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
We've not seen much action in Japan this year but things are starting to get going and today we had the first taste of domestic title action as the Champion Carnival kicked off, we also had a world fighter in action and several promising fighters all looking to make a name for themselves.

The show began with a 4 rounder which saw the debuting Kentaro Omori (1-0, 1) introduce himself to the professional boxing world with a 70 second stoppage win against the win-less Hirako Saito (0-2). This was one of a number of lower tier bouts which also included another opening round blow out as Yutaka Ekawa (6-3-1, 3) unexpectedly blasted out Ryosuke Suzuki (4-3) in an impressive 23 seconds in a bout scheduled for 5 rounds. Ekawa's win came in one of 2 bouts set for 5 with the other resulting in a disappointing technical draw between Hidetoshi Ueki (4-9-2) and Tomoyuki Kaneko (7-4-1, 4) after a headclash in the second round forced this bout to be abandoned.

In a 6 round bout we saw the talented, and unbeaten, Daishi Nagata (2-0-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he took out the more experienced Ryoji Miyagi (7-6-1, 4) in the 3rd round. Although Nagata does have a “mark” on his record he is incredibly talented and we'd tip him to go far on the domestic scene, just like Takeshi Inoue who gave him that mark on debut.

The chief support bouts both looked interesting on paper. One of those saw world ranked Super Flyweight Go Onaga (23-2-2, 16) take a clear decision over former “world” title challenger Breilor Teran (13-11-1, 6) in what amounted to a show case of sorts for Onaga, a member of the Ohashi stable. The other saw the heavy handed Yusuke Suzuki (6-1, 4) enhance his fast growing reputation as he blasted away Akinori Hoshino (11-9-1, 8) in the 6th round of their scheduled 8. The ending here saw Hoshino crashing to the canvas an unable to beat the 10 count, though Suzuki was given a good test before the finish.

The headline bout, and one of the first really notable bouts this year in Japan, saw Rikki Naito (12-0, 5) successfully retain his Japanese Super Featherweight title as he narrowly over-came Masayuki Ito (16-1-1, 7) in a highly competitive bout that ended with Naito taking a narrow majority decision. The bout really was one of those where no one felt they lost and whilst Ito may have a “1” on his record he'll still feel unbeaten. Naito, a very talented fighter managed to record the third defence of his title though he'll likely not rush up to fighting at the world level considering how hard he was pushed here. We really hope we'll see a rematch of this one somewhere down the line and with both men being really young it's pretty likely that we will see them crossing paths again, one day.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

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)

Tokyo, Japan
The only card of note this Wednesday was Dangan 108, a showed dubbed "The Battle".

The shows name came from the incredibly intriguing main event between the very heavy handed Masao Nakamura (18-2, 18) and the light hitting but very impressive skills Masayuki Ito (15-0-1, 6), the bout dubbed "The battle". Sadly the bout turned out to be less of a "battle" and more of an interesting but controlled bout with Ito's jab being the key punch in the contest. Nakamura managed to shine in some rounds but few would have seriously believed he had done enough to win with Ito taking a close but well deserved victory. If you're wanting to see the video of this fight, we have it here.

Nakamura, a former OPBF Super Featherweight title holder, was one of two former champions on the show with the other being former 5-weight Japanese national champion Tadashi Yuba (46-9-2, 33). Unlike Nakamura we didn't see any struggles from Yuba who took care of Filipino foe Dondon Lapuz (19-46-7, 7) inside a round. Yuba finished the bout with a pair of solid body shots which folded Lapuz up and kept him down for the count. Again we've managed to get the video of the fight here.

The third bout from the top of the show saw once beaten Filipino Michael Dasmarinas (17-1, 10) defeat the more experienced Hayato Kimura (21-7, 15) with an 8 round unanimous decision. For Kimura, who has also been known as "Big Yoo" and Joon-In Yoo, this is a major set back and one that looks even worse considering just how 1-sided the bout was. For Dasmarinas this is a win that should help push him towards an OPBF title bout even if he's not quite yet ready to face the likes of Ryosuke Iwasa. On the performance he gave however it's fair to say that Dasmarinas has a lot of potential and hopefully someone will nature it. Again, for those wanting to watch the fight, we did manage to get the video of the bout which can be seen here.

Whilst the main event didn't live up to expectation it wasn't the only domestic bout of interest and another was the Super Bantamweight bout between Yusaku Kuga (9-1-1,6) and Koji Aoki (16-8-2, 6). The men both entered the bout ranked in the top 15 domestically though Kuga was far superior to his Aoki who looked out of his depth from early on and stopped Aoki in round 6. This is the third win for Kuga since his draw with the hotly tipped Naoto Uebayashi and we'd really be shocked if the 23 year old Kuga doesn't go a long way before his career is over. This is yet another bout we've managed to track down in terms of video footage, which can be viewed here.

Prior to the 4 bouts mentioned above there were 4 undercard bouts. These began with a disappointing technical draw between Kazuya Nomura (0-2-1) and the debuting Koji Tomaru (0-0-1). The bout wasn't just disappointing in terms of result but in terms of actual fight as well with the ending coming after just 27 seconds! In a Featherweight bout fought early on the show fans had the chance to see Kei Iwahara (3-1, 2) stop the debuting Tsuyoshi Nakajima (0-1) in the 4th round of their bout. In another under-card bout we saw another early finish as the unbeaten Ryu Ueda (2-0, 2) took out fellow novice Masayuki Kondo (1-1, 1) in just 42 seconds! Amazingly we've also managed to track down the video of this quick blow out win for Ueda.

The sole 6 rounder on the show, also one of the under-card bouts, saw Japanese-Brazilian Cristiano Aoqui (8-3-2, 4) take a clear decision over Quaye Peter (5-5-2, 3). Peter, originally from Ghana, is now 0-4-1 in his last 5 bouts suggesting that his career really looks like it's hit a brick wall after starting 5-1-1.

(Image, of Kuga and Aoki, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
This past Monday didn't see an awful lot of Asian fights, in fact we had just 6 bouts, but the show it's self was one of major significance to both Japanese boxing and the Asian boxing scene in general. With two title bouts and a world ranked fighter this was one of those very strong but yet easily over-looked shows that the hardcore fans take note of whilst the less tuned fans over-look it as "another domestic show".

The show began with a C Class tournament bout that saw the 17 year old Satohiko Haga (1-0) claim a split decision victory over Takuya Muto (0-1). This bout, a lowly 4 rounder, of course had significance due to the C Class tournament.

The least significant bout on the show was one of a trio of 8 round bouts. The least important saw Takumi Koyama (8-2-1, 6) take a 5th round TKO over Yasuyuki Masuda (8-6, 1) who had never previously been stopped. We're not going to say Masuda was anything special but he did come into this bout on the back of a victory over Yuta Nagai.

One of the other 8 rounders saw the very promising Masayuki Ito (14-0-1, 6) score a 7th round KO over the big punching Kazuya Nakano (7-3, 6). For Nakano this was the end of a 3 fight winning streak which had seen him beat Ribo Takahata and Takaomi Abe for Ito however it was a 10th successive victory and we'd not be shocked by seeing him head towards a world ranking by the end of this year.

The remaining 8 rounder saw Shingo Eto (13-2-1, 8) take the most notable victory of his career so far as he defeated the world ranked Filipino Ryan Sermona (16-5, 9) via 6th round technical decision. Eto may not be rewarded with Sermona's world ranking but he'll be on the verges of getting a ranking with this victory.

Following the 8 rounders we then get the first title bout as Shingo Eto's older brother Taiki Eto (12-3, 9) fought for the Japanese Super Flyweight title against Yohei Tobe (8-1-1, 5). The bout turned out to be great though was relatively one sided with Tobe just have a bit too much of everything for Eto who was eventually stopped in round 9 by Tobe who claims the title recently vacated by Teiru Kinoshita who will be fighting for a world title later this year.

The second title fight, and the shows main event, saw former Japanese Light Welterweight champion Keita Obara (11-1, 10) claim the OPBF title at 140lbs as he stopped Filipino Jay Solmiano (17-3-1, 13) in 4 rounds. Solmiano gave it a good go though was simply unable to hurt Obara whilst Obara, who lowly opened up, had the power to hurt and drop Solmiano. Although not widely recognised by many outside of Asia Obara may well be one of the solid punching fighters at 140lbs and fight with him and Min Wook Kim would be great. It seems likely though that Obara will be moving up to 147lbs to fight Yoshihiro Kamegai later this year.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp and shows Obara and Solmiano in action)