Tokyo, Japan The only show in Asia this past Wednesday came from the holy ground of Japanese boxing, the Korakuen Hall and although it wasn't a brilliant card on paper there was certainly a number of talking points. The first talking point came before a punch was even thrown as the Japanese Flyweight title was stripped from Suguru Muranaka (22-2-1, 7) for failing to make weight ahead of his scheduled defense against Tetsuma Hayashi (25-3-2, 9). Despite Muranaka failing to make weight the contest went ahead with the stipulation that Hayashi could still win the belt, if he won the bout, though any other result would leave the title vacant. Unfortunate for Hayashi he failed to over-come Muranaka in what was a thoroughly fantastic bout. Early on it was Hayashi who managed to take the lead, and was in the lead on two of the 3 cards at the half way mark. The cards seemed to spur on the former champion who found a new gear and eventually did enough to over-come Hayashi with scores of 97-93 and 96-94, twice. Following the bout Muranaka did apologise, very publicly, to Hayashi and Hayashi's team at the Celes gym, for the weight issues Aside from the main event there was very little of real note to talk about, though the show did feature two notable fighter in the leading support bouts. One of these bouts saw the heavy handed Yoshitomo Watanabe (7-1, 5) takes a very wide decision over Kosuke Mizuno (7-5-2, 2). This was third time Watanabe had been 8 rounds and it seems he's now more aware of his stamina than he's been in the past and he does seem to have developed more than just his power. The other support bout saw former Japanese and OPBF Welterweight title challenger Cobra Suwa (15-11-2, 7) clearly out point Chatchai Sithsaithong (8-5, 6). This was Suwa's most notable win in more than 2 years though it seems very clear he's not going to claim a title in what's left of his career. The one KO of the show came in the only scheduled 6 rounder as Hikaru Ota (5-3, 2) saw off Kazuyuki Kato (6-9) in the 3rd round of their bout. This loss was Kato's 5th stoppage loss and his 4th straight loss, what makes it more notable however is the fact that he was fighting for the first time in more than 4 years and it seems like the come was a very pointless one. On the under-card fans saw a trio of bouts over the 4 round distance. The most competitive of those was an all debutant bout between Jun Muto (1-0) and Hikaru Tamura (0-1) which Muto won via a score of 38-37 on all 3 cards. A slightly less competitive bout saw Hideaki Takagi (2-0) defeat Tetsuya Seshimo (1-6, 1). On paper the Takagi Vs Seshimo bout was a mismatch but it ended up being a very good test for the unbeaten man. The other under-card bout saw Yuki Kozeki (1-1) score her first win as she shut out debutant Asuka Umemura (0-1). (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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Some days are busier than others and we're happy to say that this past Saturday was hectic to say the least with a massive number of fights taking place with Japanese fighters involved in them. Chicago, USA The two highest profile bouts from Asian fighters came in the US as we saw two of the three Kameda brothers in action. The first of those saw former 3-weight world champion Koki Kameda (33-1, 17) make light work of Omar Salado (24-9-2, 15) with a 4th round stoppage. This was Koki's US debut and it was also his first bout in almost a year following his victory in South Korea against Jung-Oh Son. It appears clear that Koki was shedding ring rust here but it was a mismatch and it's hard to know how he would compete against the top Super Flyweights if he was matched with one of them. The second bout of note was the biggest Asian bout of the night as Koki's youngest brother Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19) put his WBO Bantamweight title on the line against mandatory challenger Alejandro Hernandez (28-11-2, 15). The bout appeared to be dominated by the more technically sounds, faster and aggressive Kameda though some how the judges all had it close with scores of 115-113 being rendered on all 3 cards, unfortunately one went to Hernandez to give a split decision in a bout that really wasn't close. Unfortunately for Tomoki this bout could have undone the good will of his stoppage victory over Pungluang Sor Singyu from earlier in the year. Tokyo, Japan One of the three Japanese shows came from the Korakuen Hall and it was arguably this one that was the most important. The main event here saw Japanese Light Flyweight champion Yu Kimura (15-2-1, 2) successfully retain his title with a 7th round technical decision over Atsushi Aburada (9-7, 5). This was Kimura's second defense and was a comfortable one with the champion only losing the first round before settling behind his sharp and accurate jab. As soon as Kimura had his jab going it was a straight forward bout for the champion who got his hand raised early after Aburada suffered a cut over the left eye and was eventually ruled unfit to continue. Kimura, a world ranked fighter, may well look for a world title fight in 2015 though if the opportunity doesn't arise we'd not be shocked by him continuing to defend the Japanese title. In the co-feature fans saw the #2 ranked Japanese Flyweight Tetsuma Hayashi (25-2-2, 9) score an excellent knockout against the over-matched Ryutaro Taira (8-5-2, 3). The shots that finished off Taira were a devastating series of body shots that left him him on the canvas in agony. After the fight Hayashi said that next year he would be aiming to win a Japanese title and in all honesty we would love to see Hayashi fight current Japanese champion Suguru Muranaka. In a notable upset Filipino fighter Jonel Alibio (18-18-5, 10) managed to score a shock win over the heavy handed Yuichi Yokoyama (14-3, 13). Alibio entered this bout with just 1 win in his last 12 and was on a run of 4 straight losses in Japan though he showed the class to stop Yokoyama in the 4th round. Incidentally this was Alibio's first win in Japan since he stopped Naoki Matsuda in November 2010 to claim the OPBF Featherweight title. We saw another upset as Takumi Suda (11-10-2, 3) shocked the hard hitting Huiroyuki Otsuka (7-3, 6) in just 158 seconds. Suda went straight to work and and dropped Otsuka early before a continued attack forced the referee to save the much fancied Otsuka. For Suda this was his first win since 2009 and saw him ending a 6 fight losing streak. Whilst the streak sounds like a bad one it included losses to Shin Ono, Warlito Parrenas, Masayuki Kuroda, Yu Kimura and Yasutaka Kuroki. In another 8 rounder fans saw Masaru Sueyoshi (8-1, 5) over-come Shota Suito (9-4-1, 1) with a clear decision to extend his current winning streak to 5 bouts following his sole defeat to Masayuki Ito back in July 2012. To open the the card we saw Masaaki Shiraishi (1-0, 1) take an opening round blow out victory over Daisuke Tanigawa (0-1) in an all debutant contest that lasted just 22 seconds and we also saw Masanobu Nakazawa (16-1-1, 6) take a 5th round retirement stoppage against Ken Otokawa (6-5, 5), in a bout scheduled for 6. Fukuoka, Japan A second Japanese show took place in Fukuoka and was headlined by a WBC female Minimumweight title fight between Japan's very own Yuko Kuroki (12-4-1, 6) who successfully defended her title with a very hard fought and competitive split decision over Mexican challenger Katia Gutierrez (19-5, 4). The bout was a very tough first defense for Kuroki but it was an excellent contest all the same between an aggressive fighter, Gutierrez, and a skilled fast boxer, Kuroki. The competitive nature of the bout saw both women talking about a rematch post fight and we'd not be disappointed by that in 2015. The chief support bout here ended in another upset as the unbeaten Shohei Okuda (11-1, 4) was shockingly upset in the 3rd round of a scheduled 8 rounder. Okuda, a much fancied 23 year old prospect, was expected to easily over-come Ryusei Yoshida (25-6, 12) but was made to looking shockingly bad by the veteran. Okuda was cut over the left eye, dropped in round 3 and then stopped by a follow up attack as his unbeaten record was destroyed in style by Yoshida. A third notable bout on this card saw Aiki Koto (8-1-1, 4) narrowly defeat Koki Ono (7-3, 4). The bout was a really competitive 8 rounder though Koto did just enough to deserve the majority decision over the 8 round distance. The bottom of the card consisted of 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds, including 2 more females bouts. The female bouts went the distance with the the first of those being a debut win for Sana Hazuki (1-0) who narrowly over-came the win-less Sayaka Aoki (0-2), the other saw Shione Ogata (3-5) out point Ayaka Sato (1-3, 1). Another undercard bout that went the distance saw the debuting Super Featherweight hopeful Go Matsuda (1-0) out point Yoshiki Shoda (0-1). The only under-card bout not to go the distance saw Yoichi Kojima (3-1-1, 2) take an opening round stoppage against the previously undefeated Toshiki Yanari (2-1, 2). Hyogo, Japan A third Japanese show took place in Hyogo where the main event was at a much lower level than the other two but was still a very interesting contest. The aforementioned main event saw the once beaten Hikaru Matsuoka (8-1-3, 1) defeat the criminally under-rated Filipino tough guy Richard Pumicpic (15-7-2, 4). Pumicpic, who had given Ryosuke Iwasa hell earlier this year, was simply too small to be all that competitive with Matsuoka who used distance to easily defeat the Filipino fighter on the scorecards. We had expected this bout to be much closer than it was though unfortunately it was relatively straight forward for Matsuoka. It wasn't all bad for Filipino's on this show however and Super Flyweight hopeful Giovanni Escaner (12-3-1, 8) scored an unexpected 7th round stoppage victory over Japanese veteran Junichi Ebisuoka (23-18-6, 10). Ebisuoka is now win-less in 6 bouts and his long career is likely coming to an end whilst Escaner will be hoping this will will help him get his career back on track after 3 losses in his previous 4 bouts. The only other stoppage on this card saw Jonel Gadapan (9-7-1, 5) score an upset win over the previously unbeaten Yuji Itani (4-1, 4) who was stopped in the second round of a schedule 6 rounder. The only other 6 rounder on the show went the distance as Kenta Sugimoto (7-7-1) took a 6 round unanimous decision over Hiroki Taniguchi (6-4-1, 2). In the 4 rounders fans saw Arata Matsuoka (2-2, 1) take a majority decision over Ryoki Hirai (3-3-1, 1) whilst Daichi Nakajima (2-2) took a split decision over the previously unbeaten Shoehei Matsuo (1-1). Distrito Federal, Mexico In Mexico there was two bouts of note with a Filipino and a Japanese fighter in action. The Filipino was former world title challenger, Silvester Lopez (22-9-2, 16) who was unfortunately stopped, for the second time this year, by Rey Vargas (22-0, 19) in the 8th round. The bout, for the WBC Youth Silver Super Bantamweight title, was another set back for Lopez who has now lose 5 of his last 8 and suffered a trio of stoppages. We loved watch Lopez come through but it now appears time for him to take a serious break from the ring before he becomes little more than a typical journeyman. The other man was Shoki Sakai (17-5, 11) who came up short against the always interest Nery Saguilan (31-4-1, 11) in a bout for the WBC US silver Lightweight title. Saguilan, who had claimed the title earlier this year with a win over Seiichi Okada, was forced to work very hard to over-come Sakai in a very competitive bout that suggested the records of both men were misleading with Sakai being better than his record suggest and Saguilan being worse than his looks on paper. (Image, from the Hayashi bout, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) This past Friday so plenty of fights taking place involving Asian fighters tough few bouts from Asian's really stood out as being competitive or great fights. Nevada, USA In the US fans got to see the biggest Asian of the night, China's huge Heavyweight hopeful Zhang Zhilei (1-0, 1). It took just 17 seconds for Zhilei to see off rotund American Curtis Lee Tate (7-5, 6) in what was a bit of a waste of time, though for a debut it was the impression Zhilei's team have been wanting to leave. The footage of this bout is available here. Tokyo, Japan The biggest show, in terms of fights, in Asia took place at the Korakuen Hall an was headlined by a contest between one-time Japanese title challenger Tetsuma Hayashi (24-2-2, 8) and Hideyuki Watanabe (7-6-3, 5). We had expected Hayashi to be far too good for Watanabe but a very good performance form the under-dog reduslted in a well earned split draw. We also saw a shock in the co-feature as Toshio Arikawa (9-4, 7) upset former 2-time title challenger Yoshihisa Tonimura (17-10-4, 5) with a 6th round technical decision. This was Arikawa's first win in well over a year and seems to have given his career some life having looked all but over prior to the contest. One bout that did go the way we expected saw former Japanese Featherweight champion Koji Umetsu (22-14-3, 10) stop Thai novice Chamuakpetch Por Panya (0-3) in 3 rounds. Aged 37 we're unsure how long Umetsu has left in the sport but this is his second win of the year. In the mid part of the card we had a trio of 6 rounds. One of those saw Jo Tanooka (9-1-3) continue his winning run as he over-came Jun Koseki (7-4, 3) in a very hard fought 6 round majority decision. Another of the 6 rounders saw Yoshinori Wakahara (7-4, 4) score a 5th round TKO over Dragon Jun (6-12, 3). The win for Wakahara was his first bout since he lost to Takumi Sakae last December whilst for Jun this was his second stoppage loss this year. The other 6 rounder, arguably the most important, saw the hotly tipped Kenya Noguchi (2-0, 1) make very light work of Thai visitor Yodarewut Torpran (0-2). Noguchi showed a great body attack en route to stopping the Thai. Aged just 18 we would advise keeping a very close eye the progress of this fantastic young fighter. The card began with a trio of 4 rounders. These saw Daisuke Uchikawa (2-1-1, 1) out point Jun Ogawa (1-2-1) in a clear cut decision, Hidetoshi Ueki (4-9-1) take a hard fought decision over Yamato Kikuchi (2-6-2) and Takahiro Yoneshige (1-1, 1) score a 98 second blow out victory over Adisorn Kesornsombat (0-1). Bangkok, Thailand In Thailand we saw youngster Stamp Kiatniwat (9-0, 4) announce himself as a real prospect as he out pointed former WBA Minimumweight world champion Kwanthai Sithmorseng (46-3-1, 24). The bout was a huge step up for Stamp though will have done him the world of good showing that he can compete with experienced top tier fighters. We have to say, once again, that this kid is possible the brightest shining light in Thai boxing. For those who want to know just how good Stamp is, we would advise watching the footage of this bout. Suwannakhet, Laos In Laos we had a number of Thai's in action on a 4 bout show in Suwannakhet. The main event of this show saw the world ranked Norasing Kokietgym (11-0-1, 8) making very light work of Filipino journeyman Geboi Mansalayao (9-17-4, 3). The victory for Norasing saw him claiming the WBC Asian Boxing Council Silver Super Flyweight title and moving a step further towards a world title fight. We've managed to get footage of this bout for those interested in seeing how good Norasing looked. On the same show in Laos there was also a female contest that saw Nampetch Kwanjaisrikod (2-1, 1) take a 10 round decision over Kanda Por Muangpetch (1-1). This victory saw Nampetch claiming the WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental female Light Flyweight title though we're unaware how exactly this bout went. What we do know is that Nampetch became the first ever fighter from Laos to win a professional boxing title. Another bout that went the distance saw the unbeaten Saenganan KKP (7-0, 5) take a 6 round decision victory over Indonesian journeyman Domi Nenokeba (11-20-1, 7). This was Nenokeba's 20th straight loss and it seems likely he will just be matched up time and time again with Thai's that are meant to beat him. It's hard to say how good Saenganan is despite his 7-0 record because of the fact he has faced awful opposition so far, though we are expecting to see him step up next time out. A fourth bout on this show saw former female world title holder Kanittha Kokietgym (21-6, 8) score a 4th round KO against the debuting Sroipetch Sithphosai (0-1). Kanittha's win saw her bouncing back from a loss, last November, to Kledpetch KKP. Queensland, Australia In a low level bout in Australia Thailand's Pramool Boonpok (1-7) finally secured his first win as he took a 4 round unanimous decision over the the debuting Brent Dames (0-1). New South Wales, Australia It wasn't all good news "down under" as Stevi Ongen Ferdinandus (15-7-1, 8) was stopped, in 5 rounds, by Chad Bennett (34-4-3, 25). Bennett, with this victory, picked up the WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Council Light Welterweight title. (Image, of Hayashi and Watanabe, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Just a day after the world title double header in Osaka the Asian boxing world fell back to normality with a small domestic show at the Korakuen Hall. Tokyo, Japan The show was a 7 fight card with little of real name value though plenty of interesting action and bouts with some form of significance. The main event of the show saw the OPBF and Japanese ranked ranked Tetsuma Hayashi (24-2-1, 8) scoring a 4th round TKO over Thai veteran Samransak Singmanasak (35-23-1, 27), who has now been stopped 17 times in his 59 fight career. From what we under-stand the Thai showed genuine guts but was thoroughly out gunned and out classed. In a slight upset Ken Achiwa (9-11-2, 3) scored a TKO over Ganbare Shota (10-5-1, 2) who suffered some notable cuts around his left eye which eventually forced an early conclusion to the bout in round 6. We saw another slight upset as Ribo Takahata (10-4-1, 2) took an 8th round technical decision over the Japanese ranked Keiichi Izumi (13-7, 4) who entered the bout the #6 Super Featherweight in Japan. The remaining 8 round bout was the most disappointing as an accidental injury saw Ryota Itoyama (10-5-1, 5) score a 3rd round technical draw with Norimitsu Ebine (9-7-2, 6). The bout was the disappointment of the show and was followed by Ebine announcing his retirement in the ring. The 37 year apologised that for the bout being disappointing and retires just a month before his 37th birthday. The only bout on the entire show that complete all the scheduled rounds saw Toru Kudo (4-2-2, 1) take a 6 round decision over Tatsuya Hayashi (4-5, 1). This was one of a trio of 6 rounders on the card and was the only one which actually went the distance. In another of the 6 rounders Takehiro Shinohara (5-4-2, 5) made his power felt as he stopped Mitsuhisa Hayashi(4-5, 3) in the second round whilst it took 3 rounds for Shogo Sumitomo (5-6, 4) to defeat Masashi Odaira (4-4-2, 2) (Picture, of Hayashi landing a right hand on Samransak, courtesy of boxingnews.jp) Pennsylvania, USA Whilst reality resumed to Japanese boxing there was a major shock in the US as Timur Shailezov (17-7-1, 4) of Kyrgyzstan scored a shock upset over Miguel Cartagena (12-1, 5). Going in to this bout Shailezov had lost his last 5 bouts, including a retirement loss to Rex Tso and a TKO loss to Zhanat Zhakiyanov so this win really does give his career a bit of life after looking all but over. |
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