This past Friday was a hectic day in Asian boxing with a televised card in Thailand and a couple of notable shows in Japan

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand fans had a number of bouts televised on Channel 7 from Bangkok. We won't pretend these were anything too special but there was a notable main event as well as several prospects.

The stand out name in action was Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym (29-1-2, 14) who claim the WBO Oriental Flyweight title with a 12th round TKO over the stubborn Haji Juma (14-7-5, 7). Juma, who began his career 0-2-5 wasn't expected to put up a fight against Kwanpichit but appeared to fancy his own chances and gave the Thai some real questions to answer in a worth while main event.

In a less worth while bout fans saw the promising Rakniran Muadransarakam (4-0, 3) score a quick win over the debuting Kriengkrai Kiatchansing (0-1). This was Rakniran's 3rd successive stoppage following a 6 round decision win over the experienced Saichon Or Ounsuwon on his debut last October and although this was over quickly it was highly entertaining. Another relatively quick win was scored by Saentanong Onesongchaigym (5-0, 2) who over-came Petchpookradung Mor Rattanabandit (0-1) in the second round of their bout and scored one of the most hilarious KO's we've seen this year

The only bout between men to go the distance saw Thewa Onesongchaigym (6-2, 1) take a 6 round decision over debutant Somkiet Sor Sompotgym (0-1). This was accompanied by two female bouts which also went the distances. One of these saw novice Petcharas Mor Krungthepthonburi (2-0) extend her perfect record with a decision over Kularbgoen Sor Visetkit (0-1) whilst the other saw Anrey Onesongchaigym (7-1-1, 3) take a decision over the win-less Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-2).

Osaka, Japan
Fans in Japan had an interesting looking card at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, the venue formerly known as the Bodymaker Colosseum.

In the main event of this show the fans saw female fighter Tamao Ozawa (8-2, 2) score the most significant win over her career and take a split decision over Terumi Nuki (6-1, 3) to claim the OPBF female Super Flyweight title. The bout was close on all cards but Ozawa was the deserving winner and used that little bit of extra experience to over-come Nuki who will come back stronger from this loss.

Although the female title bout was the main event it was just one of 4 notable bouts on the show. Another saw former world title challenger Hiroyuki Hisataka (23-13-1, 10) score a career saving decision win over Keisuke Nakayama (6-2-1, 3). Hisataka had lost his previous 3 bouts, including a world title fight to the then WBO Super Flyweight champion Omar Andres Narvaez, and seemed to accept 4 straight losses would be the end. This however was a clear win for the “Sexy Soldier” who scarcely lost a round.

Another notable name on this show was former OPBF Featherweight champion Hiroshige Osawa (27-3-4, 16) who managed to see off Indonesian veteran Arief Blader (20-17-1, 7) in the 9th round of their scheduled 10 round bout. This was Osawa's 4th straight stoppage win following a year long suspension by the JBC for taking part in a bout in the Philippines that they were unhappy about. Notable this was Blader's 4th straigth defeat but the first time he has been stopped since being taken out in 2 rounds by talented Pinoy prospect Mark Bernaldez almost 2 years ago.

The other bout saw the previously unbeaten Takeru Kamikubo (8-1, 5) lose his unbeaten record inside 90 seconds as he was dropped 3 times by former Japanese title challenger Atsushi Aburada (10-7, 6). Kamikubo, who had impressed us last year, really seemed unable to recover after the first knockdown and it'll be a big wake up call to the promising, but still very young, fighter.

Lower down on this card we saw the unbeaten Shoma Okamoto (5-0) extend his perfect record with a 4 round decision victory over Kazuki Kimura (3-4, 1) whilst Takaaki Kanai (4-3, 2) scored an opening round TKO against Nobuya Nakazawa (2-2, 2).

Tokyo, Japan
A second Japanese show was a Rookie of the Year qualifying show which tool place at the Korakuen Hall. This card featured a total of 12 bouts and saw a lot of action, ranging from very competitive to complete blow outs.

At Welterweight Toshinori Kikuchi (2-1, 2) scored a 31 second blow out against the previously unbeaten Hiroki Watanabe (1-1, 1), this was the shortest bout of the show, though one of 3 bouts that failed to last a minute.

In a Lightweight bout Ryusei Yabe (4-0-1, 3) scored a 4th round TKO against the win-less Hiroshi Higuchi (0-2). At Super Featherweight we saw another another 4th round TKO as Mamoru Suzuki (1-1, 1) defeated Hyuga Aoki (1-1) and claimed his first win.

More 4th round TKO's occurred at Featherweight where Shogo Sakai (3-2-1, 3) stopped Isami Komikado (1-5, 1) and Kanehiro Nakagawa (2-1, 2) over-came Tetsuya Hirokawa (2-5, 2).

The other bouts that failed to go beyond a minute were both at Super Bantamweight. One of those bouts lasted 37 seconds before resulting in a technical draw, leaving both Masayoshi Yamasaki (1-1-1) and Yuta Itagaki (3-2-2, 1) feeling frustrated. The other lasted 54 seconds as Wataru Yokoyama (2-3, 2) blew away Shuntaro Ouchi (1-3).

At Flyweight we saw a 90 second blow away win by Shunya Nagaoka (2-2, 1), who blew away Shuhei Takahashi (2-3, 1). A more competitive bout saw Jun Ishimoto (4-3, 2) claim a split decision win over the previously unbeaten Daisuke Yamada (2-1, 1). The remaining Flyweight bout saw Norris Yano (3-1-1) take a clear decision win over Alan Shimizu (1-1).

At Light Flyweight Fumiya Akao (3-0-1, 1) claim a split decision over Akira Kokubo (1-5-3) whilst Satoru Todaka (3-1-1, 1) scored a clear decision over Naoki Akagi (2-6-2, 1).


(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

The year of 2014 ended in a bang with 2 major cards on the final day of the year. In some ways they were very frustrating cards for westerners who struggled to get live streams of them but on the other they further proved what we all knew, boxing fans can never have enough. Hopefully the struggles to get streams will help Western TV realise what we already know, there is a huge demand to watch fights from the east.

Osaka, Japan
Of the two cards the most interesting came from Osaka where we had several bouts of note, including one bout that really was a bout that fans wanted to watch, and that ended up being a little special in some ways. Rather notably it was also the last bout of the year.

That bout saw Cuban boxer-come-TV exile Guillermo Rigondeaux (15-0, 10) successfully defending his WBA “super” and WBO Super Bantamweight titles in what was an entertaining, up and down contest. Rigondeaux was fighting against Japan's Hisashi Amagasa (28-5-2, 19), a man best known for being a very lanky Featherweight, the OPBF Featherweight champion in fact. The fight saw the challenger set off as he meant to go on and really tried to take the fight to Rigondeaux who was simply too good for him early on however 2 knockdowns by Amagasa in round 7 suddenly got everyone excited and the biggest upset looked on, at least for a few moments. In round 9 it was Amagasa who was dropped and over the following 2 rounds his face began to fall apart which what looks to have been a broken jaw and a broken orbital bone. Those disfiguring injuries eventually forced him to retire from the bout. For Amagasa this performance is likely to have made him an over-night name for the hardcore international fans whilst Rigondeaux's victory proved that he can be in exciting, entertaining and vicious bouts as well as the proving he is vulnerable.

Another world title bout on this show saw Katsunari Takayama (28-7-0-1, 11) create his own moment of history as he became the first Japanese fighter to claim a version of all 4 major titles. This happened when he won the WBO Minimumweight, along with the IBF version of the belt, to complete a career grandslam. Takayama won both belts when he forced the referee to save the brave but exhausted and Go Odaira (11-4-3, 1), who suffered the first stoppage of his career.

A third bout featuring a world class fighter on this show saw former 2-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka (16-1, 10) score a sensational KO against former WBA interim Flyweight champion Jean Piero Perez (20-8-1, 14). For almost 5 rounds Perez gave as good as he got in what was a free swinging effort but a single right hand in the final minute of round 5 dropped him hard and never managed to recover.

In a Japanese title fight fans saw the talented Sho Ishida (18-0, 10) successfully defend the Super Flyweight title for the first time with a 5th round TKO over the over-matched Masato Morisaki (9-4-1, 5).

The undercard portion of this show was a bit of a farce if we're being honest with 6 bouts which saw Japanese fighters battling against Thai opposition. The Thai's failed to win a fight, in fact only 1 of them managed to see out the schedule. The one that did was Rannada Sor Vorasing (0-1) who was shut out by boxer-model Tomomi Takano (7-1, 5) in one of two female contests. The other female contest was a blow out as Terumi Nuki (6-0, 3) blasted away Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-1) in just 107 seconds.

Nuki's quick blow out was one of 3 opening round blow outs on this undercard which also saw Ryuto Maekawa (10-0, 6) take care of Chanachai Sor Siamchai (0-2) in 133 seconds and the brilliantly promising Takeru Kamikubo (8-0, 5) wipe out Phetsaifar Lukmaelamperigym (0-6) in 158 seconds.

Another mismatch saw former world champion Ryo Miyazaki (22-1-3, 13) take care of Kajonsak Nattapolgym (0-1) in round 3 whilst another 3rd round victory saw Takahiro Yamamoto (15-3, 12) take care of Kamraiyok Or Wandavee (0-1).

Tokyo, Japan
The other show took place in Tokyo where we had a trio of world title bouts which all had their own story to tell.

The most interesting of those stories was that of the heavy handed Takashi Uchiyama (22-0-1, 18) who retained his WBA Super Featherweight title with a 9th round retirement victory over Argentina's game Israel Perez (27-3-1, 16). The bout was Uchiyama's first in exactly a year and saw him looking the boss in what was an interesting contest with a man who had come to win. The bout saw Perez try and win but eventually he retired as Uchiyama began to shake off the ring rust and go for the kill. From what we understand a post-fight story here revolved around the scoring, particularly by Gustavo Padilla who is reported to have had the bout even at 85-85, a frankly puzzling score card, though not his worst of the night...

...Padilla's worst score came in the WBA Super Flyweight title fight that saw Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13) retain his title with a split decision draw against Norberto Jimenez (20-8-4, 10). The bout, scored a split draw, saw Padilla handing in a ridiculous 115-112 card in favour of Jimenez, a card so ridiculous that someone needs to look into him, especially given what he did in the Uchiyama/Perez bout. This contest was close, and a draw wasn't an awful result, though we did feel Kono deserved the win, however that card is just wrong. In the ring Jimenez used his movement and speed to keep Kono from unloading on him and exposed some flaws in the champions armour however he failed to really capitalise.

The other world title bout on this card saw a new champion being crowned as Ryoichi Taguchi (21-2-1, 8), a man previously best known for taking Naoya Inoue the distance, scored a clear 12 round win over Peruvian Alberto Rossel (32-9-0-1, 13) to claim the WBA Light Flyweight title. Taguchi started slowly but ran out a clear winner, dropping Rossel twice to cement his win.

The under-card here was much more interesting than the under-card in Osaka with bouts that weren't all mismatches and blow outs. One of the few stoppages saw Chikashi Hayashizaki (6-4-1, 2) score an unexpected stoppage of Takahiro Araki (5-4, 3), in the 4th round of a scheduled 6, whilst another stoppage on this card saw Minoru Iizuka (4-2, 4) score a 3rd round KO over the previously unbeaten Ryusei Nakajima (2-1, 1), in a scheduled 6 rounder.

The most competitive of the undercard bouts resulted in a 6 round split decision draw between Masayasu Nakamura (4-1-1, 4) and Takahiro Kinoshita (5-3-2, 2) in a bout that saw all 3 cards looking very similar to each other. Another very competitive but saw Shun Shimazaki (6-6-1) narrowly defeat Hisasho Owada (5-9-1) in another 6 rounder.

In the 4 rounders on the card fans saw the debuting Kazumasa Akagi (1-0) score a narrow decision win over Yukihiro Kaneko (0-3) whilst Kazuhiro Baba (1-2) claimed his first win with a razor thin win over Kazuki Aso (0-2).

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Sunday was a hectic day in Asian boxing with numerous cards held on the same day including the final set of Rookie of the Year regional finals which have now set up the All-Japan finals and interesting card in Korea.

Osaka, Japan
The biggest show this Sunday was in Japan as fans saw the second of the Rookie of the Year semi final shows. The show, which decided the west representative at this year All-Japan Rookie, featured 12 bouts and was really great throughout.

The winner in the Minimumweight division was Reiya Konishi (6-0, 4) who narrowly over-came Jun Takigawa (5-1, 3) in a battle of unbeaten men. The bout was genuinely close through out with Konishi taking the decision with scores of 47-45, 46-45 and 46-45. The win for Konishi secures him a fight with Yuki Kubo in the All-Japan final. At Light Flyweight Seita Ogido (6-1-1, 1) fought to a draw with the still unbeaten Seigo Yuri Akui (2-0-1). Although the bout was a 4 round split decision draw we've been told that Ogido qualified for the All-Japan final who will now find himself up against Kenji Ono in that contest.

In the Flyweight contest the unbeaten Shun Kosaka (9-0) took a very clear decision win over the experienced but limited Naoki Shoda (4-8-1). The bout was scored 50-44 by all 3 judges as Kosaka progressed to the All-Japan final where he will fight against Kenya Yamashita in a very interesting battle of unbeaten men. The bout at Super Flyweight was won by the very promising Ioka gym hopeful Masayoshi Hashizume (6-0, 4) who made surprisingly light work of the previously unbeaten Eita Sakurai (4-1, 1) with a win after 2 just minutes of the bout. The win netted Hashizume a place in the All Japan final against Shogo Yonenaga and also earned him the MVP for the card adding to his West Japan MVP award. We've got to be honest and say that this kid looks a little bit special and we think he'll prove that in his upcoming bout.

At Bantamweight there was another stoppage as Keisuke Tabuchi (8-1-2, 5) took the unbeaten record of Morihisa Iju (5-1, 4) courtesy of a 2nd round TKO. Tabuchi's All Japam Rookie of the Year final bout will see him up against Ryohei Takahashi in what should be a thrilling encounter given how good Takahashi looked in his East Japan Rookie of the Year final last weekend.

One of the show's closest bouts saw Shohei Kawashima (8-0-2, 1) take a split decision over the heavy handed Shisato Okuma (8-2-2, 6) in a bout scored 48-47 by all 3 judges. As a result of this win Kawashima will battle against Yuki Matsudo in the All Japan final. In a relatively one sided bout Kyohei Tonomoto (5-1, 2) clearly over-came the previously unbeaten Takashi Igarashi (5-1, 1) in a clear cut bout at Featherweight. Tonomoto will be fighting Reiya Abe in the All Japan final in what looks a great contest in the making. In the Super Featherweight division we had a razor close bout that ended in a split decision draw between Masashi Wakita (4-2-1, 2) and the unbeaten Yuya Shimakura (3-0-1). The draw will see Wakita moving on to the next round where he will fight against the very exciting Yuichiro Kasuya who won the MVP from the East Japan Final's last weekend with a thrilling win over Yutaka Ekawa.

In a battle of unbeaten fighters at Lightweight fans saw Shogo Yamaguchi (6-0-1, 3) took a decision over Takahiro Shinoda (1-1, 1). This win sets up a really intriguing final bout between Yamaguchi and the highly touted Andy Hiroaka. The Light Welterweight division saw the heavy handed Tetsuya Morisada (4-3, 4) scoring a very quick victory over Chocoboy Oizumi (4-3-2, 2), with the bout lasting less than a minute. The win for Morisada will see him fight Naoharu Kida in the All-Japan final.

The heavy handed Yuki Beppu (7-0, 7) continued the very impressive start to his career as he claimed a place in the All-Japan Welterweight final with a 53 second victory over Shota Yamamoto (5-2, 3). Beppu will now risk his unbeaten record, and KO streak, against fellow unbeaten Hironobu Matsunaga in a bout that looks like a real highlight for the All Japan Rookie of the Year. At Middleweight Toshihiro Kai (4-6-2, 1) scored his first stoppage win as he  stopped Ryota Ikawa (1-6) in the third round to set up a very tough bout for himself against Hisao Narita.

For those wondering about the All Japan Rookie of the year Finals they will happen on December 21st at the Korakuen Hall.

Osaka, Japan
A second show in Osaka was headlined by former OPBF Featherweight champion Hiroshige Osawa (26-3-5, 15) who predictably made light work of the horribly over-matched Nongdear Sor Bangkhru (0-5) who suffered his 4th stoppage loss. For Osawa this was too easy however it was his first bout since changing gyms earlier this year and it seems that his new gym just wanted to give him a work out more than anything else.

In the sole 8 round contest fans saw a much more interesting looking contest as Kosuke Saka (9-3, 6) scored an 8th round TKO against Tetsuya Nishinaga (11-10-1). It wasn't the greatest  match up but it was significantly better than the main event of the card. 

Although Osawa was the biggest name on the show we were mostly interested in Ioka youngster Takeru Kamikubo (7-0, 4) who did what he had to do to shut out the tough Masaki Hirai (4-12-3, 2) over 6 rounds. For the 18 year old Kamikubo this was a perfectly good test and it seems that Ioka have a real diamond on their hands here if he's developed properly, like we suspect he will be. The other 6 rounder on the show was just as interesting as the unbeaten Terumi Nuki (5-0, 2) took a hard fought decision over Kai Johnson (5-7-3, 2) who's win over Tomomi Takano now looks like it was a long, long time ago.

In 4 rounders on this card fans saw two men record their first career wins. One of those was Katsuhito Kudo (1-2, 1) who took his first win with a 96 second KO against Keisei Nishiwaki (0-3-1) whilst the other was Keita Yamamoto (1-2) who took a very close decision over debutant Hikaru Iwasaki (0-1). The only other undercard bout saw Takuya Yamamoto (4-3, 2) take a clear win over Noriyuki Imamura (2-3)

Hiroshima, Japan
A third Japanese card came from Hiroshima and it's fair to say this was the smallest and least interesting of the three Japanese shows.

Of the 9 bouts on this card 6 of them were 4 rounders and interesting only a single one of them failed to go the distance. The one bout that failed to go 4 completed rounds saw Takahiro Morisaki (2-1, 1) take a 3rd round technical decision over the debuting Tasuku Matsunoshima (0-1) with the bout called after 92 seconds of round 3. The other undercard bouts all went the scheduled and saw some very interesting and competitive bouts including a a majority decision draw in an all debutant bout between Toshiya Kawauchi (0-0-1) and Tomoya Yonehara (0-0-1). We weren't far from getting draws with Riku Inokuchi (1-0) narrowly defeating Takahiro Maeda (1-1), the limited Hinonori Miyake (3-3, 1) only just out pointed Yuya Kondo (2-1, 1) and Masashi Kamon (1-1) defeating Yoshiki Tatsukami (0-1) in a third bout that could easily have ended up in a draw. The only clear undercard bout here saw debutant Tamaki Miwa (1-0) clearly beat Maito Fujii (0-3) in a hotly contested bout, though one that was a clear win for Miwa on the cards..

The card, advertised as being a triple main event show, saw the 3 main bouts lasting just 13 rounds. The shortest of those bouts was a second round blow out win for Ryuji Ikeda (8-2-1, 4) who made light work of Thailand's Eaksayarm Mor Krungthep Thonburi (0-2), it took just 1 round longer for Yuya Okazaki (11-7-1, 4) to see off Shinichi Tsukaha (8-7-3, 3). The remaining bout saw Koji Itagaki (13-9-2, 6) struggle to see off Yamato Uchinono (5-3-5, 3) in the most competitive and interesting of the 3 main events.

Seoul, South Korea
In a small, and supposedly "unsanctioned" South Korean show fans saw several Korea Vs Japan bouts.

The main event from the show saw WBC Youth Super Bantamweight champion Ye Joon Kim (10-1-2, 5) stopping Yoshiyuki Takabayashi (4-5-3) in the 7th round of their contest. Kim, the star of South Korean boxing, appears to be on a great roll at the moment and has now scored 4 successive stoppages. In the co-feature Nak-Yul Park (6-2, 3) scored a 6 round split decision over Kentaro Endo (4-5, 3) in a very closely scored bout.

We've been informed that Japanese boxers on this show went 0-6 however we've not managed to get all the results from it unfortunately.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)