This past Sunday was a busy day for Asian boxing with a trio of shows.

Fukuoka, Japan
The most notable of the shows, at least in our eyes, was in Fukuoka where a number of interesting fighters were in action.

One of those was world ranked Minimumweight Takumi Sakae (13-0, 8) who recovered from a knockdown to defeat Munehito Kijima (6-8-1). The knockdown, which came early, was a real surprise given Kijima's lack of power but it was just a flash one and Sakae recovered excellent to score his own knockdown en route to a clear win.

Another of those notable fighters was Welterweight puncher Yuki Beppu (10-0, 10) who continued his destructive form as he stopped Indonesian Yasmet Star (3-5, 3) in just 70 seconds. Beppu, who won Rookie of the Year last year, dropped Star twice with Star staying down for the 10 count after the second knockdown.

A third notable fighter was former amateur stand out Yuki Konami (1-0, 1), who we had previously referred to as Yuki Koha, who made very light work of Indonesian visitor Rian Cobra (2-2, 1).

It wasn't all good for unbeaten fighters however with Kotaro Ishibashi (3-1-2, 3) suffering his first loss courtesy of an opening round TKO defeat at the hands of Shota Aikawa (5-4-2, 2).

The under-card here featured 5 bouts. One of those saw Daichi Ono (4-2, 3) score an opening round KO win against Kazuya Fukai (0-1), it took Ryusuke Ushihara (1-0-1, 1) two rounds to see off Kazuhiro Ota (0-3) and Ryuji Kido (2-0, 2) scoring a 4th round KO of Takahiro Maeda (1-3, 1). In bouts that went the distance Takeshi Oishi (2-4) took a razor thin win over 17 year old Tomoyuki Saita (0-1) whilst in an all debutant bout Yutaka Hasegawa (1-0) took a decision over Yuta Otsubo (0-1).

Osaka, Japan
Another Japanese show took place in Osaka.

In the most significant bout of the show fans saw former WBC Flyweight champion Sonny Boy Jaro (42-13-5, 20) score his second win in Japan as he stopped Shota Kawaguchi (18-7-1, 8) in a second meeting between the two men. They had fought, earlier this year, with Jaro taking a narrow win in a bout that he failed to make weight for, this time however there was no controversy with Kawaguchi simply being beaten up with the Filipino.

Although Jaro was the name that many fight fans would have heard of, he wasn't the main event. Instead that honour was given to Shingo Kawamura (11-2-1, 6) who scored a 7th round TKO win against Shun Ishibashi (10-18-1, 4). This was Kawamura's second win since he was beaten by Kongthara KKP in what was, at the time, an eye opening win for the Thai.

The only 8 rounds on the show saw Kazuhiro Nishitani (15-3-1, 7) take a decision win against Junki Oura (6-7, 2). Interesting since the result it's been announced that Nishitani will challenge for the Japanese Lightweight title in December against Kota Tokunaga in what will be seen as a huge step up on class.

The only female bout on the card saw Shione Ogata (5-5, 1) defeat Cesar Manopgym (0-1) with a 4th round TKO, in a bout scheduled to be the show's only 6 rounder.

The undercard here consisted of 5 bouts all scheduled for, and all going, the 4 round distance. These included a debut win for Naoki Minami (1-0), who beat Kodai Yamamoto (0-1) and Daichi Kato (1-0) who kicked off his career with a decision win over Masanari Iwane (1-6). It wasn't all good news for debutants however as Yuya Watanabe (0-1) suffered a debut defeat to Koichi Sumiya (1-2-1) and Riki Kakazu (0-1) was beaten by Daiki Tomita (3-0, 1). The only opening bout on this card not to feature a debutant saw Ryuji Hayashi (3-4) beat Yasutaka Yamaguchi (0-4).

Metro Manila, Philippines
As well as the action in Japan there was also a show in the Philippines.

The main event here was a relative mismatch that saw Monico Laurente (27-12, 6) defeat Prell Tupaz (8-29-5, 1) with a 10 round decision. Another 10 round decision saw Glenn Suminguit (17-2, 9) take a majority win over Edison Berwela (13-32-8, 3).

In an 8 rounder Wilbert Berondo (8-0, 3) scored a decision over Roy Lagrada (3-11-1, 3) to continue his perfect record.

Much of this card was scheduled for 6 rounders. One of those bouts saw Rene Patilano (14-1-2, 7) take a decision over journeyman Arjet Caballes (6-35-5, 3), another decision saw Jetlee Formentera (5-0, 1) defeat the tough Dodoy Alapormina (1-25) with a split decision.

In the other 6 rounders Raymond Yanong (5-1, 4) scored a stoppage win over Daffy Dempo (3-5, 2) whilst another saw Marlon Paniamogan (4-0, 3) stop Diover Mangayaay (1-8-1).

In 4 rounders Arvin Yuroung (4-0, 1) beat Jerry Kalaw (0-3) whilst Bryan Ascano (5-0-1, 1) fought to a draw with Robin Dingcong (1-3-2, 1).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Fukuoka, Japan
This past Sunday wasn't a busy day for boxing fans but there was a small card in Japan with a few fighters of note involved in action.

One of the main bouts saw the world ranked Takumi Sakae (12-0, 8) swiftly see off the over-matched Hengky Elleuw (3-3, 3) in the 2nd round. Unfortunately for Elleuw this was his third stoppage loss in as many bouts outside of his homeland. For Sakae it's time to step up and we really hope he is viewing a possible title fight later in the year because bouts like this are a complete waste of his time.

Another of the main bouts saw former Japanese and OPBF title challenger Yosuke Kirima (21-4-2, 14) stop Yasmet Star (1-3, 1) in the 3rd round. Kirima is now on a 4-fight winning streak following an opening round loss to Tadashi Yuba back in August 2013, though those wins have come against limited foes, as seen here.

A third notable bout saw 2014 All Japan Rookie of the Year Yuki Beppu (9-0, 9) scoring a 4th round TKO against Thai visitor Topform Sithsaithong (0-1). Beppu, a genuinely promising Welterweight hopeful, is now due a step up and a chance to face someone who will test him. Despite continuing his KO run Beppu did go beyond 3 rounds for the first time in his career.

On the under-card there were 3 other bouts. One of those saw the experienced Takuro Habu (12-10-2, 4) score a 6th round TKO again Hideaki Yamaji (5-8, 2). This was Yamaji's 5th stoppage loss and his 4th loss in 5 bouts.

Another under-card bout saw Yusuke Yamanouchi (7-2-1, 3) score a 4th round KO against the previously unbeaten Rian Cobra (1-1, 1), another Indonesian visitor, who was fighting for the first time in 2 years.

The only bout that went the distance here was a female bout that saw former OPBF and WBA title challenger Satomi Nishimura (8-2, 1) take a clear win over Mika Iwakawa (3-3-1, 1). This was Nishimura's first win since being stopped in a WBA Atomweight title bout by Ayaka Miyao.

This past Sunday was a busy day in Asia though it was also a low profile day with numerous relatively low level fights taking place across the continent.

Fukuoka, Japan
Arguably the most significant bout was the main even on a show from Fukuoka. Sadly even that bout wasn't hugely important in the grand scale of things, despite featuring the world ranked and unbeaten Takumi Sakae (10-0, 6) who made light work of Thai novice Thephasuthin Chaiyonggym (0-1) who was stopped part way through round 3. Sakae, currently ranked in the top 15 by the WBA, is a long way from any sort of a title fight though getting experience will help him develop his already solid looking skills.

Unfortunately whilst the main event was somewhat interesting, due to Sakae's ranking, many of the cards other bouts were poor even for a small domestic card. In fact the two chief support bouts lasted just 3 rounds with one of those, the bout between Keisuke Nakayama (6-1-1, 3) and Poomsak Saknarong (0-0-1) ending as a technical draw after just 95 seconds. The other saw the experienced Tatsuya Miyamoto (11-12-1, 7) stopping Thailand's Nichao Chaiyonggym (0-2) in the second round of their contest. 

On the undercard we had much more competitive action, including a narrow decision win for the wonderfully named J Soul Meada (2-1-2, 1) who defeated Satoru Okuma (2-3, 1) and we also saw Naoki Yamashita (2-1) just squeak past Ryo Ota (1-1, 1). Not all the undercard bouts went the distance however and one of those bouts saw Kotaro Ishibashi (3-0, 3) scoring his third stoppage as a professional by stopping Taichi Yoshizato (1-3, 1) in the second round. The early finish saw Daichi Ono (3-1, 2) stopping J Soul Shogo (1-3, 1), who we assume is the brother of J Soul Maeda.

Aichi, Japan
A second Japanese card took place in Aichi and on paper this was probably a better card over all, though was still nothing to write home about.

The main event on this card saw Daiki Koide (22-7-2, 9), pictured, taking a 6th round technical decision win over the heavy handed Tatsuya Miyazaki (8-6-1, 8). The bout was close prior to being stopped with less than a minute of the 6th round left and although it was a win for Koide it is hard to see where he goes next with it being very clear that he's a long way from winning even a domestic title. In the chief support bout fans saw Ryosuke Maruki (8-3-1, 6) take a relatively straight forward win over the light hitting Anwar Solihin (8-9-2, 1) who was stopped for the 3rd time in his career.

This shows sole 6 rounder saw Kosuke Mizuno (7-4-2, 2) scoring a clear decision over Kazuki Fukakura (7-8-2, 3).

The bulk of this card was the 4 rounders which made up and surprisingly 5 of the 6 bouts were close, with some of them being nip and touch either way. The only clear cut bout saw the unbeaten Tatsuharu Okura (1-0-1, 1) scoring an opening round blow out against the "stop of be stopped" Hayato Takeshima (3-4, 3) who has yet to go beyond 2 rounds in his 7 bouts.

Of the decisions on the undercard the closest results in a split decision draw between Tomohiro Shimokata (0-1-1) and the still unbeaten Shin Tomita (1-0-2). The draw was one of 3 razor thin bouts which also included a narrow win for debutant Takumi Oshima (1-0) who took a majority decision over Naoki Masukawa (1-2) and another majority decision with saw Ryo Shibata (2-1, 1) take a win over Yuto Nakamura (1-1, 1).

In more decisive decisions fans saw Tameji Ito (2-1, 1) squeak past Kazuaki Okada (3-3, 2), in a bout scored 38-37 by all 3 judges, and they saw Yudai Imada (1-0-1) take a clear decision over Takashi Miyaki (0-2) to record his first career win.

Metro Manila, Philippines
Outside of Japan there was also a show in the Philippines with 9 more bouts, including one or two which featured some interesting fighters.

The most interesting of those men in action was the unbeaten Randy Braga (14-0-1, 3) who took a clear decision win over Benjie Suganob (8-3-1, 4). Braga scored a knockdown in round 5 and was the clear winner after 10 rounds despite some notable variation in the scorecards which ranged from 96-92 to 98-92. Braga's win came in one of two 10 rounders with the other one being a notable win for Rene Patilano (12-1-2, 6) who out pointed the world ranked Lionel Legada (12-7-1, 5). Legada, who some how had a world ranking coming in to this bout, was deducted 2 points that effectively denied him a majority decision draw. Prior to his loss Legada was ranked #10 by the WBC at Light Flyweight and we now have to suspect he will vanish from the rankings, like he should have done several fights ago.

Of the three bouts scheduled for 8 rounds we saw just one completing the schedule as Diomel Diocos (5-1-2, 2) narrowly over-came Jonathan Francisco (6-4, 2) with a split decision win. The Diocos/Francisco bout was a start contrast to the 8 rounder between Glenn Suminguit (14-2, 8) and Roy Lagrada (3-8-1, 3) which lasted just 2 minutes before Suminguit saw off his over-matched foe. The other 8 rounder saw Lloyd Jardeliza (6-1-3, 5) scoring a late stoppage over Eric Panza (6-3-1, 1) in what was, on paper, a really good looking bout.

The only 6 rounder on this show saw the unbeaten Roderick Flores (4-0-1, 2) scoring a 5th round KO against Ryan Medez (1-3-2). Whilst the victory was expected no one would have expected the fight to have started the way it did, with both men being dropped in the opening round.

The card also had a trio of 4 rounders. These included an impressive opening round victory for debutant Abraham Bullagay (1-0, 1) who stopped Oscar Lim (0-2) in 103 seconds. The other two bouts scheduled for 4 both went the scheduled and saw Robin Langres (3-0, 1) defeat Remus Orcada (2-2-2), with a knockdown by Langres in the opening round being the difference on two of the cards, and a clear win for the debuting Bryan Ascano (1-0) who defeated fellow debutant Morito Ceplacios (0-1) with a shut out over 4 rounds.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Some days in boxing are important with out making international headlines and that's exactly what happened this past Sunday with several notable bouts, only one of which would have made a dent on the international boxing circuit.

Grozny, Russia
The one major bout that we had a turgid Heavyweight affair as an out of shape Ruslan Chagaev (33-2-1, 20) fought a lackadaisical Fres Oquendo (37-8, 24). Chagaev managed to claim a victory in the end, taking a majority decision, but not with out some cheer leading from the Chechen president who offered words of encouragement toe Chagaev between rounds. Unfortunately not only was the bout an awful contest in terms of a spectacle but it was made even worse by the fact it was dressed up as a world title fight and now, as a result , Chagaev is a 2-time Heavyweight world champion.

On paper this should be a great result for Asian boxing, after all the Uzbek born Chagaev is now a 2-time Heavyweight champion from Asia, but in all honesty it's yet more proof of the mess the Heavyweight division sits in.

Whilst Chagaev was less than impressive there were some good wins for several unbeaten fighters on the show. They included Viskhan Murzabekov (9-0, 4) who managed to take a solid 10 round victory over Igor Faniyan (14-9-2, 7) to claim the WBC Youth Intercontinental Welterweight title. Murzabekov, dubbed "Little Tyson" looked like an interesting prospect with his victory but there is still a lot to work on.

Another unbeaten prospect on this show was Apti Davtaev (7-0, 7) who scored a sensationally quick blow out against Oleksandr Nesterenko (9-3, 4), needing just 12 seconds to score the win. A third unbeaten man in action here was Movsur Yusupov (7-0, 3) who took a 6 round decision over the more experienced Aliaksandr Sushchyts (16-3-1, 9).

In other bouts of note for ourselves Arbi Madaev (5-1-1, 2) managed to take a 5th round TKO over Chupaki Chipindi (13-7, 8) whilst Apti Ustarkhanov (6-1-2, 1) beat the win-less Gor Akopyan (0-5) in a 6 rounder.

Osaka, Japan
Whilst the results in Grozny may have received some international attention the results from Japan probably didn't despite filling 3 shows of fights.

The most notable bout on those shows took place in Osaka as former title challenger Kenichi Horikawa (26-13-1, 4) over-came fellow Japanese ranked fighter Naoki Matsumoto (9-8-2, 2) in an 8 round majority decision. The bout may not decide the next Japanese Minimumweight title challenger but Horikawa will certainly be hoping to get another chance at the title following this victory.

On the same show there was also two very interesting bouts involving unbeaten Japanese prospects. One of those saw the hard hitting Ryuto Kyoguchi (12-0-1, 9) taking out Kenta Takahashi (10-8-3, 3) in the 5th round of their scheduled 8 rounder. The other saw Tatsuya Ikemizu (11-0, 4) defeating recent Japanese Bantamweight title challenger Satoshi Niwa (15-18-3, 2) in a very competitive 8 rounder. We did expect Niwa to give Ikemizu a tough test and although the veteran came up short he used his experience to great effect to really push Ikemizu.

Lower down the card fans saw an upset as Tomonori Ota (6-4, 4) stopped Shoya Kawashimo (6-3, 1) in 4 rounds and Kosei Toyoda (2-1-1, 1) over-came the limited Kenji Nakayoshi (2-3, 1) in a 4 round decision.

Fukuoka, Japan
On a second show in Japan fans got to see 8 bouts in Fukuoka. The main event of this show saw  the experienced Yosuke Kirima (19-4-2, 13) defeat the previously unbeaten Takahito Osaka (6-1-2, 4) via an 8 round majority decision. It was competitive though Kirima managed to come out on top by relying on his extra experience.

It wasn't all bad news for unbeaten fighters and Takumi Sakae (9-0, 5) extended his winning run with an 8 round unanimous decision over Indonesian visitor Boy Tanto (6-15, 9). Sakae went 8 rounds for the first time though we tend to feel he needs more bouts at this level before he steps up to thinking about title action.

In a female bout Satomi Nishimura (7-1, 1) took an 8 round victory over Thailand's win-less Saosukhothai Por Preechagym (0-2). The bout did feature some competitive rounds though was a clear victory for Nishimura on the cards as she bounced back from her sole loss, a stoppage to Saemi Hanagata more than a year a go.

Oddly a good chunk of this card resulted in draws, in fact 3 of the 8 bouts saw no winner rendered. These draws included a 6 round unanimous draw for the experienced Yoshihiko Matsuo (17-5-6, 3) who fought a very even bout with Tatsuya Miyamoto (10-12-1, 6). In 4 rounders J Soul Maeda (1-1-2, 1) fought to a split draw with Bejita Ishikawa (2-6-2, 1) whilst the unbeaten Kotaro Ishibashi (2-0-1, 2) fought to a draw with Tsunehiko Aitoku (1-2-1).

In the opening 4 rounders of the show Satoshi Yamamichi (3-3, 3) wiped out Hikaru Nagamine (0-2) at the end of the second round and Yusuke Yamanouchi (5-1-1, 2) took a decision over Kazuyuki Hirayama (4-3-1, 3).

Aichi, Japan
The third Japanese show as at the Aioi Hall in Aichi. 

This show had a surprisingly competitive main event which saw Yuji Shimizu (16-8-1, 1) narrowly out point Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi (1-4) in an 8 round split decision. On paper it was a mismatch with Yamaguchi ending a 7 year break from the ring though it turned out being incredibly tight with Shimizu being pushed all the way.

In another surprisingly competitive contest Shinji Takayama (22-3, 11) narrowly over-came Shota Okuda (4-2, 2) in a 6 rounder. In all honesty much of the card was competitive with many of the 4 rounders on the card being nip and tuck. These included a draw between Reiko Sugiyama (3-4-3, 2) and the unbeaten Takuya Mizuno (2-0-1, 2) and another draw in a bout between Akihisa Buma (1-0-1, 1) and Kyosuke Takaoka (2-3-1, 1).

Another of the 4 rounders saw Daiki Yamamoto (1-0) winning a majority decision over fellow debutant Takashi Kagamihara (0-1) whilst Kenta Matsui (4-2, 1) took a split over Hiroki Yajima (1-5, 1).

Not all the bouts were competitive however and we saw 3 stoppages on the show. One of those saw the hard hitting Daisuke Hayakawa (7-2, 6) taking out the usually durable Kenta Sugimoto (6-7-1) in the 5th round of a scheduled 6 rounds and another saw Shuichi Ingaki (1-1, 1) blast out Tatsuya Shibayama (0-2) inside a round.  

The most notable stoppage however was scored by the promising Genki Hanai (2-0, 2) who made light work of Thailand's Fahrung Porsuwangym (0-1) with a second round KO. Although Hanai's opponent seems to be unproven Hanai himself has been in 2 bouts scheduled for 6 rounds and was a former amateur standout. From what we understand the plans are huge for this youngster and hopefully we'll see him in with a decent opponent sooner rather than later.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp was taken during the Horikawa bout)