Tokyo, Japan
The only Asian show this past Monday came from the Korakuen Hall where reason put on the latest in the “Dangan” series of shows. On paper the card was one of the most mouth watering so far and it had everything, prospects, veterans and fighters tipped to go a long way. It also had action and shocks.

The show opened with a 4 round bout that saw Masaharu Kaito (2-0) take a narrow decision against the previously unbeaten Ryota Toyoshima (2-1-1, 2). The bout was a close and very competitive bout which acted as the perfect opening for the fans who got to the venue early. Those same fans also got a treat in the second bout as the much touted Daigo Higa (6-0, 6) continued his perfect run. Higa took on his stiffest test to date in the form of Filipino Cris Alfante (11-5, 4), who was stopped in the 4th round of the scheduled 6 rounder. For Higa this was his longest bout to date and it seems very clear that he has the power, style and ability to go to title level in the coming years.

Another man who will be looking to compete in title bouts in the coming years is Yusaku Kuga (11-1-1, 6) who recorded a 2nd round TKO against Kojiro Takada (13-9-3, 9). For Kuga this bout may serve as his final bout before a potential fight for the Japanese Super Bantamweight title and although it was a mismatch on paper it was good to see Kuga getting back in the ring after having been out of action since November.

The big shock on the card was a wide loss for the touted Koki Koshikawa (4-1, 2) who was effectively shut out by veteran Koshinmaru Saito (21-7-1, 11). This was supposed to be Koshikawa's coming out party and a bout that saw im claiming a Japanese ranking but instead the previously unbeaten man struggled to ever get in to the bout. For Saito his movement was key but Koshikawa was very disappointing.

At the top of the show was a co-main event. The first of those main bouts saw OPBF Flyweight champion Koki Eto (17-3-1, 13) record the second defense of his title as he took an 8th round TKO against Yuki Fukumoto (17-10, 5). Eto did struggle early in the bout, losing 2 of the first 4 rounds, but found his rhythm in the middle portion of the fight before stopping Fukumoto. After the bout the champion hinted strongly at dropping the title to fight for a world title, and from what we understand his likely route is going t be the IBF title.

The other main event saw Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (13-0, 5) take a hard fought win over former world ranked fighter Nihito Arakawa (25-6-1, 16). The bout saw Naito need to battle hard after a poor start though ended up becoming a really excellent bout between two very good fighters. For Naito this win will likely help move him towards a world title fight, though we're now unsure if his future lies at Super Featherweight or at Lightweight.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Boy, did we ever have a busy Saturday with fights taking part all over the globe. Some were thrilling, some were close, some were one sided, some ended in upsets and some were controversial but man did we ever have a lot of action!

Tokyo, Japan
The first card of real significance for the month came from the Korakuen Hall where Nakaya put on a brilliant show with a trio of main event level fights.

The card began with the 4 rounders that typically make up and under-card. These 4 rounders saw Sho Nagata (2-1, 1) score his first decision win as he over-came the limited Ryo Sugimoto (1-7-1) with a clear decision and Takahiro Yoneshige (2-1, 1) also claimed his first decision win as he defeated the win-less Kazuya Nomura (0-3-1). The only stoppage in the 4 rounders was scored by the debuting Shuji Kato (1-0, 1) who began his career with an opening round win over Masayuki Kondo (1-2, 1).

The show's only real upset came in it's only 6 round bout as the limited Quaye Peter (6-5-2, 3) easily out pointed Japanese ranked Lightweight Kazuya Maruki (17-3, 11). This loss for Maruki ends a 6 fight winning streak whilst Peter scores his first win in in over 2 years and ends a run of 5 fights without a victory, including a loss to a then debuting Koki Koshikawa.

The first of the main bouts was a truly compelling Japanese Super Bantamweight title bout between Yukinori Oguni (14-1, 4), the former OPBF champion, and Yasutaka Ishimoto (24-8, 7). The bout was close through out with neither man managing to take control of the contest. Although neither man came close to stopping the other it was highly competitive and the sort of even match up we love even if the action isn't explosive. For Oguni this sees him winning his second professional title and it appears he has eyes on a world title fight next year though in all honesty he's unlikely to beat any of the division's top fighters.

In the second of the 3 big fights fans saw unified Japanese and OPBF Middleweight champion Akio Shibata (24-8-1, 10) scoring a rare stoppage as he retained his titles and forced the referee to save former world title challenger Makoto Fuchigami (21-10, 12). Fuchigami was down early in the bout and never seemed capable of really testing the champion who has now won 3 straight since being stopped a then debuting Ryota Murata back in August 2013. For Fuchigami this really could be the end and he's now 3 of his last 4, and 4 of his last 6.

The highlight bout of the show wasn't a title bout but was a rubber match between current Japanese Lightweight champion Yoshitaka Kato (29-5-1, 9) and former champion Nihito Arakawa (25-5-1, 16). The bout, fought in great spirits, saw Kato having too much for the tough Arakawa who was competitive but never seemed to be quite able to get into any sort of a groove. It's a shame that Arakawa has now lost 3 of his last 4 though we wouldn't be shocked to see him back in the ring next year against a possibly lower level opponent. For Kato this bout is a perfect ending to the year, a year that began with him losing the OPBF Lightweight title to Masayoshi Nakatani, and it could be that 2015 will see him kick on with things and possibly even work towards a world title fight.

Pathum Thani, Thailand
In Thailand we had two bouts, one of which was interesting and one of which wasn't interesting, at all.

The less bout saw the world ranked Norasing Kokietgym (13-0, 10) make very light work of Indonesian visitor Jack Madison (2-4) in a bout that really wasn't worth making. Madison genuinely looked like someone who didn't want to be there and Norasing looked like he was embarassed by how poor his opponent was. Without trying to sound too rude we never want to see Madison fight again.

The more interesting contest saw the very promising Kongthara KKP (6-0, 5) go the 12 round distance as he defended the WBA Asian Boxing Council silver Super Bantamweight title against former world title challenger Nouldy Manakane (27-16-1, 17). Manakane came in to the bout to win though was clearly beaten despite putting up a solid effort. Despite his record Manakane is a solid fighter for a prospect like Kongthara and this bout will certainly not have done Kongthara's any harm despite the fact his stoppage run has come to an end.

Cotabato (del Norte), Philippines
In the Philippines there was an interesting but low profile show courtesy of Sonshine Sports Management.

The headline bout here saw Rolando Magbanua (25-2, 17) make light work of the over-matched JP Macaumpuis (9-5-1, 3), who has now been stopped 5 times in 15 bouts.

A more interesting bout was the co-feature which saw the heavy handed Lorenzo Villanueva (27-1-0-1, 14) go the 8 round distance with the incredibly tough Jamie Barcelona (38-57-1, 10). Villanueva may have had the clear edge in power but was fortunate to come out on top here with a majority decision over the experienced Barcelona.

Another majority decision went the way of Jaime Quitoriano (2-3, 1) who narrowly beat Vergel Deguma (2-2).

The rest of the card was thrills and spills as prospects scored blow out after blow out on local journeymen. The most notable of those prospects was youngster Jade Bornea (2-0, 2) who dispatched Armando Yee (2-6-3, 1) in the 2nd round. Jade's brother Jake Bornea (8-1, 4) also took a win in the 2nd as he stopped Rowel Garcia (6-16-3, 1).

Others to score stoppages were Roskie Cristobal (10-0, 8), who stopped Rey dela Cruz (2-8, 2) inside a round, Jelbirt Gomera (8-0, 4), who beat Dingdong Quinones (4-12-1, 2) and Michael Bravo (7-1, 2) who beat Jessie Suacasa (3-4, 2)

Sonora, Mexico
Possibly the most surprising performance of the day came from unheralded Filipino Joebert Alvarez (14-1-1, 6). Alvarez was, and still is, an unknown in the eyes of many but he genuinely gave a really tough test to unified Flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (31-2, 22) in a bout much, much more competitive than the score cards suggest. The bout, scored 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92 to Estrada make the bout look like an easy win for the Mexican but it was anything but easy for “Gallo”. Hopefully we see Alvarez back in the ring soon and hopefully in the mix for an OPBF title as he has the ability to go a long way though seems to lack the experience at the moment.

Nuevo León, Mexico
Sadly it wasn't just in Sonora where the judges failed to show their impartiality and in Nuevo León fans saw Shindo Go (14-3, 9) lose the WBC female Flyweight title to Arely Mucino (21-2-2, 10) with a split decision defeat. The bout, a very competitive one, was marred by the regular “WTF” card which read 99-91 in favour of the home time town fighter. The other card in favour of Mucino had the contest 96-94 whilst one judge had the contest 96-93 in favour of Go who unfortunately loses for the second time on the road. We suspect that Go's team will begin to think twice before allowing the fighter to compete outside of Japan as both of her losses on the road were controversial to say the least.

California, USA
In the US the ever popular Brian Viloria (35-4-0-2, 21) made light work of Armando Vazquez (21-12, 4) as he attempts to rebuild towards another world title fight. This really wasn't much of a work out for Viloria who stopped his foe in the 4th round of their contest with a left to the body.

Incidentally there is now talk about Viloria getting a rematch with Estrada. On tonight's performances Viloria actually has a chance against the man that almost stopped him last year.

New South Wales, Australia
In Australia there was a pair of Indonesians who were both embarrassed by unbeaten Australian's.

One of those was Gun Tinular (11-19-1, 6), who was announced as “Gumilar”. Tunilar was stopped inside a round by Tony Bates (10-0-1, 8), who previous to this bout had stopped a trio of Thais. The other was Elly Pangaribuan (3-5, 1) who was stopped in the second round by Ahmed Dib (15-0, 9).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
The major mid-week card this week took place at the Korakeun Hall this past Wednesday and it was genuinely a great domestic card with several notable fighters in action and 2 genuinely thrilling contests.

The card began with a series of blow outs. One of these was a 33 second blow out win for Masahiko Ashiya (1-0-1, 1) who took swift care of the debuting Naoki Uebayashi (0-1). Likewise it didn't too much longer for Tomoyuki Omura (8-5, 4) to see off Makoto Hiroki (4-8, 3) with Hiroki also failing to see out a round.

The first of the notable fighters in action was former Middleweight world title challenger Makoto Fuchigami (21-9, 12) who ended a 2 fight losing streak with a 2nd round stoppage against the ill matched Jamed Jalarante (23-17-1, 11). Whilst Fuchigami is best known for his loss to Gennady Golovkin in a WBA world title fight he was, previously, an accomplished domestic and regional level fighter. Now however his career seems to be on a tightrope and a loss against Jalarante would have been the end of Fuchigami's dreams to win another title. A second round win for Fuchigami here might keep his title dreams alive though in all honesty it means little due to the poor level of ability of Jalarante.

The only other undercard bout saw Shohei Kikuzato (10-2, 5) scoring a 6th round stoppage over Taro Oikawa (3-3, 3). The fight, which was Kikuzato's first bout scheduled for 8 rounds, saw him picking up his second notable win in less than a year following his very good win over Yoichi Ide last year.

Although the show was a double header header it was one where a title fight took second billing to non-title rematch several years in the making. The title fight in question was the 7th defence of the Japanese Lightweight title by the criminally under-rated Yoshitaka Kato (28-5-1, 9) who went toe-to-toe with the heavy handed Tsukasa Saito (19-3, 14) and came out on top with an 8th round TKO over the challenger. Saito started fast and made the action very exciting before slowly being broken down by the champion with the referee making a perfectly timed stoppage.

Following the title fight we then saw Lightweights colliding against as the now world famous Nihito Arakawa (24-5-1, 16) scored a high octane and genuinely thrilling victory over Akihiro Kondo (19-4-1, 8). The bout, which saw the men fighting more than 4 years after Arakawa scored a narrow decision over Kondo, was genuinely riveting from the first round to the last with the final round being nothing short of exhilarating. Whilst it wasn't as good as Arakawa's bout with Omar Figueroa it wasn't too far behind. Rather interestingly Arakawa now seems to be in line for a fight with Kato, if the two do get it on it would be a third bout between the two and arguably the most significant with each man looking for bragging rights over the other.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Saturday seemed to feature no action in Asia though it did feature numerous fights involving Asian fighters in various parts of the world. Unfortunately however they didn't tend to fair very well in what probably should go down as a bad day for Asian boxing.

Nevada, USA
The highest profile bout was in the USA where Teiken promoted Venezuelan Jorge Linares (36-3, 23) managed to take a clear but hard fought decision over Japan's very own Nihito Arakawa (24-4-1, 16). The bout, which had great promise from the off, proved to be one sided though was never dull. Linares, by far the more complete boxer, showed off all the traits that make him so great to watch and unloaded some wonderful combinations on to Arakawa who showed his toughness by walking through the shots in an attempt to grind down the more talented fighters.

Though the bout was a title eliminator it was oddly scheduled for just 10 rounds and this certainly seemed to help Linares who still, unbelievably, hasn't completed the 12 round distance.

The victory for Linares is likely to put him into a WBC Lightweight title fight with the big punching Omar Figueroa whilst the loss for Arakawa leaves him in a bit of a no-mans land. 

American fans would likely be happy to welcome Arakawa back again, he has made fans and impressed with his toughness, though who he would fight could be a question. Oddly though we don't think fans would care too much on who he fights as long as he's matched with someone who likes a fight for example Takashi Miura's old opponent Sergio Thompson, who also fought on the same card.

Queensland, Australia
Whilst Arakawa's loss in the US was by far the biggest bout featuring an Asian the majority of them actually took place in Australia with 6 different fighters from Asian being featured. Unfortunately they faired just as badly as Arakawa.

The first to lose what Thai debutant Artit Jumpatong (0-1) who was stopped in 2 rounds by fellow debutant James Katz (1-0, 1) at the very end, 2:59, of round 2. 

Although Artit was taken out quicker than any of the other Asian's on the card he did technically only survive 21 seconds less fighting time than compatriot Ngaotawan Sithsaithong (10-13-1, 5) who was stopped after 20 seconds of round 3 by Jason Cooper (9-2-1, 4). Cooper, by no means a great fighter, bounced back well following a decision loss in China to Qiu Xiao Jun back in February.

A third Thai, Non Sithsaithong (11-6, 7), suffered a similar fate. Non was also stopped in round 3, although he did last over 2 minutes longer than Ngaotawan, as he fell in his battle with Brett William Smith (18-2-1, 9) in the show's main event.

Things weren't much better for Filipino's with Michael Correa (3-9-3, 1) being forced to retire after 4 rounds against the wonderfully talented and very promising Cameron Hammond (8-0, 4) and the tough Roberto Oyan (20-42-5, 7) being out pointed over 6 rounds by Waylon Law (8-5, 2).


Oddly the one Asian who did put up a great fight was a Korean. That was Hwi Jong Kim (5-11, 1) who was unfortunate to drop a split decision to Brent Elliot (11-4-3, 3). Kim came in to this fight in no form at all with 5 straight losses and just 1 win in his last 10 though gave Elliot a very good run for his money in a tough scrap for both. 


(Photo courtesy of http://boxingnews.jp)