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)

Today has been a very busy day in Japanese boxing with 2 notable domestic cards.

Hyogo, Japan
The less significant Japanese show of the day came from Hyogo where we still had several interesting contests.

The main event of the card saw OPBF female Light Flyweight champion Kei Takenaka (8-0, 3) dominate a Thai opponent to record her first defense of the title. The fight was a real mismatch with Takenaka dominating from the opening round and never looking like she was in any trouble at all against the Thai who looked completely out of her depth. Sadly for Takenaka her lack of power saw her fail to put away the Thai who we believe was 10-5 (1) coming into this bout.

The co-feature saw another dominant display from a Japanese fighter who clearly beat an over-matched Thai foe. This one saw Shinichiro Morikawa (17-4-1, 12) score a 3rd round victory over Kaenpetch Manoprungroj (4-2, 2) after a devastating left hook to the body left the Thai in too much agony to continue.

For us the most interesting contest on this card was actually a 6 rounder that featured the debut of former amateur stand out Kazuma Yokoya (1-0, 1) who dispatched Thailand's Fahpetch Sor Praithong (8-7, 1) at the end of the opening round. The bout was a mismatch with Yokoya, a very touted prospect, dominating his Thai opponent from the opening bell and dropping him early in the round. The Thai showed bravery to continue but was dropped again at the end of the round from a body shot and failed to beat the count, officially counted at at 3:07 of the opening round.

Tokyo, Japan
Whilst there was a title fight and a huge debut in Hyogo the biggest show of the day was at the Korakuen Hall where we had the East Japan Rookie of the Year finals. This show, which consisted of 12 bouts, decides the Eastern Japan representative at the upcoming All Japan Rookie of the Year in December.

The opening bout of the show saw Yuki Kubo (6-1, 2) claim a narrow decision over the previously undefeated Masayuki Ichikawa (5-1, 2) to become the East Japan Minimumweight Rookie of the Year. Ichikawa dropped Kubo early in the bout but couldn't finish him off and instead the knockdown seemed to inspire Kubo who went on to out-box Ichikawa for much of the contest to claim a decision with scores of 47-46 and 48-45, twice.

At Light Flyweight Kenji Ono (6-1, 3) narrowly over-come the bull like Akira Kokubo (1-4-3) who again showed that records were for DJ's. Kokubo brought the pressure and work rate and really put Ono under-pressure, though Ono did just enough to take a narrow win over Kokubo with a split decision. The cards, which read 39-38, twice to Ono, and 37-39 to Kokubo show just how close this one was.

On paper the stand out bout came at Flyweight where the heavy handed Kenya Yamashita (6-0, 4) battled against Sonin Nihei (5-1-1, 1) in what was, going in, a battle of unbeaten men both looking to score the biggest win of their career. The bout, like many on the show, was very hard fought with Yamashita narrowly taking a split decision that really could have gone either way. Despite the loss for Nihei we suspect both men have very bright futures ahead of them and a rematch at title level is certainly not out of the question considering what they showed here.

In the Super Flyweight division we saw the show's first stoppage as Shogo Yonenaga (6-1, 3) took a 4th round stoppage victory over Hokuto Sakata (5-4-1, 3). The bout was fought at a wonderfully high tempo from both men, unfortunately for Sakata he was dropped late and ruled unfit to continue as he was unsteady on his feet. On this performance we're very excited to see Yonenaga in action again though we do wonder how far he can really go despite this excellent victory.

In an impressive Bantamweight performance we saw Ryohei Takahashi (4-1-1, 1) score a clear and decisive decision victory over the previously unbeaten Ken Kodama (4-1-1, 1).  From the opening bell Takahashi seiezed the iniative and boxed at a fierce tempo behind his jab in an outstanding performance that really did catch the eye. We were genuinely impressed by the work rate but do need to wonder about how his lack of power may hold him back in the future.

The Super Bantamweight division saw a genuine one-sided bout as Yuki Matsudo (8-1, 4) thoroughly dominated Yoshifumi Tamaki (5-2-1, 2) over the course of 5 rounds. The all Southpaw bout started even but Matsudo really upped the pace as the bout went on there was no doubt about the winner, despite one or two momentary scares fo the slightly more experienced man.

On paper one of the shows more interesting bouts on paper was the Featherweight contest, sadly however it turned out to be the shortest as Reiya Abe (7-1, 4) took just 113 seconds to see off Naoto Moriya (6-2-1, 3). Abe dropped Moriya early in the opening round and a follow up barrage finished the bout with Moriya looking unable to come with Abe who looked sensation.

Although numerous fights on the show were exciting nothing compared with the all action Super Featherweight clash between the very fun to watch 17 year old Yuichiro Kasuya (5-0, 1) and the tough Yutaka Ekawa (5-3-1, 2). The bout was an insanely hard fought war between two fighters who knew what a win here meant and really let their hands go in a fight that excited the fans. It was thrilling with neither fighter ever looking safe from hard for long. At the end Kasuya won a unanimous decision with all 3 cards reading 47-45 though the only thing that was clear about the fight was that this was a special one. We hope to have the video of this shortly as it really was something special.

We had another thriller in the Lightweight division as the much touted Andy Hiraoka (6-0, 3) was forced to work incredibly hard to over-come the determined Shintaro Nakamura (5-3-1, 2). The bout saw Hiraoka need to pick himself up from a knockdown and battle incredibly hard to over-come his shorter but older opponent in what was clearly the toughest contest of his career saw far. The teenage prospect, who won 48-47 on all 3 cards, will know that this was a serious learning experience and he should feel that it he's proven a lot more in this one fight than he had in his previous 5.

We had another very exciting battle at Light welterweight as Naoharu Kida (6-0, 3) won an all action phone-booth war against Yasuki Katagiri (4-1, 1). The two men refused to budge and just let their hands do it all in a bout that was amazingly difficult to score either way and almost impossible to look away from as the both just unloaded in a back and forth war. The thrilling action saw Kida just nick the bout with a split decision though with scores of 48-47 from all 3 judges it's clear just how close this one was. Rematch in 2015 please!

In an undefeated showdown at Welterweight fans saw Hironobu Matsunaga (6-0, 3) retain his unbeaten record with a clear win over Masaya Tamayama (4-1, 3). The bout was a high paced boxing contest between two well school fighters, unfortunately for Masaya it just always seemed like the southpaw stance of Matsunaga was too much for him and allowed the Yokohama based man to control swathes of the bout behind his razor like southpaw jab.

The Middleweight division saw the aggressive Hisao Narita (7-1, 4) over-come Asahi Hatsumi (4-2, 2) in what turned out to be another exciting bout. Narita struggled early on but really put his foot on the gas as the bout went on before eventually doing enough to impress the judges into giving him the bout with a close decision. Narita appears to be a fun guy to watch but we're unsure about how he will fare in the long run, especially with his aggressive style.

For those wondering about the MVP it was awarded to Yuichiro Kasuya for his excellent victory in his war with Yutaka Ekawa.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and is from Yokoya's debut)

This past Friday was an interesting one in the world of Asian boxing with major fighters from Japan, Thailand and the Philippines all in action. It may not have have been a huge day of televised action but their was still enough of it to keep us interested in the days proceedings. 

Hyogo, Japan
The biggest disappointment for Asian boxing fans came in Japan where Japanese Bantamweight champion Kohei Oba (35-3-1, 14) failed in his attempt to secure an IBF world title fight. Oba, fighting against unbeaten American Randy Caballero (21-0, 13) was broken down with vicious body shots that saw being stopped in round 8.

We had expected this to be a competitive contest but it seemed that Oba was out of his depth from relatively early in the contest with the sharpness, power and speed all seemingly favouring Caballero who will now move on to IBF world title fight later this year, probably with Britain's Stuart Hall.

Also from this card there was a victory for the promising Shun Kubo (4-0, 3) who took a huge step backwards to beat Thai novice Nongbeer Sor Bangkru (0-2). Kubo beat Monico Laurente last time out so we've no doubt about his talent but we see no real point this match up. We saw no point before hand and we're still unsure on the point after the fact.

A title fight on this show saw Kei Takenaka (7-0, 3) stopping the win-less Yokkhao Loei Citygym (0-5) to claim the female OPBF Light Flyweight title in a clear mismatch.

The other results on this show saw Shota Yamaguchi (21-1, 8) score an 8th round stoppage over Tetsuya Nishinaga (11-9-1) as well as 4 undercard bouts.

The undercard bouts saw just one stoppage as Masaki Kimura (2-0, 1) stopped Yuki Abe (1-4) inside a round. This was then followed by 3 decision as the unbeaten Shun Kosaka (5-0) extended his unbeaten run with a shut out against Hiroya Kojima (2-2, 2), Seita Mochizuki (3-5) struggled to a majority decision over Kazuhiro Hirahara (1-5, 1) and also a victory for Kyohei Okutani (4-1, 3) who beat Yu Konomura (1-2-1).

Tokyo, Japan
A second Japanese show took place at the Korakuen Hall and was one of the Dangan shows with both Rookie of the Year qualifying matches and Class C tournament matches.

This card kicked off with Desierto Nagaike (1-1) taking a majority decision over the debuting Junpei Ota (0-1) in a none competition bout. The second bout was a shut out victory for Sho Kimura (4-1) who over-came Katsunori Shimooki (3-4-1) whilst in the third bout Genki Ishikawa (1-0) scored a debut decision over Toshiya Tanaka (0-1).

The first of the competition bouts saw Wataru Hosokawa (1-1, 1) stopping the debuting Tatsuya Matsumoto (0-1) in 2 rounds. This was surprisingly 1 of just 2 stoppages on the entire card. Hosokawa's victory was one one of the two C-Class tournament bouts with the other seeing debutant Yuta Tanaka (1-0) narrowly over-coming Jun Funatsu (0-1).

All 6 of the remaining bouts on this card were qualifiers for the Rookie of the year of the tournament. These began with an upset victory for Daiki Yoshimatsu (4-2, 1) who beat the previously unbeaten Shogo Dairakuin (2-1, 1). Yoshimatsu's victory was followed by Yasuki Katagiri (2-0, 1) who took a 3 round technical decision over the previously unbeaten Takuya Yamaguchi (1-1-1, 1).
After the technical decision we then saw a serious of 4 round decision wins. These saw Toshizane Kinoda (3-0, 1) beat Seishiro Kumakiri (3-4, 1), Ken Kodama (2-0-1, 1) out point Kensho Tokutome (1-2, 1), Shonosuke Sango (2-0) defeat Ryo Sugimoto (1-6-1) and Akinori Kubota (2-0, 1) beat the limited Ryosuke Ota (1-6).

The final bout on the show was a rather nice show case for the very hotly tipped teenage sensation Andy Hiraoka (3-0, 2) who stopped Susumu Nakata (1-5-2, 1) in the second round. Whether he goes on to win the competition or not we will be keeping a serious long term eye on Hiraoka who came to our attention last year

Ratchaburi, Thailand
If the card in Japan had the most significant bout of the day then the card in Japan had probably the #2 bout of the day, in terms of immediate significance, as Chatpetch Sithmorseng (7-3, 3) stopped Dicky Amtiran (3-8) to claim the PABA Super Flyweight title. In terms of significance a PABA title is meaningful though in reality this bout wasn't all that important and Chatpetch is unlikely to go far. However saying that his 3 losses came in his first 3 bouts and he could well become "the next Srisaket Sor Rungvisai" who also started his career with some poor early results before developing into a monster.

Another bout on this card saw former world champion Kwanthai Sithmorseng (45-2-1, 25) score his second stoppage victory since being stopped himself by Kazuto Ioka last year. Unfortunately Kwanthai's opponent is currently unknown.

Distrito Federal, Mexico
In Mexico fans got the chance to see the unbeaten Filipino Joebert Alvarez (14-0-1, 6) in action. Alvarez, fighting for the first time outside of the Philippines, over-came Mexico's very own Julian Rivera (13-9-1, 2) via a 12 round decision. The victory, a hard fought one, saw Alvarez claim the WBC Continental Americas Flyweight title and complete his first full 12 round bout.

Whilst he claimed the win Alvarez will know he was in a tough one after being dropped early and cut rather badly before bravely rallying back to take the victory in what is clearly the most impressive victory of his career so far.

(Photo courtesy of boxingnews.jp)