Tokyo, Japan The Dangan series of shows had their second show this week as we had a relatively underwhelming card saved by the star power of the main event fighter and of a man retiring a somewhat legendary career on the Japanese domestic scene. The retiree was former 5-weight Japanese national champion Tadashi Yuba who took part in his retirement ceremony, which was certainly an emotional event. Tadashi had a short public sparring session with Japanese and OPBF Middleweight champion Akio Shibata before taking to the microphone and making an emotional speech abut how his career had ended but his life in boxing hadn't. The speech mentioned that Yuba will now focus on opening a gym to give back to the sport which has been such a big part of his life. As well as Yuba's retirement ceremony the show also featured 8 fights across a variety of levels. At the lowest level was a 4 rounder which saw Shogo Kitsukawa (2-0, 2) score a final round stoppage against Shota Irei (1-2, 1). Stepping up slightly there was a trio of 5 round bouts. The most competitive of those, at least in terms of result, was a 5 round majority draw between Salsa Iwabuchi (4-4-1, 3) and Shogo Sumitomo (5-7-1, 4) in what was a really well matched bout. Another well matched 5 rounder saw Manato Homna (8-3, 4) just over-come Tsubasa Matsudo (4-10-4, 1) in a razor thin contest. The remaining 5 round contest saw Ryosuke Takami (6-1, 5) show off his power as he flattened Shintaro Nakamura (5-4-1, 2) in the 3rd round. In a female bout fans saw Yunoka Furukawa (5-1-2, 3) inflict the loss loss on Aiko Yamagishi (4-1-1, 2), with a 4th round stoppage in a scheduled 6 rounder. The only other 6 rounder saw Kazuyuki Nakayama (5-4-2, 1) just edge his way past Naoto Takanashi (4-9-2, 3) with a 6 round majority decision. On the chief support bout here saw Kenta Nakagawa (9-2, 7) score a 3rd round TKO over domestic journeyman Tahashi Nishiura (8-13-1, 1), who has now been stopped 8 times in just 22 bouts. In the main bout of the card fans saw former Japanese champion Shinya Iwabuchi (24-5, 20) finally finish off Venezuelan visitor Luis Araguayan (11-8, 6). Araguayan proved to be much better than his record indicated and at times he made Iwabuchi look silly due to his fantastic movement. In the end however Iwabuchi was simply too heavy handed as he managed to stop his visiting foe in the 7th round. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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This past Thursday saw shows in both Japan and the Philippines and there was plenty of notable action. Tokyo, Japan The biggest of the two shows came from Tokyo where we had a bit of everything, from prospects looking to emerge through the ranks to veterans looking to win titles and continue their careers. We'll start with that title bout which saw the 37 year Filipino fighter Dennis Laurente (49-5-5, 30) claim the OPBF Light Middleweight title with a 6th round TKO of Japan's 37 year old Tadashi Yuba (46-10-2, 33). Yuba, a former 5-weight Japanese champion, looked his age here as Laurente stormed inside and broke him up before knocking him down where the referee stopped the bout. For Yuba this could be the end whilst Laurente has become a 2-weight OPBF champion winning this belt 13 years after winning the OPBF Lightweight title. In a Heavyweight clash fans saw Japanese champion Kyotaro Fujimoto (11-1, 6) widely out point Frenchman David Radeff (5-9-2, 2). Fujimoto did a number on Radeff but couldn't quite finish off the Frenchman who was returning to Japan following a previous loss to Nobuhiro Ishida and it now seems likely that we will see a much talked about rematch between Ishida and Fujimoto. In a highly competitive contest former Japanese title challenger Kinshiro Usui (22-4, 10) beat form Japanese champion Masaaki Serie (25-8, 10) with a split decision. For Usui it was a great win given he has been out of the ring for over 3 years though unfortunately for Serie t continues his downward spiral which has now seen him losing 3 of his last 4 and retirement does look likely for him given his current down turn. In an interesting 8 rounder at Flyweight fans saw Yuta Matsuo (7-1-1, 4) take a hard fought decision over Yota Hori (12-3-2, 7). Another 8 rounder at Flyweight saw Katsunori Nagamine (10-0, 6) continue his unbeaten run by clearly defeating Ryuto Oho (6-2-1, 2). The promising Nagamine had been inactive for over a year coming into this bout though still had no problems building on his 9 fight winning streak. In the opening bout on the show fans saw Yoshia Tome (1-1-1) score his first win as he took a narrow victory over Shunya Saito (0-1-1). Iloilo, Philippines In the Philippines got their own show though it was at a much lower level than the card in Japan. In the main event here fans saw Juren Labordo (14-2, 9) score a 7th round TKO against compatriot Jaymart Toyco (14-7, 10) whilst in the co-feature the unbeaten Arjan Canillas (9-0-2, 7) scored a 3rd round TKO over Roy Sumugat (9-11-1, 3). In the sole 6 rounder Geo Santisima (4-2, 3) scored an opening round KO against John Rey Melligen (3-3, 2). On the undercard we saw a trio of fighters remain unbeaten. One of those was Virgel Vitor (2-0, 1) who took a decision over the win-less Jimboy Rosales (0-2), another of those was Melvin Jerusalem (3-0, 2) who stopped the debuting Jomar Ceneta (0-1) in the second round, the other bout saw Gerard Suico (2-0, 2) score an opening round KO over Ronald Ombing (0-1) (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Tokyo, Japan The only card of note this Wednesday was Dangan 108, a showed dubbed "The Battle". The shows name came from the incredibly intriguing main event between the very heavy handed Masao Nakamura (18-2, 18) and the light hitting but very impressive skills Masayuki Ito (15-0-1, 6), the bout dubbed "The battle". Sadly the bout turned out to be less of a "battle" and more of an interesting but controlled bout with Ito's jab being the key punch in the contest. Nakamura managed to shine in some rounds but few would have seriously believed he had done enough to win with Ito taking a close but well deserved victory. If you're wanting to see the video of this fight, we have it here. Nakamura, a former OPBF Super Featherweight title holder, was one of two former champions on the show with the other being former 5-weight Japanese national champion Tadashi Yuba (46-9-2, 33). Unlike Nakamura we didn't see any struggles from Yuba who took care of Filipino foe Dondon Lapuz (19-46-7, 7) inside a round. Yuba finished the bout with a pair of solid body shots which folded Lapuz up and kept him down for the count. Again we've managed to get the video of the fight here. The third bout from the top of the show saw once beaten Filipino Michael Dasmarinas (17-1, 10) defeat the more experienced Hayato Kimura (21-7, 15) with an 8 round unanimous decision. For Kimura, who has also been known as "Big Yoo" and Joon-In Yoo, this is a major set back and one that looks even worse considering just how 1-sided the bout was. For Dasmarinas this is a win that should help push him towards an OPBF title bout even if he's not quite yet ready to face the likes of Ryosuke Iwasa. On the performance he gave however it's fair to say that Dasmarinas has a lot of potential and hopefully someone will nature it. Again, for those wanting to watch the fight, we did manage to get the video of the bout which can be seen here. Whilst the main event didn't live up to expectation it wasn't the only domestic bout of interest and another was the Super Bantamweight bout between Yusaku Kuga (9-1-1,6) and Koji Aoki (16-8-2, 6). The men both entered the bout ranked in the top 15 domestically though Kuga was far superior to his Aoki who looked out of his depth from early on and stopped Aoki in round 6. This is the third win for Kuga since his draw with the hotly tipped Naoto Uebayashi and we'd really be shocked if the 23 year old Kuga doesn't go a long way before his career is over. This is yet another bout we've managed to track down in terms of video footage, which can be viewed here. Prior to the 4 bouts mentioned above there were 4 undercard bouts. These began with a disappointing technical draw between Kazuya Nomura (0-2-1) and the debuting Koji Tomaru (0-0-1). The bout wasn't just disappointing in terms of result but in terms of actual fight as well with the ending coming after just 27 seconds! In a Featherweight bout fought early on the show fans had the chance to see Kei Iwahara (3-1, 2) stop the debuting Tsuyoshi Nakajima (0-1) in the 4th round of their bout. In another under-card bout we saw another early finish as the unbeaten Ryu Ueda (2-0, 2) took out fellow novice Masayuki Kondo (1-1, 1) in just 42 seconds! Amazingly we've also managed to track down the video of this quick blow out win for Ueda. The sole 6 rounder on the show, also one of the under-card bouts, saw Japanese-Brazilian Cristiano Aoqui (8-3-2, 4) take a clear decision over Quaye Peter (5-5-2, 3). Peter, originally from Ghana, is now 0-4-1 in his last 5 bouts suggesting that his career really looks like it's hit a brick wall after starting 5-1-1. (Image, of Kuga and Aoki, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) It's rare for a Tuesday to be a big day in boxing but this past Tuesday was a major day in Asia with a trio of title fights and two major shows. Bangkok, Thailand The first of the shows was in Thailand and televised, at least partly, on Thai Channel 7. Not only was the Thai card the first show to get under-way but in terms of significance it also had the "biggest" bout of the day as WBA "interim" Flyweight champion Yodmongkol Vor Saengthep (34-2, 20) defended his title for the first time. Yodmongkol had genuinely impressed when he won the title ripping it from the hands of Japan's exciting but limited Koki Eto. Unfortunately though this time he disappointed us. Fighting against Takuya Kogawa (22-4, 13) we knew this was set to be a good fight and proved every bit as good as anticipated though it was Kogawa making much of the action and bringing the fight with amazing combinations and bundles of energy. Unfortunately for him however the judges weren't impressed and it was Yodmongkol, pictured, who controversially retained his title. Whilst Kogawa had impressed there was some suggestion after the fight that he's considering retirement. We're really hoping that he doesn't as he proved himself here and he belongs in other top fights amongst some of the best at 112. Another man who impressed on the show was Thai novice Palangpol CP Freshmart (2-0, 2) who scored a hugely impressive stoppage over Indonesia's experienced Jack Amisa (20-30-2, 14). Whilst Amisa is beatable and has regularly lost through his career he rarely gets stopped and very rarely gets beaten by such a novice. Excellent win by Palangpol. The only other bout on the show that we have the result for saw former world title challenger Panomroonglek Kaiyanghadaogym (39-2, 22) stopping Rick Paciones (6-17-2, 3) in 3 rounds. Tokyo, Japan Over in Japan we had two national fights on an excellent domestic show. The first of those title fights saw the excellent and unbeaten Hiroki Okada (8-0, 7) managing to over-come his toughest so far. Okada, fighting against Masayoshi Kotake (9-8-1, 5), was taken the distance for the first time though did more than enough to secure the Japanese Light Welterweight title. The second title fight saw a slight upset as Tadashi Yuba (45-9-2, 32) lost his Japanese Light Middleweight title to Takayuki Hosokawa (25-10-3, 8) via a majority decision. Yuba, aged 37, now seems likely to retire and hang up his gloves after a memorable and historic career. As well as the title fights there were a further 5 bouts on the card. These included a 6th round KO victory for Masahiro Ishida (14-5-2, 8) who saw off the over-matched Ryuta Wakamatsu (9-9, 6). Ishida's victory was one of two stoppages on the card alongside one scored by Hideto Miyoshi (7-2-1, 5) who stopped Hitoshi Ando (4-6-1, 3). The biggest name on the under-card was Dai Iwai (14-3-1, 5) who managed to win a competitive 8 round decision over Shogo Ishikawa (10-6, 3). Another victory on the under-card was scored by Yoshiyuki Takabayashi (7-3, 3) who managed to score a 5 round victory over Ryuto Araya (5-2-1). The only other bout on the show show saw Mitsumasa Takahashi (8-4-1, 2) fighting to a draw with Takeshi Goda (7-2-1, 2). (Picture courtesy of WBAnews.com) |
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