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 Saturday was the first major day for Asian fight fans as we got a major bout in Asia, some notable debuts and action involving a number of unbeaten prospects. It may not have been a day of world title fights but it's certainly been the highlight of the year so far.

Tokyo, Japan
The biggest of two Asian cards came from the Korakuen Hall and was televised NTV G+, a subscription based channel in Japan. The show was the first Japanese show of the year and featured the first OPBF title fight of 2014 as well as several other notable bouts.

We'll begin with the main event which featured Thailand's very highly regarded Jomthong Chuwatana (9-0, 4) successfully retain the OPBF Super Featherweight title and record his best win to date. Jomthong, defending the belt for the 4th time, looked awful on the scales on Friday but looked brilliant in the ring as he out boxed, out landed and generally out fought the teak tough and Hercules-like Daiki Kaneko (21-4-3, 14). Coming in to the bout it seemed like a 50-50 contest though through the middle rounds it seemed like Jomthong was in a league of his own as he bloodied the face of the Japanese fighter, who had previously given Takashi Uchiyama a tough bout in a world title contest.

Although it's not been stated we now suspect that Jomthong will be hunting a world title bout and on this performance you'd have to give him a chance against any of the current world champions at 130lbs.

In the key support bouts we had Middleweight action with two separate Middleweight bouts.

The more competitive of those Middleweight bouts saw the heavy handed Shoma Fukumoto (6-1, 5) take his first distance win as he took a majority decision over the tough Kazuyuki Fukuyama (9-6, 2). The 8 round win will serve Fukumoto well going forward though we do wonder just how promising he really is.

The other Middleweight bout saw former Japanese Middleweight champion Tomohiro Ebisu (13-4, 13) score an opening round victory over the poor Tatsuro Kawabata (6-6, 2) who really lacked the toughness to hand with Ebisu.

Lower down the card we had a pair of 6 rounders. One of those saw Hideki Suzuki (6-4-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he stopped the chinny Hikaru Takaki (6-6, 5) with just seconds left in round 5. The other 6 rounder lasted little more than a minute as the heavy handed Naoki Mochizuki (6-1, 5) quickly dispatched Takuma Okara (5-10, 2).

The card began with 4 rounders. One of those was an all debutant contest that saw Masato Niijima (1-0, 1) kick off his career with an opening round win over Kenji Haruta (0-1). Another stoppage on this portion of the card saw Ryosuke Yokota (4-1, 3) stop the previously unbeaten Eisuke Hara (3-1, 2). One unbeaten man who maintained his unbeaten record was Teppei Kayanuma (3-0, 2) who had his stoppage run ended by Seiryu Toshikawa (1-2, 1) in a genuinely competitive contest.

Cotabato del Sur, Philippines
As well as the action in Japan there was also some in the Philippines. This was at a lower level to the Japanese card but still an important one.

In the main event fans saw former Filipino amateur stand out Adam Diu Abdulhamid (4-2, 1) avenge his loss to JR Mendoza (10-18, 4) with a 10 round decision. Abdulhamid lost his first bout with Mendoza in November though will take great solace from this win. Incidentally this is Abdulhamid second rematch with an opponent in just 6 pro bouts and some would have suspect that he's not going tio live up to the expectation many had of him.

In the chief support bout fans saw Ronie Tanallon (5-1-1, 1) take an 8 round decision over journeyman Jonathan Ricablanca (7-46-2, 1) in what was the sole 8 rounder.

Much of this show consisted of 6 round bouts, with two of those going the distance. One of those saw Markquil Salvana (6-0, 1) take a decision win over Dave Ogbamin (2-3-2, 1) whilst the other saw Raymart Gaballo (7-0, 5) take a decision over the debuting Paolo Romero (0-1).

The other 6 rounders were both over quickly with Michael Angelo Plania (4-0, 2) taking out Marwin Cristota (2-12-1, 1) in the 3rd round and Romero Duno (4-0, 3) blowing out Rey Liparanon (4-11-1, 1) inside a round.

In the sole 4 rounder of the card fan saw the debuting Benny Jade Slight (1-0, 1) blast out the win-less Michael Manambay (0-10).

Connecticut, USA
In the US we had a trio of Chinese fighters in action, including 2 debutants and a touted Heavyweight hopeful.

The Heavyweight was Zhang Zhilei (2-0, 2) who scored his second early victory as he took out the much smaller Perry Filkins (0-1) inside a round. To our knowledge Filkins is an MMA fighter and and he may well stay away from boxing after this 70 second defeat. Incidentally Filkin's did last almost a minute longer than Curtis Lee Tate who faced Zhilei in Zhilei's farcical debut.

One of the debutant was Wang Zhimin (1-0), a much touted Chinese fighter than some feel could go a very, very long way. Zhimin took a clear decision over fellow debutant Kin Moy (0-1) and it's hard to see anything but a fantastic future in the sport for Zhimin. The other debutant was Olympian Meng Fanlong (1-0) who over-came Marcellus Yates (0-2) via a majority decision. Strangely Fanlong won a shut out on 2 cards whilst the 3rd judge had it a draw.

(Image courtesy of boxmob.jp)

This past Monday was nothing short of a blockbuster day on the Japanese domestic scene with two notable cards and a host of interesting bouts.

Tokyo, Japan
The bigger of two cards was Dangan 113 which came from the Korakuen Hall and had a big of everything from a highly entertaining main event to a dreadful debut from a touted prospect, from a notable upset to a highly impressive debut.

The main event saw Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (11-0, 5) retain his title with a clear decision over Shingo Eto (14-3-1, 9). The scores, which ready 98-93, twice, and 98-92 suggest it was a one-sided contest but certainly wasn't and Naito had to work incredibly hard to win the rounds and fight on despite a nose that was bloodied very early in the contest.

The  chief support was a genuine upset as the under-rated Hideo Sakamoto (15-1-2, 5) managed to stop the world ranked, WBC #12, Hiroki Shiino (11-4, 10). Shiino a former OPBF Bantamweight champion, was widely favoured to over-come Sakamoto though was made to look distinctly second rate by the more talented under-dog who will likely use this win to move towards a title shot, either nationally or regionally. Unfortunately for Shiino this was a second stoppage loss in 3 bouts following a loss late last year to Ryosulke Iwasa. 

Whilst Shiino's loss was an upset he did put up a good effort, not something that can be said of former amateur star Takaaki Kamikawa (0-1) who was frankly terrible against Shoma Fukumoto (5-1, 5). Kamikawa had turned professional with notable fanfare but this performance made it look like he was a rank amateur. Fukumoto isn't a terrible fighter but we expect much, much more from Kamikawa.

Another minor upset saw Tatsuya Otsubo (5-6-1, 3) force a 3rd round TKO against Ryosuke Suzuki (4-2). Interestingly Otsubo was fighting for the first time in almost 3 years making the upset even more impressive.

Another of the results that we had received from this card was that of Koji Benjamin Watanabe (0-1-1), a friend of the site. Sadly Watanabe was stopped in just 37 seconds by Daijiro Umemoto (1-0, 1) who appeared to be a very good prospect in the Light Welterweight division.

When we first published this we were missing a number results. 

Of those bouts only went the distance as Yoshito Ikari (3-1-2, 3) fought to a 4 round majority draw with Naoya Sato (2-0-1). Between the other 3 bouts there was just 7 rounds of action. The longest of the bouts we've not yet mentioned went into round 3 as the previously winless Hironobu Suzuki (1-2, 1) got off the mark with a third round TKO over Takuya Gocho (0-3). The other bouts only went into round 2 and these saw Daisuke Fukuyama (3-2-1, 3) stop the debuting Kanehiro Nakagawa (0-1) and Takeshi Ishiwatari (1-0, 1) begin his campaign with a win over Yutaro Ogane (0-1).

Osaka, Japan
In Osaka fans got a smaller show that was headlined by a very promising female fighter, Nana Yoshikawa (4-0, 2). Yoshikawa made extremely quick work of former world title challenger Kledpetch KKP (6-4, 1) with a second round KO via a devastating body shot that saw Kledpetch down for the count. This was supposedly a world title prelude, or tune up, for Yoshikawa who we assume will have put the Light Flyweight on alert considering nobody had taken care of Kledpetch like this, even Shindo Go took 8 rounds to see off the Thai.

As with the other card we were missing results when this was first published, sadly in this case it was for much of the show. Those results can now all be found below.

Yoshikawa's bout was one of a trio of 8 round bouts. Another saw Eita Kikuchi (15-4-4, 7) score an 8th round TKO against the heavy handed but limited Toshiya Yokogawa (6-7-1, 5) whilst the other featured Shota Kawaguchi (18-5-1, 7) who scored an 8th round KO against Kosuke Isono (7-3-1, 1) with a beautiful right uppercut that left Isono out cold for quite a while.

The sole 6 rounder on the show also ended early as Junki Oura (6-5, 2) took out Thai visitor Decha Janthasri (0-1) in the second round. It was also in the 2nd round of the scheduled 4 rounder than fans saw Takuya Uehara (2-0, 1) stop Kento Osumi (1-1, 1).

The other undercard bouts all went the distance with many of them being very competitive outs. The most "one-sided" of these bouts saw Hiroya Kojima (3-2-1, 2) take a clear cut decision win over Ryusei Kitamua (2-1, 1) and Kosei Toyoda (3-1-1, 1) take a clear win over Masahiko Jikan (2-3). The closer contests saw Yu Konomura (3-2-1) take a split decision over Takuya Fujioka (3-4-1, 1), the previously win-less Tsuyoshi Hashimoto (1-2-1) take a majority decision win over the debuting Kenji Miyata (0-1) and Daisuke Takeichi (2-3, 1) take a majority decision win over Ryuji Hayashi (1-4).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
This past Monday we saw a new OPBF Light Middleweight champion crowned as the heavy handed and always fun to watch Koji Numata (22-7-2, 17) scored a 10th round TKO over the tough Takehiro Shimokawara (19-9-3, 6). The bout had been competitive through the first 8 rounds but Numata seemed to be breaking down Shimokawara and in round 10 a body shot finished off Shimokawara. This bout, a rematch of a draw from earlier this year, wasn't quite as good as their first bout but it did see Numata becoming a 2-time champion having previously held the Japanese Welterweight crown.

As well as the main event we had a trio of notable support contests. The quickest of those was over in just 109 seconds as Shoma Fukumoto (4-1, 4) quickly saw off Petchdum Manopchaygym (0-3) in double quick fashion. It's a shame this was a huge mismatch but it wasn't helped by the fact Petchdum had given away almost 10lbs against the very heavy handed Fukumoto.

It didn't take significantly longer for Cobra Suwa (14-11-2, 7) to see off the debuting, though horribly matched, Surin Sor Vorapin (0-1) who lasted just 208 seconds. The bout was Suwa's second win this year though he did suffer back to back losses in 2013 and needed some obvious confidence rebuilding.

The third of the key support bouts saw Yusuke Suzuki (5-1, 3) defeating experienced Filipino Monico Laurente (24-12, 5) with an 8 round decision. Suzuki has now scored a trio of successive victories following his sole loss, to the excellent Yusaku Kuga, and now looks like to be moved up the OPBF rankings. There is no rush for the 25 year old Japanese southpaw but wins like this are certainly notable. Sadly for Laurente this is his 4th loss in 5 fights and his 5th loss in 7 bouts suggesting that his career is coming to a screeching halt.

The undercard of this show featured 3 low level bouts,only 1 of which went the distance. The distance bout saw Daisuke Yamada (1-0) narrowly over-coming fellow debutant Koji Kannami (0-1) with a majority decision. For those who enjoy knockouts the rest of the under-card was more to their liking with Shogo Kitsukawa (1-0, 1) scoring a 75 second blow out of Jo Kato (0-1) in an all debutant Welterweight clash and Gen Kawasaki (2-1, 2) took 90 seconds to see off Kazunori Kakishima (2-4).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)