Tokyo, Japan
The only Asian show this past Monday came from the Korakuen Hall where reason put on the latest in the “Dangan” series of shows. On paper the card was one of the most mouth watering so far and it had everything, prospects, veterans and fighters tipped to go a long way. It also had action and shocks.

The show opened with a 4 round bout that saw Masaharu Kaito (2-0) take a narrow decision against the previously unbeaten Ryota Toyoshima (2-1-1, 2). The bout was a close and very competitive bout which acted as the perfect opening for the fans who got to the venue early. Those same fans also got a treat in the second bout as the much touted Daigo Higa (6-0, 6) continued his perfect run. Higa took on his stiffest test to date in the form of Filipino Cris Alfante (11-5, 4), who was stopped in the 4th round of the scheduled 6 rounder. For Higa this was his longest bout to date and it seems very clear that he has the power, style and ability to go to title level in the coming years.

Another man who will be looking to compete in title bouts in the coming years is Yusaku Kuga (11-1-1, 6) who recorded a 2nd round TKO against Kojiro Takada (13-9-3, 9). For Kuga this bout may serve as his final bout before a potential fight for the Japanese Super Bantamweight title and although it was a mismatch on paper it was good to see Kuga getting back in the ring after having been out of action since November.

The big shock on the card was a wide loss for the touted Koki Koshikawa (4-1, 2) who was effectively shut out by veteran Koshinmaru Saito (21-7-1, 11). This was supposed to be Koshikawa's coming out party and a bout that saw im claiming a Japanese ranking but instead the previously unbeaten man struggled to ever get in to the bout. For Saito his movement was key but Koshikawa was very disappointing.

At the top of the show was a co-main event. The first of those main bouts saw OPBF Flyweight champion Koki Eto (17-3-1, 13) record the second defense of his title as he took an 8th round TKO against Yuki Fukumoto (17-10, 5). Eto did struggle early in the bout, losing 2 of the first 4 rounds, but found his rhythm in the middle portion of the fight before stopping Fukumoto. After the bout the champion hinted strongly at dropping the title to fight for a world title, and from what we understand his likely route is going t be the IBF title.

The other main event saw Japanese Super Featherweight champion Rikki Naito (13-0, 5) take a hard fought win over former world ranked fighter Nihito Arakawa (25-6-1, 16). The bout saw Naito need to battle hard after a poor start though ended up becoming a really excellent bout between two very good fighters. For Naito this win will likely help move him towards a world title fight, though we're now unsure if his future lies at Super Featherweight or at Lightweight.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

This past Tuesday was a busy day in Asian boxing with several interesting fighters in action through out Asia.

Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
In Japan fans had the chance to see the latest in the Dangan series of shows and, on paper, this was a great card with several very promising young fighters in action in what were really interesting tests.

The most notable of the youngsters who we thought was being tested was Masayuki Ito (16-0-1, 7) who took on Filipino foe Ryan Sermona (16-7, 9) in what looked like an interesting bout. Ito, who beat Masao Nakamura last time out, was expected to to do what he usually does and box and move though began the bout by holding his ground and landing some very clean and damaging shots. Those managed to quickly cut Sermona and inside a round the referee was forced to stop the bout due to the cut. This was the quickest of Sermona's stoppage defeats and notably Ito's 4th stoppage win in 5 fights suggesting he is growing in belief of his own stopping power even if he didn't stand and trade with Nakamura.

Another very interesting bout at the top of this card saw Ryoichi Tamura (3-1-1, 1) score an 8th round TKO over Kenji Kubo (5-3-1, 2) in a bout that was everything a boxing fan could hope to see. Both men gave their all before a tired looking Kubo was dropped late in the bout. It was one of the bouts that again suggested we down-rate fighters for their records and Tamura showed the ability to go a long way, don't be fooled by his record.

A third man who we were excited to see in action was Yusaku Kuga (10-1-1, 6) who struggled to a technical decision win over tough southpaw Kenta Takahashi (10-9-3, 3). The bout was stopped in the 5th round with Kuga taking the unanimous technical decision though it does appear that he will need a few more bouts before moving to title level.

A fourth 8 rounder on this card saw former OPBF title challenger Valentine Hosokawa (18-4-3, 9) scored a 5th round TKO against the light hitting and relatively soft Takeshi Goda (7-3-1, 2) who suffered his third stoppage loss. This was Hosokawa's second win following his loss to Min Wook Kim in an OPBF title fight in  South Korea last year.

Further down the card fans saw the talented Daishi Nagata (1-0-1) score his first career win as he took a 6 round split decision over the more experienced Jeffrey Arienza (12-3-1, 7). Although Nagata went into this bout having only drawn on his debut he was matched hard and it seems clear that he's not going to be given many easy bouts in his career. Another 6 rounder saw Kyosuke Sawada (2-2, 1) take a clear decision over Yamato Nakagawa (4-5, 2).

At the start of this card fans saw Ryo Ueda (3-0, 2) take a clear decision over Regent Kusumoto (2-1) whilst the debuting Toru Wakamatsu (1-0, 1) managed to defeat Yutaka Kato (0-1) with a 4th round stoppage in an all debutant affair.

Dumaguete City Hall Quadrangle , Dumaguete City, Philippines
As well as the show in Japan we also had a card in the Philippines headlined by the unbeaten Mark Bernaldez (15-0, 10). We'll admit we are high on Bernaldez but he was less than impressive here as he struggled to a majority decision win over Cristian Abila (12-15-3, 4)

Another unbeaten fighter at the top of the card was Brian Lobetania (9-0-3, 7) who managed to live up to expectations as he stopped Renante Suacasa (6-13, 1) in the fourth round to extend his winning run. On paper the win was expected by Lobetania though no one would have expected him to stop Suacasa who had been just once in his 8 bouts.

In the sole 8 rounder Jonas Sultan (6-2, 4) scored a 7th round stoppage against Andrew Palas (3-3, 1) in the 7th round of the bout.

Another stoppage win came for Crispin Parba (8-7, 5) who took out the very experienced Elmer Colve (6-31-3, 2) in the fourth round of a 6 round whilst it took Jess Rhey Waminal (5-0, 3) a round less to stop Alvin Sibugan (1-2-1). The only 6 rounder that actually went the distance was that of the debuting Jesson Horteza (1-0) who out pointed James Paul Talaman (2-1, 1).

In 4 rounders fans saw Michael Estrella (1-0) out point Noel Rosa (0-4) and Junder Gregorio (1-0) defeat Jamjam Ungon (1-7) in two wins for debutants.

Thailand
Unfortunately we've not got all the Thai results yet though the one we do have is that of PABA Welterweight champion Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (28-0, 22) who stopped Abraham Peralta (14-3, 12) in the 8th round of their bout. Teerachai has continued to show improvements though we are worried that he'll never become the fighter that his team had hoped and bouts like this aren't likely to really help him develop in the way he could.

(Image, of Ito landing a clean jab on Sermona, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)

Tokyo, Japan
The only card of note this Wednesday was Dangan 108, a showed dubbed "The Battle".

The shows name came from the incredibly intriguing main event between the very heavy handed Masao Nakamura (18-2, 18) and the light hitting but very impressive skills Masayuki Ito (15-0-1, 6), the bout dubbed "The battle". Sadly the bout turned out to be less of a "battle" and more of an interesting but controlled bout with Ito's jab being the key punch in the contest. Nakamura managed to shine in some rounds but few would have seriously believed he had done enough to win with Ito taking a close but well deserved victory. If you're wanting to see the video of this fight, we have it here.

Nakamura, a former OPBF Super Featherweight title holder, was one of two former champions on the show with the other being former 5-weight Japanese national champion Tadashi Yuba (46-9-2, 33). Unlike Nakamura we didn't see any struggles from Yuba who took care of Filipino foe Dondon Lapuz (19-46-7, 7) inside a round. Yuba finished the bout with a pair of solid body shots which folded Lapuz up and kept him down for the count. Again we've managed to get the video of the fight here.

The third bout from the top of the show saw once beaten Filipino Michael Dasmarinas (17-1, 10) defeat the more experienced Hayato Kimura (21-7, 15) with an 8 round unanimous decision. For Kimura, who has also been known as "Big Yoo" and Joon-In Yoo, this is a major set back and one that looks even worse considering just how 1-sided the bout was. For Dasmarinas this is a win that should help push him towards an OPBF title bout even if he's not quite yet ready to face the likes of Ryosuke Iwasa. On the performance he gave however it's fair to say that Dasmarinas has a lot of potential and hopefully someone will nature it. Again, for those wanting to watch the fight, we did manage to get the video of the bout which can be seen here.

Whilst the main event didn't live up to expectation it wasn't the only domestic bout of interest and another was the Super Bantamweight bout between Yusaku Kuga (9-1-1,6) and Koji Aoki (16-8-2, 6). The men both entered the bout ranked in the top 15 domestically though Kuga was far superior to his Aoki who looked out of his depth from early on and stopped Aoki in round 6. This is the third win for Kuga since his draw with the hotly tipped Naoto Uebayashi and we'd really be shocked if the 23 year old Kuga doesn't go a long way before his career is over. This is yet another bout we've managed to track down in terms of video footage, which can be viewed here.

Prior to the 4 bouts mentioned above there were 4 undercard bouts. These began with a disappointing technical draw between Kazuya Nomura (0-2-1) and the debuting Koji Tomaru (0-0-1). The bout wasn't just disappointing in terms of result but in terms of actual fight as well with the ending coming after just 27 seconds! In a Featherweight bout fought early on the show fans had the chance to see Kei Iwahara (3-1, 2) stop the debuting Tsuyoshi Nakajima (0-1) in the 4th round of their bout. In another under-card bout we saw another early finish as the unbeaten Ryu Ueda (2-0, 2) took out fellow novice Masayuki Kondo (1-1, 1) in just 42 seconds! Amazingly we've also managed to track down the video of this quick blow out win for Ueda.

The sole 6 rounder on the show, also one of the under-card bouts, saw Japanese-Brazilian Cristiano Aoqui (8-3-2, 4) take a clear decision over Quaye Peter (5-5-2, 3). Peter, originally from Ghana, is now 0-4-1 in his last 5 bouts suggesting that his career really looks like it's hit a brick wall after starting 5-1-1.

(Image, of Kuga and Aoki, courtesy of boxingnews.jp)