The year of 2014 ended in a bang with 2 major cards on the final day of the year. In some ways they were very frustrating cards for westerners who struggled to get live streams of them but on the other they further proved what we all knew, boxing fans can never have enough. Hopefully the struggles to get streams will help Western TV realise what we already know, there is a huge demand to watch fights from the east.

Osaka, Japan
Of the two cards the most interesting came from Osaka where we had several bouts of note, including one bout that really was a bout that fans wanted to watch, and that ended up being a little special in some ways. Rather notably it was also the last bout of the year.

That bout saw Cuban boxer-come-TV exile Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10) successfully defending his WBA “super” and WBO Super Bantamweight titles in what was an entertaining, up and down contest. Rigondeaux was fighting against Japan's Hisashi Amagasa (28-5-2, 19), a man best known for being a very lanky Featherweight, the OPBF Featherweight champion in fact. The fight saw the challenger set off as he meant to go on and really tried to take the fight to Rigondeaux who was simply too good for him early on however 2 knockdowns by Amagasa in round 7 suddenly got everyone excited and the biggest upset looked on, at least for a few moments. In round 9 it was Amagasa who was dropped and over the following 2 rounds his face began to fall apart which what looks to have been a broken jaw and a broken orbital bone. Those disfiguring injuries eventually forced him to retire from the bout. For Amagasa this performance is likely to have made him an over-night name for the hardcore international fans whilst Rigondeaux's victory proved that he can be in exciting, entertaining and vicious bouts as well as the proving he is vulnerable.

Another world title bout on this show saw Katsunari Takayama (28-7-0-1, 11) create his own moment of history as he became the first Japanese fighter to claim a version of all 4 major titles. This happened when he won the WBO Minimumweight, along with the IBF version of the belt, to complete a career grandslam. Takayama won both belts when he forced the referee to save the brave but exhausted and Go Odaira (11-4-3, 1), who suffered the first stoppage of his career.

A third bout featuring a world class fighter on this show saw former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (16-1, 10) score a sensational KO against former WBA interim Flyweight champion Jean Piero Perez (20-8-1, 14). For almost 5 rounds Perez gave as good as he got in what was a free swinging effort but a single right hand in the final minute of round 5 dropped him hard and never managed to recover.

In a Japanese title fight fans saw the talented Sho Ishida (18-0, 10) successfully defend the Super Flyweight title for the first time with a 5th round TKO over the over-matched Masato Morisaki (9-4-1, 5).

The undercard portion of this show was a bit of a farce if we're being honest with 6 bouts which saw Japanese fighters battling against Thai opposition. The Thai's failed to win a fight, in fact only 1 of them managed to see out the schedule. The one that did was Rannada Sor Vorasing (0-1) who was shut out by boxer-model Tomomi Takano (7-1, 5) in one of two female contests. The other female contest was a blow out as Terumi Nuki (6-0, 3) blasted away Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-1) in just 107 seconds.

Nuki's quick blow out was one of 3 opening round blow outs on this undercard which also saw Ryuto Maekawa (10-0, 6) take care of Chanachai Sor Siamchai (0-2) in 133 seconds and the brilliantly promising Takeru Kamikubo (8-0, 5) wipe out Phetsaifar Lukmaelamperigym (0-6) in 158 seconds.

Another mismatch saw former world champion Ryo Miyazaki (22-1-3, 13) take care of Kajonsak Nattapolgym (0-1) in round 3 whilst another 3rd round victory saw Takahiro Yamamoto (15-3, 12) take care of Kamraiyok Or Wandavee (0-1).

Tokyo, Japan
The other show took place in Tokyo where we had a trio of world title bouts which all had their own story to tell.

The most interesting of those stories was that of the heavy handed Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18) who retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 9th round retirement victory over Argentina's game Israel Perez (27-3-1, 16). The bout was Uchiyama's first in exactly a year and saw him looking the boss in what was an interesting contest with a man who had come to win. The bout saw Perez try and win but eventually he retired as Uchiyama began to shake off the ring rust and go for the kill. From what we understand a post-fight story here revolved around the scoring, particularly by Gustavo Padilla who is reported to have had the bout even at 85-85, a frankly puzzling score card, though not his worst of the night...

...Padilla's worst score came in the WBA Super Flyweight title fight that saw Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13) retain his title with a split decision draw against Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10). The bout, scored a split draw, saw Padilla handing in a ridiculous 115-112 card in favour of Jimenez, a card so ridiculous that someone needs to look into him, especially given what he did in the Uchiyama/Perez bout. This contest was close, and a draw wasn't an awful result, though we did feel Kono deserved the win, however that card is just wrong. In the ring Jimenez used his movement and speed to keep Kono from unloading on him and exposed some flaws in the champions armour however he failed to really capitalise.

The other world title bout on this card saw a new champion being crowned as Ryoichi Taguchi (21-2-1, 8), a man previously best known for taking Naoya Inoue the distance, scored a clear 12 round win over Peruvian Alberto Rossel (32-9-0-1, 13) to claim the WBA Light Flyweight title. Taguchi started slowly but ran out a clear winner, dropping Rossel twice to cement his win.

The under-card here was much more interesting than the under-card in Osaka with bouts that weren't all mismatches and blow outs. One of the few stoppages saw Chikashi Hayashizaki (6-4-1, 2) score an unexpected stoppage of Takahiro Araki (5-4, 3), in the 4th round of a scheduled 6, whilst another stoppage on this card saw Minoru Iizuka (4-2, 4) score a 3rd round KO over the previously unbeaten Ryusei Nakajima (2-1, 1), in a scheduled 6 rounder.

The most competitive of the undercard bouts resulted in a 6 round split decision draw between Masayasu Nakamura (4-1-1, 4) and Takahiro Kinoshita (5-3-2, 2) in a bout that saw all 3 cards looking very similar to each other. Another very competitive but saw Shun Shimazaki (6-6-1) narrowly defeat Hisasho Owada (5-9-1) in another 6 rounder.

In the 4 rounders on the card fans saw the debuting Kazumasa Akagi (1-0) score a narrow decision win over Yukihiro Kaneko (0-3) whilst Kazuhiro Baba (1-2) claimed his first win with a razor thin win over Kazuki Aso (0-2).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
For the second successive day Japan fans had notable action at the Korakuen Hall.

Whilst yesterday's show was mostly about the Japanese Featherweight title today was about the OPBF Featherweight title, as defending champion Hisashi Amagasa (27-4-2, 18) took on Thailand's Maxsaisai Sithsaithong (14-5, 3). Unsurprisingly the defending champion made relatively light work of his smaller, less skilled, less powerful opponent who was stopped in round 8 when Amagasa began hammering home with power shots and forced the referee to save the Thai.

Whilst Amagasa was certainly the main event fighter he wasn't the fighter who got the most attention going in to the show, that honour was instead bestowed on Tomomi Takano (5-1, 4) who stole the show at the weigh in, as seen in the video below. Unfortunately for the stunningly attractive Takano her looks and pre-fight antics weren't enough to defeat the more determined and more experience Kai Johnson (5-5-3, 2) who wore down Takano and stopped her in the 5th round to inflict the first loss on to Takano.

Takano was was one of a trio of notable unbeaten fighters going in to the show, she wasn't the only one to lose but not the only one given a tough time. Another given a very hard fight was Ryuto Maekawa (9-0, 5) who narrowly over-came Takushige Sato (5-5-1, 2) by winning a 6 round majority decision. Aged 18 we understand that Maekawa is a youngster though he's also an experienced one having made his debut more than 3 years ago in Thailand. Whilst he's now 5-0 in Japan he has struggled against Japanese opponents and he's certainly not as good as his record suggests he is.

The other unbeaten fighter was Kazuma Sanpei (11-0, 4) who maintained his unbeaten record in an 8 round unanimous decision that saw him only just out pointing Jun Hamana (9-2, 3). The loss for Hamana ended a 5 fight winning streak though his performance did suggest that both he and Sanpei will be worth following over the next few years. 

The Sanpei/Hamana fight was one of two contests that were scheduled for 8 rounds, in fact it was one of two hotly contest 8 round affairs with the other resulting in a draw between the experienced Mikihito Seto (34-11-3, 18) and Takenori Ohashi (11-3-1, 7). The bout was really close and fairly scored a draw which will be a disappointment to both, but was a fair result.

In the show's opening bout fans saw another well contested contest as the debuting Masamine Oyama (1-0) narrowly over-came fellow debutant Kohei Hasegawa (0-1) in a 4 round contest.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp, video courtesy of Kyoei Boxing)

Tokyo, Japan
The first set of titles for the new week took place in Japan on Monday with with a brilliant card from the legendary Kyoei Promotions. On paper the card was one of the highlight shows of a very busy week in Asian boxing, though it did prove to be a little bit more one sided than expected with only 1 of the 5 bouts really ended up being competitive.

The card began by showcasing young prospects. The first of these was teenager Ryuto Maekawa (8-0, 5) who recorded his first stoppage on Japanese soil as he swiftly defeated Thai debutant Namchai Sor Tanachor (0-1) in 2 rounds. 

Maekawa, who actually started his career in Thailand, began his career with 4 stoppages in his first 4 bouts though has been taken the distance since setting up camp in Japan. This bout was a step backwards for him though proved that he has still got a finishers instinct.

The second promising youngster on the show was All Japanese Rookie of the year Kazuma Sanpei (10-0, 4) who stopped the usually durable Thai Anuntachai Sor Por Lor Krungthep (6-7, 4) in the third round of a scheduled 8. Prior to this fight the Thai had only been stopped once in 12 fights, by the very very experienced Yuta Nagai in 6 rounds, suggesting that Sanpei hits harder than his record indicates.

Although few came to see the two young prospects on the show the first major attraction was model boxer Tomomi Takano (5-0, 4) who, like the other unbeaten fighters on the card, made light work of her over-matched Thai foe. Fighting against Kulabkhao Por Preecha (0-2) we saw an improved Tomomi who finished the fight with a beautiful body shot that crippled the Thai for the full 10 count. Whilst Tomomi isn't nearly world class yet she is developing excellently and is showing vast improvement after every fight. With that in mind we'd not be shocked to see her competing for an OPBF title by the end of the year.

Follow the unbeaten fighters the show then turned to the title action which kicked off with a Japanese Super Bantamweight title fight between the world ranked, and current Japanese champion, Hidenori Otake (22-1-3, 9) and determined challenger Takafumi Nakajima (22-7-1, 9). Nakajima, who had previously lost a split decision to Otake, brought the fight to the champion early on and really forced Otake to answer back in an excellent encounter. Unfortunately for the challenger is was the champions stamina late on that helped him retain his title via a very narrow decision.

Otake had been forced to defend his title against a man almost his equal, the second title fight however saw the significantly taller and rangier Hisashi Amagasa (26-4-2, 16) easily defending his OPBF Featherweight belt against Filipino challenger Vinvin Rufino (34-16-3, 16). Rufino came to fight though all too often he was eating hard counters from the champion who managed to score an early knock down before gradually forcing a stoppage in round 8. This loss for Rufino, his second in an OPBF title fight, likely ends his dream of being an Asian champion. For Amagasa, who was making the first defense of his belt, this was impressive and his thoughts surely have to turn to world title fights sooner rather than later.

(Photo, of Amagasa standing over a knocked down Rufino, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)