On December 28th there were 3 Asian cards in 3 different countries.

Osaka, Japan
The biggest of the three shows on Sunday came from Osaka where we had two very interesting bouts.

The biggest of those was a Japanese Light Middleweight title bout that saw Yuki Nonaka (27-8-2, 9) successfully defend the Japanese national title with a very narrow and controversial split decision victory over Charlie Ota (24-3-1, 16). The bout, Nonaka's first of his second reign, really was a bout that split opinion though many opined that if the bout wasn't in Osaka, Nonaka's home city then Ota would probably have gotten the nod. Unfortunately for Ota this is a second notable set back in as many fights and it seems likely to be made worse by Nonaka fighting Takayuki Hosokawa next time out with the winner of that bout likely to be pushed well into the IBF top 10. We are hoping to have video of this bout in the coming days to try and see if it was a home town decision as some have told us or whether it was one of those close bouts that could have gone either way with no one really deserving to lose it..

Whilst the headline bout was highly competitive the same could not be said about the co-feature, which we expected to be a scintillating affair. Instead this was a blow out which saw Filipino tough guy Rey Labao (27-6, 18) take out former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Masao Nakamura (18-3, 18) in the second round. Nakamura was lucky to survive the opening round, despite being dropped twice and groggy, though couldn't survive long into round 2. For Nakamura this is a serious set back and, like Ota, is his second successive loss following a decision loss earlier this year to Masayuki Ito.

Despite the co-feature being the blow out all the other bouts on the card went the distance. This included a good win for former OPBF title challenger Eita Kikuchi (16-4-4, 7), who claimed a narrow win over Kojiro Takada (13-8-3, 9) in an 8 round affair.

Another 8 rounder saw the criminally under-rated Satoshi Niwa (16-18-3, 2) score a slight shock over Yuki Strong Kobayashi (8-4, 4) with a split decision. Another split decision, albeit in a 6 rounder, saw Shachihoko Dragons Keita (4-3-1, 1) fight to a split draw with Yoshiki Kawamura (4-6-1, 3). The only other 6 rounder on this show saw Kenta Shimizu (8-4-1, 4) take a win over Masaki Hirai (4-13-3, 2).

In the only 4 rounder the debuting Masahiro Sakamoto (1-0) took a decision over Yusuku Hiranuma (1-1).

Metro Manila, Philippines
In the Philippines fans got an interesting show with 7 bouts in total including several title bouts, one of which ended in a notable upset.

We'll start with that upset which saw former world title challenger Silvester Lopez (23-6-2, 17) claim the WBC International Bantamweight title with a 7th round KO of the previously unbeaten Rex Wao (10-1, 8). Although Silvester had competed at a much higher level his career was seriously on the rocks coming into this bout. He had lost his previous 2 bouts and scored just 3 wins in his last 10 bouts dating back more than 2 years. Lopez's poor form didn't stop him dropping Wao in the opening round and eventually stopping the touted “Igorot Warrior”.

Another title bout saw the rampaging Tosho Makoto Aoki (19-12-2, 16) claim the IBF Australiasian Lightweight title with a 2nd round KO of Indonesia's Rengga Rengga (7-2, 1). For Rengga this was a second successive stoppage loss, following an opening round defeat to Masatoshi Kotani whilst Aoki is on the run of his career with 6 successive stoppage wins, including 4 in the Philippines.

We believe a third title fight took place on this show as Dennis Tubieron (19-3-2, 8) and Carlo Magali (18-7-3, 9) threw down, though we're unsure what title was on the line, and it may be that no-title was eventually fought for. As the actual fight it resulted in a majority draw in what was scored very closely.

On the undercard we saw a bit of everything. That included a 21 second blow out win for the unbeaten Rolly Sumalpong (7-0-1, 4), who swiftly dispatched Michael Landero (16-13-4, 5) and another opening round victory for Mujtaba Kamal (1-1, 1), who claimed his first win by stopping Romnick Dejano (2-8, 1).

The under-card also included some very competitive action as Romel Oliveros (2-0-1, 1) was held to a draw by Vincent Bautista (1-2-2) and John Ray Logatiman (3-1-1) scored a solid win over the previously unbeaten Alvin Medura (2-1, 2), with Medura being dropped in the opening round.

Indonesia
In Indonesia fans got an obscure card, and one that we sadly don't have all the results for, at least we don't believe we do.

The one result we do know is that Roy Tua Manihuruk (16-12-2, 12) scored a 7th round victory over a man we believe to be Rusmien Kierah (13-7-2, 2). Unfortunately the records of both men are disputed and we may be missing copious fights for both.


(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Although the fights dropped a level today the action continued in great fashion with bouts of varying significance taking place involving Asian fighters. Sadly we've only currently got specific results we're awaiting "late results" from the Philippines.

Victoria, Australia
The first set of results that we got were from "Down under" where it was a good day for Filipino fans as PABA Light Welterweight champion Czar Amonsot (27-3-3, 17) stopped Thailand's Thong Por Chokchai (23-9-1, 15) and retained his belt. Before the first bell went we knew that the title was not on the line for Thong who unfortunately failed to make weight yesterday, coming in almost 3lbs above the 140lb limit. The weight didn't help Thong and he stopped in the third round by the more talented champion.

In all honesty the card wasn't a good one for Thai's and it wasn't just Thong who picked up a loss but also Thongthai Rajanondh (16-19, 4) who was stopped, in 2 rounds, by Ibrahim Balla (5-0, 4) who won the Victoria State Super Bantamweight title with this victory.

Tokyo, Japan
As well as the Australian action we also got early results from Japan where a 9 fight card took place at the Korakuen Hall. 

The main event here saw Tatsuya Takahashi (17-5-3, 12) doing what was expected of him and quickly seeing off Thai visitor Pramod Sor Vorapin (0-5) who suffered his 5th stoppage loss. Pramod, who had been stopped in all 4 of his previous losses, lasted less than 3 rounds with Takahashi who recorded back to back wins for the first time since 2011.

In the chief support bout Dai Iwai (15-3-1, 5) was given an unexpectedly tough test by domestic journeyman Keita Ito (8-18-2, 4). This was supposed to be a straight forward win for Iwai, at least on paper, but instead he was pushed all the way in a bout that suggests Iwai is no where near being ready for a domestic title challenge against Rikki Naito. 

Although the main event and chief support looked like mismatches we did get some very decent looking bouts on paper, albeit it at a low level. Amongst those was a surprisingly 1-sided decision victory for Keisuke Ota (8-7, 1) who easily out-pointed Takaki Sakurai (5-5-1, 1) over 6 rounds. In the show's only other 6 rounder Yuto Hashiguchi (6-3-1, 5) showed off his power as he finished Hitoshi Ando (4-7-1, 3) in the 5th round.

The rest of the card was all 4 rounders with the most competitive of those ending in a majority decision draw between Takumi Matsuda (1-1-1) and the debuting Koji Benjamin Watanabe (0-0-1). Watanabe did link to a video of his fight via his ustream channel though unfortunately none of our team were able to watch it, though from what we under-stand he acquitted himself excellently despite failing to record a win on his debut.

The Matsuda/Watanabe fight wasn't the only competitive one and Naoya Sato (2-0) was very fortunate to get get the win over Ibuki Kitade (1-2) in a contest that could easily have resulted in a draw.

Thankfully there was no arguments over who won the other 3 bouts. One of which was a blast out for Sosuke Sakata (2-1, 1), who needed just 94 seconds to take out Yuya Nemoto (1-4), another was a dominant decision victory for the previously win-less Yasuhiro Koyama (1-2), who beat Manabu Yamaguchi (0-1-1) and a clear decision victory for Hiroki Ishii (1-2-1) who beat Takuya Kurata (0-2).

Metro Manila, PhilippinesThere was also action in the Philippines this past Wednesday with several title fighters.

Amongst those title bouts was a WBC international Bantamweight title fight that saw the unbeaten and exciting Rex Wao (10-0, 8) stopping the light hitting Virden Rivera (7-1-1, 2) to claim the title. Wao is a very exciting fighter and one that we're hoping to see more of though at the moment it's unlikely he's going to be rushed too much despite this title win and a likely boost in the WBC rankings.

Another title fight on this show saw Ernie Sanchez (14-5-1, 5) unexpectedly held to a split draw by journeyman Randy Megrino (15-17-3, 8). This bout, for the WBC Youth Featherweight title, was expect to see Sanchez finally winning his first professional title though the draw has denied him that opportunity and see him extend his win-less streak to 3 fights, albeit with 2 losses to very good Mexican's.

In a third 12 round contest Carlo Magali (18-7-2, 9) managed to out point Rey Perez (19-5, 4) to claim a unanimous decision in what is a slight upset.

The card also featured some 4 round contests, included in those was a TKO victory for Warlight Dapidran (3-0, 2), the cousin of Manny Pacquiao. Dapidran managed to stop the debuting Jerry Salivio (0-1) though unfortunately he has done little to boost his standing with a third successive victory against a debutant. In another contest fans saw former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Allan Tanada (13-2-3, 5) unexpectedly struggle against Mark Sales (20-37-3, 6). The bout was fought above Tanada's usual weight but he still wasn't expected to struggle like this.


Compostela Valley, Philippines
On a separate Filipino show we had a further 3 contests. These were headlined by a 4th round KO victory for Engelbert Moralde (7-2, 5) who over-came the limited Nicardo Calamba (6-17-3, 3) in the only stoppage on the show.

The other two bouts saw Ronnie Tanallon (4-1, 1) taking a 6 round victory over Rez Padrogane (2-5, 1) whilst in a 4 rounder Markquil Salvana (2-0, 1) defeated Frejun Dela Cruz (2-2-1).


(Image, courtesy of boxingnews.jp, comes from the Takahashi/Sor Vorapin bout)

This past weekend saw almost all the attention in the boxing world turning to the action in Las Vegas. Whilst it was impossible to ignore "The Moment", the biggest show of the year, so far, that wasn't actually the be all and end all of the the boxing weekend.

On Sunday we had two cards in the Philippines. They were both a million miles away in terms of attention, name value and monetary significance to the US show but both cards were still interesting with their own share of highlights.

Benguet, Philippines
The more significant of the two Filipino shows was in Benguet where we had a pair of title fights and a bout that featured a very promising and hard hitting prospect.

The prospect in question was the unbeaten Rex Wao (9-0, 7) who was taken the 10 round distance for the first time in his career en route to defeating Jovill Marayan (8-17-3, 3). The 24 year old Wao is very exciting and we hope to see him on a major show in the near future, for now however it seems likely he'll continue to pick up this type if domestic victory as he continues to develop.

Although we feel Wao was the most interesting fighter on the show he wasn't involved in either of the title fights.

In the lesser of the two title bouts fans got to see Chinese based Japanese fighter Yuya Nakamura (1-1, 1) claim the Philippines Luzon Professional Boxing Association (LuzProBA) Flyweight title with a 4th round KO victory over Benjie Bartolome (2-7-1). We're not sure how Nakamura qualified for the title or how either man was allowed to even fight in a 10 round title bout but it's still a great accomplishment for the previously win-less Nakamura.

It wasn't all good news for Japanese fighters however as Filipino "Bull" Jeffrey Arienza (11-2-1, 6) defeated Japanese visitor Takaya Kakutani (7-4, 6) via second round KO to claim the WBC Youth World Lightweight title. Arienza has now scored back-to-back stoppages following a 10th round loss to Masayuki Ito late last year.

Camiguin, Philippines
The second Filipino show was in Camiguin and was a lower profile show that featured 5 bouts that lasted a combined 15 rounds.

The shortest of the 5 bouts saw the promising Charles Canedo (7-0, 4) stopping Marwin Cristota (2-10-1, 1) in the second round of a scheduled 6 rounder.

Amazingly 3 of the 5 bouts finished in the third round. This included the stoppage victory in the young career of Rimar Metuda (3-0, 1) who stopped Reynold Salon (0-3) in the shows only 4 round contest. Another of the third round stoppages saw the big hitting Jenny Boy Buca (7-1, 7) take out Marzon Cabilla (9-12-1, 4) whilst the other saw Jeson Umbal (6-1, 6) stop the usually tough Nelson Llanos (22-32-3, 9) in what is easily the most notable victory in the career of Umbal.

Surprisingly only one bout went beyond 3 rounds and that one saw Rege Pahayag (7-1, 6) stopping Rolly Llino (5-12-1, 2) in the 4th round of their contest.

(Picture, of Rex Wao, courtesy of boxrec.com)

"Ring of Gold" may have been the highlight of the weekend but it was far from the only boxing involving Asians this weekend with two shows taking part on Sunday. One of those shows was in Japan whilst the other was in the Philippines.

Hyogo, Japan
The Japanese show featured 8 contests and began with some very low level bouts. These saw Yuma Yasuda (1-1, 1) winning via 1st round retirement against the win-less Taiki Shimakawa (0-3), Makoto Mizoshita (2-1, 1) taking a hard fought decision over fellow novice Takuya Fukuda (1-1-1), Takeru Kamikubo (1-0) winning his debut against fellow debutant Arata Matsuoka (0-1) and Ryoma Yasuda (4-0, 3) squeaking past the previously unbeaten Masato Oike (2-1-3) with a split decision.

Yasuda wasn't the only man to win a split decision with Yasuyuki Otagaki (4-1-2) pushed close in his 6 round victory over Tatsuma Hirayama (5-3, 1).

Otgaki, although a split decision winner, was a clearer winner on the score cards than Takahito Osaka (5-0-2, 4) who took a very slim majority decision over Yuta Oshiro (5-2, 3). Osaka won by just a single point on two of the three scorecards.

The remaining 6 rounder saw Chikashi Hayashizaki (5-4-1, 1) score a shock decision over Daiya Shimazu (5-1, 4). On paper this was a major upset, in reality however it showed just how inflated Shimazu's record was. Prior to this fight Shimazu's previous 5 opponents had a combined record of 3-2.

In the main event of this show Shinichiro Morikawa (15-4-1, 10) managed to stop the light hitting Kosuke Isono (6-2-1, 1) in 5 rounds. This was the 4th straight win for Morikawa though we'd suggest that, at best, he's merely a domestic level fighter.

Benguet, Philippines
As well as the show in Japan we had a further 6 fights in the Philippines at the Justice George Malcolm Square. The main event of which saw Cristian Abila (11-12-3, 3) unexpectedly stopping Randy Megrino (14-17-2, 8). Abila dropped Megrino twice in round 5 before forcing a stoppage very early in round 6. Whilst not super talented Abila is a significantly better fighter than his record indicates.

Whilst Abila was technically the main event the man we were most interested in was the very promising Rex Wao (8-0, 7) who showed off his skills and power with a fight ending body shot against Gerry Pateno (4-6-2, 2) in the sixth round of a scheduled 8. Wao is a very, very promising you Filipino and one we'd advise all fans keep a close eye on.

Wao wasn't the only man to extend his unbeaten run as Stephen Gelawa (6-0-1, 4) forced the retirement of Dennis Padua (9-9-2, 4) and Junar Adante (3-0-1, 2) took out Jonel Borbon (1-12-1, 1) inside a round with a body shot.

The other two bouts on the show were both at a very low level. These saw Jhon Jhon Faminiano (1-10-3) fighting to a majority draw with Jeven Villacite (2-2-3) and Wilbert Madriaga (1-0) take a narrow victory on debut against Ernie Mino Jr (1-2), dropping Mino in the process.