Tokyo, Japan
The big show this past Wednesday came from the Korakuen Hall where fans got a real treat of a card with several notable names in significant bouts.

The most notable of the bouts was the shows main event which saw talented southpaw Shingo Wake (19-4-2, 11) show off his ability and dominate Thai veteran Mike Tawatchai (35-8-1, 21) in an IBF Super Bantamweight world title eliminator. The bout was all Wake who dropped only a round or two against a man who really had no answer to his skills, speed or movement. The fight was for the right to become Carl Frampton's mandatory and it's fair to say that Wake will be a very interested party when Frampton defends his title against Alejandro Gonzalez Jr in July.

Another notable man in action was former world title challenger Hisashi Amagasa (29-5-2, 19) who easily out pointed Patomsith Pathompothong (12-4, 5) in what was Amagasa's first bout since his loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux last December. Although Amagasa failed to get the knockout he was completely in charge from the opening round.

Another one sided bout saw popular female fighter Tomomi Takano (8-1, 5) claim her first title as she won the OPBF female Super Bantamweight title with a dominant display against Thailand's Nongbua Lookpraiaree (9-13-1, 1). Takano used her reach and height to keep Nongbua at range where she was unable to land anything of note. Although the win was a clear one for Takano it seems obvious that she was fighting a tailor made opponent who never had anything to threaten her with.

On the bottom part of this card there was a trio of 8 round under-card bouts. One of those saw the return to the ring of the touted Kenta Onjo (5-1, 3) who easily out pointed San Saknarong (2-3). This was Onjo's first bout since his surprise defeat to Jonathan Baat earlier this year.

Another of the under-card bouts saw Takaaki Ishikawa (11-6, 6) score a 4th round TKO against Kanae Onogi (6-8-1, 3) whilst another saw Kazuki Matsuyama (12-5, 6) score a 3rd round TKO against Yoshiyuki Suzuki (5-8-5, 1).

Khon Kaen, Thailand
As well as the card in Japan there was also one in Thailand.

The headline bout here saw highly regarded Bantamweight hopeful Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (42-6-1, 21) score a 2nd round KO against Filipino slugger Jomar Fajardo (14-8-2, 7). Sadly this bout ended with Fajardo suffering a nasty looking injury to his shoulder.

Another bout here saw the exciting but limited Kongfah Nakornluang (22-0, 14) defeat Filipino visitor Wilber Andogan (10-20-4, 4) in a gruelling contest. Andogan retired in his corner with what appeared to be another injury.

We also know that Jirapan Nakornluang was in action on this show though we're unsure on who he was facing or the eventual result from from the bout.

(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)

Today was an interesting day in Asian boxing with two cards that were notable for very different reasons. In Japan we had a very interesting card with a number of solid match ups whilst in Thailand we had a few bouts of interest.

Tokyo, Japan
The big show of the day came from Tokyo where Kyoei put on an excellent show that really should have applied to every type of boxing fan out there, of course barring those that ionly care about the big PPV stars.

The show began with a 4 rounder as Kohei Hasegawa (1-1, 1) scored a 3rd round TKO over the debuting Junpei Hakota (0-1). This was the only 4 rounder on the show and was one of 5 stoppages from the show.

A second stoppage occurred in the second bout of the show as female model-come-boxer Tomomi Takano (6-1, 5) stopped hapless Thai Dokmaipha Kiatpompetch (0-5) in the 4th round of a scheduled 6 rounder. This was Takano's first bout since being stopped by Kai Johnson and although this was a win it was hard to really tell how much the queen of weigh-ins had actually improved given that Dokmaipha and Johnson are from very, very different levels.

The only bout that actually went the distance saw Ryo Narizuka (7-4) take an incredibly close decision over Kazuaki Moriya (11-6, 1) in an incredibly competitive 8 rounder. Although the Narizuka/Moriya was the only one to go the distance it wasn't the only bout that that didn't end in a stoppage as fans saw Toyoto Shiraishi (24-8-2, 11) fight to a second round technical draw with Mako Matsuyama (7-8-2, 3), a real disappointment for Shiraishi who will still be eyeing another title fight in the next year or two.

In a major upset fans saw Kenta Toi (4-4, 1) score a shocking stoppage over Mikihito Seto (34-12-3, 18) in the second round. The 34 year old Seto hasn't been in great form recently but had challenger for a Japanese title less than 2 years ago, giving Hidenori Otake a very tough bout. For Toi this is a a career changing win, it may not net him a title fight but it's still huge and will almost certainly put him in the Japanese rankings.

On paper the best bout was a Super Featherweight bout between unbeaten men. That turned out however to be a short bout as Japanese based Filipino Johnreil Maligro (12-0, 9) quickly wiped out the touted Kazuma Sanpei (11-1, 4). This was an amazing bout on paper but Maligro's power was the difference and Sanpei was unable to take it for long, a real shame in some ways, but something that could boost Mailigro towards a Japanese title shot. 

The main event here saw OPBF Featherweight champion Hisashi Amagasa (28-4-2, 19) retain his title for the 3rd time, but only just, as he over-came a very spirited challenge from the under-rated Ryo Takenaka (11-3-1, 6). Takenaka gave Amagasa absolute hell, and was in the lead going into the final rounds. Sadly for the challenger however he was unable to stay the course and was stopped in the final round of a real tear up. Real credit needs to go to Takenaka for putting up a great effort whilst Amagasa dug hard and deep for this win. It was every boxing fans could possible wish for.

Bangkok, Thailand
In Thailand fans got a small cards but one with some title implications.

The main event of the card saw veteran Sirimongkol Singwancha (81-2, 52) take a 12 round decision to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Light Middleweight title. Sirimongkol, fighting against Filipino Dan Nazareno Jr (20-12, 16), took his time and fought very patiently to take a clear win though it did appear like he was deliberately fighting for 12 rounds rather than upping the pace.

Another televised bout from this card saw the heavy handed but very limited Chalermpol Singwancha (11-0, 9) take a 4th round win over a fighter we've been told was Kevin Solimani (0-1) in what was described as a massive mismatch.

A third bout from this card saw Kalae McShane (1-0, 1) score a 1-round blow out over Petch Twins Gym (1-5) with Petch being dropped 3 times in just 114 seconds. 

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
For the second successive day Japan fans had notable action at the Korakuen Hall.

Whilst yesterday's show was mostly about the Japanese Featherweight title today was about the OPBF Featherweight title, as defending champion Hisashi Amagasa (27-4-2, 18) took on Thailand's Maxsaisai Sithsaithong (14-5, 3). Unsurprisingly the defending champion made relatively light work of his smaller, less skilled, less powerful opponent who was stopped in round 8 when Amagasa began hammering home with power shots and forced the referee to save the Thai.

Whilst Amagasa was certainly the main event fighter he wasn't the fighter who got the most attention going in to the show, that honour was instead bestowed on Tomomi Takano (5-1, 4) who stole the show at the weigh in, as seen in the video below. Unfortunately for the stunningly attractive Takano her looks and pre-fight antics weren't enough to defeat the more determined and more experience Kai Johnson (5-5-3, 2) who wore down Takano and stopped her in the 5th round to inflict the first loss on to Takano.

Takano was was one of a trio of notable unbeaten fighters going in to the show, she wasn't the only one to lose but not the only one given a tough time. Another given a very hard fight was Ryuto Maekawa (9-0, 5) who narrowly over-came Takushige Sato (5-5-1, 2) by winning a 6 round majority decision. Aged 18 we understand that Maekawa is a youngster though he's also an experienced one having made his debut more than 3 years ago in Thailand. Whilst he's now 5-0 in Japan he has struggled against Japanese opponents and he's certainly not as good as his record suggests he is.

The other unbeaten fighter was Kazuma Sanpei (11-0, 4) who maintained his unbeaten record in an 8 round unanimous decision that saw him only just out pointing Jun Hamana (9-2, 3). The loss for Hamana ended a 5 fight winning streak though his performance did suggest that both he and Sanpei will be worth following over the next few years. 

The Sanpei/Hamana fight was one of two contests that were scheduled for 8 rounds, in fact it was one of two hotly contest 8 round affairs with the other resulting in a draw between the experienced Mikihito Seto (34-11-3, 18) and Takenori Ohashi (11-3-1, 7). The bout was really close and fairly scored a draw which will be a disappointment to both, but was a fair result.

In the show's opening bout fans saw another well contested contest as the debuting Masamine Oyama (1-0) narrowly over-came fellow debutant Kohei Hasegawa (0-1) in a 4 round contest.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp, video courtesy of Kyoei Boxing)

Tokyo, Japan
The first set of titles for the new week took place in Japan on Monday with with a brilliant card from the legendary Kyoei Promotions. On paper the card was one of the highlight shows of a very busy week in Asian boxing, though it did prove to be a little bit more one sided than expected with only 1 of the 5 bouts really ended up being competitive.

The card began by showcasing young prospects. The first of these was teenager Ryuto Maekawa (8-0, 5) who recorded his first stoppage on Japanese soil as he swiftly defeated Thai debutant Namchai Sor Tanachor (0-1) in 2 rounds. 

Maekawa, who actually started his career in Thailand, began his career with 4 stoppages in his first 4 bouts though has been taken the distance since setting up camp in Japan. This bout was a step backwards for him though proved that he has still got a finishers instinct.

The second promising youngster on the show was All Japanese Rookie of the year Kazuma Sanpei (10-0, 4) who stopped the usually durable Thai Anuntachai Sor Por Lor Krungthep (6-7, 4) in the third round of a scheduled 8. Prior to this fight the Thai had only been stopped once in 12 fights, by the very very experienced Yuta Nagai in 6 rounds, suggesting that Sanpei hits harder than his record indicates.

Although few came to see the two young prospects on the show the first major attraction was model boxer Tomomi Takano (5-0, 4) who, like the other unbeaten fighters on the card, made light work of her over-matched Thai foe. Fighting against Kulabkhao Por Preecha (0-2) we saw an improved Tomomi who finished the fight with a beautiful body shot that crippled the Thai for the full 10 count. Whilst Tomomi isn't nearly world class yet she is developing excellently and is showing vast improvement after every fight. With that in mind we'd not be shocked to see her competing for an OPBF title by the end of the year.

Follow the unbeaten fighters the show then turned to the title action which kicked off with a Japanese Super Bantamweight title fight between the world ranked, and current Japanese champion, Hidenori Otake (22-1-3, 9) and determined challenger Takafumi Nakajima (22-7-1, 9). Nakajima, who had previously lost a split decision to Otake, brought the fight to the champion early on and really forced Otake to answer back in an excellent encounter. Unfortunately for the challenger is was the champions stamina late on that helped him retain his title via a very narrow decision.

Otake had been forced to defend his title against a man almost his equal, the second title fight however saw the significantly taller and rangier Hisashi Amagasa (26-4-2, 16) easily defending his OPBF Featherweight belt against Filipino challenger Vinvin Rufino (34-16-3, 16). Rufino came to fight though all too often he was eating hard counters from the champion who managed to score an early knock down before gradually forcing a stoppage in round 8. This loss for Rufino, his second in an OPBF title fight, likely ends his dream of being an Asian champion. For Amagasa, who was making the first defense of his belt, this was impressive and his thoughts surely have to turn to world title fights sooner rather than later.

(Photo, of Amagasa standing over a knocked down Rufino, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Ota-City General Gymnasium, Tokyo
Although the final boxing upset of the year occurred in Osaka that doesn't mean fans in Tokyo had any less reason to enjoy their new year's eve with a world title double header taking place at the Ota-City General Gymnasium on a show plastered with notable names.

The notable names on the show included female star Tomomi Takano (4-0, 3) who stole the headlines at the weigh-in with her wedding outfit. The former model-turned boxer showed once again that she has talent to add to her looks as she made light work of Kumi Oishi (1-3, 1) with a second round TKO. Takano, who many view as a potential starlet, may not have the talent of Naoko Fujioka but she certainly draws a lot of attention to female boxing like very few others.

Another big name on the card was former WBA Super Flyweight champion Kohei Kono (29-8, 11) who made light work of tune up opponent Daut Manopkanchang (0-1). Kono, fighting for the first time since his loss to Liborio Solis back in May, shook off his rust and kept his attention on the job here ahead of his scheduled world title bout with Denkaosan Kaovichit in March. Kono, looking to recapture his old title in that bout will be hoping for a similarly easy time with Kaovichit, though it would be unlikely.

Also on the under-card was WBC #1 ranked Super Flyweight Carlos Cuadras (29-0, 24). Cuadras, of Mexico, made very light work of Songseanglek Phosuwangym (1-10) and we now assume he's angling towards a fight with either WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai or even the winner of Kono's bout with Kaovichit.

Remaining with the "names" on the under-card the most well matched contest saw former Japanese Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (19-2-1, 8) takes a hard fought decision over Ryan Bito (22-13-3, 8). This was Taguchi's comeback fight after losing his title to Naoya Inoue in August and surprisingly he struggled here with Bito who has only won 1 of his last 6 and that came against a debutant. Taguchi needs to get back on top of things and show off the talent that saw him being world ranked earlier this year though unfortunately it could be a tough rebuilding process.

On the bottom of the under-card we had 3 much lower level bouts. These saw Noriyoshi Taki (3-4, 1) taking a 3 round technical decision victory over Yusuke Matsuda (1-2); the debuting Hikaru Komori (1-0, 1) stopping fellow debutant Mamoru Suzuki (0-1) in 2 rounds and Hideki Suzuki (4-3-1) taking a 4 round decision over Yuki Arai (3-3, 1).

Of course fans weren't really there for the undercard, even if it did have big names on it. Instead they were there for the 2 world title fights that the show had, both in the Super Featherweight division.

The first of the world title fights saw WBC champion Takashi Miura (27-2-2, 20) dominate Mexican challenger Dante Jardon (24-4, 20). This was, on paper, the fight of the day though from the first round it seemed the men were in completely different leagues and Miura just beat up and broke down Jardon who was tough but thoroughly out-classed before being stopped in round 9. The Mexican challenger, a much vaunted puncher himself, was down in rounds 5 and 8 before being stopped after a third knockdown early in the ninth.

Miura's victory was his second title defense and his third victory over a Mexican this year. With that in mind it may be fair to call him the new Mexecutioner and with that in mind he may well be thinking about bouts in 2014 with either Daniel Ponce De Leon or Miguel Berchelt, 2 of the top Mexicans in the Super Featherweight division.

The other world title fight, and for us the fight that was the best of the day, saw Takashi Uchiyama (21-0-1, 17) successfully retain his WBA title with a very hard fought decision over former Japanese national champion Daiki Kaneko (19-3-3, 12). Although the scores, which all read 117-110, made the fight look easy it was anything but as the strong and powerful Kaneko gave Uchiyama all he could handle and actually dropped the champion in round 10. The difference between the two men was the experience that Uchiyama has at the world level though with out a doubt Kaneko put himself on the map with a very strong performance that saw him really impressing in a thoroughly competitive contest. Having seen how impressive Kaneko was here we've no doubt that he has the potential to become a world champion at some point, though it may be at Lightweight and not Super Featherweight.

With Uchiyama and Miura both retaining the likeliness is that the two will fight in a unification contest in 2014. Whether that is the first thing on the agenda for them is up for debate but it's a bout both seem intent to have. This would be a rematch, with Uchiyama having beaten Miura back in January 2011, though it's one everyone seems to be calling for, including ourselves.