Sonora, Mexico
The biggest bout of the day for us, and also the final bout of the day, came from Mexico where Filipino slugger Warlito Parrenas (24-6-1, 21) was incredibly unlucky not to claim the WBO “interim” Super Flyweight title. The heavy handed Filipino fighter fought to a split draw with Mexican fighter David Carmona (19-2-5, 8) who was very lucky that he was the home fighter, anywhere outside of Mexico he'd have lost a clear decision.

New South Wales, Australia
In New South Wales we had mixed fortunes for Asian fighters.

There was good for a couple of Filipino fights with Jonel Alibio (19-18-5, 11) scoring a show upset win over Nathan Wright (6-1, 3) to claim a regional IBO title in what was a genuine show. The other Filipino was regular upset king Joebert Delos Reyes (14-5-1, 11), who managed to take a split decision win over Darragh Foley (5-1, 3).

Thai's on this card however were much less fortunate with Pramool Boonpok (1-16-1) being beaten by the unbeaten Tony Senior (7-0, 5*) whilst Mongkolchai Lookmuangkanch (12-4, 7) was beaten by TJ Doheny (12-0, 7).

Tokyo, Japan
There wasn't much action actually in Asia with just a single Japanese card, and one that was rather disappointing in all honesty.

Originally the show was to be headlined by a Japanese Light Welterweight title fight though that fell through in late June when the unbeaten Hiroki Okada suffered an injury to his hand. As a result of Okada's injury the main event became a Japanese Welterweight showdown between the under-rated Daisuke Sakamoto (10-8-2, 5) and Ryoji Tanaka (8-4-1, 2). On paper it was easy to fancy Tanaka but the two men were levels apart at times with Sakamoto getting a very well deserved decision victory over his foe.

The only stoppage of the show came in what was the shows chief support bout and saw Super Bantamweight hopeful Yuta Nakagawa (15-4-1, 9) score a 5th round TKO against the usually durable Ryoji Okahata (9-11-5, 1). This was Okahata's 3rd stoppage loss and the 29 year old really should think about his future. As for Nakagawa his future appears to be heading towards a title fight in the near future.

One bout that went the distance, to some minor surprise, was a bout between Shuhei Tsuchiya (18-4, 15) and Kazuya Soma (7-8, 6). Tsuchiya, once viewed as one of the most promising punchers in Japan, did enough to claim a competitive 8 round decision here though, unfortunately, it does seem like this is going to be his level going forward then 28 year old won't go as far as he had hoped. For Soma this is a third straight loss and the 35 year old likely needs to consider walking away from the sport.

Another 8 rounder saw Yosuke Fujihara (15-4, 4) take a very clear decision over Yukinori Hisanaga (16-7-2, 9), in what look like a very competitive bout on paper. Fujihara used his reach to his advantage through out and always seemed a step ahead of his foe. Interestingly boxrec.com had these two men listed almost 600 places apart suggesting the result was a major upset, even though it didn't look a big upset on paper, though it was a mild surprise.

The remaining bouts on the card were both 4 rounders. These saw Yuki Nagano (4-2, 3) take his first decision win as he over-came Toshiro Tarumi (3-1-3, 2), in what a monster upset according to the boxrec.com rankings, whilst the other saw Hiroki Hosoya (2-1, 1) over-come Takuya Kihashi (2-3, 1)


(Image courtesy of Zanfer Promotciones)

Wow, wasn't Friday a busy day with shows in Thailand, Japan and Russia...and here we go with all the results!

Nonthaburi, Thailand
Today there was two Thai cards, one on channel 7 and one on channel 3. Of those cards it was the Channel 3 one that caught the attention with former world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (30-4-1, 27) in action as he was defending his WBC Asia Boxing Council Super Flyweight title. Srisaket, who was listed on some sources as fighting Mateo Handig, scored his 27th stoppage as he over-came Filipino Bobby Concepcion (11-6-1, 5). The bout was straight forward enough for Srisaket who is now hoping to secure a rematch with WBC Super Flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras.

On the same card in Thailand we saw the exciting but limited Kongfah Nakornluang (17-0, 10) score a second round stoppage over Indonesian visitor, and professional loser, Safwan Lombok (1-27-1). Kongfah started the bout by boxing but in the second round went into fight mode and swiftly saw off the Indonesian fighter. Although Kongfah against us wondering just how far he will go we've got to admit we're going to love following his career and for the second time this year we were really entertaining by this young and exciting Thai warrior.

Ayutthaya, Thailand
On the channel 7 show fans saw Palangpol CP Freshmart (6-1, 4) in the main event as he defended his WBA Asia title against former foe Heri Amol (34-20-4, 14). Palangpol took a decision over the Indonesian veteran though still didn't look ready to take the next step up, we suspect that Palangpol will take a big fight next year and if he wins that he'll be moved towards a world title contest though it's hard to see him beating any of the top Light Flyweights at the moment.

Thai veteran Noknoi Sitthiprasert (51-4, 30) scored his 30th stoppage victory, as he over-came Dechai PetchasemfourGym (0-1) in just 2 rounds.

Other bouts on this card saw Petch Sor Chitpattana (28-0, 18) extend his winning run with a decision over Petchchumpol Sor Visetkit (4-3, 2) whilst Ratchasak KKP (25-3-1, 11) over-came the tough Joel Kwong (1-7, 1) in what was a second meeting between the two men.

Tokyo, Japan
At the Korakuen Hall, the holy land of Japanese boxing, there was 8 domestic bouts with several of them being of genuine interest.

The main event saw Japanese based Filipino Ricky Sismundo (27-8-1, 12) narrowly over-come heavy handed Japanese fighter Shuhei Tsuchiya (16-4, 14) with an 8 round split decision. Although the bout went the distance it certainly wasn't a dull one with Tsuchiya down twice and Susmundo down once in a great contest between two men who knew just how much this bout meant to their careers. For Tsuchiya this is his second loss of the year, following a stoppage loss to Leonardo Zappavigna, and seems to hint that he's never going to be a domestic champion however he will always be a lot of fun to watch. For Sismundo this win should move him towards a Japanese title fight.

In an 8 support bout Yuya Sugizaki (20-9-1, 6) managed to take a fifth round technical decision over Filipino Gabriel Royo (9-11-2, 8), who has now lost 4 in a row. Royo is a heavy handed fighter but is clumsy and it showed against the more skilled Sugizaki. Another 8 rounder saw Yuta Nakagawa (14-4-1, 8) take a clear 8 round win over Yuta Saito (7-5-2, 6) in a Bantamweight contest. The first of the 4 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds was the only one that saw a knockout as Kazuya Nakano (8-3, 7) lived up to his reputation as a heavy handed fighter and stopped Takahisa Nayuki (11-12, 2) in the 5th round of their bout with an eye catching shot that immediately caused the referee to wave off the bout.

On the under-card there was one man we were particularly interested in, Koki Koshikawa (3-0, 1). Koshikawa is tipped as a prospect with real potential having been a stand out amateur and he showed that class as he dominated Ryoji Miyagi (7-5-1, 4) to take a 1-sided decision win.

Another unbeaten fighter in action was Hiroyasu Shiga (4-0, 3) scored a 4th round TKO victory over Takuo Watanabe (2-8-3), an impressive victory considering that Watanbe has got a reputation as being somewhat durable. Another unbeaten man extending his run was Daisuke Yamada (2-0, 1) who scored a second round KO against Kosuke Tsunoda (1-3). In the opening bout Takuya Kurata (1-2, 1) defeated Yuta Ouchi (0-1), also by second round TKO.

Moscow, Russia
We had another show in Russia as the capital city, Moscow, played host to a show that got more interest than many Russian shows have in recent years.

The card began simple enough with two debutants scoring low profile wins. One of those was Dmitry Bivol (1-0, 1) who scored a 6th round TKO against the limited but experienced Jorge Rodriguez Olivera (25-11, 12) the other debutant was Heavyweight hopeful Sergey Kuzmin (1-0, 1) who blasted out Nicholas Buule (3-1, 3).

Another of the undercard bouts saw the very promising Sergey Lipinets (5-0, 4) score and 8th round knockout against Filipino visitor Ernie Sanchez (14-6-1, 5) in a bout that saw the unbeaten Russian claim the WBC International silver Light Welterweight title, Lipinets's first title as a professional boxer. Another man in title action was Andrey Klimov (19-1, 9) who took a very wide decision over Gabino Cota (16-3-1, 14) to defend his WBO Inter-Continental Super Featherweight title.

One of the more interesting under-card bouts saw Olympic champion, and former amateur stand out, Egor Mekhontsev (7-0, 6) take hid first decision win as he completely shut out Joey Vegas (17-10-1, 10) in an 8 round bout. Mekhontsev will likely feel disappointed that he didn't score the stoppage here but will certainly feel happy to get some professional rounds under his belt given that his first 6 opponents lasted a combined 16 rounds.

One man who didn't need to go any rounds was the heavy handed Eduard Troyanovsky (20-0, 17) who scored a beautiful knockout out as he took out Jose Agustin Feria (16-2-1, 10) inside a round. Another man who scored an opening round KO was Cruiserweight crusher Dmitry Kudryashov (16-0, 16) who took just 22 seconds, yes you read that correctly, to wipe out former world champion Juan Carlos Gomez (55-4-0-1, 40). Gomez might be well beyond his prime but no one would have expected this from Kudryashov who is now ready for a top contender.

Another Cruiserweight contest saw Rakhim Chakhkiev (21-1, 16) make relatively light work of Brazilian Light Heavyweight Jackson Junior (15-2, 13) with a fourth round TKO. Although the bout was relatively straight forward for the big punching Russian he did seem to have problems the few times Junior did catch him.

Towards the top of the card, in fact in the chief support slow, we ended up with a contest that many dubbed a freakshow. The bout, supposedly an exhibition, saw Mickey Rourke (6-0-2-1, 4), yes the Hollywood actor, score a knockout against the frankly hapless Elliot Seymour (1-9-0-1, 1). Seymour may well have put in the worst performance of a professional fighter this year and fought such an incredibly tame effort that it appears he was the actor pretending to be a boxer. For what it's worth we're unsure if this bout will feature on either man's record though we've noted it as a “no contest” on both records.

In the main event of the card we saw former world champions colliding as Russian slugger Ruslan Provodnikov (24-3, 17) took on Mexican veteran Jose Luis Castillo (66-13-1, 57). The two men, from completely different eras, were never on an even keel as Provodnikov took control of the bout in the opening round and was never really under any sort of pressure before Castillo was eventually stopped in round 5.

Barnaul, Russia
A second Russian card came from Barnual and attracted much less attention from the boxing world.

Theunder-card hear features 3 bouts with one of those being an all debutant 4 rounder that saw Mahir Pashayev (1-0) out point Abbas Turgunbaev (0-1). The show's sole upset came in an 8 rounder as Vladyslav Yeromenko (2-1) out pointed Artem Merzlikin (5-1-1, 3).

The show's sole 10 round bout saw the unbeaten Yury Kashinsky (5-0, 5) continue his stoppage streak as he stopped Yuriy Barashian (27-8, 18) in the 7th round

The main event here saw PABA Light Middleweight champion Pavel Mamontov (10-1-2, 1) retain his title with a 12 round decision win over Oscar Roberto Medina (24-7-2, 9).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

A champion really should defend their belts as often as they can. What is the point in being viewed as the best in your particular area or field if you don't prove it, right? Well this past Monday saw 4 champions all defending their belts in successful fashion on a relatively busy start to the week.

Tokyo, Japan
Of the 4 titles up for grabs 2 of them were fought for in Japan and although both were national titles they were probably the most significant, and competitive, bouts of the day.

The first of the title fights saw the unbeaten power-puncher Hiroki Okada (9-0, 7) successfully defending his Japanese Light Welterweight title for he first time with a very hard fought decision victory over Shamgar Koichi (18-6-1, 11). Koichi, challenging for a belt for the first time in his career, brought the pressure and Okada was forced to answer back in what was a genuinely enthralling contest between two well matched fighters in terms of both skills and styles. For Okada, who was cut late, this was his toughest bout and his best win though for Koichi it was another set back following previous losses to the likes of Shinya Iwabuchi.

Following the Light Welterweight clash we then moved up for a Japanese Welterweight clash between reigning champion Suyon Takayama (21-1, 7) and Koshinmaru Saito (20-6-1, 11). The two men were meeting for the second time and many may be calling for an immediate rematch given how competitive this was. Takayama had, in the first meeting, claimed the vacant Japanese title in a competitive but comfortable win but this time around things were anything but comfortable for Takayama who narrowly kept his title with a majority decision. Sadly Takayama's struggles to retain his belt here like take any lustre off a meeting between him and Yoshihiro Kamegai in what actually looked a tasty bout going in to this contest.

As well as the title bouts Japanese fans also got treat to 5 under-card bouts, two of which featured recognisable names. One of those "names" was the heavy handed and very fun to watch Shuhei Tsuchiya (16-3, 14) who made light work of Thai visitor Fonluang Sor Singyu (6-5, 4). Tsuchiya, fighting for the first time since his entertaining loss to Leonardo Zappavigna in Australia, needed just 103 seconds to get rid of Fonluang. The other was former OPBF Super Bantamweight champion Yukinori Oguni (13-1, 4) who scored his second successive stoppage as he over-came Thai debutant Ryan Sor Tanacho (0-1) in 4 rounds.

In more competitive action Keita Nakano (11-9-3, 2) scored an 8 round split decision over Masahito Igawa (12-8-1, 4) and Tonko Nakagawa (12-6-1, 4) took a 6 round majority decision over the more experienced Junnosuke Nagayasu (12-11-1, 3).

The one remaining bout on this card saw Junki Kobayashi (1-0, 1) claiming a 3rd round TKO victory over Eiji Miyamoto (0-1) in an all debutant contest.

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand it was the PABA interim Super Flyweight title that was being fought for. The belt, just like the Japanese titles, stayed where it was at the start of the day as Nop Kratingdaenggym (9-0, 1) retained with a 6th round technical decision against the highly experienced Hendrik Barongsay (26-18-3, 15). Nop looked sharp from the off before a headclash caused a sadly early ending to the bout.

Laguna, Philippines
In the Philippines fans got the chance to see a Filipino national title being fought for as Benezer Alolod (15-5-5, 5) retained his GAB Light Flyweight with a 5th round stoppage over Jomar Fajardo (14-5-1, 7). Alolod is now 3-0-1 (3) following his stoppage loss to Nkosinathi Joyi and has now lost just once in his last 16 bouts, a great run for a man who started his career with 3 losses in his first 5 bouts.

We only saw 2 other early finishes on this card. One of those was an opening round blow out for Jonel Alibio (17-18-5, 9) who swiftly took card of the usually tough Desson Cag-ong (14-15, 8). The loss for Cag-ong was his quickest in 29 fights and saw him suffer his first stoppage loss to a fellow Filipino having previous been stopped by a trio of Japanese fighters including Takashi Miura. The other stoppage on this show saw Lester Abutan (6-2-2, 3) defeating Dexter Dimaculangan (3-5-5, 1) in the 4th round of their scheduled 8 rounder.

One of the best wins on the card was for the unbeaten Justo Bornilla (5-0-2) who over-came the experienced Ronald Postrano (7-20-2, 3) in a very 1-sided bout. Postrano was down in round 3 and later suffered a cut from a clash of heads leaving him bloody and beaten. Aged 18 we'd suggest keeping an eye on the young Bornilla even if he does seem to lack power so far in his career. 

In the only uncompetitive 6 rounder Jesame Dela Cerna (5-2-3, 1) took a clear win over Jay-Ar Diama (1-4-4). Thankfully the other two 6 rounders were much more competitive and saw Menard Abila (5-1-4, 1) taking a split decision over Fidel Cuyno (2-4-2) and Marlon Arcilla (5-2, 1) taking a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Crisanto Contemprato (2-1-1, 1).

The only 4 rounder on the show saw the debuting Benjie Baron (1-0) get off to the perfect start with a win over Alberto Pentecostes (0-3). The win, by decision, saw Baron dropping Pentecostes early before effectively shutting down the win-less fighter.


(Image courtesy of Boxingnews.jp)

Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
At the start of this year one Japanese KO artist was having hardcore fans around the world talking with genuine excitement. Unfortunately 2013 wasn't a year to remember for him however as he suffered back-back stoppage losses, now it seems however that Shuhei Tsuchiya (15-2, 13) has ended the year on a high.

The hard hitting fighter began 2013 with a perfect record of 14-0 (12) he seemed set to break out in 2013 and challenge for some form of title by the end of the year. Unfortunately Tsuchiya ran in to the experienced Shoji Kawase and was stopped in the 9th round by Kawase, who himself had come unstuck in a Japanese title fight. Thinking about getting back to winning ways quickly Tsuchiya was upset by super-prospect Masayoshi Nakatani. It seemed that Tsuchiya was going to be the forgotten man of 2013, that was until yesterday when the hard hitting slugger stopped the over-matched Kazutaka Takakuwa (9-8, 2).

Tsuchiya started fast and dropped Takakuwa in the opening round, he then went out to finish things in the second. With his aggression and willingness to load up on the right it was clear he wanted to take Takakuwa head clean off. Instead however he needed to settle for a TKO stoppage via a cut.

Of course whilst we loved Tsuchiya's return that wasn't the only bout on the show. The show actually featured 7 bouts in total including 2 other bouts which were scheduled for 8 rounds. Surprisingly, considering how easy Tsuchiya made things look, they both went the distance and actually both wet to majority decisions.

From the 2 majority decisions one was a slight shock as Takahisa Nayuki (11-9, 2) narrowly out pointed Hitoshi Ichiba (7-6-1, 3). It was far from a major upset but Nayukoi had won just 2 of his previous 6 contests. The other 8 rounder saw a more expected winner as Nobuyuki Shindo (15-2, 5) out pointed Daisuke Sakamoto (7-8-1, 3). Although Shindo got the win he needs to be worried about how close this was. Sure wee knew Sakamoto was better than his record indicated but he was coming to the ring after more than a year out and was moving up in weight, neither of which was he really made to pay for.

The highest of the undercard bouts was, much like the two support bouts, a close one as Shingo Koike (6-2, 2) narrowly over-came Ryosuke Ono (5-8-2) by split decision. This 6 rounder saw the judges all agreeing that it was razor thin, though 2 of the 58-57 cards favoured Koike giving him the split win.

On the rest of the undercard there was another close decision as Masayuki Ichikawa (3-0, 1) took a majority, yes there was 3 on the card, over Akihiro Yamanaka (1-2). Thankfully this was the only close 4 rounder as Kazuyuki Nakayama (4-4-1, 1) clearly out-pointed Yamato Kikuchi (2-5-2) and the debuting Tadashi Kamiyama (1-0, 1) stopped fellow debutant Tesshin Okada (0-1) with just 22 seconds of round 4 gone.