo Inoue (3-1, 2) to dispose of Kaiki Oshiro (0-2) in another bout that proved to be a mismatch. A competitive match up on paper saw Shuhei Nishino (1-2, 1) score his first career win as he stopped Kento Iha (0-2) in round 3 of their bout whilst debutant Hikaru Kawae (1-0, 1) scored a 4th round TKO win over Hirokazu Nakasone (1-4, 1).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
We've not seen much action in Japan this year but things are starting to get going and today we had the first taste of domestic title action as the Champion Carnival kicked off, we also had a world fighter in action and several promising fighters all looking to make a name for themselves.

The show began with a 4 rounder which saw the debuting Kentaro Omori (1-0, 1) introduce himself to the professional boxing world with a 70 second stoppage win against the win-less Hirako Saito (0-2). This was one of a number of lower tier bouts which also included another opening round blow out as Yutaka Ekawa (6-3-1, 3) unexpectedly blasted out Ryosuke Suzuki (4-3) in an impressive 23 seconds in a bout scheduled for 5 rounds. Ekawa's win came in one of 2 bouts set for 5 with the other resulting in a disappointing technical draw between Hidetoshi Ueki (4-9-2) and Tomoyuki Kaneko (7-4-1, 4) after a headclash in the second round forced this bout to be abandoned.

In a 6 round bout we saw the talented, and unbeaten, Daishi Nagata (2-0-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he took out the more experienced Ryoji Miyagi (7-6-1, 4) in the 3rd round. Although Nagata does have a “mark” on his record he is incredibly talented and we'd tip him to go far on the domestic scene, just like Takeshi Inoue who gave him that mark on debut.

The chief support bouts both looked interesting on paper. One of those saw world ranked Super Flyweight Go Onaga (23-2-2, 16) take a clear decision over former “world” title challenger Breilor Teran (13-11-1, 6) in what amounted to a show case of sorts for Onaga, a member of the Ohashi stable. The other saw the heavy handed Yusuke Suzuki (6-1, 4) enhance his fast growing reputation as he blasted away Akinori Hoshino (11-9-1, 8) in the 6th round of their scheduled 8. The ending here saw Hoshino crashing to the canvas an unable to beat the 10 count, though Suzuki was given a good test before the finish.

The headline bout, and one of the first really notable bouts this year in Japan, saw Rikki Naito (12-0, 5) successfully retain his Japanese Super Featherweight title as he narrowly over-came Masayuki Ito (16-1-1, 7) in a highly competitive bout that ended with Naito taking a narrow majority decision. The bout really was one of those where no one felt they lost and whilst Ito may have a “1” on his record he'll still feel unbeaten. Naito, a very talented fighter managed to record the third defence of his title though he'll likely not rush up to fighting at the world level considering how hard he was pushed here. We really hope we'll see a rematch of this one somewhere down the line and with both men being really young it's pretty likely that we will see them crossing paths again, one day.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

We're sorry fir being a few days behind results from the weekend haven't fully reached us yet, sadly. These are however from Sunday and we'll try to get the rest of them soon.

Okinawa, Japan
The biggest fight of the day, and one of the biggest of the whole weekend, saw the return to the ring of Thailand's sensational Jomthong Chuwatana (8-0, 4). Jomthong, who had been away from boxing for well over a year, returned to defend his OPBF Super Featherweight title and over-came Japan's very own Koseki Nakama (17-5, 8) with a clear decision. From the reports we've been sent Jomthong was dropped in round 2 though won everyone of the other 11 rounds to take a clear 118-109 victory. The footage of this fight can be found here.

In the co-feature the IBF world ranked Go Onaga (22-2-2, 16) scored a 2nd round KO over limited Thai veteran Samransak Singmanasak (35-24-1, 27). This was Onaga's first bout in 10 months and it seems likely that he'll be seeking a title fight in 2015. Although the Japanese Super Flyweight title isn't an easy one to win right now we do imagine that will be Onaga's target, unless he wants to go the OPBF route.

In one of the two support bouts Masatoshi Kotani (15-2, 11) took a highly debatable split decision over Filipino Edgar Gabejan (26-30-6, 8). Many fans and media felt that Kotani was very fortunate and with Gabejan being little more than a journeyman this really was a poor performance from the Japanese fighter.

Although Gabejan was unlucky it's fair to say that the luck wasn't all against the Filipino's as Dado Cabintoy (14-4-2, 7) managed to take a tight technical majority decision over Yuta Sasaki (6-5, 1). This was Cabintoy's third straight win in Japan and strangely he is 5-0 outside of the Philippines an 9-4-2 inside the country of his birth.

In the two 6 rounders fans were treat to blow outs. One of those saw Yusuke Iju (6-4-1, 3) blow out Yoshiki Kawamura (4-6, 3) whilst the other saw Shoto Chinen (5-1-1, 4) take out Petch Sirimongkolgym (0-2) inside a minute. Whilst in the opening bout fans got the chance to see Yoshiki Uehara (1-1) take a decision over Haruma Maki (0-1).

(Image, from Onaga's victory over Singmanasak, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)