Antofagasta, Chile
The final bout of the night, at least for us, was also the most important and came in Chile where former female world champion Tenkai Tsunami (21-11, 10) came up well short against local favourite Carolina Rodriguez (15-0, 1). The bout, fought in front of a really raucous crowd, was more competitive than the score cards suggest but Rodriguez was the clear winner a genuinely enjoyable 10 round tussle for Rodriguez's IBF female Bantamweight title. Sadly for Tsunami this was her 8th loss in 12 bouts though given her ability and style it'll certainly not be the end of her career.

Metro Manila, Philippines
Prior to the world title fight there had been a number of bouts in the Philippines where the only Asian based action took place.

This show had a trio of title bouts with the most immediately significant of them being a contest for the WBC International Flyweight title. This bout saw the under-rated Renz Rosia (12-3, 6) claim a TKO win against Renan Trongco (17-5, 10). This bout ended with Trongco badly cut and the referee calling a halt to the bout. Prior to the stoppage Trongco, who was world ranked by the WBC, had been deducted a point for low blows.

Another title fight saw the unbeaten Jheritz Chavez (5-0-2, 3) over-come Japanese visitor Tatsuya Yanagi (11-3, 4) to claim the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council Lightweight title. The bout was competitive through out and although this was Chavez's 3rd loss in 4 bouts he is just 25 and will bounce back, and is better than his record suggests. For Chavez we're still unsure on how good he is, his record looks good on paper but but it does seem like he either gets a stoppage or really struggles.

The remaining title fight saw unbeaten teenager Romel Oliveros (6-0-1, 1) take a close decision win over veteran Edison Berwela (12-31-8, 3) to claim the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council Super Flyweight title. This was an ultra-competitive bout that all 3 judges scored 96-94 to Oliveros who claimed his most significant win to date.

In a 6 rounder under-card bout fans saw the unbeaten Rolly Sumalpong (9-0-1, 4) out point journeyman Lowell Saguisa (7-21, 3), in a very clear win for the unbeaten man. Another 6 rounder saw Vergel Nebran (14-3-1, 9) claim a 1 round TKO win against Ryan Soliveres (4-26-1, 1), with Soliveres retiring at the end of the first round.

In a competitive 4 rounder Glenn Medura (2-1-1) narrowly out pointed Rex Lagane (0-1). Another 4 rounder was an all debutant contest that saw Meljun Penafil (1-0, 1) score a 3rd round TKO win against Ercypin Baltar (0-1)

Tokyo, Japan
This past Monday saw Japanese fans enjoying a really good looking card at the Korakuen Hall. The card, on paper, had 2 really good looking match ups, a return to action for a female fighter that we are big fans off, and a couple of interesting under-card bouts. It wasn't a mega show but it was a very solid looking international card.

In the main event fans saw former Japanese Lightweight champion Akihiro Kondo (21-5-1, 10) get his career back on track after a surprise loss last December to Tomoya Yamada. Kondo was facing former “world” title challenger Jimrex Jaca (39-8-4, 22), a popular Filipino puncher. On paper it was a brilliant match up and we expected it to be a test between Kondo's chin and Jaca's vicious power. Instead it turned out that Kondo was the man with the danger fists and forced a 4th round stoppage a very exciting and enthralling contest.

Surprisingly after the bout Kondo announced that he would be back in the ring on April 22nd to fight another Filipino visitor, Ricky Sismundo, in what looks like another excellent match up.

The other notable match up didn't go as well for Japan with the much touted Kenta Onjo (4-1, 3) being surprisingly stopped by the shop worn and smaller Filipino Jonathan Baat (28-6-3, 14) in the 5th round of their bout. Onjo had been touted as a future title holder but was taking a big step up in class, it was however seen as smart step up with Baat having fought much of his career at Super Bantamweight before moving up to Super Featherweight for this bout. It appears with the shackles of weight off his shoulders Baat was more a more durable fighter and found a home for his right hands which took their toll on the Japanese youngster.

In a horrible mismatch fans saw former female world champion Tenkai Tsunami (21-10, 10) score a 2nd round victory over Thai visitor Rathsada Sor Worasin (0-5). We are Tsunami fans and understand she has been in very over the last few years so don't begrudge her too much for an easy bout like this, but it was a predictable outcome.

Another good looking bout, at least on paper, saw Yukiya Hanabusa (8-2-2, 2) score a surprisingly early stoppage against Yudai Arai (6-2-3, 3). On paper this was a well matched bout but Hanabusa managed to see off Arai in just the second round.

We saw more stoppages in the couple of scheduled 6 rounders. The quickest of these saw Minoru Iizuka (5-2, 5) score a 111 second victory over Masaharu Hanaka (4-2-1, 2). The other 6 rounder went in to the 2nd round as Naoaki Kumagai (5-2, 3) over-came Hitoshi Ando (4-9-1, 3).

The only 4 rounder on this card saw Fumiya Naoi (2-0) defeat the struggling Seiji Honma (1-5) with a 4 round decision.


(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Some days we don't have any Asian action "at home" but still we can have very interesting days away from home and this past Saturday was one such day

Sonora, Mexico
In Puerto Penasco fans got to see two thrilling fights involving Filipino's unfortunately though both were defeated by world class Mexican fighters.

The first of the Filipino's in action was former world title challenger John Mark Apolinario (17-4-3, 4) who was fighting for the first time since his failed WBA Bantamweight title fight last year. Apolinario was taking on the always fun to watch Hernan "Tyson" Marquez (37-4, 26) and the bout, like most of Marquez's, was thrilling with action from both men in a very enjoyable encounter. Marquez was rightfully the winner on the cards but it was competitive through out with the Filipino showing impressive defensive skills, a smart jab and real heart to fight back. As for Marquez this was a perfect fight for him to shake the cobwebs following his loss last year to Giovani Segura.

The second Filipino on the show was Richie Mepranum (27-4-1, 6) who was fighting for the 4th time in Mexico. Mepranum was fighting in his second world title fight and easily the biggest bout of his career as he took on the exceptional Juan Francisco Estrada (26-2, 19) who retained his WBA "super" and WBO Flyweight titles. Mepranum tried to fight back against the more skilled, stronger and over-all much better Estrada but was out gunned and out skilled through out before retiring in his corner after round 9. Up to that bout it had been a gradual beating by Estrada who was simply too good.

Having already mentioned Giovani Segura it's worth noting that we now believe Segura will be fighting Estrada next. Hopefully the winner of that bout will be facing the winner of Akira Yaegashi's bout with Roman Gonzalez in a bout to find out who really is the best Flyweight on the planet.

Yorkshire, England
Whilst Mepranum came up short in his title effort we did see a new Asian fighter crowned as a champion, though a rather odd one. What we saw was Zhanat Zhakiyanov (22-2, 14) claiming the European Bantamweight title, despite being from Kazakhstan. Zhakiyanov claimed the title in eye catching fashion with a 1-punch KO over Frenchman Karim Guerfi (20-3, 5). Guerfi came into this fight as the defending champion, having beaten Stephane Jamoye for the title. With Jamoye having had a recent world title fight, being soundly beaten by Shinsuke Yamanaka, it may well make sense that Zhakiyanov deserves one.

This was the 18th straight victory for Zhakiyanov and his 9th straight stoppage.

Distrito Federal, Mexico
A second Mexican show was held in Mexico City where we again had two Asian's in action.

The first here was female fighter Tenkai Tsunami (20-10, 9) who looked to try and avenge her 2013 loss to the very talented Jessica "Kika" Chavez (20-3-3, 4). Unfortunately for Tsunami, who put up a really great effort, she was unable to do enough to take home victory. The two women put on an absolute barn burner and both gave it their all but at the end of the day the judges all felt Chavez was the winner with scores of 97-95,97-93,97-94.

Unfortunately for Tsunami this was her 6th loss in Mexico and although she's very talented her record no longer shows it. We're hoping that these losses won't hinder her in the future though we know that she may become part of the "Who needs her club?"

On the same show the huge punching Julio Ceja (27-1, 25) recorded a 10th round stoppage as he defended his WBC silver Bantamweight title. Ceja was fighting against the brave but out-gunned Ranel Suco (15-8-2, 6) of the Philippines. Suco was dropped twice though his heart kept him in the bout until he ended up on the ropes taking a flurry of big shots from the Mexican and the referee was forced to call a halt to the fight.

Ceja seems to have his eyes firmly trained on WBC champion Shinsuke Yamanaka and in all honesty that would be a great fight. In fact Ceja against Zhakiyanov to decide on a future Yamanaka's challenger would fantastic.

(Image courtesy of Pepe Rodriguez)

The biggest fights of this weekend are all on Saturday, no argument there, though Friday did have it's share of interesting bouts in Asia with a card in Thailand and a card in Japan.

Bangkok, Thailand
It was the card in Bangkok, Thailand that was first to take place and was televised, in it's entirety, on Thai Channel 7.

Originally the only bout we knew was taking place was that of former world champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (34-5-1, 15), pictured, who was defending his WBC Asian Boxing Council Bantamweight title for the third time. Unfortunately Suriyan was in with an over-matched foe in the form of Albert Alcoy (14-18-7, 4) who stood no chance. Alcoy tried as he hard as he could though he was quickly despatched by the talented Suriyan who is almost certainly looking for another world title fight later this year.

Although Suriyan was the "known bout" on the card it wasn't the show's opener. That honour instead fell to the unbeaten, though entirely untested, Kongfah Nakornluang (11-0, 5) who put in a dull and uninspired performance to out-point the awfully limited Safwan Lombok (1-23-1). We're wondering what Narkornluang Promotions are treating Kongfah with kiddy gloves, they are certainly doing him a dis-service and he really should be facing more notable opponents by now than fighters like Safwan.

Whilst Suriyan is a former world champion their was also a current world champion on the show in the form of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (26-3-1, 24) who scored a straight forward stay busy victory over the debuting Den Nattapol Gym (0-1) inside a round. The bout was a mismatch though it was clearly used to keep Srisaket in shape and draw extra attention to the card with the current WBC Super Flyweight champion having some "name value". This was amazingly Srisaket's third victory of the year and it seems he is just staying active whilst details of his WBC world title defense with Carlos Cuadras are finalised.

As well as the three bouts already mentioned the show had a pair of much lesser bouts. These saw Yodpichai Sithsaithong (10-11, 4) stopping recent world title challenger  Lookrak Kiatmungmee (7-6, 4) inside a round, much quicker than the then WBC Minimumweight champion Xiong Zhao Zhong, and Chatchai Sithsaithong (2-5, 1) scoring his first KO as he defeated the debuting Fahpetchnoi Muangsima (0-1).

Tokyo, Japan
As well as the show in Thailand there was also a small card at the Korakuen Hall in Japan. The show, which featured 6 bouts in total had several  interesting bouts.

The first of the bouts we have the result for saw the hard hitting Kenta Nakagawa (7-2, 5) managing stop the limited, though powerful, Takeshi Hagiwara (7-8-3, 6) in just 3 rounds. This was just the second stoppage loss in Hagiwara's 18 fight career though it was just the second time he had faced someone with real power and he's probably not as tough as some would expect considering the low quality he's been in the ring with.

The second bout we had the result for was from the bout involving Yuya Sugizaki (19-9-1, 6) and Kazuya Soma (6-5-2, 5). On paper it was a match up between Sugizaki's experienced and Soma's power and in the case the experience was the big difference between the two fighters with Sugizaki taking a unanimous decision over this big punching bit limited foe.

It was in show's 5th overall bout that we actuallyhad the most important contest as former female world champion Tenkai Tsunami (20-9, 9) successfully claimed the previously vacant OPBF female Bantamweight title. Tsunami, fighting for the second time this year, used her experience and toughness to see off the hard hitting but limited Honey Katsumata (6-3, 6). Katsumata, who is a big puncher, had never fought near the level of Tsunami and the difference told as Katsumata was stopped in round 7, the first time she had gone beyond 6 rounds.

The show closed out with an upset as Tsukasa Saito (18-3, 13) was stopped at the hands of the supposedly light hitting Hirotsugu Yamamoto (17-9-2, 3). The bout, which was in the final round of a scheduled 8, was just 22 seconds from going to the scorecards.

On the undercard Shoji Ebisawa (5-1) managed to out point the limited Keita Kurihara (3-3, 3) over 4 rounds whilst novice Daisuke Uchikawa (1-1-1, 1) picked up his first victory courtesy of a 3rd TKO over the debuting Kimihiro Suda (0-1).

California, USA
In the US two Russian's were in action. The first of those was Khabir Suleymanov (16-4, 6) who was easily defeated by the unbeaten Roman Morales (18-0, 9). Suleymanov was dropped numerous times and looked incredibly poor in terms of skills, balance and durability and he did relatively well to actually see out the final bell.

The second Russian in action was Rustam Nugaev (27-6-1, 17) who was very fortunate to defeat Mexico's Marvin Quintero (25-5, 21). Quintero seemed to win the first 4 rounds though unfortunately was forced to retire between rounds 4 and 5 with an injured hand. Prior to the stoppage it appeared that Quintero was bossing the fight with movement, combinations and accurate punching and Nugaev will certainly feel relieved that he had this lucky break, excuse the pun

Estonia, Kohtla-Järve
It wasn't all bad for Russian's on the road however and in Estonia, of all places, the very promising Aik Shakhnazaryan (11-0, 4) scored his biggest win. The Russian, fighting against Uzbekistan's Alisher Rahimov (25-3, 12) became the first man to stop Rahimov who was stopped just a minute in to round 2. Amazingly good win for the man known as "The Humanoid".

(Photo courtesy of boxrec.com)