Tokyo, Japan There wasn't much Asian action this past Wednesday though there was a card at the Korakuen Hall. The main event of the show was a mouth watering match on paper, between two genuinely promising young fighters each looking to claim the biggest win of their career. In one corner was hard hitting Japanese 21 year old Tsuyoshi Tameda (12-1-2, 10) whilst in the other was Filipino 23 year old Mark Bernaldez (15-1, 10). The fight was, on paper, a 50-50 contest and through the early stages seemed to be as a relatively even bout with Tameda applying the pressure whilst Bernaldez found space for his sharp counters. A change of tactic from Tameda however saw him taking over the contest before stopping the gutsy Filipino the 7th round of the bout to claim the best win of his career. Whilst the win was a great for Tameda it will not be the end for Bernaldez who may well improving following this hard fought defeat. In one of the supporting bouts fans saw Shingo Kusano (10-4-1, 4) take a decision win over Kenta Takahashi (10-10-3, 3) in a bout that proved to be better than the records would suggested. The bout was relatively competitive early on but Kusano turned up the heat to take a clear decision over the 8 round distance. The only other 8 round bout on this card was a mismatch as Seigo Ogido (8-2-1, 3) blew away Namnun Saksiri (0-2) inside a round. This was the first time Ogido had been scheduled to go 8 but no one really expected it to go the distance, especially considering that Saksiri had been stopped in 2 rounds last year by Takeru Kamikubo. In the only 6 rounder on this card fans saw a surprisingly competitive contest between Takuya Watanabe (26-5-1, 12) and Shun Shimazaki (6-7-1, 1). On paper it was a mismatch but Shimazaki fought as if his career depended on it and really forced Watanabe to step up his game in what was a solid bout. Whilst Shimazaki didn't take the win he'll know that he earned a lot of credit on route to losing this decision. As for Watanabe the future seems to be on a title bout, though he will need to be better than he was here. The under-card of this show had a trio of 4 rounders. Only one of those went the distance with that resulting in a decision win for the debuting Hiroyuki Sato (1-0), who out pointed Sho Sekine (0-2). Both of the other under-card contests lasted less than a round with the short of those lasting just 45 seconds as Akira Watanabe (2-4-1, 2) easily saw off the win-less Koji Fujimoto (0-3). The other saw Ryusie Uchikoshi (1-0, 1) score a debut victory over fellow debutant Akira Hokkoku (0-1). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Tuesday was a busy day in Asian boxing with several interesting fighters in action through out Asia. Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan In Japan fans had the chance to see the latest in the Dangan series of shows and, on paper, this was a great card with several very promising young fighters in action in what were really interesting tests. The most notable of the youngsters who we thought was being tested was Masayuki Ito (16-0-1, 7) who took on Filipino foe Ryan Sermona (16-7, 9) in what looked like an interesting bout. Ito, who beat Masao Nakamura last time out, was expected to to do what he usually does and box and move though began the bout by holding his ground and landing some very clean and damaging shots. Those managed to quickly cut Sermona and inside a round the referee was forced to stop the bout due to the cut. This was the quickest of Sermona's stoppage defeats and notably Ito's 4th stoppage win in 5 fights suggesting he is growing in belief of his own stopping power even if he didn't stand and trade with Nakamura. Another very interesting bout at the top of this card saw Ryoichi Tamura (3-1-1, 1) score an 8th round TKO over Kenji Kubo (5-3-1, 2) in a bout that was everything a boxing fan could hope to see. Both men gave their all before a tired looking Kubo was dropped late in the bout. It was one of the bouts that again suggested we down-rate fighters for their records and Tamura showed the ability to go a long way, don't be fooled by his record. A third man who we were excited to see in action was Yusaku Kuga (10-1-1, 6) who struggled to a technical decision win over tough southpaw Kenta Takahashi (10-9-3, 3). The bout was stopped in the 5th round with Kuga taking the unanimous technical decision though it does appear that he will need a few more bouts before moving to title level. A fourth 8 rounder on this card saw former OPBF title challenger Valentine Hosokawa (18-4-3, 9) scored a 5th round TKO against the light hitting and relatively soft Takeshi Goda (7-3-1, 2) who suffered his third stoppage loss. This was Hosokawa's second win following his loss to Min Wook Kim in an OPBF title fight in South Korea last year. Further down the card fans saw the talented Daishi Nagata (1-0-1) score his first career win as he took a 6 round split decision over the more experienced Jeffrey Arienza (12-3-1, 7). Although Nagata went into this bout having only drawn on his debut he was matched hard and it seems clear that he's not going to be given many easy bouts in his career. Another 6 rounder saw Kyosuke Sawada (2-2, 1) take a clear decision over Yamato Nakagawa (4-5, 2). At the start of this card fans saw Ryo Ueda (3-0, 2) take a clear decision over Regent Kusumoto (2-1) whilst the debuting Toru Wakamatsu (1-0, 1) managed to defeat Yutaka Kato (0-1) with a 4th round stoppage in an all debutant affair. Dumaguete City Hall Quadrangle , Dumaguete City, Philippines As well as the show in Japan we also had a card in the Philippines headlined by the unbeaten Mark Bernaldez (15-0, 10). We'll admit we are high on Bernaldez but he was less than impressive here as he struggled to a majority decision win over Cristian Abila (12-15-3, 4) Another unbeaten fighter at the top of the card was Brian Lobetania (9-0-3, 7) who managed to live up to expectations as he stopped Renante Suacasa (6-13, 1) in the fourth round to extend his winning run. On paper the win was expected by Lobetania though no one would have expected him to stop Suacasa who had been just once in his 8 bouts. In the sole 8 rounder Jonas Sultan (6-2, 4) scored a 7th round stoppage against Andrew Palas (3-3, 1) in the 7th round of the bout. Another stoppage win came for Crispin Parba (8-7, 5) who took out the very experienced Elmer Colve (6-31-3, 2) in the fourth round of a 6 round whilst it took Jess Rhey Waminal (5-0, 3) a round less to stop Alvin Sibugan (1-2-1). The only 6 rounder that actually went the distance was that of the debuting Jesson Horteza (1-0) who out pointed James Paul Talaman (2-1, 1). In 4 rounders fans saw Michael Estrella (1-0) out point Noel Rosa (0-4) and Junder Gregorio (1-0) defeat Jamjam Ungon (1-7) in two wins for debutants. Thailand Unfortunately we've not got all the Thai results yet though the one we do have is that of PABA Welterweight champion Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (28-0, 22) who stopped Abraham Peralta (14-3, 12) in the 8th round of their bout. Teerachai has continued to show improvements though we are worried that he'll never become the fighter that his team had hoped and bouts like this aren't likely to really help him develop in the way he could. (Image, of Ito landing a clean jab on Sermona, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) It seems that, in recent weeks, it's been Japanese boxing that has been getting all the headlines. This past Saturday however our main interest was in Filipino fighters with the Philippines hosting two separate shows, both in Metro Manilla. Metro Manila, Philippines The bigger of the two Filipino cards was "Pinoy Pride XXV" a show otherwise known as Nietes Vs Fuentes II. With the name of the show coming from the main event which saw Donnie Nietes (33-1-4, 19) dominate Mexico Moises Fuentes (19-2-1, 10). We had, foolishly, written off Nietes going in to this bout but he looked sensational as he out boxed a fundementally one dimensional Fuentes. The Mexican, who we felt beat Fuentes in their first bout, was tagged from the outside, neutralised up close and eventually stopped in the 9th round by a man who seemed to be wanting to make a statement that he was one of the divisional elite. Unfortunately however it seems unlikely Nietes will get a unification bout though it was said that he'd like a fight with either Juan Francisco Estrada or Roman Gonzalez, we'd love either of those fights. Although the main event was a clear and dominant victory for the Filipino fighter the support bouts were much, much closer. The closest saw a below par Milan Melindo (31-1, 12) struggle past a game Martin Tecuapetla (11-6-2, 8). Tecuapetla did enter as the #5 ranked Light Flyweight, according to the WBA, but this was still a very poor effort from Melindo who was lucky to escape with a majority decision. Things were also close for Rey Bautista (35-3, 25) who defeated Sergio Villanueva (26-4-2, 13) in a competitive bout. Bautista, fighting for the first in over a year, was given a very tough time by Villanueva as ring rust showed it's self on the Filipino but victory and decision will do the popular "Boom Boom" the world of good and hopefully help him "fall back in love" with boxing. Down the card we got to see a number of promising prospects in action. The most impressive of those was Mark Bernaldez (13-0, 9) who forced a first round retirement of the experienced Marvin Tampus (27-19-2, 18). Bernaldez was expected to win but no one expected this one to be over so early and with such an impressive victory, on paper at least, Bernaldez will almost certainly be receiving more attention. Another prospect who scored an early stoppage was Filipino based Cuban Reymi Castellano Aleye (5-0, 2) who stopped Warren Mambuanag (6-5-2, 3) in 5 rounds of a scheduled 6 rounder. The Cuban has been helping Nonito Donaire prepare for his upcoming bout with Simpiwe Vetyeka and looks to have improved himself from that time in the gym with the "Filipino Flash". One of the other, very highly regarded prospects on this card was Mark Magsayo (6-0, 4) who was taken the 6 round distance by tough Korean Hyuk-Tak Joo (1-2). Hyuk-Tak Joo was one of two Koreans on the card with Sung-Tak Joo (5-0-3, 1), we believe Hyuk's brother, fighting to a draw with Joseph Von Minoza (14-6-1, 6). The one other bout on this show saw the stoppage streak of JK Elorde (4-0, 3) come to an end as the debuting Jeffrey Garcia (0-1) saw out the 4 round schedule. Metro Manila, Philippines Whilst much of the attention was focussed on the Pinoy Pride card at the SM Mall of Asia Arena there was also a second Filipino show, held at the Olivarez Stadium. This show lacked the world class feel of the other show but still managed to give us title action as we had a trio of international bouts with titles on the line. In the main event of the show the WBO Oriental Bantamweight champion Alie Laurel (12-3, 8) successfully defended his title with an opening round blow out over the horribly over-matched Mike Espanosa (12-7-1, 7). From what we understand Espanosa was a late replacement for unbeaten Indonesian Defry Palulu unfortunately robbing us of what would have been an excellent match up. Although the main event was an all-Filipino battle the other two title bouts saw Filipino's fighting Japanese opponents in two regional title bouts. In an expected result fans saw Tosho Makoto Aoki (17-12-2, 14) claim the WBC Asian Boxing Council Lightweight title with a stoppage victory over limited Filipino Jonel Alibio (16-18-5, 8). Although Aoki did what was expected of him we've got to admit we were a little shocked by the fact Argie Toquero (7-3-1, 5) scored a 9th round TKO over former world title challenger Kenichi Yamaguchi (17-3-2-1, 4). This victory for Toquero saw him claiming the WBC Asian Boxing Council Bantamweight title. Another stoppage came on the undercard the brilliantly named Warlight Dapidran (2-0, 1) stopped the debuting Juanito Paredes (0-1) in the second round of a scheduled 4 rounder. In the other 4 rounders Riku Kanou (1-1-1) fought to a draw with the debuting Vecinte Montecino (0-0-1) and Kenta Ide (1-1) defeated Jason Catalin (0-2). Frenkendorf, Switzerland In Switzerland there was also a little bit of Japanese action as Swiss based Japanese female fighter Aniya Seki (24-2-2, 2) recorded an opening round stoppage over the massively over-matched Alexandra Gorog (5-15-1, 1). Seki is a talented fighter and bouts like that are unnecessary for her, especially when you consider she really should be competing with some of the best in the world. (Image thanks to ALA Gym) |
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