This past Sunday was a busy day in the Japanese boxing scene with 3 notable domestic shows. Although the shows weren't attention grabbing on an international scale they were big enough to feature some well known fighters.

Osaka, Japan
The most well known fighter in action was Nobuhiro Ishida (26-10-2, 10), who was on one of two separate shows held at the Bodymaker Colosseum in Osaka city. Ishida, pictured, was fighting for the second time as a Heavyweight and managed to out point Frenchman David Radeff (5-8-2, 2) in an 8 round bout. The win for Ishida was his first win as a Heavyweight and has seen him taking a step towards a rematch with Kyotaro Fujimoto, a bout that Ishida wants so as to claim the Japanese Heavyweight title and avenge a close loss from earlier this year. Without a Fujimoto rematch the odds are that Ishida will have to think very hard about his future.

Another man thinking about his future right now is former Japanese Bantamweight champion Kohei Oba (36-3-1, 14) who announced his retirement following a hard fought decision win over domestic rival Keigo Soma (6-11-1, 3). This 8 round bout was Oba's first following his stoppage loss to Randy Caballero earlier this year and it's clear that the loss to Caballero took a lot out of "The Mayweather of Nagoya" who at just 29 has called an end on his career.

On the same show we also saw a return to the ring for recent Japanese Bantamweight title contender Yu Kawaguchi (21-6, 9) who looked less than impressive in scoring a narrow 8 round win over Seizo Kono (14-7-1, 9). For Kawaguchi this was his first bout following a 10 round loss to Kentaro Masuda in a bout for the vacant Japanese national title at Bantamweight and although he was competitive in that one the bout appears to have taken it's toll on him here.

The undercard of this show featured 5 bouts all scheduled for 4 rounds. These saw a pair of blow out wins for debutant fights. The quickest of the debutants to record a win was Yuto Nagano (1-0, 1) who took just 34 seconds to blow through Norio Shimizu (0-1). It took just 2 minutes for fellow debutant Tomoaki Matsumura (1-0, 1) to get off the mark with his own opening round victory which came against Shuichi Inagaki (1-1, 1).

The other 3 bouts all went the distance as Hirohide Murakami (2-2) took a clear decision win over Masatetsu Hirano (1-2, 1). A second, closer, decision saw Ryosuke Nasu (1-0-1) score his first win as he over-came Yuki Sueyoshi (1-3, 1). The closest of the 3 decisions saw Genki Inoue (1-3-1, 1) fight to a draw with Ryota Shimizu (3-5-1, 1).

Osaka, Japan
The other show at the Bodymaker Colosseum was the Rookie of the West finals with 10 bouts on the show, all featuring novices competing for their chance to be Rookie of the Year later this year.

The lowest weight featured was Minimumweight where we saw the unbeaten Reiya Konishi (5-0, 4) continue his unbeaten run with a 2nd round stoppage against the win-less Naoki Yoshimura (0-2-1). Konishi kicked off a good run for unbeaten fighters with unbeaten men winning every division from Minimumweight all the way up to Super Flyweight, as well as Super Bantamweight. At Light Flyweight that saw Seigo Yuri Akui (2-0) over-come the previously unbeaten Michitaka Muto (3-1-1) with a 4 round decision, Flyweight saw a 5 round decision for Shun Kosaka (8-0) who managed to rack up his 8th straight decision win with a clear victory over Takahiko Nakajima (4-5-1). At Super Flyweight we saw Ioka prospect Masayoshi Hashizume (5-0, 3) blow away Takeshi Kajikawa (3-1, 2) in very impressive fashion, this win notably won Hashizume the MVP for the show.

The Bantamweight bout was won by the heavy handed Keisuke Tabuchi (7-1-2, 5) who took a very narrow majority decision over Takaaki Kitagawa (4-3, 2) in one of the more exciting bouts on the show.

At Super Bantamweight we saw another unbeaten winner as Shohei Kawashima (7-0-2, 1) took a 5 round decision over the heavy handed Kohei Iwai (4-3-1, 4).

The remaining 4 bouts on this show were all very competitive with little to split the fighters. These included a Featherweight bout that saw Kyohei Tonomoto (4-1, 2) take a very narrow split decision over Toru Kageyama (5-6-1, 4) whilst Chocoboy Oizumi (4-2-2, 2) took the Light Welterweight crown with a split decision over Kazuma Fukuyama (3-3-3). In a unanimous decision Shota Yamamoto (5-1, 3) defeated the previously unbeaten Ryo Kanda (2-1, 1) for the Welterweight crown. Arguably the most surprising result came at Middleweight where the previously win-less Ryota Ikawa (1-5) over-came American Brandon Lockhart Shane (3-3, 2) in a narrow split decision.

Hyogo, Japan
The third Japan show was in Hyogo and was headlined by former world title challenger Atsushi Kakutani (15-4-1, 7) who scored a 4th round TKO against Thai visitor Dawut Manopkanchang (10-7-1, 3). After the fight Kakutani, who is best known for his loss to Adrian Hernandez in a WBC Light Flyweight title fight, hinted strongly that he was wanting to get an OPBF title fight for December.

In the chief support bout we again saw a Japanese fighter fighting a Thai. This time however the bout was much more competitive with Yuichi Arai (9-8-1, 2) narrowly over-coming Saensak Sithvarunee (0-2) with an 8 round majority decision. 

The only 6 round bout on the show saw Yushi Fujita (6-6-3, 1) defeat Takuya Hashimoto (4-5, 4) in 3 rounds. Fujita scored his first stoppage though it shouldn't be taken as too much of an impressive achievement considering Hashimoto has now been stopped in all 5 of his losses.

The card kicked off with a trio of 4 rounders. These saw Kazuki Kimura (3-2) take a 4 round unanimous decision over Naoya Hamaguchi (4-2-1, 1) in a minor upset, Kazuyoshi Toguri (3-6) managed to take a narrow split decision over Tomohiro Tatani (3-9, 2) and a split decision draw between Kenta Ide (1-1-1) and Keigo Yokoyama (1-1-1).

Jakarta, Indonesia
In Indonesia fans saw Ruben Manakane (14-11-1, 9) score a 5th round TKO against Egy Rozten (3-6-1, 3).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

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)