Osaka, Japan
The biggest show of the day came form the newly re-named “EDION Arena Osaka”, aka the “Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium” and the “Bodymaker Colosseum”. The show featured a couple of world title fights, a Japanese title fight and a female world title fight, whilst the under-card featured a former world title challenger and several notable under-card fighters.

The main event of the card saw Osakan super-star Kazuto Ioka (18-1, 10) successfully retain his WBA Flyweight title with a near shut out win against Argentina's Roberto Domingo Sosa (26-3-1, 14). Sosa, although tough, never looked like he was in he fight as Ioka out boxed him, out skilled him, out sped him and out punched him.

Ioka's title fight was one of 4 champions retaining their title. Another saw IBF Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama (30-7-0-1, 12) retain his title with an 8th round TKO win against Ryuji Hara (19-2, 11). For Takayama this was his second defense and seems to lead him towards a unification bout with WBO champion Kosei Tanaka, with that bout potentially taking place on New Years Eve, when Tanaka is set to return.

Another champion to retain their title was Sho Ishida (20-0, 10) who comfortably over-came Hayato Kimura (23-8, 15) and retained the Japanese Super Flyweight title, with a wide decision. Kimura seemed unable to ever establish himself against the talented Ishida however we're beginning to doubt Ishida's “world class” potential, given his second less than perfect performance.

Another successful defense saw OPBF female Light Flyweight champion Kei Takenaka (10-0, 3) claim an 8 round shut out win over Krikanok Islandmuaythai (4-5-1, 2) to retain
her title.

Another 8 round bout saw former world title challenger Atsushi Kakutani (17-4-1, 10) take a 2nd round KO against Thoedkiad Singhamanasak (0-4), whilst the much touted Masayoshi Hashizume (9-0, 6) continued his perfect started to professional life with a 64 second win against Petchnamnung Sor Thiebkhun (0-11).

The card also featured a par of 6 rounders. One of those saw the much touted Riku Kano (7-1-1, 4) claim a comfortable decision victory over Kenta Matsui (6-5, 1) whilst the other was a competitive split decision win for Juan Castillo Inami (9-3, 4), who beat Tesu Kanayama (4-3, 1).

In the only 4 rounder Hayate Ikuta (4-0, 1) blitzed Kota Hama (2-2, 1) in just 51 seconds.

Osaka, Japan
Staying at the EDION Arena Osaka, there was also a West of Japan Rookie of the Year show, in fact it was the final of the section of the Rookie of the year competition.

In the Minimumweight division the winner was 20 year old Ryusei Kitamura (5-1, 1) who took a narrow decision win over Ryoki Hirai (5-4-1, 2).

The Light Flyweight champion was Seigo Yuri Akui (4-0-1, 2) who blew away Kaminoko Okamura Kentokid (5-1-3, 2) inside a round.

At Flyweight it was the unbeaten Masahiro Sakamoto (4-0, 3) who came out on top with a 2nd round KO win against Hirohide Murakami (4-3).

In the Super Flyweight division Kensei Hirano (5-0, 3) took less than a round to blow away Shion Tamada (2-1) with an opening round win.

At Bantamweight we had a really competitive bout that saw Tenta Kiyose (6-1-1, 1) take a split decision win over Tetsu Araki (4-1-1).

At Super Bantamweight we had a bout that looked really close on paper though in the ring it was a near shut out as Kohei Iwai (6-3-1, 5) clearly beat Takaaki Kanai (5-4, 3).

The Featherweight action was competitive with Yuto Nagano (5-0, 2) taking a majority decision over Ryuya Yanagida (2-1, 2).

In the Super Featherweight division things were one sided as Naotoshi Nakatani (6-0, 5) blew away Ryo Sumiya (2-2-1) in the 2nd round.

Lightweight saw Tomoaki Mastumura (5-0, 3) destroy Yu Sumiya (1-1, 1) in just 42 seconds.

The Light Welterweight division saw an upset as Kazuma Fukuyama (5-4-3) took a decision win over Yuki Takahashi (5-1, 1).

At Welterweight Giraffe Kirin Kanda (5-1, 3) took a 96 second win over Yuya Shimakawa (2-1).

In the Middleweight division Brandon Lockhart Shane (5-3, 4) beat Yuki Nakanishi (1-3, 1).

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand Kiatkreerin put on a 3 fight card.

The main event here saw Mike Tawatchai (36-8-1, 21) claim the vacant IBF Pan Pacific Super Bantamweight title with a decision win over Junny Salogaol (9-8-4, 9). This was Tawatchai's first bout since being beaten in a world title eliminator against Shingo Wake.

Another notable name on this card was former world title challenger Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (28-4-1, 15) who over-came Oscar Raknafa (12-11, 5) with an 8 round decision win.

A third notable fighter was former Olympic star Manus Boonjumnong (2-0) who beat Marco Tuhumury (10-12-2, 3) with a 4 round decision

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Wednesday was a brilliant day for boxing fans in Japan with notable shows in both Osaka and Tokyo. The fights ranged from world level to prospect level, on both shows, yet they both featured some genuinely exciting fights that delivered what was promised.

Osaka, Japan
Of the two shows it was the one in Osaka that was the more high profile and interesting. The card featured everything from a debutant to world title bouts, and went through everything in between in what was a spectacular day of action in the Osaka Prefectural gymnasium.

We'll start with the main event which looked like a mouth watering bout when it was first rumoured and proved to be every big as good in the ring. That bout saw Japanese star Kazuto Ioka (17-1, 10) become a 3rd weight world champion at the third time of asking as he narrowly over-came Argentinian warrior Juan Carlos Reveco (35-2, 19) in a really close and competitive bout for the WBA Flyweight title. Reveco entered the bout seeking his 9th defense of the crown and at times looked like he was getting the better of things until Ioka made changes late to pull out a very close majority decision in a bout that was everything boxing fans should enjoy. The one, unfortunate, thing about the bout was the Argentinian TV channel screening the fight. They sadly appeared to be a bit “too” pro-Reveco leading many fans to the idea that the close bout was a robbery, when it really was too close to call.

The other world title bout was also marred in controversy as Katsunari Takayama (29-7-0-1, 11) retained his IBF Minimumweight title with a 9th round technical decision win over gutsy Thai Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (27-4-1, 15). Sakkreerin had been less than impressive in his previous visit to Japan, losing a wide decision to the sensationally talented Takuma Inoue, and we expected a 1-sided bout here though in the end the bout ended up being compelling with Takayama being his usual all-action aggressive fighter. The aggression of Takayama regularly forced Sakkreerin against the ropes where he fought as a counter puncher in a fight that was brilliant to watch. Sadly the bout was marred by an ending that left everyone confused. Originally it looked like the title was going to change hands with Takayama being stopped due to facial damage only for the cards to be read with Takayama retaining the title with a close decision. The odd ending has lead to calls for a rematch and we'd certainly be in favour of seeing these two go at again.

As well as the pair of world title contests there was also a Japanese title fight as the unbeaten Sho Ishida (19-0, 10) was given his stiffest test so far. Ishida, defending the Japanese Super Flyweight title for the second time, only just kept a hold of his belt with a split decision win over Taiki Eto (14-4, 10). Ishida started well and appeared in control for the most part but stamina issues in the later rounds allowed Eto to come on strong in a bout that left us with questions about Ishida. We suspect it was a “bad night” for the unbeaten champion but he clearly has work to do before getting a world title fight.

One man who looked like he was ready for a title fight was former WBA Minimumweight champion Ryo Miyazaki (23-1-3, 14) who made light work of the over-matched Namphol Sithsaithong (7-10, 5) in what was a very clear tune up bout for the popular Japanese fighter. It now seems likely that Miyazaki will be looking for a fight with countryman Ryoichi Taguchi in the summer, if Taguchi is successful in his upcoming WBA Light Flyweight world title defense.

On the under-card there were several notable fighters. One of those was 2014 Super Flyweight Rookie of the Year Masayoshi Hashizume (8-0, 5) who made light work of Saenrachan Sor Theptanee (0-2) with a 3rd round KO. Hashizume has an exciting style and we're hoping to see him step up to facing Japanese ranked foes by the end of this year, though it's unlikely he'll be getting a title fight any time soon. Another Rookie of the Year winner on the under-card was Reiya Konishi (8-0, 4) who scored a very notable 8 round decision win over Kenta Shimizu (8-5-1, 4). This was by far the best win so far for the talented Konishi who looks like a title contender in the making.

A third unbeaten prospect on the under-card was female hopeful Kei Takenaka (9-0, 3) who took a clear 6 round decision win over Thai visitor Kanittha Saknarong (0-3). We're now expecting to see Takenaka move towards a more notable fight though the former OPBF female Light Flyweight title holder really does need a better test before she steps up to world level.

In the 4 rounders on the card fans saw two clear decisions. One of those saw Hayate Ikuta (1-0) make a successful debut as he took a clear win over Seita Shimamiya (1-4) whilst the other saw Noriyuki Imamura (3-3) level off his record with a win over Genki Inoue (1-5-1, 1).

Tokyo, Japan
In Tokyo fans had a show at the popular Korakuen Hall and although this was massively over-shadowed by the Osaka show it was incredibly entertaining and significant in it's own right.

The main event here was an exciting split decision win for Ricky Sismundo (28-8-1, 12) who over-came former Japanese Lightweight champion Akihiro Kondo (21-6-1, 10). Although Kondo often brought the action he was regularly countered by his foe, a Japanese based Filipino, who was a very worthy winner. Amazingly this was Kondo's 5th bout in 9 months, sadly however it was his 3rd loss in that period whilst Sismundo has now won back-to-back fights follow a loss to Masayoshi Nakatani in an OPBF title bout last year.

Sismundo's win wasn't the only success for Filipino fighters on this card as Giovanni Escaner (13-3, 9) scored a slight upset win over touted Japanese prospect Naoto Uebayashi (7-1-1, 4). Uebayashi was stopped in the 8th round of the bout by the talented Escaner who has now scored back-to-back wins in Japan and appeared to be quickly developing into an exciting and strong fighter who will be a handful for a lot of fighters.

Things weren't so bad for Uebyashi's stablemate Hikaru Marugame (4-0, 2) who took a career best victory over Wataru Miyasaka (9-3-1, 2). Marugame was the clear winner but was pushed for the first time in his career and this 8 rounder will certainly have served his development well. Miyasaka may have come up short but certainly did his standing no harm and will likely be put in other good bouts in the near future.

On the undercard we ended up with some very competitive bouts. One of those saw Ken Otogawa (7-5, 5) score an upset against Yasuki Katagiri (4-2, 1) in a bout that was scored 58-56 to Otoggawa by all 3 judges. Another bout saw Tomoyuki Yokota (5-3, 2) upset the more experienced Akihiro Furukawa (12-6-1, 9) with a razor thin decision, scored 56-55 twice and 57-55.

A third 6 rounder saw Hisasi Owada (6-9-1, 1) score a relatively unexpected stoppage win as he finished off Hikaru Takaki (6-7, 5) at the end of round 4.

We saw another stoppage in the sole 4 rounder on this show as Shintaro Hirohama (2-3-1, 2) stopped Takahiro Yamanishi (1-4) in the 3rd round.

(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
Earlier today in Tokyo Japanese fans were treat to a very interesting show courtesy of Ioka Gym who show cased a trio of former world champions.

The card began with the sole 4 rounder which saw the unbeaten Shoma Okamoto (4-0) continue his unbeaten run with a clear decision over win-less Thai Jakarachlek Sor Wankaew (0-4) . A second man continuing his unbeaten run on this under-card was fellow Japanese fighter Takeru Kamikubo (6-0, 4) who scored a second round TKO against Thailand's win-less Prabpram Sithsaithong (0-3).

The first of 3 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds saw the heavy handed Takahiro Yamamoto (14-3, 11) blow away Indonesia's experienced but limited Panca Silaban (26-18-6, 12) in the second round. Yamamoto has now won his last 8 and looks to be a better fighter than his record indicates, though he does still need a break out win before we get too excited about the 23 year old Super Bantamweight hopeful.

The second 8 rounder featured former WBA Minimumweight champion Ryo Miyazaki (21-1-3, 12) who scored an excellent stoppage against Indonesian fighter Ichal Tobida (10-13, 8). Miyazaki was fighting for the first time since his loss to Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr on New Years's Eve and looked really sharp considering he had been out of the ring for well over 8 months. After the fight Miyazaki indicated that he was wanting to fight for a Light Flyweight world title and if he can make the weight we imagine that there are titles out there for him, especially if he's as good as he looked today.

Following Miyazaki's bout, which was shown on tape delay, fans in the venue got the chance to see former WBC Flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao (35-3-3, 20) take a 5 round decision over Ryuta Otsuka (14-7-2, 4). Tuancao, originally of the Philippines though now based in Japan, showed off his skills and experience against Otsuka who was stepping up massively for this fight and came up very short as a result, prior to a nasty clash of heads midway into round 5.

The main event of the show saw former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (15-1, 9) take a clear decision over Colombian tough man Pablo Carrillo (15-3-1, 8). Early on Ioka looked apprehensive, as if memories of his loss to Amnat Ruenroeng were on his mind, though by the end of round 7 he was really in his groove and looked genuinely world class. Sadly for Ioka he still doesn't look ready to win a Flyweight world title and although he's spoken about a rematch with Ruenroeng in December we tend to feel he'll need another 6 months to fill out into a fully fledged Flyweight fighter.

(Image, from the Ioka/Carrillo fight, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Osaka, Japan
The highlight of this boxing week was in Osaka as an Ioka promoted show attracted the attention of fans around the world courtesy of two world title fights, an OPBF title fight and one of the most out standing Japanese prospects.

The aforementioned prospect was Sho Ishida (16-0, 9), the first of the notable fighters on the show. Ishida, one of most exciting Super Flyweight prospects, made light work of limited Thai foe Brukluk Kor Narong Service (0-1). Ishida may not be a major name, yet, but his potential is special and with his speed, skills, size and under-rated power it's going to take a very special fighter to stop his rise.

Following Ishida's victory fans in the venue got to see the unbeaten OPBF Lightweight champion Masayoshi Nakatani (8-0, 5) defending his belt for the first time. The talented and rangy Nakatani was a clear winner as he out pointed a spirited challenger from Japanese based Filipino Ricky Sismundo (26-8-1, 12). We're surprised that Sismundo, who has been stopped in 4 of his previous losses, went the distance but a second successive 12 round distance fight for Nakatani will do him the world of good.

Following those two bouts of note we then moved on to the first world title fight which saw IBF Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama (27-6-0-1, 10) defending his belt for the second time. Takayama, known as the "lightning kid", was given some issues from the straight lefts of challenger Shin Ono (17-6-2, 2) though was the busier, better and more effective champion, as shown when Takayama dropped Ono in rounds 10 and 12 to secure a clear decision victory over the game Ono.

The second world title fight saw a genuine upset as Thailand's Amnat Ruenroeng (13-0, 5) successfully defended his IBF Flyweight title with a victory over the previously unbeaten 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (14-1, 9). Ioka, attempting to become the quickest 3-weight world champion was unusually gun shy though the biggest talking point was the atrocious scorecard of Polish judge Pawel Kardyni, who some how managed to score the bout a shut out out to Ruenroeng leaving questions about whether or not he was even watching the action.

Prior to the big bouts the card had 5 other bouts on it. The most notable of those saw Takahiro Yamamoto (13-3, 10) blasting out Thailand's Jakaratlek Sor Wankaew (0-2) in 3 rounds of a scheduled 8 rounder. 

In the sole 6 rounder Tomoya Itosu (5-2, 3) stopped Takeshi Nakayama (3-5-2, 1) in 2 rounds. 

The card opened with trio of 4 rounders. These saw Tesu Kanayama (1-0) scoring a decision victory on debut as he over-came Ryusuke Hosoki (3-5-1, 1), Takeru Kamikubo (2-0, 1) scoring his first stoppage victory as he stopped Takuya Sumiyoshi (0-4-1) in the second round and, in a female bout, Aiko Yamagishi (3-0-1, 1) stopped Tomomi Kida (1-1, 1) in 3 rounds.

(Image, courtesy of boxingnews.jp, shows Takayama throwing a jab at Ono)

Bodymaker Colosseum, Osaka
The Japanese know how to end a year and yesterday saw them drawing a close to 2013 with 2 fantastic cards of action that involved big names, title fights and a number of world ranked fighters.

Of the 2 shows it was the one at the Bodymaker Colosseum that left us with the shock of the day with former WBA Minimumweight champion Ryo Miyazaki (20-1-3, 11) suffering the first defeat of his career. Miyazaki, who had vacated his Minimumweight title to campaign at Light Flyweight, looked out of sorts from the weigh-in, in which he collapsed, and there was real concern about him going into his bout with Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (23-2, 15). That concern was well placed with Miyazaki being stung late in the opening round and never recovering. Although he survived into round 3 there was nothing good to take from the bout for Miyazaki.

Having just moved to Light Flyweight it's probably fair to suggest that Miyazaki will be making an immediate leap to Flyweight if not Super Flyweight in 2014. How he ever made 105lbs is a mystery and this kid, for his own health, needs to stop trying to boil down so much. He's an entertaining fighter but this was a stupid fight to take part in if he couldn't comfortably make weight. Of course for Fahlan this is a career best result but unfortunately it's one that could feel tainted due to Miyazaki's ill health.

Of course Miyazaki/Sakkreerin Jr wasn't the main event in Osaka, that was the honour for Kazuto Ioka (14-0, 9) who successfully defended his WBA Light Flyweight title with an exciting, though comprehensive, decision over Nicaraguan challenger Felix Alvarado (18-1, 15). The bout, a phone booth war from the off, was fought in a style that on paper should have favoured the challenger though Ioka's class saw him winning it relatively comfortably by picking his spots and avoiding much of the Alvarado onslaught.

Although we had anticipated this being Ioka's last fight at Light Flyweight it would seem likely the 24 year old will remain at 108lbs, at least for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately the division is somewhat weak and perhaps the most logical match up for Ioka right now is a contest with Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr, especially after the Miyazaki fight.

The undercard was a splattering KO's and TKO's, some of which were surprising others of which weren't.

The least surprising stoppage of the day came in a flat out mismatch as KO machine Masao Nakamura (18-1, 18) defeated the fragile Fasanghan Or Benjamad (0-6). Nakamura, a huge puncher, should never have been matched with Fasanghan who had already been stopped 5 times and it was no shock he was stopped in just 2 rounds.

In an equally expected result Sho Ishida (15-0, 8) made light work of the wonderfully named Comeback Wor Por Srisaket (0-1) who lasted just 75 seconds with the gifted Ishida. Although not a huge puncher in regards to his record this was Ishida's 6th stoppage in 8 bouts and all 6 of those have come in the first 2 rounds. It's now time that Ishida was put in a big bout and it'd be no surprise if he took on title holder of some variety in 2014.

Amazingly Ishida's 75 second victory wasn't the quickest on the show, that honour was instead achieved by Daiya Shimazu (5-0, 4) who took just 63 seconds to defeat the debuting Songpol Sithsaithong (0-1). This quick blast out was the second successive opening round blow out by Shimazu though unfortunately we don't know much about his potential as he's now fought 4 of debutants.

Ishida and Shimazu were joined in taking opening round KO's by 20 year old south-paw Masayoshi Hashizume (2-0, 2) who defeated Rotthang Wor Por Srisaket (0-2) in just 73 seconds. As with Shimazu we don't know a great deal about Hashizume though we'd like to see him progress from fighting Thai novices sooner rather than later.

As well as the opening round KO's there were several second round KO's, not just that of Nakamura. One these second round KO's belonged to former world title challenger Atsushi Kakutani (14-4-1, 7) who defeated the limited Thaminkhao Sor Tharnthip (3-7-1, 2), who suffered his 6th stoppage defeat in 10 bouts. Tharnthip, who did defeat Yuki Sano in Japan back in 2008 is now 1-3 in Japan having been stopped in round 2 in all 3 of the losses.

Another man who scored a second round victory was Takahiro Yamamoto (12-3, 9) who scored his 6th straight win by taking out Nongdear Sor Bangkhru (0-3). Although this was an expected victory for Yamamoto the stoppage is impressive considering that Nongdear had gone 6 rounds with the higjly regarded Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym just 2 months ago.

The least expected second round KO came in the only female bout of the show as the light hitting Kei Takenaka (6-0, 2) took out Thailand's Yinglek Sithsaithong (6-3, 4). This result says more about Yinglek, who has been stopped in all 3 of her losses which have all come in Japan.

In the only bout that went the distance the light hitting Hikaru Matsuoka (5-1-3, 1) defeated the hard hitting but limited Toshiya Yokogawa (5-5-1, 5) over the scheduled 6 rounds. This was the second meeting between the 2 men who fought to a draw back in September, and although Matsuoka won this bout the two men are actually quite even, despite their vastly different records.