Tokyo, Japan
On Monday Japanese fans at the Korakuen Hall had a treat as they got a number of really good match ups on the most recent of the Dangan shows.

In the main event fight fans saw rising star Ken Shiro (5-0, 3) score a 10 round unanimous decision win over Filipino Rolly Sumalpong (9-1-1, 4) to claim the WBC Youth Light Flyweight crown. The bout saw Ken Shiro being dropped in round 2 before fighting back hard to claim a clear decision win over the Filipino, who was deducted a point in the final round for biting Ken Shiro.

Following the win Ken Shiro announced that he would be fighting for the Japanese national title in December against Kenichi Horikawa.

In the chief support bout fans saw a minor upset as Japanese based Filipino Ricky Sismundo (30-8-2, 13) took a narrow decision win over Yoshitaka Kato (29-6-1, 9). Sismundo looked better than ever as he out boxed Kato through large swathes of the bout, though was dropped in round 8 as Kato looked to turn the fight around. Despite scoring the late knockdown Kato still came up short, losing 76-75 on all 3 cards.

In another supporting bout fans saw Shota Hayashi (26-5-1, 16) scored a 7th round TKO win over former Japanese title holder Koji Umetsu (22-17-3, 10), who now seems likely to retire given that he is 39 and has lost 4 of his last 6 bouts.

Another of the supporting bouts was a bout between former title challengers and saw Koshinmaru Saito (22-7-1, 11) score a 5th round TKO win over Takehiro Shimokawara (19-11-3, 6). This was a third successive loss for Shimokawara who has now won just 1 of his last 6, and may well walk away from the sport.

Another supporting 8 rounder saw Hayato Yamaguchi (13-6-1, 2) celebrate his 20th professional bout with an 8th round technical decision win over Seiya Fujikita (8-2, 1). This bout, a majority technical decision, was a minor upset for Yamaguchi.

The first of the supporting 8 rounders was another close one as Masashi Odaira (6-4-2, 2) narrowly over-came Yuki Fukumoto (17-11, 5) with a razor thin unanimous decision win. This saw Fukumoto suffer his 5th loss in 7 bouts.

The only 4 rounder on the card saw Yusuke Moriya (2-2, 1) score a 4th round TKO win against Seita Shimaniya (1-5, 1), who has now suffered 4 straight losses. The win for Moriya sees him ending a 2 fight skid.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
On Monday Japanese fans had a real treat at the Korakuen Hall as they had the chance to see a pair of OPBF title fights as well as a fast rising prospect and a current OPBF champion fighting in a non-title fight.

We'll start with the under which kicked off with a 4 round decision win for the unbeaten Naoto Mizutani (2-0), who shut out the win-less Akihiro Suzuki (0-3) with a 40-35 decision.

The first, of three, scheduled 8 rounders saw the Japanese ranked Yuta Matsuo (8-2-1, 5) score a 5th round TKO win against Yudai Arai (6-3-3, 3). The referee was forced to save Arai as Matsuo unleashed a barrage of punches.

The first of the really notable bouts was another 8 rounder and the bout featuring the fast rising Ken Shiro (4-0, 3) who scored an excellent victory against Takashi Omae (13-5-5, 1). Coming in Omae had never been stopped however he couldn't service with the razor sharp Omae, who stopped him in the 4th round. From the off Ken Shiro was too good for Omae who looked like a novice against the speed, counters and movement of the youngster who now appears to be set for a title fight before the year is out.

In the second notable bout of the show fans saw the heavy handed Keita Obara (15-1, 14) score his 13th successive stoppage victory as he dominated Thai visitor Khompetch Sithsaithong (5-6, 5). Khompetch looked outclassed from very early in the opening though some how survived until round 3 until he was eventually stopped. Prior to being stopped he had been bounced off the canvas by Obara who will hopefully be in the ring again before the year is out.

The first of the two title fights came at Featherweight and saw two former Hisashi Amagasa victims battling for Amagasa's former title. Entering the bout Vinvin Rufino (37-17-3, 16) was defending his OPBF title for the first time since claiming the belt, earlier this year. Sadly for Rufino his first defense as an unsuccessful one as Ryo Takenaka (13-3-1, 7) stopped him in 5 rounds. Rufino was down in round 2 and well behind on the card before being taken out with a solid right hand in opening minute of the 5th round.

The second title fight also proved to be relatively one sided as Masayuki Ito (17-1-1, 8) stopped Dai Iwai (17-4-1, 6) in the 10th round. Prior to the stoppage Iwai was made to look second best round after round. The speedy Ito was simply too busy, too fast and too accurate for Iwai who suffered his first stoppage defeat. For Ito this was the perfect return to the ring following his first defeat, a close one at the hands of the talented Rikki Naito. In a perfect world Ito's first defense would come against the winner of the upcoming bout between Daiki Kaneko and Masao Nakamura, though Ito has already over-come Nakamura and may see that as going over old ground it he defeats Kaneko on August 21st.

(Image courtesy of www.boxingnews.jp)

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)

This past Sunday wasn't the busiest day in Asian boxing but it was still an interesting one with several bouts of note taking place in Japan.

Kyoto, Japan
The bouts took place on a Woz boxing card put on in Kyoto and although the card wasn't a huge one it was a very interesting one with several interesting prospects in action.

One of those was the world ranked Shohei Omori (13-0, 8) who scored his third win of the year by stopping former Rookie of the Year Bunta Mitaka (6-2-2) in the 3rd of a scheduled 8 rounds. This win effectively closes off a perfect year for Omori who's win over Cristian Esquivel a few months ago really brought him to the attention of the hardcore fans who now seem to be viewing him as a potential Bantamweight star of the future. This was a step back in some ways for the unbeaten Japanese youngster but the fact he's being kept active is a good thing.

Another promising prospect in action was the much touted Ken Shiro (2-0, 1) who made light work of Thailand's Phuwanai Wor Surapol (7-4-1, 2)*. Ken Shiro dropped the Thai in the opening round before detonating a huge right in the second round that dropped him hard. From what we understand Ken Shiro's next bout will be against an OPBF top 10 ranked contender with the intention to fight for a title at some point in 2015.

Not all the bouts included a prospect and the sole 6 rounder on the show certainly didn't feature one as Taisei Higashi (6-7, 5) took on Naoki Yamamoto (5-8-2, 3) in a bout that looked incredibly even on paper. Although the records were similar Higashi's power was the difference as he stopped Yamamoto in 3 rounds suggesting that his power is legitimate even if his skills aren't the most outstanding. 

In the 4 rounders we saw more prospects in action, one of which was Super Featherweight hopeful Naotoshi Nakatani (3-0, 3) who made very light work of Kiyonori Matsumoto (2-3) courtesy of an opening round KO. Although Nakatani might be a trainers nightmare with his hands down style he is genuinely so fun to watch that he made us real fans of his with his performance. 

Another hopeful was Yuya Shimakawa (1-0) who took a 3rd round technical decision over fellow debutant Atsushi Maekawa (0-1) in an all debutant contest. For other debutants there was mixed fortune with Yusuku Takahashi (1-0) taking a shut out over Sumeeman Shoki (0-4) whilst Ryuta Miyoshi (0-1) was stopped by Yuki Nakanishi (1-1) and Tomohiro Tomiyama (0-1) was beaten by Shota Taguchi (1-1).

The only other undercard bout here saw Yosuke Shimagawa (4-5-1, 2) take a hard fought split decision over Masaki Mori (2-2-1, 1).

(*record taken from Japanese source, boxrec.com list him at 0-1)

This past Saturday was a ridiculously busy day in Japan with several shows and a lot of action.

Osaka, Japan
The most significant of the shows in Japan was at the IMP Hall in Osaka, one of two shows in the venue. What made this one in particular, the Green Tsuda one, most important was the debut of a star and the return of an exciting local boxer as well as a very promising unbeaten fighter.

The card's highlight for regional fans was the return to an Osaka ring for Tosho Makoto Aoki (18-12-2, 14). Aoki had been fighting in the Philippines recently and had, twice, seen decent opponents pull out on him leading in to this fight. Sadly that left Aoki's home coming looking less than competitive as he easily defeated Thai debutant Ekayut Saksomchat (0-1) in 4 rounds.

Whilst Aoki was the main event his bout probably only the 4th most interesting on the show. The best, for us anyway, was the debut of Ken Shiro (1-0) who completely dominated Indonesian veteran Heri Amol (34-18-4, 14) over 6 rounds. Amol was dropped from a body and dominated by the jab of Ken Shiro who never looked in any trouble during his outstanding debut.

Another of the notable bouts saw the unbeaten Shohei Okuda (11-0, 4) extend his winning run with a decision victory over the very tough but limited Shohei Kanemoto (9-8-1, 3). Okuda will have seen this bout as a warning not to step up to title level, yet, but the potential for the 23 year old to move to title level is clear. The other contest saw Takayuki Okumoto (12-6-2, 5) taking a 7th round technical decision over Shota Kawaguchi (17-5-2, 7).

The show had a relatively long under-card with one of the better bouts on it being a 6 round victory for Hiroshi Konoura (5-4, 1) who defeated Hisashi Kawanishi (4-7, 1) whilst in another 6 rounder Ryota Yada (5-3, 4) made light work of Takayuki Morimoto (5-9, 3).

The show had 4 bouts set for 4 rounds. Of those 4 contests 3 went the distance, the only one that didn't saw Naotoshi Nakatani (2-0, 2) blasting out Ryo Hirai (1-3-1) in just 115 seconds. Nakatani was one of two fighters to extend his unbeaten record on this part of the card with Takeshi Kajikawa (3-0, 2) over-coming Yuki Nagashima (5-1, 2) via a decision.

In the other 4 rounders we ended up with draws as Kazuma Fukuyama (3-2-3) shared the spoils with Yosuke Shimagawa (3-5-1, 2) and Ryosuke Nasu (0-0-1) fought to a split decision draw with Ryo Miyagaki (0-0-1).

Osaka, Japan
The other show at the IMP Hall was a card held by Taiho and headlined by a very good bout between Ryota Kajiki (23-9, 15) and Shota Yamaguchi (12-2, 8). The bout was competitive going into round 8 but Kajiki's power managed to see off Yamaguchi in the final round to secure the win and move back towards a domestic title bout.

In the co-feature we had an upset as Shunji Nagata (10-11-2, 3) took an 8 round split decision over Akiyoshi Kanazawa (11-3-4, 5), 

In the 6 rounders in the middle of the card Ippo Nishiwaki (6-3-1, 4) managed to claim a 6 round unanimous decision over Katsuhiko Kanno (8-9-7, 3). The other 6 rounder saw the once beaten Ken Osato (6-1, 3) out point Ryo Shirakawa (5-7-2, 2).

The early portion of the card with the 4 rounders had a trio of bouts though, like the other IMP Hall show, only 1 finished early. That was an 80 second blow out win for Keisuke Tabuchi (6-1-2, 5) who made light work of the previously unbeaten Batten Ryosuke (1-1-1, 1). The other bouts saw Daijiro Yuki (3-0, 1) taking a narrow split decision over the debuting Yuki Nakanishi (0-1) and Noboru Osata (3-2-3, 1) defeating Ryusuke Tanaka (3-2, 1) with a split decision.

Osaka, Japan
A third show in Osaka took place at the Sumiyoshi Ward Center. This card featured 7 bouts in total as well as a very interesting Ring Girl's contest with the winning of that contest being a ring girl for the upcoming domestic title fight on August 10th.

The main event in terms of boxing was the return to winning ways for former world title challenger Hirofumi Mukai (10-3-2, 1) who managed to out point Filipino journeyman Marjohn Yap (19-11, 10) in an 8 rounder that felt anti-climatic in many ways. Mukai's jab was simply too much for Yap to have sustained success though Yap, as he always does, did try to make a fight of things.

The chief support bouts, both scheduled for 8 rounds, fans saw Kota Tokunaga (13-2, 9) score a 7th round stoppage against Tatsuya Yoneo (6-5, 1) whilst Yuki Strong Kobayashi (8-3, 4) out pointed Kengo Maruhashi (5-12-2, 5).

The sole 6 rounder from the undercard was incredibly competitive with Yukitaka Nishida (6-8-2, 1) taking a narrow split decision over Kojiro Takada (13-7-3, 9). It wasn't the only close bout on the card and one of the 4 rounders from the undercard resulted in a draw as Kaminoko Okamura Kentakid (3-0-2, 2) kept his unbeaten record alive courtesy of a draw with Hiroya Kojima (2-3-1, 2).

In the other under-card bouts Golgosaithon Kenji (2-0) took a 4 round decision over Keita Yamamoto (0-2) to continue his winning run, whilst Takuya Olivia Hase (1-0-1) secured his first win with a decision over Kazuhiro Hirahara (1-6, 1).

Aichi, Japan
The remaining Japanese action was in Aichi at the Aioi Hall and featured a further 9 bouts.

One of the main bouts here resulted in a draw as the judges were split over who won an 8 rounder between Shinichi Tsukahara (8-6-3, 3) and Yuji Iwata (6-5-2, 2). Thankfully the other main bout left no so doubt as Kazuya Maruki (17-2, 11) scored a dominant KO over Indonesian visitor Wellem Reyk (17-10-3, 5) who was stopped in round 3. Unfortunately for Reyk this was his 6th stoppage defeat and it now seems cleam that his career is now going to be that of a "professional" loser as opposed to a journeyman capable of giving it a go.

The rest of the card, all 7 bouts, were 4 rounders fought as the finals of the Central Japan Rookie of the Year.

At Light Welterweight fans saw  Tetsuya Morisada (2-3, 2) scoring a 2nd round TKO over Tetsuya Yamaguchi (2-2-1, 1), another second round stoppage saw Lightweight Shogo Yamaguchi (4-0-1, 3) extending his unbeaten run with a 2nd round stoppage over Hayato Takeshima (3-3. 3) whilst Minimumweight hopeful Jun Takigawa (4-0, 3) scored a 4th round KO over Hideaki Kamiyasu (1-2).

At Super Featherweight Yuya Shimakura (3-0) out out pointed Kazuaki Okada (3-2, 2), in the Featherweight division Takashi Igarashi (4-0, 1) out pointed Tetsuya Kudo (3-3, 2), at Super Flyweight Eita Sakurai (4-0, 1) defeated the experienced Teruyuki Kobashi (2-10-1, 1) and at Light Flyweight Kenta Matsui (5-2, 1) dominated Takashi Matsumoto (2-1).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and shows Ken Shiro celebrating his knockdown of Amol)