Tokyo, Japan
This past Friday there was 3 Asian shows with 2 in Japan. For us the more noteworthy of those came form the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

The most notable bout on this card saw the always exciting Takuya Kogawa (24-4, 13) reclaim the Japanese Flyweight title to begin his second reign. The all-action warrior managed to out point the tough Hiroki Saito (9-5, 5) in an entrancing 10 round battle that brought the best from both men. Kogawa, who lost the title in 2013 to Suguru Muranaka, has now got a lot of exciting options in front of him, including a possible rematch with Muranaka or a chance to move into another world level bout with some really big names for the lower weights.

Whilst the main event was brilliant there was also 3 very good supporting match ups. One of those saw fringe Super Featherweight contender Shingo Eto (17-3-1, 9) move a step closer to fighting for the OPBF title as he out pointed Filipino veteran Edgar Gabejan (27-32-6, 9) in a very competitive bout. Although Gabejan's record is far from impressive he's actually a very solid fighter and showed that once again here.

Another supporting bout saw Hideo Sakamoto (16-1-3, 5) suffer an unfortunate draw with Hiroki Teshigawara (9-1-2, 4). Some at ringside felt this was a political decision that cost Sakamoto what should have been a clear but competitive decision win though the draw does keep the under-rated Bantamweight in the hunt for a title fight in the next few years. Although talented Sakamoto doesn't belong in the ring with the likes of Shohei Omori, though will be a good opponent for anyone at the domestic level.

The third of the noteworthy support bouts saw the under-rated Ryoichi Tamura (4-2-1, 1) take a split decision over heavy handed southpaw Yusuke Suzuki (6-2, 4) in an enthralling contest between two novice professionals putting it all on the line in what was a perfect example of what boxing is about. We won't pretend this was the highest skilled fight in history but it exemplified the fight game perfect.

As well as the 4 main bout this card also featured 5 lower level bouts, all scheduled for the 4 round distance.

Of those under-card bouts just a couple went this distance. These both saw wins for debutants with Kazuki Naya (1-0, 1) out pointing Daisuke Uchikawa (2-2-1, 1), in a competitive Featherweight bout, while Rikiya Ono (1-0) easily saw off Shogo Isaka (0-1).

A bout that almost saw the final bell ended with more than a minute of round 4 gone as 17 year old prospect Junto Nakatani (2-0, 2) stopped Akira Kokubo (1-6-3), giving Kokubo his first stoppage loss. The remaining bouts both ended in the opening round with Welterweight Shunsuke Nakamura (2-0, 1) stopping 34 year old debutant Akio Uwajima (0-1) at the end of the opening stance whilst Junki Kobayashi (2-1, 2) stopped Ryo Kato (1-2) midway through the opening stanza.

Osaka, Japan
The other Japanese card came from Osaka where Harada Promotions put on an 8 fight card.

The main event here saw Japanese domestic contender Tetsuya Hisada (23-9-2, 13) score a 2nd round TKO against fellow contender Atsushi Aburada (10-8, 6). Hisada came out swinging with bad intentions and a big flurry dropped Aburada early in the second before a follow up attacked forced the referee to step in. Coming in Aburada had, just 2 fights back, fought in a Japanese title fight against Yu Kimura but this loss ends any chance of him getting another any time soon. It does however open the door to Hisada getting a well deserved shot, something he's amazingly never had before.

The co-feature bout here saw Riichi Kawase (7-6-3, 2) score a 2nd round KO against Hiroki Yoshimura (7-12, 4), who has now been stopped 10 times. Yoshimura beat the 10 count but was waved off by the referee. Another early win saw Kyohei Tonomoto (7-2, 3) take out Paisitong Muangsima (0-1) in 161 seconds.

In a 6 rounder Hiroshi Takagi (5-4, 1) took a decision win over the very light punching Takahiko Nakajima (4-7-1). This win for Takagi was his third in a row and it's fair to say he has turned his career around after a 2-4-1 start. He is however unlikely to progress far given that he's already 29 years old.

Like the other card this one had a number of 4 rounders, all of which went the distance. The most notable of those saw the unbeaten Tuki Takahashi (5-0, 1) extend his perfect start with a decision win against Yosuke Shimagawa (5-6-1, 2). Another unbeaten picking up a win here was Yuna Hara (2-0) who out pointed the debuting Joken Takaoka (0-1). It wasn't all good news for people who came in unbeaten however as Maya Uegaki (1-1, 1) suffer a decision loss to Minayo Kei (1-1). The remaining bout saw Takashi Oura (4-4, 1) level off his record with a decision win over Takahiro Horio (1-1).

Pathum Thani, Thailand
In Thailand we saw a number of Nakornluong fighters in action as they continued their march towards numerous world title bouts.

In the main event of the card the WBC #1 ranked Flyweight contender Nawaphon Por Chokchai (29-0, 22) successfully defended his WBC Asian Boxing Council Flyweight title with a 3rd round KO over over-matched Filipino Wiljan Ugbaniel (13-5-1, 4). Nawaphon, who has set his eyes on Roman Gonzalez, was too big and too strong for Ugbaniel and although he landed a massive low blow in round 2 it was a culmination of shots that eventually forced Ugbaniel to take the count in the corner.

A huge mismatch saw the always fun to watch Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (35-4-1, 32) put in a stay busy performance as he stopped Indonesian visitor Jack Amisa (21-36-2, 14) inside a round. The always aggressive Srisaket now has eyes on a rematch with Carlos Cuadras, as it seems likely that that bout may come before the year is over. Notably Amisa was unhappy at the stoppage but he did seem to take his time getting up and had been given a slow count as it was.

Another mismatch saw the criminally under-rated Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (44-6-1, 22) took a straight forward win over the much taller Ibuki Tanaka (0-2). On paper this was a total mismatch, as it proved to be in the ring, but it seemed that Suriyan was working on how to deal with a tall fighter and how to make the most of his “shortness”. Whilst it's not a given it could be that he's looking to get a title fight with a champion later in the year, and many of the top champions in the division are taller than him. Tanaka, to his credit, show real grit and toughness, but was never competitive before being stopped.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Sunday saw a couple of low profile Japanese cards. The bouts certainly weren't anything to shout home about, at least on paper, but there was several significant contests.

Fukuoka, Japan
For us the most important of the two shows came from Fukuoka where we had the best match up as well as a number of lower level bouts.

In our eyes the match up of the day came between the streaking Hideo Sakamoto (16-1-2, 5) and the "better than his record suggests" Ryoichi Tamura (3-2-1, 1). On paper it may look like a mismatch but Tamura was touted and viewed as a promising fighter, sadly however his inexperience showed here as Sakamoto easily out pointed him in an 8 rounder. This was Sakamoto's second notable win in a row following an upset win against Hiroki Shiino last year.

Despite the match up we liked being relatvely one sided it wasn't a bust for the show which featured two highly competitive 8 rounders. One of those saw Yosuke Kirima (20-4-2, 13) take a very narrow split decision win over tough journeyman Hideo Mikan (7-9-1, 2). Mikan was expected to go the distance but he also managed to score a career altering upset win over Kirima, a 2-time Japanese title challenger. Another of the 8 rounders resulted in a split decision draw as the judges were unable to clearly split Yuki Miyoshi (11-4-4, 9) and the heavy handed Koichi Ito (10-3-3, 9). This bout was almost perfectly matched on paper and real credit needs to go to the match maker for putting it together.

The remaining 8 rounder from Fukuoka resulted in a genuine upset as Tamato Uchinono (6-3-5, 4) managed to regard a 3rd round TKO against Aiki Koto (8-2-1, 4). This result ended a 6 fight winning streak, and 8 fight unbeaten run, of Koto's whilst Uchinono managed to bounce back from a stoppage loss, last time out to Koji Itagaki.

On the under-card there was a number of 4 rounders. The most competitive of those saw Shota Aikawa (4-4-2, 1) surprisingly score a majority draw against the previously unbeaten Yukinori Yamaguchi (3-0-1, 1). Another unbeaten fighter on this card was Change Hamashima (3-0) who narrowly retained his perfect record with a very narrow win over Taichi Yoshizato (1-4, 1)

Fumiaki Sueyoshi (1-0, 1) got off to the perfect start in his career as he stopped Takuya Hayashi (0-1) in the second round of an all debutant contest whilst another debutant, Ryoya Ikema (1-0, 1) scored a 4th round TKO against Takeshi Oishi (1-4), with Oishi being stopped for the 3rd time.

Aichi, Japan
The other Japanese show was in Aichi where fans again saw a bit of everything even though the show looked less than sensational on paper.

The most outstanding of the results on this card came in the main event where fans saw unheralded Filipino Roque Lauro (13-16-4, 3) scored a shock KO against Daisuke Hayakawa (8-4, 7). Whilst Lauro winning wasn't a huge shock, considering he had beaten Hayakawa last December, no one would have guessed that the Filipino was going to score his 3rd career stoppage and his first since stopping a then unbeaten Joan Imperial back in September 2012. Sadly for Hayakawa it really is a case of going back to the drawing board after back-to-back defeats to Lauro,

The Lauro/Hayakawa bout wasn't the only surprise on this card as the experienced Yuji Shimizu (17-9-1, 1) was also also beaten as Tomohiro Sawada (9-4-2, 4) managed to take a razor thin majority decision over his more experienced foe. This was Sawada's first bout in almost 2 years and saw him notching back-to-back wins for the first time since 2005! Unfortunately for Shimizu it ended a nice run of 3 wins, all scored last year.


A third 8 rounder saw Shinichi Tsukahara (9-7-3, 4) score a 5th round TKO against Japanese based Brazilian Marcos Sogabe (6-10-1, 5), who saw a 3 fight winning run coming to an end. For Tsukahara this is his first win since December 2013.


As well as the trio of main bouts this show also featured a number of 4 rounders on the undercard. Of those only 2 finished early with the quickest win being scored by Yoshiaki Inoue (2-4-1, 1) who stopped the win-less Yosuke Kato (0-3) at 1:18 of round 2, the other saw Takuya Mizuno (4-0-1, 4) continue his unbeaten run as he stopped Kazunori Takai (1-1-1, 1), who was stopped at the 2:28 mark of the second round.


As for the bouts that went the distance there were typically close with the one clear winning being the debuting Naoto Mizutani (1-0) who nearly shut out the previously unbeaten Akihisa Buma (2-1-1, 1). A clear but competitive bout saw Masamu Muramatsu (1-1) claim his first win as he over-came the still win-less Yuya Watanabe (0-2-1) whilst the debuting Jinya Ito (1-0) took a razor thin win over Tasuku Matsunoshima (0-2). The closest of the 4 rounders on this card saw Shunichi Inagaki (3-2, 1) take a majority decision win over Yuya Asano (1-1), who suffered his first loss.


(Image of Sakamoto 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)