Osaka, Japan
The biggest show of the day came form the newly re-named “EDION Arena Osaka”, aka the “Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium” and the “Bodymaker Colosseum”. The show featured a couple of world title fights, a Japanese title fight and a female world title fight, whilst the under-card featured a former world title challenger and several notable under-card fighters.

The main event of the card saw Osakan super-star Kazuto Ioka (18-1, 10) successfully retain his WBA Flyweight title with a near shut out win against Argentina's Roberto Domingo Sosa (26-3-1, 14). Sosa, although tough, never looked like he was in he fight as Ioka out boxed him, out skilled him, out sped him and out punched him.

Ioka's title fight was one of 4 champions retaining their title. Another saw IBF Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama (30-7-0-1, 12) retain his title with an 8th round TKO win against Ryuji Hara (19-2, 11). For Takayama this was his second defense and seems to lead him towards a unification bout with WBO champion Kosei Tanaka, with that bout potentially taking place on New Years Eve, when Tanaka is set to return.

Another champion to retain their title was Sho Ishida (20-0, 10) who comfortably over-came Hayato Kimura (23-8, 15) and retained the Japanese Super Flyweight title, with a wide decision. Kimura seemed unable to ever establish himself against the talented Ishida however we're beginning to doubt Ishida's “world class” potential, given his second less than perfect performance.

Another successful defense saw OPBF female Light Flyweight champion Kei Takenaka (10-0, 3) claim an 8 round shut out win over Krikanok Islandmuaythai (4-5-1, 2) to retain
her title.

Another 8 round bout saw former world title challenger Atsushi Kakutani (17-4-1, 10) take a 2nd round KO against Thoedkiad Singhamanasak (0-4), whilst the much touted Masayoshi Hashizume (9-0, 6) continued his perfect started to professional life with a 64 second win against Petchnamnung Sor Thiebkhun (0-11).

The card also featured a par of 6 rounders. One of those saw the much touted Riku Kano (7-1-1, 4) claim a comfortable decision victory over Kenta Matsui (6-5, 1) whilst the other was a competitive split decision win for Juan Castillo Inami (9-3, 4), who beat Tesu Kanayama (4-3, 1).

In the only 4 rounder Hayate Ikuta (4-0, 1) blitzed Kota Hama (2-2, 1) in just 51 seconds.

Osaka, Japan
Staying at the EDION Arena Osaka, there was also a West of Japan Rookie of the Year show, in fact it was the final of the section of the Rookie of the year competition.

In the Minimumweight division the winner was 20 year old Ryusei Kitamura (5-1, 1) who took a narrow decision win over Ryoki Hirai (5-4-1, 2).

The Light Flyweight champion was Seigo Yuri Akui (4-0-1, 2) who blew away Kaminoko Okamura Kentokid (5-1-3, 2) inside a round.

At Flyweight it was the unbeaten Masahiro Sakamoto (4-0, 3) who came out on top with a 2nd round KO win against Hirohide Murakami (4-3).

In the Super Flyweight division Kensei Hirano (5-0, 3) took less than a round to blow away Shion Tamada (2-1) with an opening round win.

At Bantamweight we had a really competitive bout that saw Tenta Kiyose (6-1-1, 1) take a split decision win over Tetsu Araki (4-1-1).

At Super Bantamweight we had a bout that looked really close on paper though in the ring it was a near shut out as Kohei Iwai (6-3-1, 5) clearly beat Takaaki Kanai (5-4, 3).

The Featherweight action was competitive with Yuto Nagano (5-0, 2) taking a majority decision over Ryuya Yanagida (2-1, 2).

In the Super Featherweight division things were one sided as Naotoshi Nakatani (6-0, 5) blew away Ryo Sumiya (2-2-1) in the 2nd round.

Lightweight saw Tomoaki Mastumura (5-0, 3) destroy Yu Sumiya (1-1, 1) in just 42 seconds.

The Light Welterweight division saw an upset as Kazuma Fukuyama (5-4-3) took a decision win over Yuki Takahashi (5-1, 1).

At Welterweight Giraffe Kirin Kanda (5-1, 3) took a 96 second win over Yuya Shimakawa (2-1).

In the Middleweight division Brandon Lockhart Shane (5-3, 4) beat Yuki Nakanishi (1-3, 1).

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand Kiatkreerin put on a 3 fight card.

The main event here saw Mike Tawatchai (36-8-1, 21) claim the vacant IBF Pan Pacific Super Bantamweight title with a decision win over Junny Salogaol (9-8-4, 9). This was Tawatchai's first bout since being beaten in a world title eliminator against Shingo Wake.

Another notable name on this card was former world title challenger Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr (28-4-1, 15) who over-came Oscar Raknafa (12-11, 5) with an 8 round decision win.

A third notable fighter was former Olympic star Manus Boonjumnong (2-0) who beat Marco Tuhumury (10-12-2, 3) with a 4 round decision

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Sunday was an incredibly busy day in Asia with a trio of Japanese cards as well as a show in the Philippines, which combined to give a very long list of bouts

Hyogo, Japan
For many fans there was one key show in Japan this Sunday, and that was the emotionally charged Taisei promoted card from Hyogo. The show, a memorial show dedicated to the tragic Kaito Hattori, had everything from celebration to tears and will live long in the memory for the fighters and fans.

The headline bout saw 17 year old Riku Kano (6-1-1, 4) make his Japanese debut and force a 3rd round KO against Indonesian visitor Marihot Hutajulu (1-3). Kano, who has admitted he has eyes on becoming Japan's youngest ever world champion, was impressive but will need to step up significantly in his coming bouts.

Kano was Kaito Hattori's best friend and although it was an emotional day for Kano it was even more emotional for Rikito Hattori (3-0, 1), Kaito's older brother, who broke down in tears following his decision victory over Yolen Arema (0-1-1). Hattori claimed a clear 4 round decision win but the emotions were too much for the 20 year old to get through.

In an 8 rounder on this card Seizo Kono (15-7-1, 10) scored a surprisingly quick win over the once touted Hikaru Matsuoka (8-3-3, 1). Kono won't have expected to take out Matsuoka in just 144 seconds but that's exactly what he did in one of two scheduled 8 round bouts. The other 8 rounder saw Hiroshi Konoura (7-4, 1) take a split decision win over Hiroki Taniguchi (6-7-1, 2) in the most holy contested bout of the show.

Whilst Kono will have been pleased at the speed of his win over Matsuoka he was actually only the second quickest winner of the day as Tesu Kanayama (4-2, 1) blew away Yuji Itani (4-2, 4) in just 1 minute of a scheduled 6 rounder. This was Kanayama's first stoppage win and will go down as a surprise. Another stoppage in a scheduled 6 rounder saw Juan Castillo Inami (8-3, 4) force a 4th round retirement of Kenji Ogiso (11-11-2, 8).

The only other 6 rounder saw Mark John Yap (21-12, 10) over-come former world challenger Juan Jose Landaeta (26-8-1, 20). Landaeta, best known in Japan for his bouts with Koki Kameda, was dropped and clearly beaten by Yap who scored on of the most notable wins of his career.

In 4 round action fans saw Kento Haraguchi (1-0) out pointed Kazuhiro Hirahara (1-7, 1) whilst Shosui Kitajima (2-3, 2) scored a 3rd round TKO against Tetsuya Kawabata (3-8-1, 1).

Kanagawa, Japan
In Kanagawa fans had a lower profile, yet still notable, show courtesy of Piston Horiguchi Promotions.

The card was headlines by a pair of 8 round bouts. One of those was incredibly competitive with Yuto Saito (8-6-2, 6) taking a razor thin win over Keita Nakano (13-10-3, 4). There really wasn't much at all between these two come the final bell and neither should feel disappointed in their performance, though a rematch would be very interesting.

The other 8 rounder saw the promising Shoma Fukumoto (7-1, 6) score a 4th round TKO against Kazuaki Irisawa (8-7, 5). Prior to the stoppage Irisawa was left a bloodied mess, a result of Fukumoto's heavy and accurate shots which really did take their toll.

A competitive female bout saw Emika Himuro (5-1-1, 1) take a split decision win over the under-rated Kai Johnson (5-8-3, 2).

The rest of this card was 4-rounders. The most of those saw Shota Irie (2-2, 1) take a majority decision against Mineharu Sakaguchi (1-5-3) in a very well matched contest.

Amazingly the other 4 rounders all finished earlier. The quickest of those saw Yoshikazu Furukawa (2-1, 2) take an opening round KO against Takahiro Yoneshige (2-3, 1), in a bout that lasted just 72 seconds. It didn't take Seiryu Toshikawa (2-2, 2) too long to record his second win as he stopped Yutaka Horikoshi (4-4-2, 1) at the end of the 2nd round.

The remaining stoppages both came in the final round. The quickest of those saw Takuya Muto (2-2, 2) stop Hiroyuki Yago (2-2) after 40 seconds of round 4 though it didn't take debutant Kazuki Sugano (1-0, 1) too much longer for him to defeat Akira Onishi (1-3).

Yamaguchi, Japan
Another low profile Japanese card was in Yamaguchi where Kanmon Japan put on a very low level card.

The main event here saw Accel Sumiyoshi (5-4-1, 1) take a clear win over Filipino 
 (14-10-3, 9). This as a rematch of a bout the two men had last year, which resulted in an 8 round split decision draw. Sumiyoshi, who was last seen losing in an OPBF title fight to Masayoshi Nakatani, showed improvements from the first bout between between himself and Doronio but it's clear that his potential is relatively capped.

In the chief support bout Jump Ikeo (4-1-2, 3) stopped Takuya Taniguchi (4-6-2, 1) in the 2nd of a scheduled 6 rounds.

The rest of this card, 5 bouts in total, was all scheduled for 4 rounds a piece. Amazingly only one of those 5 bouts failed to go the distance, and that was due to Shuma Nakazato (2-0, 2) who stopped Fever Maki (4-3-1, 2) in the third round.

The 4 rounders here were typically well matched. This resulted in a couple of draws. One of those saw Fine Arai (3-1-1, 1) fighting to a majority draw with Hikaru Kawae (1-0-1, 1) whilst another saw Change Hamashima (3-0-1) fighting to a split draw with fellow unbeaten Kotaro Ishibashi (3-0-2, 3). We almost got another draw as Hironori Mitake (5-3, 1) only just squeezed a win against Yuya Kondo (2-2, 1). Even the “clear” win on this under-card was close with Chance Mochizuki (1-0) claiming a razor thin decision against Ryoyo Ikema (4-2, 4).

Cotabato del Sur, Philippines
As well as all the Japanese action there was also an interesting looking Filipino show with a mouth watering main event and an undercard of very promising young prospects.

The main event saw a genuine upset as Kenny Demecillo (9-3-1, 6) stopped Daryl Basadre (14-2-1, 10) in the 2nd round of their scheduled 10 round bout. Basadre, who had only been beaten by Suriyan Sor Rungvisai prior to this bout, did claim the stoppage was unfair with the referee stopping the bout when he shouldn't have. From what we've been told about the bout it would apparently make a lot of sense for an immediate rematch.

In the chief supporting bout the talented Harmonito Dela Torre (16-0, 11) continued his great run of form as he stopped Eusebio Baluarte (19-12, 12) in the 4th round. We're hoping to see Dela Torre move beyond this type of fight soon as he has the talent to go a very long way.

In 8 round action fans saw Michael Angelo Plania (6-0, 3) score his best win to date, as he defeated Philip Parcon (26-21-3, 8) via decision and, in arguably the best matched bout of the card, Rimar Metuda (7-0, 3) also out pointed Jerry Castroverde (5-1, 3). The most one sided of the 8 round bouts saw yet another unbeaten man continue on the winning road, as Markquil Salvana (7-0, 2) stopped Roger Echavez (7-15-1, 4) in the 4th round.

Another unbeaten fighter to remain unbeaten was Raymart Gaballo (9-0, 7), who stopped Rocky Alvarez (2-5, 1) in the 2nd round of their bout.

On the lower part of the card fans saw Jonathan Francisco (7-4, 2) take a 6 round decision win over Raymond Dayham (6-4, 5), the wonderfully named Joy Joy Formentera (6-1, 4) took a 2nd round KO against the experienced Allan Doronilla (9-14-1, 3), the previously win-less Joey Antonio (1-1) managed to upset Gerald Barcenas (1-1) and the “win some lose some” Junny Salogaol (8-7-4, 8) recorded a 3rd round KO over the very poor Armando Yee (2-8-3, 1)


(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Tuesday has certainly been a hectic day with bouts coming across Asia with titles up for grabs in 4 separate countries!

Korakuen Hall, Japan
In Japan we had the most notable bout of the day in many ways as fans got the chance to see an OPBF title bout. Sadly aside from that bout the card was relatively lacklustre and even that title bout wasn't something to write home about, despite it's regional significance.

The title bout in question saw Yuzo Kiyota (27-4-1, 25) stopping Fuji's Abhay Chand (16-14-4, 10) in the 5th round of their bout. Kiyota, a genuinely heavy handed guy, was deducted a point in round 4 for a low blow but seemed to feel that the body was Chand's weak spot and a jab in round 5 to the challengers guy put him down for the 10 count in what was a really poor challenge of the title.

In the co-feature of this card Kenta Nakagawa (8-2, 6) scored a 3rd round TKO against Ryo Nakamura (7-5, 3) who was stopped almost as soon as round 3 began.

Also on the Japanese card were 6 undercard bouts. Of those 6 bouts only one ended with a stoppage as Akihiro Yamanaka (4-3, 1) scored his first stoppage win and defeated Muneyuki Kishii (3-5, 2) in the 4th round. One other bout that failed to go the distance saw Joji Tsuchiya (1-2-1, 1) fight a 1 round technical draw with Takuya Yamaguchi (1-2-2, 1), in a bout that lasted just 160 seconds.

A competitive undercard bout saw Shunta Terai (0-2-1) fight to a 4 round draw with Hiroaki Tokuoka (0-1-1) whilst a similarly competitive contest between Ryuji Kohama (1-1) took a split decision over the debuting Yuki Nakajima (0-1). A third competitive contest saw Daisuke Sudo (3-2) taking a narrow win over Takuya Suzuki (1-2-1, 1). The only other bout was a female bout which saw Yunoka Furukawa (4-1-2-1, 2) take a decision over Mikiko Muto (2-2)

Bangkok, Thailand
Staying with title action and Japanese fighters there was also a Japanese fighter in action in Thailand as part of an interesting card in Bangkok.

The Japanese fighter in question was 17 year prospect Riku Kano (5-1-1, 3) who claimed his first title, the WBA Asia Minimumweight title, with a 12 round shut out against Indonesian fighter Madit Sada (9-19-1, 3). Kano, who hasn't made his Japanese debut yet, looked like he has the ingredients to go far and win world titles somewhere down the line however the big fear is that his promoter burns him out too early, a real fear considering this was his 6th bout this year.

A second bout on this card saw Petchchorhae Kokietgym (10-0, 7) defeat Indonesian visitor Johan Wahyudi (9-31, 5). The Indonesian really was outclassed from the off and Petchchorhae was made to look sensational at times before finishing the bout with a vicious body shot in the second round. Prior to the finishing blow the visitor had been down from a swiping left upstairs, it was however the body breaking uppercut that finished the show that really left a lasting impression.

Also on the same show in Thailand fans saw Petchmanee Kokietgym (5-0, 1) winning an easy decision over journeyman Jack Amisa (20-32-2, 14). Amisa has now lost 20 times in Thailand and it appears clear he has no intention of trying to win when fighting in the country. He appears to know that losing is what he'll be doing in his career and he's now won just 1 bout in the last 6 years!

Metro Manila, Philippines
In the Philippines fans got their share of fills and thrills with an array of knockouts, including one by a very highly ranked Super Flyweight.

The aforementioned Super Flyweight was Warlito Parrenas (23-6, 20) who retained his WBO Oriental title with an opening round blow out against the horribly over-matched Hengky Baransano (11-5, 4). Parrenas, who will be angling for a world title fight next year, broke up his foes resistance with a body shot inside 2 minutes of the bout.

Another body shot KO helped the destructive Richard Claveras (11-0-2, 11) continue his unbeaten run as he took out the experienced Rodel Tejares (20-32-6, 5). This was Tejares's 3rd loss this year and he may need to consider his future, especially considering he is now win-less since springing an upset over Lionel Mark Duran back in September 2012.

A third notable knockout on the top part of this card saw Ardin Diale (26-9-3, 13) score a 2nd round KO against Ricky Manufoe (23-22-2, 10). Manufoe failed weight at the weigh in and had a 4lb advantage over Diale, that didn't help and Diale recorded his third successive stoppage since his own stoppage loss to Koki Eto in an OPBF title bout.
In a WBC Youth Super Flyweight title bout on this show fans saw the unbeaten Jhaleel Payao (11-0, 6) over-come the defending champion Rene Dacquel (12-4-1, 4). Dacquel was attempting to record his first defense of the belt was out pointed over the 10 round distance in what was sadly the show's only genuinely competitive bout.

The sole 8 rounder on the card went 3 as the heavy handed Jon Jon Estrada (6-1-1, 5) easily took care of Junjie Lauza (4-13-1, 1). In a 6 rounder Aljhon Osabel (9-2, 5) took care of the wonderfully named Daffy Dempo (2-4, 2) in the 3rd round, after dropping him twice in the second round. The other 6 rounder saw the unbeaten Lorence Rosas (2-0-2) take a technical draw after an accidental headclash cut Joel Lagusan (3-10-1, 1).

In the 4 rounders we saw on go the distance as Jaymark Borbon (1-1) scored his first and over-came the debuting Rizalde Caballes (0-1). Caballes had been down in the opening round and will not see this as a debut to remember. The other 4 rounders saw Jermone Clavite (2-0-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he took out the win-less Joshro Lindon (0-4), in the 4th round, and JayAr Diama (2-5-4, 1) also took his first early victory as his opponent Ronie Gaton (0-4) retired at the start of round 2.

Daejeon, South Korea
Yet more title action occurred in South Korea where fans got a title double in a relatively low key show.

Domestically the key fight was a South Korean Light Welterweight title fight that saw Myung Soo Sun (2-0) make the first defense of his title with a decision win over the more experienced Jin Soo Kim (6-4, 3). Sun, who won the title on his debut against Jae Ho Kim, appears likely to become the KBC's poster boy and at just 20 years old does look to be a promising youngster who now has 2 complete 10 round bouts under his belt.

The second title bout on this show saw the unbeaten Eun Hye Lee (6-0, 1) claim the WBO Asia Pacific female Flyweight title with a clear victory over the brilliantly named Lady Love Sampiton (2-3, 1) of the Philippines.

The 4 under-card bouts here were all debutant affairs. At Featherweight fans saw Ye Chan Gang (1-0, 1) score a 3rd round TKO over Doo Hwa Lee (0-1). From the details we have it seems Lee, a 17 year old, had the size advantage with 5” of height, though probably lacked the physical maturity of the 22 year old Gang. At Lightweight Dae Won Sunwoo (1-0) took a decision victory over Bum Jin Kim (0-1) with a shut out. At Light Welterweight fans saw a well fought draw between Sung Koo Han (0-0-1) and Bo Kwan Shim (0-0-1).

The other all debutant bout was all the way up at Cruiserweight where Sang Ho Kim (1-0, 1) stopped Jung Soo Lim (0-1) in the 2nd round. At 5'8” and aged 31 we can't see Kim going on to do much with his career unfortunately.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)