There was a lot of Asian action this past Sunday, though unfortunately not all the results have been made available as of yet. 

Texas, USA
In the US we had two notable Japanese fighters in action, though disappointingly they were both clearly beaten.

The most notable of those was Tomoki Kameda (31-2, 19) who failed to avenge his first defeat and instead suffered a clear defeat at the hands of Englishman Jamie McDonnell (27-2-1, 12). Kameda did start well but was essentially bullied for most of the fight losing a clear decision and leaving his career in a really worrying position. Sadly many fans appear to have been mislead on this fight based on some terrible commentary in the US who had seemingly made this out to be a robbery but even we saw it as a clear win for McDonnell, who retained the WBA Bantamweight title with this victory.

Later on the same show Tomoki's brother Daiki Kameda (29-5, 18) suffered a huge upset loss to Victor Ruiz (20-5, 14). Kameda, who was a clear favourite, started well and dropped Ruiz early on but Ruiz refused to fold and claimed an 8 round split decision over the former world champion, who was fighting for the first time in 21 months.

Toyama, Japan
There was only a single show in Japan though it did feature some genuinely notable fighters.

In the main event former WBA interim Minimumweight champion Juan Jose Landaeta (27-8-1, 21 scored a 9th round TKO win against the world ranked Walter Tello (21-9, 8). Landaeta, who is best known for losing twice to Koki Kameda, was just far too good Tello, who looked like one of the poorest “contenders” going. It now seems that Landaeta will be targeting a world title though we're unsure which division he'll be competing in going forward.

In the co-feature former female world title challenger Saemi Hanagata (10-6-2, 4) claimed a clear 6 round decision win over Aiko Yamagishi (4-2-1, 2). Hanagata, who came close to winning the IBF Light Flyweight title earlier this year, was a clear winner here and will likely be looking to get another world title fight in 2015.

Another 6 rounder on this card saw Naoki Wada (10-8-2, 2) claim a decision victory over the more experienced Hidenori Tajima (14-11-1, 8). This Middleweight bout was an interesting one on paper but it's unlikely either man will really go far given their ability and age.

In an all debutant bout Naoko Tanaka (1-0) claimed a majority decision over Hideaki Momonoi (0-1) whilst another all debutant bout saw Hiroto Yamabe (1-0) beat Riku Mizue (0-1). One other 4 round bout on this card saw Hikaru Yoshimura (3-1-1, 3) beat Ryo Shirakawa (5-8-2, 2).

(Image courtesy of Sumio Yamada)

This past Saturday was one of the busiest and most interesting days of the year with numerous notable bouts taking place across the planet.

Texas, USA
Things have been really disappointing for the Kameda brother's recently and it's fair to say that the most recent hit to their once impressive empire came late on Saturday when the previously unbeaten Tomoki Kameda (31-1, 19) came undone in a thrilling encounter with WBA Bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell (26-2-1, 12). Tomoki had vacated his WBO title ahead of this bout and stupidly threw away round 12 which cost him the bout and the WBA title. Were it not for the non-effort in the final round Tomoki, who dropped McDonnell in round 3, would still be unbeaten. For fans who missed this one we suggest you give it a watch as it was an incredibly close and well fought bout. One of the best of the year so far.

Hyogo, Japan
In regards to action in Asia one show certainly got more attention than any other. That was the Shinsei promoted card from Kobe with featured a world ranked prospect and a former 2-weight world champion, as well as several other notable contests.

The main event here saw former Bantamweight and Featherweight world champion Hozumi Hasegawa (34-5, 15) roll back the clock and put on a stirring performance as he dominated the previously unbeaten and world ranked Horacio Garcia (29-1, 21) of Mexico. Hasegawa took a few rounds to feel his way into the bout but dominated it soon afterwards with Garcia coming off second best time and time again. We're unsure if Hasegawa will get another world title fight but he looked great here.

World ranked prospect Shun Kubo (7-0, 5) moved towards a title fight, likely to be a Japanese title fight or an OPBF title fight, as he made light work of domestic foe Masajiro Honda (6-6, 4) with a 7th round TKO. The talented Kubo is very promising and needs a more challenging bout than this one.

A very interesting looking 8 rounder bout saw Filipino veteran Jonathan Baat (29-6-3, 14) out point the once promising Takahiro Shigee (12-2-1, 10) over 8 rounds. The bout was moderately competitive but Baat was the well deserving winner. This was great second win in the space of a few weeks for Baat who has got to be approaching a more notable bout in the near future.

Another bout that went the distance saw Shota Yamaguchi (13-2, 8) take a wide decision win over Filipino visitor Roman Canto (10-6-2, 5). For Canto this loss ends a 2-fight winning streak, however he's better than his record suggests and he could test decent fighters in the future.

Another 8 rounder on this show saw Tetsuya Hisada (22-9-2, 12) score an 8th round KO against the light hitting Shun Kosaka (9-2), who suffered his first stoppage loss with this defeat. Interestingly the win for Hisada was his first in around 18 months.

Osaka, Japan
In a separate Japanese show fans got the chance to see a female world title fight as well as some low level support bouts.

The main event saw southpaw fighter Yuko Kuroki (13-4-1, 6) retain her WBC female Minimumweight title as she easily out pointed close veteran Masae Akitaya (9-6-2, 3) in a very 1-sided contest. Kuroki found a home for her straight left hand early on and dominated with it, but couldn't finish off Akitaya, who has now lost in 4 world title challenges.

On the under-card we did see stoppages with Ryota Yada (7-3, 5) making very light work of Thai visitor Teerapong Sithsaithong (0-1), who lasted just 165 seconds. Another quick blow out saw the limited Hisashi Kawanishi (5-7, 2) over-come Prabpram Sithsaithong (0-4) in just 2 rounds.

Seoul, South Korea
Korean fans got a title double header in Seoul with a weak under-card but a pair of notable feature bouts.

The main event saw Eun Chang Lee (9-4, 5) claim the WBA Asia Middleweight title with a 4th round KO against Australian based Thai John Ford (6-7-1, 5), real name Nawakon Kitee. Ford was stopped just 2 months ago in a bout at 140lbs and we really do wonder what made anyone think he was going to be competitive at Middleweight.

The other title bout saw Nam Joon Lee (8-4-3, 4) claim a variant of the PABA Featherweight title with a 2nd round TKO win against Thailand's Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit (14-10, 6). From what we understand this was a bout for the PABA junior title, similar to the “youth” titles that we see.

On the under-card their was 3 bouts involving novices. The most notable of those bouts came in a scheduled 6 rounder as Kyoo Hwan Hwang (1-0, 1) began his career with a 4th round TKO against Jung Ho Jang (1-1-1, 1). A more competitive bout saw Jong Hyuk Yoon (2-1) take a clear decision victory over Chang Kyoo Lee (0-1-1) whilst a very close bout saw Jae Hyung Ahn (1-0) take a split decision over Myung Soo Kim (0-1).

Texas, USA
Back in the US fans saw Chinese Heavyweight giant Taishan Dong (4-0, 2) struggle to a win over over the limited Jamal Woods (6-19-3, 6). Dong looked exhausted in the final round and it's clear his stamina, power and speed are going to be an issue when he steps up. He is however a big of a circus figure and one that Golden Boy seem happy to wheel out on a regular basis as he continues his development.

Vratsa, Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, and shown on our live stream, fans saw the heavy handed Kazakh Zhanat Zhakiyanov (15-1, 18) score a 6th round KO of the previously unbeaten Hector Rolando Guzman (14-1, 9) of Argentina. On paper the bout was interesting with Guzman down twice in the early rounds and Zhakiyanov himself down in round 2, however the bout felt like a really low quality contest until Zhakiyanov finally showed some world class ability and knocked out Guzman in eye catching fashion in round 6. The win for Zhakiyanov netted him the WBA International Bantamweight title though seemed to show that he wasn't ready for a world title fight and although he has a very potent right hand he is very predictable.

Wellington, New Zealand
In New Zealand fans saw Thai visitor Anrey Onesongchaigym (7-2-1, 3) suffer her first stoppage loss as she was beaten in the 6th round by Gentiane Lupi (4-1-1, 2). As a result of this win Lupi claimed the WIBA interim Super Bantamweight title.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

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)

Some days are very quiet in boxing with only one or two bouts being worth mentioning. This past Saturday was one such day with only 2 bouts involving Asian fighters, though one of them was a massive fight for the men involved and really announced one fighter on the international stage as a truly world class boxer.

Las Vegas, USA
The man who made his mark on the day was WBO Bantamweight champion Tomoki Kameda (30-0, 19) who successfully retained his world title with a stunning knock out victory over Pungluang Sor Singyu (46-3, 31). 

Both men went into the bout making their US debuts and both men tried to use their advantages to impress the fans and judges. From Kameda that saw him using his movement, hand speed and combinations to win rounds whilst for Pungluang it was his pressure that he was trying to impose on the Japanese fighter. At the end however it was the placement of Kameda's shots that impressed as he landed one of the best body shots you will ever see and sent Pungluang down in agony midway through round 7. The shot, which looked even better on replay, will likely go down as the best punch Tomoki will ever land and will almost certainly see fans around the world clamouring to see more of him. As for Pungluang this was his third stoppage loss and by far the most painful with the body shot effectively paralyzing him for a few moments on the canvas.

The only black mark on this fight was, sadly, the judging. Some how Patricia Morse Jarman had Pungluang winning the bout 58-56 prior to the stoppage, a score that is simply inexcusable, fortunately for her however Tomoki prevented her from getting too much attention after the bout.

For those historians out there Tomoki became the first Japanese fighter since Toshioka Nishioka to defend a world title in the US almost 3 years ago.

Western Australia, Australia
Whilst the biggest bout was in the US there was another bout featuring an Asian fighter in Australia. Unfortunately however South Korea's Hwi Jong Kim (5-13, 1) was unsuccessful as he took on Nathaniel May (6-1, 4). Kim was dropped 3 times in the 3rd round forcing the referee to wave off the bout.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)