Suriyan, Jirapan and Nawaphon pick up wins in Thailand whilst Japanese fans get Dangan B class tournament action!

This past Tuesday Asian fans in Thailand and Japan had action to make note of.

Pathum Thani, Thailand
In Thailand fans got televised action courtesy of Channel 3 who aired a short Nakornluang promoted show featuring a highly ranked Flyweight, a former Super Flyweight champion and a very promising young novice.

The novice was the unbeaten Jirapan Nakornluang (3-0, 2) who managed to continue his winning run as he defeated Italian debutant Philipo Piatada (0-1) with a 6 round unanimous decision. Another bout that went the distance saw former WBC Super Flyweight champion, and current Bantamweight contender, Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (40-6-1, 18) take a decision over experienced Indonesian loser Samuel Tehuayo (18-33-2, 3). Meeting for the second time Suriyan did what he needed to do to take home the win though again left us wondering why Tehuayo, aka “Sammy Hagler”, is still used as a journeyman considering his run of 4-33-2 has really failed to see him do much more than survive at times.

In the main event of this show fans saw Flyweight contender Nawaphon Por Chokchai (26-0, 19) successfully defend his WBC Asian Boxing Council Flyweight title with a 5th round KO against Filipino Southpaw Powell Balaba (8-13-1, 5). This was Balaba's 4th straight loss and it again leaves questions as to how a bout like this will really help Nawaphon prepare for a world title fight, or a mooted world title eliminator.

Tokyo, Japan
In Japan fans had a show that was much more competitive on paper and provided plenty of action, though did also feature one bit of disappointment. The card, which was mostly a B class tournament looked brilliant on paper and proved, on the hole, to be really good.

The began with a 4 round bout, the only 4 round bout on the show, and saw the debuting Yuta Ishikawa (1-0, 1) defeat fellow debutant Makoto Yamazaki (0-1) in the 3rd round with a KO to begin his career with a win.

The second bout was at Middleweight where the win-some, lose-some Koji Kase (5-4, 2) managed to narrowly defeat the heavy handed Wataru Seino (4-3, 4). For Seino this was his first bout in more than a year, following an opening round defeat to Koki Tyson Maebara in the 2013 Rookie of the Year final whilst Kase has now streaked to 3 straight wins following a 4 fight losing run.

A scheduled bout involving Kenya Noguchi (2-0, 2) against an experienced Thai foe was supposed to be the 3rd bout on the card but was sadly cancelled, and we're unsure why.

The first B-class tournament bout was the shows 3rd contest and it saw a notable upset as Tatsuji Kakumoto (5-5, 1) took a clear decision win over Yuji Okinori (6-2-1, 1) in a bout at Flyweight. The 22 year old Kakumoto certainly doesn't have a great record but it's clear he's better than the numbers suggest and many of his losses have been razor thin decisions. As for Okinori this is his 3rd straight set back following a 6-0 (1) start to his career.

Kakumoto's win was one of two bouts in the Flyweight division with the other being between Kensuke Sasaki (3-1, 2) and Yasuhiro Tanaka (4-2-2) with Sasaki taking a clear but hard fought decision over his more experienced foe. Sasaki is a man we suspect is being groomed as a better prospect than many may suspect and he could well be a man to make a note of. Tanaka on the other hand suffered his second defeat in 3 bouts.

One of the most competitive bouts saw Hyuma Fujioka (5-3-1) take a hotly fought split decision win over Naoto Fuimoto (7-5-1, 4). Fujioka entered this bout following a stoppage loss to Gaku Aikawa 10 months ago and fought possibly the best bout of his career so far to inflict the second successive decision on to Fujimoto who has also lost last December.

Heavy handed Super Bantamweight Kazuki Yokoyama (7-2, 5) continued to leave opponents in his wake as he notched up the 5th stoppage of his career and forced the referee to save Shota Kumazawa (6-7-1, 5) in the 4th round. For Yokoyama this is a second straight win following an opening round defeat in November 2013 whilst Kumazawa has now lost 4 of his last 5 dating back to 2012.

The talented Shingo Koike (7-2, 3) appeared to be under pressure early on against Ryuta Nakajima (5-5-1, 4) though in round 3 it was Nakajima who ended up on the canvas following a wonderful shot from Koike who ended the bout. Having been out of action for 14 months this was a great win for Koike, even though Nakajima had lost his previous 3.

In a really exciting contest between two men who believed there power was the key fans saw Takahiro Shinohara (6-4-2, 6) stop Atsuhi Kudo (3-4-2, 3) in the 3rd round. The bout saw plenty of exchanges and was a fun fight with Kudo being stopped on his feet. For Hinohawa this was his second win in a row following almost 2 years of inactivity. Kudo has now been stopped for the first time.

Possibly the pick of the bouts, at least on paper, was the penultimate contest on the show which saw the talented Daisuke Watanabe (2-0, 2) dispose of the more experienced Ryuto Araya (7-3-1, 1) in the second round, with the corner throwing in the towel to say Araya. Watanabe caught out eye last year when he stopped Toru Kudo in the 4th round and we suspect he's going to achieve something notable sooner rather than later, so keep an eye on this 23 year Featherweight hopeful. Araya on the other hand suffered his first stoppage defeat and saw a 2-fight winning streak come to an end.

In the final bout of the show fans saw Makoto Kawasaki (6-2-1, 1) take a 5 round decision over Mamoru Takeuchi (5-6-3). This loss ended a 3 fight winning streak for Takeuchi whilst Kawasaki scored his second win in a row. In the ring this was a big of a mismatch with Kawasaki being too good for Takeuchi who was unable to really compete with his more skilled rival.