This past Saturday was an incredibly busy day in Asian boxing New York, USA It was in New York that we had the two highest profile bouts of the day to feature Asian fighters. The first of those saw saw Filipino-American Brian Viloria (36-5-0-2, 22) put in a brave showing against the sensational Roman Gonzalez (44-0, 38). Viloria, who was attempting to claim the WBC Flyweight title, came out looking for the upset and did have plenty of success of his own, including hurting Gonzalez with a hard body shot in round 9. Sadly for Viloria that body was his last success of note before the referee saved him as Gonzalez went on the offensive. Following the Viloria/Gonzalez bout we then saw Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31) add the IBF belt to his collection of titles as he stopped Canadian fighter David Lemieux (34-3, 31) in the 8th round of a very 1-sided bout. Golovkin showed his boxing ability early on, breaking down Lemieux with just his jab for the first few rounds before picking up the pace and eventually forcing the referee to stop a damaged Lemieux. California, USA Another major show from the US saw ALA make their US debut and take some of their best fighters to American soil for the first time. The main event here saw talented WBO Light Flyweight champion Donnie Nietes (37-1-4, 21) take a clear win over the limited, but very tough, Juan Alejo (21-4, 13). Alejo was on the receiving end of a beating but never once looked like quitting as he repeatedly fought back, albeit with mixed success against the Filipino. Another fighter who impressed was the much touted Albert Pagara (25-0, 18) who claimed the WBO Youth Intercontinental Super Bantamweight title with a 6th round KO win against former world title challenger William Gonzalez (27-6, 23). The Nicaraguan was stopped for just the third time in his career and it seems clear that Pagara is preparing himself for a world title fight in the not so distant future. Another youngster who shined was Mark Magsayo (12-0, 10) who saw off Yardley Suarez (13-1, 8) in the early stages of their fight, whilst retaining the IBF Youth Featherweight title. On paper this one looked competitive but was totally one sided in favour of the brilliant Filipino prospect. Another quick blow out saw Jason Pagara (37-2, 23) easily over-come Santos Benavides (25-8-2, 19) in the 2nd round as he moved a step closer to a potential world title fight of his own. One other bout on this show saw Filipino-American Bruno Escalante (14-1-1, 6) take a 6 round decision win over Nestor Ramos (6-3-1, 2). Massachusetts, USA Yet more US action came from Massachusetts where a couple of promising Chinese fighters both scored wins. One of those winners was touted Lightweight hopeful Wang Zhimin (5-0, 2) who scored a 6 round win over the experienced Guillermo Sanchez (15-17-1, 6). This was the second time that Zhimin has gone 6 rounds and it's likely than an 8 rounder bout will in the not so distant future. The other was Meng Fanlong (4-0, 2) who scored a quick blow out win against the debuting Devonte Hopkins (0-1). This bout lasted less than a round with the Chinese fighter being too good, too strong and too talented Gifu, Japan In Gifu Japanese fans had a small profile show headlined by one of their most promising prospects in the lower weights. That prospect was Genki Hanai (5-0, 4) who scored a 2nd round TKO win against Junya Nishikawa (7-7-2, 2). Following the win Hanai's team hinted that he would be fighting for a title next time out. In the chief support bout Reiko Sugiyama (6-5-3, 4) scored a 6th round TKO win against Takuya Yamamoto (6-4, 3). The under-card for this show, which featured 6 bouts, were all scheduled for 4 rounds. Of those two failed to go the distance. They saw Masaki Sasaki (1-0, 1) take an opening round KO win against Hidemitsu Yokoyama (0-1) whilst Yuto Nakamura (2-1, 2) took a 4th round TKO over Michitaka Umemoto (1-2, 1). The most competitive bout of the show saw Tom Hamaguchi (3-3) take a majority decision over Seiya Kaga (1-1). Another competitive fight saw Takayoshi Mizoguchi (1-1) take a competitive win over Kiyoshi Nakamura (2-3, 1). Mizoguchi was one of 3 fighters to pick up their first win. Another was Kizuki Yamazaki (1-1), who beat Takashi Kagamihara (2-3) whilst Takayuki Sakai (1-0-1) claimed a win over Shohei Iwamoto (0-3-1). Ishikawa, Japan Another Japanese show took place in Ishikawa. This card featured a genuine upset as Yudai Tamagawa (8-6-1, 2) claimed a split decision win over once touted Filipino Mark Gil Melligen (21-6-1, 12) For Melligen, who fought for an OPBF title earlier this year, this was a second successive set back and it's hard to see where he goes now. The Tamagawa/Melligen bout was one of 3 bouts scheduled for 8 rounds. Another saw Yudai Arai (7-3-3, 3) scored a wide decision win over Yukiya Hanabusa (8-3-2, 2), in a fight that looked good on paper, whilst the other saw boxing nomad Omrri Bolivar (3-0, 1) defeat Xinghua Wang (11-13-1). Bolivar, from Venezuela, has fought in China and Japan in recent weeks and seems likely to continue his interesting career on the road. In a 6 rounder Hurricane Futa (20-5-1, 11) blow away Ik Soo Han (7-5, 2) inside a round whilst Mika Iwakawa (4-3-1, 1) out pointed Aiko Yamagishi (4-3-1, 2) in a female bout, also over 6. Another female bout saw Asami Jinnari (3-1, 1) score a 3rd round TKO win over win-less Thai Petchluksor Sor Praithong (0-3), in a bout scheduled for 4 rounds. The only other 4 rounder was a narrow win for Yohei Fukui (3-0, 1), who defeated Dong Yang (1-5). Baden-Württemberg, Germany Staying with Japanese fighters there was a win for foreign based Japanese fighter Aniya Seki (29-3-2, 4) who defeated the heavy handed but crude Carolina Schroeder (8-2, 7) by a clear decision in a but for a couple of lowly recognised female world titles. Suzhou, China There was also action in China with a small card in Suzhou. In the main event Shunkai Xia (5-0, 2) claimed the WBO China National Cruiserweight title with an 8 round decision against Samoan fighter Falani Tavu'i (4-2, 1). We're not sure how a Somoan, making a Chinese debut, was allowed to fight for a China national title though it certainly seems like Xia is missing details from his record, that could mean bouts or just small inaccuracies. In another 8 round contest fans saw teenager Jian Wang (1-0) take a decision win over Zhan Gupo Sun (0-1-1). The win, a clear one for the 19 year old Wang, was an impressive debut but it will be interesting to see how far he can go. The card also featured a couple of 6 round bouts. One of those saw 17 yeard old Light Heavyweight Fei Hu Wang (1-0) claim a clear win against Yu Qu (0-1). The other was a very wide win for Wen feng Ge (1-0) who took a 60-52 win, across the board, against, Xu Gao Yan (0-1) In a female 4 rounder YuanYuan Zhao (1-0) took a 4 round decision win over Ling Wang (0-1). (Image courtesy of GBP)
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Incheon, South Korea
The first of the action came from Korea where the KBC held their latest rookie show. The show featured 5 bouts in total with a single 6 rounder along with 4 bouts scheduled for 4 rounds. The 6 rounder saw Jae Man Kim (3-1, 1) claim a majority decision against Sang Hoo Kil (3-3-2) in a bout at Super Bantamweight. This bout saw Kim bounce back from his sole loss whilst Kil saw a 4-fight unbeaten run come to an end. On paper the stand out bout was a Welterweight bout between Han Jong Yuh (2-0, 2) and Jae Pil Huh (2-2). The bout looked good on paper and turned out to be great, albeit short lived. Yuh managed to stop Huh in just 157 seconds, but had to drop Huh twice and was dropped himself in a bout that featured a lot of action in a very short amount of time. Another stoppage saw the debuting Yoon Kil Kim (1-0, 1) score a 2nd round TKO win against Ki Suk Lee (0-1), with Lee being stopped early in the round. Another debutant to pick up a loss was Sang Hoon Jang (0-1) who was out pointed by 34 year old namesake Jung Ho Jang (2-1-1, 1). Sang Hoon Jang was successful in bouncing back from his stoppage loss, last time out, to the exciting Kyoo Hwan Hwang though he was forced to struggle with his debuting opponent here. Another bout that went the distance saw Tae Ho Gang (3-4) claim a clear decision win over the win-less Seung Hak Shin (0-2). This bout, at Cruiserweight, ended a 2-fight losing streak for Gang. New Jersey, USA In the US fans had the chance to see a couple of unbeaten Chinese fighters. The most notable of the two Chinese fighters was Heavyweight hopeful Zhang Zhilei (5-0, 3) who moved into 6 rounders in a successful fashion. Zhilei, who's progress has been slow as a professional, was battling the tough but limited Dennis Benson (2-7-1, 1) and was taken into the 6th round before finally seeing off Benson. On paper a 6th round TKO doesn't look great for Zhilei but it is worth noting that this was the first time Benson had been stopped. The other Chinese fighter was Wang Zhimin (4-0, 2) who stopped the win-less Carlos Nieves (0-8-1) in the 4th round. This was Zhimin's second successive stoppage after going the distance in his first couple of fights. California, USA
It seems like we've suddenly seen a quick growth in Chinese fighters making names for themselves. In California fans had a chance to see two of the more touted Chinese fighters in action. One of those was Meng Fanlong (2-0, 1) who scored his first stoppage courtesy of a 2nd round KO against the 38 year old Albert Avina (0-4), who suffered his 3rd stoppage defeat. Fanlong is tipped for big things but at 27 he doesn't have much time to waste so hopefully we'll see him matched up harder than this soon. The other Chinese fighter in action in California was Wang Zhimin (3-0, 1), who also scored his first stoppage. The talented Zhimin made very light work of the usually durable Jose L Guzman (6-11-1), who lasted just 143 seconds with Zhimin. Although Zhimin hasn't really “stepped up” yet he has been very impressive so far, and we suspect he'll be moved into tougher fights in the near future. Nevada, USA It was a great day for debuting Uzbek Sanjarbek Rakhmanov (1-0, 1) who began his career with an 81 second win over Brett Simmons (2-2-2, 1). The 25 year old Rakhmanov is tipped highly highly this win really tells us little other than that he now has his career off to a winning start and that bigger things are expected of him in the future. Chonburi, Thailand The first Asian card of the day came from Thailand where a number of promising South Korean fighters were on show as AK Promotions managed to keep their stable of fighters busy. The most notable name on the card was former OPBF title challenger Jaesung Lee (18-4-2, 9) who surprisingly struggled to over-come the previously unbeaten Rivera AK Gym (1-1, 1). Lee's performance was much worse than expected though it may be excused by the fact he was fighting at Featherweight and had had a March 1st bout changed and then cancelled prior to this contest. Hopefully we'll see an improved version of Lee next time out. The other 3 Korean fighters on the card were all involved in title bouts. Of those the most promising was Hyun Woo Yu (4-0, 4) who claimed the WBC Asian Boxing Council silver Light Welterweight title with a 31 second blow out win against Indonesia's Oke Haryanto (5-6-1, 2), who has now been stopped in 4 successive bouts. We like what we've seen of Yu but we don wonder what the WBC were doing allowing Haryanto to fight for any title at 140lbs. Another early blow out in a title contest saw Hong Kyoon Shin (10-3-1, 6) score a 2nd round KO against Jack Madison (2-4) to claim the WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental Super Flyweight title. Amazingly for Shin this is his first win since 2006, however he has been inactive in recent years with a record of 0-2-1 in his previous 3 bouts dating back more than 7 years. For Madison this was his 4th stoppage loss overall and his second in a row. The remaining title bout came in a female contest as Hee-Jun Yun (15-2, 6) scored an 8th round TKO win over Nonggift Onesongchaigym (7-3-2, 1) to claim the WBC Asian Boxing Council female Super Flyweight title. This win saw Yuh scoring her 13th straight win and become the first fighter to stop Nonggift, who had previously been in with Hongfah Tor Buamas and Eva Voraberger. The one bout that didn't feature a Korean saw “losers” colliding as Kongfah Singwancha (6-12-1, 3) take an opening round stoppage against Kong Windy Sports (1-9) who was stopped for the 6th time in his career, including a loss last time out to the very promising Yu. México, Mexico In Mexico we had a genuinely thrilling female fight between two of the sports elite female fighters. The bout saw Japan's sensational Naoko Fujioka (13-1, 6) look like a star as she gritted her teeth and over-came Mexican starlet Mariana Juarez (40-8-3, 17) in a bout our friend Jake Donovan described as FOTY contender. Juarez, a very popular Mexican, started well as was in the lead on two of the cards when the open scoring was announced after 4 rounds. That announcement seemed to wake up Fujioka who moved up a gear to win the final 6 rounds and take a very well deserved split decision win with scores of 98-93 and 97-93 in her favour, whilst the dissenting judge gad it 94-96. Despite being 39 it's clear that Fujioka still belongs at the top and should continue to be recognised as one of the best female boxers on the planet, despite her loss to Susi Kentikian last time out. Baja California, Mexico Things in Mexico weren't as good for Filipino fighter Rogelio Jun Doliguez (19-3-2, 14) who suffered his 3rd loss in 4 bouts as he was easily beaten by the world class Fernando Montiel (54-4-2, 39). The bout was completely one-sided with Montiel winning by a score of 99-88 on all 3 cards. Sadly for the once promising Filipino it seems like his early hype has now been thoroughly finished. New Jersey, USA In New Jersey fans got the chance to see two touted Chinese fighters in action with both of them taking decisions wins. One of those Chinese fighters was Heavyweight hopeful Zhang Zhilei (3-0, 2) who went the distance for the first time in his career as he was unable to see off American fighter Eric George (2-9). For Zhilei, dubbed “Big Bang” this will be a disappointing result but at the end of the day a win is a win for the 2008 Olympic silver medallist. The other Chinese fighter was Wang Zhimin (2-0) who took a 6 round decision win over the very testing Jesus Lule (7-11, 1). Although Lule's record is less than spectacular this was a genuine good result for the Chinese novice who could well be one of the countries most promising fighters despite the lack of hype he's received so far. Queensland, Australia In Australia we saw a minor upset as the unbeaten Filipino John Vincent Moralde (12-0, 6) dominated and out pointed the previously unbeaten Brayd Smith (12-1, 10) in a very one sided bout that showed just how good Moralde is. Aged 20 we thought this bout might have come too early for Moralde but he was sensational landing combinations at will and looking a clear level above his foe who struggled to claim more than a round. For Moralde this win is likely to be rewarded with a fringe WBC ranking to go alongside his newly acquired WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental Featherweight title. (Image courtesy of Pepe Rodriguez) This past Saturday was the first major day for Asian fight fans as we got a major bout in Asia, some notable debuts and action involving a number of unbeaten prospects. It may not have been a day of world title fights but it's certainly been the highlight of the year so far. Tokyo, Japan The biggest of two Asian cards came from the Korakuen Hall and was televised NTV G+, a subscription based channel in Japan. The show was the first Japanese show of the year and featured the first OPBF title fight of 2014 as well as several other notable bouts. We'll begin with the main event which featured Thailand's very highly regarded Jomthong Chuwatana (9-0, 4) successfully retain the OPBF Super Featherweight title and record his best win to date. Jomthong, defending the belt for the 4th time, looked awful on the scales on Friday but looked brilliant in the ring as he out boxed, out landed and generally out fought the teak tough and Hercules-like Daiki Kaneko (21-4-3, 14). Coming in to the bout it seemed like a 50-50 contest though through the middle rounds it seemed like Jomthong was in a league of his own as he bloodied the face of the Japanese fighter, who had previously given Takashi Uchiyama a tough bout in a world title contest. Although it's not been stated we now suspect that Jomthong will be hunting a world title bout and on this performance you'd have to give him a chance against any of the current world champions at 130lbs. In the key support bouts we had Middleweight action with two separate Middleweight bouts. The more competitive of those Middleweight bouts saw the heavy handed Shoma Fukumoto (6-1, 5) take his first distance win as he took a majority decision over the tough Kazuyuki Fukuyama (9-6, 2). The 8 round win will serve Fukumoto well going forward though we do wonder just how promising he really is. The other Middleweight bout saw former Japanese Middleweight champion Tomohiro Ebisu (13-4, 13) score an opening round victory over the poor Tatsuro Kawabata (6-6, 2) who really lacked the toughness to hand with Ebisu. Lower down the card we had a pair of 6 rounders. One of those saw Hideki Suzuki (6-4-1, 1) score his first stoppage win as he stopped the chinny Hikaru Takaki (6-6, 5) with just seconds left in round 5. The other 6 rounder lasted little more than a minute as the heavy handed Naoki Mochizuki (6-1, 5) quickly dispatched Takuma Okara (5-10, 2). The card began with 4 rounders. One of those was an all debutant contest that saw Masato Niijima (1-0, 1) kick off his career with an opening round win over Kenji Haruta (0-1). Another stoppage on this portion of the card saw Ryosuke Yokota (4-1, 3) stop the previously unbeaten Eisuke Hara (3-1, 2). One unbeaten man who maintained his unbeaten record was Teppei Kayanuma (3-0, 2) who had his stoppage run ended by Seiryu Toshikawa (1-2, 1) in a genuinely competitive contest. Cotabato del Sur, Philippines As well as the action in Japan there was also some in the Philippines. This was at a lower level to the Japanese card but still an important one. In the main event fans saw former Filipino amateur stand out Adam Diu Abdulhamid (4-2, 1) avenge his loss to JR Mendoza (10-18, 4) with a 10 round decision. Abdulhamid lost his first bout with Mendoza in November though will take great solace from this win. Incidentally this is Abdulhamid second rematch with an opponent in just 6 pro bouts and some would have suspect that he's not going tio live up to the expectation many had of him. In the chief support bout fans saw Ronie Tanallon (5-1-1, 1) take an 8 round decision over journeyman Jonathan Ricablanca (7-46-2, 1) in what was the sole 8 rounder. Much of this show consisted of 6 round bouts, with two of those going the distance. One of those saw Markquil Salvana (6-0, 1) take a decision win over Dave Ogbamin (2-3-2, 1) whilst the other saw Raymart Gaballo (7-0, 5) take a decision over the debuting Paolo Romero (0-1). The other 6 rounders were both over quickly with Michael Angelo Plania (4-0, 2) taking out Marwin Cristota (2-12-1, 1) in the 3rd round and Romero Duno (4-0, 3) blowing out Rey Liparanon (4-11-1, 1) inside a round. In the sole 4 rounder of the card fan saw the debuting Benny Jade Slight (1-0, 1) blast out the win-less Michael Manambay (0-10). Connecticut, USA In the US we had a trio of Chinese fighters in action, including 2 debutants and a touted Heavyweight hopeful. The Heavyweight was Zhang Zhilei (2-0, 2) who scored his second early victory as he took out the much smaller Perry Filkins (0-1) inside a round. To our knowledge Filkins is an MMA fighter and and he may well stay away from boxing after this 70 second defeat. Incidentally Filkin's did last almost a minute longer than Curtis Lee Tate who faced Zhilei in Zhilei's farcical debut. One of the debutant was Wang Zhimin (1-0), a much touted Chinese fighter than some feel could go a very, very long way. Zhimin took a clear decision over fellow debutant Kin Moy (0-1) and it's hard to see anything but a fantastic future in the sport for Zhimin. The other debutant was Olympian Meng Fanlong (1-0) who over-came Marcellus Yates (0-2) via a majority decision. Strangely Fanlong won a shut out on 2 cards whilst the 3rd judge had it a draw. (Image courtesy of boxmob.jp) |
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