Some days are busier than others and we're happy to say that this past Saturday was hectic to say the least with a massive number of fights taking place with Japanese fighters involved in them. Chicago, USA The two highest profile bouts from Asian fighters came in the US as we saw two of the three Kameda brothers in action. The first of those saw former 3-weight world champion Koki Kameda (33-1, 17) make light work of Omar Salado (24-9-2, 15) with a 4th round stoppage. This was Koki's US debut and it was also his first bout in almost a year following his victory in South Korea against Jung-Oh Son. It appears clear that Koki was shedding ring rust here but it was a mismatch and it's hard to know how he would compete against the top Super Flyweights if he was matched with one of them. The second bout of note was the biggest Asian bout of the night as Koki's youngest brother Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19) put his WBO Bantamweight title on the line against mandatory challenger Alejandro Hernandez (28-11-2, 15). The bout appeared to be dominated by the more technically sounds, faster and aggressive Kameda though some how the judges all had it close with scores of 115-113 being rendered on all 3 cards, unfortunately one went to Hernandez to give a split decision in a bout that really wasn't close. Unfortunately for Tomoki this bout could have undone the good will of his stoppage victory over Pungluang Sor Singyu from earlier in the year. Tokyo, Japan One of the three Japanese shows came from the Korakuen Hall and it was arguably this one that was the most important. The main event here saw Japanese Light Flyweight champion Yu Kimura (15-2-1, 2) successfully retain his title with a 7th round technical decision over Atsushi Aburada (9-7, 5). This was Kimura's second defense and was a comfortable one with the champion only losing the first round before settling behind his sharp and accurate jab. As soon as Kimura had his jab going it was a straight forward bout for the champion who got his hand raised early after Aburada suffered a cut over the left eye and was eventually ruled unfit to continue. Kimura, a world ranked fighter, may well look for a world title fight in 2015 though if the opportunity doesn't arise we'd not be shocked by him continuing to defend the Japanese title. In the co-feature fans saw the #2 ranked Japanese Flyweight Tetsuma Hayashi (25-2-2, 9) score an excellent knockout against the over-matched Ryutaro Taira (8-5-2, 3). The shots that finished off Taira were a devastating series of body shots that left him him on the canvas in agony. After the fight Hayashi said that next year he would be aiming to win a Japanese title and in all honesty we would love to see Hayashi fight current Japanese champion Suguru Muranaka. In a notable upset Filipino fighter Jonel Alibio (18-18-5, 10) managed to score a shock win over the heavy handed Yuichi Yokoyama (14-3, 13). Alibio entered this bout with just 1 win in his last 12 and was on a run of 4 straight losses in Japan though he showed the class to stop Yokoyama in the 4th round. Incidentally this was Alibio's first win in Japan since he stopped Naoki Matsuda in November 2010 to claim the OPBF Featherweight title. We saw another upset as Takumi Suda (11-10-2, 3) shocked the hard hitting Huiroyuki Otsuka (7-3, 6) in just 158 seconds. Suda went straight to work and and dropped Otsuka early before a continued attack forced the referee to save the much fancied Otsuka. For Suda this was his first win since 2009 and saw him ending a 6 fight losing streak. Whilst the streak sounds like a bad one it included losses to Shin Ono, Warlito Parrenas, Masayuki Kuroda, Yu Kimura and Yasutaka Kuroki. In another 8 rounder fans saw Masaru Sueyoshi (8-1, 5) over-come Shota Suito (9-4-1, 1) with a clear decision to extend his current winning streak to 5 bouts following his sole defeat to Masayuki Ito back in July 2012. To open the the card we saw Masaaki Shiraishi (1-0, 1) take an opening round blow out victory over Daisuke Tanigawa (0-1) in an all debutant contest that lasted just 22 seconds and we also saw Masanobu Nakazawa (16-1-1, 6) take a 5th round retirement stoppage against Ken Otokawa (6-5, 5), in a bout scheduled for 6. Fukuoka, Japan A second Japanese show took place in Fukuoka and was headlined by a WBC female Minimumweight title fight between Japan's very own Yuko Kuroki (12-4-1, 6) who successfully defended her title with a very hard fought and competitive split decision over Mexican challenger Katia Gutierrez (19-5, 4). The bout was a very tough first defense for Kuroki but it was an excellent contest all the same between an aggressive fighter, Gutierrez, and a skilled fast boxer, Kuroki. The competitive nature of the bout saw both women talking about a rematch post fight and we'd not be disappointed by that in 2015. The chief support bout here ended in another upset as the unbeaten Shohei Okuda (11-1, 4) was shockingly upset in the 3rd round of a scheduled 8 rounder. Okuda, a much fancied 23 year old prospect, was expected to easily over-come Ryusei Yoshida (25-6, 12) but was made to looking shockingly bad by the veteran. Okuda was cut over the left eye, dropped in round 3 and then stopped by a follow up attack as his unbeaten record was destroyed in style by Yoshida. A third notable bout on this card saw Aiki Koto (8-1-1, 4) narrowly defeat Koki Ono (7-3, 4). The bout was a really competitive 8 rounder though Koto did just enough to deserve the majority decision over the 8 round distance. The bottom of the card consisted of 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds, including 2 more females bouts. The female bouts went the distance with the the first of those being a debut win for Sana Hazuki (1-0) who narrowly over-came the win-less Sayaka Aoki (0-2), the other saw Shione Ogata (3-5) out point Ayaka Sato (1-3, 1). Another undercard bout that went the distance saw the debuting Super Featherweight hopeful Go Matsuda (1-0) out point Yoshiki Shoda (0-1). The only under-card bout not to go the distance saw Yoichi Kojima (3-1-1, 2) take an opening round stoppage against the previously undefeated Toshiki Yanari (2-1, 2). Hyogo, Japan A third Japanese show took place in Hyogo where the main event was at a much lower level than the other two but was still a very interesting contest. The aforementioned main event saw the once beaten Hikaru Matsuoka (8-1-3, 1) defeat the criminally under-rated Filipino tough guy Richard Pumicpic (15-7-2, 4). Pumicpic, who had given Ryosuke Iwasa hell earlier this year, was simply too small to be all that competitive with Matsuoka who used distance to easily defeat the Filipino fighter on the scorecards. We had expected this bout to be much closer than it was though unfortunately it was relatively straight forward for Matsuoka. It wasn't all bad for Filipino's on this show however and Super Flyweight hopeful Giovanni Escaner (12-3-1, 8) scored an unexpected 7th round stoppage victory over Japanese veteran Junichi Ebisuoka (23-18-6, 10). Ebisuoka is now win-less in 6 bouts and his long career is likely coming to an end whilst Escaner will be hoping this will will help him get his career back on track after 3 losses in his previous 4 bouts. The only other stoppage on this card saw Jonel Gadapan (9-7-1, 5) score an upset win over the previously unbeaten Yuji Itani (4-1, 4) who was stopped in the second round of a schedule 6 rounder. The only other 6 rounder on the show went the distance as Kenta Sugimoto (7-7-1) took a 6 round unanimous decision over Hiroki Taniguchi (6-4-1, 2). In the 4 rounders fans saw Arata Matsuoka (2-2, 1) take a majority decision over Ryoki Hirai (3-3-1, 1) whilst Daichi Nakajima (2-2) took a split decision over the previously unbeaten Shoehei Matsuo (1-1). Distrito Federal, Mexico In Mexico there was two bouts of note with a Filipino and a Japanese fighter in action. The Filipino was former world title challenger, Silvester Lopez (22-9-2, 16) who was unfortunately stopped, for the second time this year, by Rey Vargas (22-0, 19) in the 8th round. The bout, for the WBC Youth Silver Super Bantamweight title, was another set back for Lopez who has now lose 5 of his last 8 and suffered a trio of stoppages. We loved watch Lopez come through but it now appears time for him to take a serious break from the ring before he becomes little more than a typical journeyman. The other man was Shoki Sakai (17-5, 11) who came up short against the always interest Nery Saguilan (31-4-1, 11) in a bout for the WBC US silver Lightweight title. Saguilan, who had claimed the title earlier this year with a win over Seiichi Okada, was forced to work very hard to over-come Sakai in a very competitive bout that suggested the records of both men were misleading with Sakai being better than his record suggest and Saguilan being worse than his looks on paper. (Image, from the Hayashi bout, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Saturday was one of the busiest and longest days of the boxing year so far with fights taking place across the globe, from Australia to New York. New York, USA The biggest fight of the night came in New York where popular Kazakh puncher Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27) successfully retained his WBA Middleweight super title and advanced his KO% to a simply insane 90%. Golovkin was supposedly facing his toughest test so far as he battled former unified Middleweight champion Daniel Geale (30-3, 16) though he made it look like a cake walk. The opening round was a seeing out round for Golovkin who did little until an assault late on stole him the round. The second round saw him warming up and dropping Geale whilst the third round saw him stopping Geale who was dropped for a second time before telling the referee he wasn't okay to continue. This was supposed to be a tough fight but the champion really made it all look way too easy. Metro Manila, Philippines The most interesting of three Filipino shows took place in the Mandaluyong Gym in Metro Manila courtesy of former fighter-turned-promoter Gerry Penalosa who had two of his nephews on the show. Both of the promoters nephew's managed to take home wins though things were a little bit hairy for Dave Penalosa (9-0, 6) who was dropped hard by Danilo Gabisay (5-3, 3) in the third round of their fight. Penalosa, who was dropped for the first time in his career, seemed to take the knockdown personally and dropped Gabisay twice in the following round before finishing him off in the following round. For Dodie Boy Penalosa Jr (13-0, 12) things were much easier as he saw off the very limited Dicky Amtiran (3-9) in round 3 courtesy of a solid body shot. Amitran had been down in the opening round and looked completely out of his depth from the opening bell. Sadly the show's most interesting bout on paper ending in the most disappointing fashion as Bernabe Concepcion (32-6-2, 18) suffered an accidental cut and was forced to accept a 3rd round technical draw with Eden Sonsona (32-6-2, 10). The hope was that the winner would go on to fight in a solid international bout but with this sort of ending it seems that a rematch makes more sense than anything else for either man. A fourth bout of note on this show saw former OPBF Bantamweight title challenger Richard Pumicpic (15-6-2, 4) clearly defeating domestic journeyman Rex Olisa (10-25-1, 8) in an 8 rounder decision. Pumicpic, one of the more under-rated Filipinos, came in to this bout following a majority decision loss to Ryosuke Iwasa and seems likely to get another title fight in the next year or two. A real danger man Pumicpic is a fighter than people will likely avoid due to the "high risk-low reward" factor that he brings to the ring, though we'll admit we're impressed when fighters do beat him. We hope to get the remaining results from this show soon. Metro Manila, Philippines A second show in Metro Manila took place at The Flash Grand Ballroom of the Elorde Sports Complex and featured 8 bouts in total. This show saw 7 bouts going the distance including the shows opening bout between BJ Sampiton (1-1) and Rolando Prima Jr. (0-2). Sampiton was dropped in the opening round of the 4 round contest but managed to recover well to win the remaining 3 rounds and take home the decision with scores of 38-37 across the board. As well as the opening bout going the distance so to did the 6 bouts scheduled for 6 rounds, these include some very competitive bouts. The most even of the contests was a was a split decision draw between Jun Blazo (1-1-1, 1) and Ryan Medez (1-2-2) with the judges really struggling to split the men over the 6 rounds. Another close bout saw Jonathan Ligas (8-5-1, 1) taking a majority decision over Roy Lagrada (3-7-1, 3). A third close bout was probably the most shocking result on the card as the young Warlight Dapidran (3-1, 2) saw his unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of Gilbert Donasales (5-7-1, 3) courtesy of a split decision loss. Strangely the judge who gave the bout to Dapidran had it a near shut out, 59-55, in his favour suggesting he was watching a very different fight to the other judges who both gave Dapidran just 2 of the 6 rounds. One of the most one sided of the decision bouts was the win for the unbeaten Joe Noynay (5-0) who dropped Mark Postrano (2-3, 1) in the opening round before taking a clear decision. Another clear decision was won by the experienced Lionel Mark Duran (13-10-2, 5) who out pointed Ruben Traza (4-7-3, 1). The remaining 6 round was a near shut out in favour of the world ranked Lionel Legada (12-6-1, 5) who over-came the over-matched Ricky Oyan (4-21-2, 2). The only bout to see a stoppage was the main event which saw Bebong Manalo (9-2, 6) blowing away Jovill Marayan (8-18-3, 3) in just 122 seconds to score an eye catching victory. Bohol, Philippines At the moment we're awaiting the full set of results from a show in Bohol though we've been informed that the excellent Mark Magsayo (7-0, 5) scored a 6th round stoppage against Ernesto Tata Fontanilla (11-6-1, 5). Hopefully the rest of the results will hit us in he next few hours. Hidalgo, Mexico Sadly Mexico wasn't a happy location for the visiting Takahiro Shigee (11-1-1, 9) who suffered his first loss as he remained in his corner at the end of round 9. Shigee, fighting out side of Japan for the first time, was unable to cope with the pressure and experienced of the very talented Rodrigo Guerrero (21-5-1, 14) who has now scored back-to-back wins since losing to Daiki Kameda last year. With this win Guerrero also claimed the interim WBC Silver International Bantamweight title. As with a number of other shows we are awaiting the other results from this show. Queensland, Australia In Australia locals fans will have been pleased to see Jason Cooper (11-3-1, 6) defeat Thai visitor Phissanuthep Chaiyonggym (4-11-1, 3) to claim the IBO Asia Pacific Super Bantamweight title. Cooper is best known to us for his loss, in China, to Qiu Xiao Jun earlier this year. Since that loss Cooper has scored a trio of victories may well turn his attention back to Jun for a rematch of what was a competitive contest. Pennsylvania, USA Back in the US fans had the chance to see unbeaten Uzbek Heavyweight Akhror Muralimov (16-0, 13) continue his winning run as he scored a 2nd round TKO over American who stopped Jason Bergman (23-11-2, 16) to claim the NABA USA title (Image courtesy of Thegarden.com) This past Tuesday may not have been a major day in world boxing but it was still an important one with a trio of title fights that took place over Asia. Tokyo, Japan The most notable of those title bouts was in Tokyo as OPBF Bantamweight champion Ryosuke Iwasa (17-1, 10) was given one of the toughest bouts of his career. Iwasa, who is unbeaten since being stopped by current WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, was given hell by the over-looked Filipino Richard Pumicpic (14-6-2, 4) who came to get the title from Iwasa though just fell short in a majority decision loss. Whilst some will view that as a wake up call for Iwasa, the WBC #1 ranked challenger, it was more a testament of just how good Pumicpic is and we'd be shocked by Pumicpic not winning an OPBF title one day. For Iwasa this was a perfect test before getting a world title fight hopefully later this year. Although the main event was the most attractive bout on the show, by a long way, it wasn't the only fight of note. Another bout of note saw former world title challenger Ryo Akaho (22-1-2, 15) stopping Richard Garcia (25-18-1, 7) in 2 rounds. From what we've read we do believe that Akaho was down prior to the stoppage though more angered by himself than actually hurt from the knock down and he swiftly punished Garcia afterwards. Whilst the Iwasa bout was very close there were two other bouts which were closer. One of those was an 8 rounder that saw Daisuke Yokoyama (15-5-1, 6) fighting to an unexpected majority draw with Kenta Takahashi (10-7-3 3) whilst Fumiya Akao (1-0-1) had a disappointing split decision draw with Shogo Yanagisawa (1-4-1, 1). One of the most notable bouts on the card saw the debuting Koki Koshikawa (1-0) out pointing Quaye Peter (5-4-1, 3) over 6 rounds. Koshikawa was a stand out amateur and like many former standouts he is tipped to rise fast through ranks. What makes him particularly interesting however is that he's campaigning at Light Welterweight or Welterweight suggesting that he will need to fight international opponents at an earlier stage than perhaps some of the smaller Japanese fighter who are equally as highly viewed due to their amateur experience. The remaining bouts on this card saw Manato Honma (6-3, 3) stopping Koki Yoshida (4-4, 2) in 2 rounds, after Yoshida retired, whilst Shinya Nemoto (4-3-1, 1) took a 4 round decision Yudai Hata (2-2, 1). Metro Manila, Philippines Although Pumicpic fell short in his OPBF title fight we did see a Filipino fighter crowned as a new OPBF champion. That man is the hard hitting Jonathan Taconing (18-2-1, 15) who managed to stop compatriot Vergilio Silvano (18-4-1, 10) in an absolutely brilliant fight. Both landed their share of bombs in a contest that eventually saw Silvano being saved in round 11. The victory for Taconing saw him claim the OPBF Light Flyweight title that had previously been vacated by Naoya Inoue and we're now hoping to see Taconing challenge for a world title. He's fun to watch, power, aggressive and although most fans won't recognise him he is a genuine top 10 fighter at 108lbs. Iwasa wasn't the only man to successfully defend a title as Filipino Monico Laurente (24-10, 5) successfully defended his Filipino (GAB) Bantamweight title with a defence over Jetro Pabustan (22-2-5, 6) by 5th round technical decision. Incidentally this was Pabustan's second technical decision loss following a 7th round technical loss to Lowie Bantigue back in 2010. The chief support bout to the two title contests saw Juan Miguel Elorde (15-1, 7), the grandson of the great Flash Elorde, scoring an opening round KO over Indonesian visitor Budi Risky (8-4, 5). The rest of this card saw Jeffrey Francisco (9-0-1) taking a very narrow decision over the limited Fidel Cuyno (1-3-2), Raymond Yanong (1-1, 1) scored his first victory with a stoppage over the debuting Christian Rayta (0-1) whilst Wilbert Berondo (2-0, 1) stopped Raul Luba (0-2). Both of those stoppages came in the third round. (Photo courtesy of boxingnews.jp) |
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