Sometimes it's great to look back at the influential figures from the past and think about the major pioneers in the sport. For female boxing in Asia few are as important as Nojima "Sugar" Miyuki. She's not a fighter that many in the west will be aware of, though some may spot her name when looking at the record of the legendary Regina Halmich.
Miyuki is one of those fighters where boxrec really doesn't tell the full story of the fighter, and very few places really do her any kind of justice. Having said that we won't be doing a full biography on Miyuki here, but we do have 5 midweek facts about Sugar Miyuki! 1-Although Miyuki's birth name was Nojima Miyuki, she was far better known in the sport by her in ring moniker of "Sugar Miyuki". That was a name inspired by Sugar Ray Leonard. 2-On July 26th 1997 Miyuki won the IWBF Minimumweight title, and she became the first Japanese female boxer to win any form of a world title title. Whilst the title is a lower profile one than the "Big 4" the title win is still a notable historical first first Japanese female boxing. 3-Interestingly her title win, whilst listed as happening by the Japan Boxing Association isn't listed on Boxrec (at the time of writing). In fact Boxrec lists Miyuki as having a 1-1 record but Japanese sources, who are usually reliable with Japanese records, report her to have gone 11-1 (4) in the professional ranks. It needs to be noted that all of her early career bouts came before the JBC recognised female boxing and some took place before the Japan Women's Boxing Association, better known was JWBC, was even founded. 4-in 2012 Miyuki took part in a trial match against Mayumi Kubo, losing 3-0 over the 3 round bout. That bout took place when she was in her 40's, and she explained she hadn't even been involved in an exhibition for more than 10 prior to that bout. 5--Before turning to professional boxing Miyuki had took part in other combat sports, including Shoot boxing, in which she fought as "Miyuki", and kick boxing, where she recorded a 5-5 record.
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When we talk about legendary Korean fighters one man who often gets over-looked is Soo Hwan Hong (41-5-4, 14). He was the first Korean world champion to win a world title on the road, winning the WBA Bantamweight title in South Africa in 1974, and then repeated the acted again in Panama when he stopped Hector Carrasquilla for the WBA Super Bantamweight title. Although Hong wasn't the first Korean world champion, that was Ki Soo Kim, he was the second world champion from the country, a 3-time OPBF champion and a 2-weight world champion. He was also involved in a bout that still lives on in legend, with Hong pulling himself off the canvas 4 times to win his second world title. As fans of the gutsy Korean here we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know... Soo Hwan Hong! 1-Before becoming a world champion Hong had scored several wins of note. These included victories over Ushiwakamaru Harada, the brother of Fighting Harada, former world champion Berkrerk Chartvanchai 2-Hong's legendary bout with Hector Carrasquilla, in 1977, was shown live in Korea on the now defunct Tongyang Broadcasting Company (TBC). The channel, which was owned by the Samsung founder Lee Byung Chul, was merged with KBS in 1980. Notably the two men are now friends, and have met up several times since their bout. 3-We know most fighters fair better at home rather than away but Hong's world title record seems to suggest he did better away from home. He went 4-3 in world title fight, with a 1-2 record in world title fights in Korea and a 3-1 record in world title fights away from home. 4-In his final bout Hong fought to a draw with Dong Kyun Yum. The two men had a strange number of things in common. Both were 30 years old, both had been former world champions and both would retire after their draw. It is worth noting this was actually the second time the two men fought, with Hong beating Yum in their 1977 clash. 5-Hong, who was living in Alaska at the time, was arrested in 1984 for drug smuggling. He was arrested by the Anchorage Police and released on $2,000 bail. At this point he was working as a taxi driver and it appears that Hong was unfortunately transporting a known drug dealer around. Not only was he a taxi driver in the US but he also ended up washing dishes, and being embarrassed by the owner of the restaurant where he did the dishes. 6-Following his return to Korea, in 1992, Hong has remained a relevant figure South Korea and been involved in boxing. He was boxing commentator in the 1990's and featured regularly in broadcasts on Korean TV. He is also well regarded in his homeland and often receives news paper attention. 7-In 2007 Hong donated wigs to children suffering from Cancer at the Severance Children's Hospital. 8-In 2012 Hong became the Chairman of the Korean Boxing Commission (KBC). Prior to that he had also been the president of the Korea Boxing Association. 9-In the Pokémon games in South Korea Hitmonchan is named Hongsoomon, named after Soo Hwan Hong. This is similar to the original Japanese name "Ebiwalar", named after Hiroyuki Ebihara, and the French name "Tygnon" names after Mike Tyson. 10-Hong is married to Ok Hee, a Korean singer, though the two have had a rocky relationship since the 1970's, with their relationship beginning in 1977 when Hwan was with another woman in a common-law relationship. They then split, but reunited in the 1990's due to their children. On the subject of children the two have a son and daughter together. Hong also has children with his ex wife. During the past week we've seen quite a lot of talk about mandatory title defenses, in part due to Josh Warrington vacating the IBF Featherweight title, rather than defend against his mandatory challenger Kid Galahad.
It led to a lot of different discussions about mandatory title fights. Such as whether Warrington had ducked Galahad, and why mandatory title defenses in recent years have often been awful mismatches. With those conversations in mind we’ve decide to share our views on mandatory title fights, what they should be, the problem with them, and the problems with unwilling champions. Firstly, what is a mandatory title defense? We suspect you all already know this one, but it’s really important to understand what they are before going any further. A mandatory title fight is a defense ordered by the world title body, making the champion face a top challenger. This is typically the world title body’s #1 ranked contender, though some exceptions apply, and usually to get that ranking a fighter will need to win one, or more, eliminators. A champion is mandated to make regular mandatory defenses, typically every 9 months though there's some leeway, and if they fail to do so they are often stripped or forced to vacate. That’s the general gist, though there is more nuance to it than that, and exemptions can apply, step aside money can be paid and unification bouts can come before mandatory title defenses. Where there is a unified champion typically the world title bodies will agree to some form of order of defenses, though that doesn’t always apply. TL;DR version - “A title fight the body orders” So who is the mandatory challenger? As mentioned they are typically the #1 ranked challenger or someone who wins an eliminator. So in theory they should be good fighters and they should have proven themselves as a solid and viable contender. Or at the very least better than other contenders. This should work in the favour of a lesser known, awkward fighter that champions want to avoid due to them being high risk-low reward. It should also work as a quality control system, only allowing good fighters to get into a place to be a mandatory challenger. In principle it should reward fighters who take risks, who beat good competition, and who earn a shot. Getting into the position where a champion is forced to defend his title against a dangerous, valid challenger, rather than padding his record with easy voluntary defenses. So mandatory challengers should be good, right? Right! They SHOULD be good. In recent years however that hasn’t proven to be the case and often the top contenders have gotten elevated through the rankings on things other than merit. They aren’t really climbing the ladder to a world title fight but instead sliding up the rankings, often on some form of political bias, or unmerited rise through the ranks thanks to a minor title. As a result we’ve seen fighters like Kamil Szeremeta, Apinun Khongsong, Ryuichi Funai and Guillaume Frenois all getting world title fights in recent years. Sadly when we look at the current rankings there are some really odd fighters ranked in the #1 place with various title bodies. A couple of examples of these are: Sirichai Thaiyen (58-4, 39), aka Yodmongkol CP Freshmart, who is somehow the WBA's #1 ranked Super Flyweight, despite his last 8 wins come against no one resembling a test and his last notable bout being a loss, as a mandatory in a WBA world title fight. Joseph Agebko (38-5, 28), who the WBO rank at #1 in the Bantamweight division. That’s despite the fact the 43 year old Agbeko hasn’t scored a win of note or over another contender in years. Don’t get us wrong, Agbeko was a fantastic fighter in his prime, but that was almost a decade ago! With this in mind it’s fair to say that a number of top contenders, and potential mandatory challengers, really aren’t as qualified as they should be. They aren’t there from beating top contenders, and earning it, even in the cases where a fighter is very, very talented. So mandatory title fights are...bad? No! Not at all, mandatory title defenses are, quite often, very, very good, in fact some of the best fights of recent years have been mandatory title fights. These include the brilliant 2020 bout between Danny Roman and Murodjon Akhmadliev, Roman Gonzalez Vs Srisaket Sor Rungvisai I, and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai Vs Juan Francisco Estrada I and II, and most recently Kazuto Ioka Vs Kosei Tanaka. The problem isn’t that they are bad. It’s that they are inconsistent. Becoming a mandatory in a 4 title era, where talent in some division’s is already spread thin, means almost nothing. Where the champions are so much above the contenders no one really wants to see mandatory title fights getting in the way of bigger and better fights. And the IBF, who are a stickler for their rules, often end up giving us some terrible mandatory title fights as a result. The challengers themselves can range from elite level contenders, like Akhmadlaiev, Srisaket, Estrada and Tanaka, to terrible fighters with padded records, such as Szeremeta, to the downright confusing, such as when Ryo Miyazaki got a mandatory title shot in 2016. Fighters can get a shot less on what they are doing, and more on what the division is doing. And also, perhaps worst of all, some fighters never seem to end up facing a mandatory challenger anyway, with the rules seemingly ignored during their reigns. This can be particularly bad when the mandatory challenger is a dangerous one, and for whatever reason keeps getting their shot delayed, and delayed. The issue with mandatory title fights isn’t that they exist. They should exist. There are, however, a lot of problems with them. These include the fact that we have 4 world title bodies, with each having fighters and promoters they are closer to, and each giving a fighter an alternative route to a title. Another is that a mandatory position isn’t based on merit and achievement but instead political game and is based on paying fees for minor title fights. This has seen the WBO being closely associated with Puerto Rican fighters, along with fighters promoted by Bob Arum and Frank Warren, the WBA getting associated with PBC fighters in recent years along with Latin American fighters and the WBC traditionally favouring Mexican fighters. And another is that the rules are very, very inconsistent and sometimes if a fighter doesn’t want to face a mandatory challenger the challenger never gets a shot, whilst the title body bends over backwards to keep everyone happy and collect more sanctioning fees. Things like the WBC “Franchise” title, along with the WBA “regular” and “interim” further muddy the water. So what can be done to improve mandatory title fights? At their heart mandatory title fights are a good idea. A great idea in fact. But they need to have several changes done to really work in the way they were supposed to. Sadly those things don’t tend to match up with how boxing works. Firstly we need mandatory challengers to actually “earn” their number #1 ranking, and mandatory title shot. The IBF do have something to try and do this, but their rankings are still inconsistent and they often recycle contenders, which lead to the same challengers getting title fights and eliminators. Secondly we need world title bodies to actually be consistent with their rules. If a big name doesn’t want to defend against a mandatory they need to be stripped, not have a special title made for them to muddy the water. We need the divisions to remain active and busy and for fighters world titles are important, the challengers shouldn’t be finding themselves frozen out because a bigger name can make more money without the belt. We also need the world title bodies to do their damn job and have legitimate rankings. They need to stop playing political games and affiliating strongly with promoters whilst trying to put money first. By doing this they have all devalued themselves, making world titles become meaningless trinkets, and taking away a lot of the prestige of being a champion. They have made the sport a confusing mess for fans, and it seems that this will continue. So, is avoiding a mandatory challenger a duck? Yes. No. Sort of. Can be. There really isn't a one size fit all answer here, though the optics of not facing a mandatory challenger, and instead binning off the title, is certainly not a great look. There are reasons why a fighter might do it, such as moving up in weight, but on the whole it's not a good look, and it can mean that the champion that follows struggles to legitimise their reign, as we've seen with Devin Haney. It's rarely and out and out duck, but it certainly doesn't look great for the fighter or the title body. Back on January 14th we saw talented Japanese fighter Takuma Inoue (14-1, 3) claim his latest win and bag himself the OPBF Bantamweight title, with an excellent performance against Keita Kurihara.
The younger Inoue brother defeated Kurihara with a technical decision and looked the much better boxer throughout the contest, and in fact he looked better than he ever has. He looked sharp, light on his feet and like a man who was concentrating on making himself a better fighter, rather than caring too much about his opponent in the opposite corner. With that win now under his belt we’ve decided to take a look at what could be next for Inoue as we give him the “Five For” Treatment and look at 5 potential bouts for Inoue when he next fights. 1-Daigo Higa (17-1-1, 17) On paper one of the most logical bouts for Inoue’s next contest is a clash with fellow Japanese fighter Daigo Higa, in a bout that would see the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific titles being unified. Higa really impressed in his regional title win back in December, when he battered Yuki Strong Kobayashi on New Year’s Eve, but does still need to answer more questions before getting a world title fight at 118lbs. As for Inoue a win over Higa would put him right in the mix for a shot at a world title and would see him proving himself against a very strong pressure fighter, the type of fighter many feel could have his number. On paper this would be a fantastic domestic bout, though could be scuppered, potentially, by TV with Inoue being a Fuji TV fighter and Higa being a TBS fighter, albeit one that TBS doesn’t seem to be committed behind as of yet. 2-Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-2, 12) If a bout with Higa can’t be made and we have to look internationally a bout between Takuma Inoue and former IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez would certainly be a compelling one, and one with something of a backstory, as well as a chance for Inoue to bolster his international standing. Back in 2019 Rodriguez was stopped in 2 rounds by Takuma’s older brother, Naoya Inoue, though before the “Monster” dispatched Rodriguez there were some heated moments at Rodriguez’s work out. That would be some easy heat to play with from a promotional stand point, and of course with Naoya stopping Rodriguez this would be a chance for the Puerto Rican to get revenge on the Inoue family. It’s unlikely this bout would happen, but if it did we would be in for a bit of a technical chess match between two very smart fighters and it could end up being one of those very enjoyable high speed chess-style bouts. 3-Nawaphon Por Chockhai (50-1-1, 40) Staying on the idea of needing to face a foreign opponent a potential foe for Inoue would be 29 year old Thai contender Nawaphon Por Chokchai, who like Inoue is also wanting to secure a world title fight sooner rather than later. The highly experienced Nawaphon has only had one major bout in his 52 bout career, and that was a 2017 loss to Juan Hernandez Navarrete in a WBC Flyweight title bout. Since then Nawaphon has run up 14 straight wins and become a feature on the WP Boxing series, but desperately needs a big international fight to move towards a world title bout. With that in mind Inoue makes the perfect opponent for Nawaphon, and a win over Takuma would help Nawaphon get a world title fight. On the other hand Takuma would see a win over the experienced Thai as a chance to take huge strides towards a potential second WBC world title bout of his own. Given the styles of the two men this would be a really fun fight, with Nawaphon pressing and Inoue boxing and moving, giving us a really good gelling of styles. 4-Zolani Tete (28-4, 21) One other potential foreign opponent that Inoue could be looking at would be former 2-weight world champion Zolani Tete. The 32 year old South African hasn’t fought since losing the WBO Bantamweight title to Johnriel Casimero in 2019, but the talented southpaw shouldn’t be ignored when we talk about the Bantamweight division. It seems clear he’s a talented fighter and given his size and physical attributes he’s also a nightmare to fight. After all who wants to fight a tall, rangy, quick, awkward, powerful southpaw? Well someone looking to prove they are a world class fighter and deserves a world title fight, just like Takuma Inoue. We’ve seen Tete travel in the past, in fact he won his first world title in Japan when he beat Teiru Kinoshita for the IBF Super Flyweight title, and he would likely be open to travelling for face Inoue in a world title eliminator. For fans this might not be the most exciting bout but would be a compelling and high level fight. 5-Sho Ishida (29-2, 15) Of course at the moment Japanese fighters aren’t allowed to leave Japan and fighters coming into Japan isn’t possible either. With that in mind we’ve gone back to looking at domestic options and landed on former Super Flyweight world title challenger Sho Ishida, who looks likely to remain at Bantamweight going forward. Ishida has long promised a lot but has failed to deliver at the highest level, losing to Kal Yafai and Israel Gonzalez, and the 29 year old now needs to begin delivering. A way to do that is to try and make sure he’s regarded as the top contender in Japan. To do that he needs to beat some of the other top Japanese fighters at the weight, including Inoue. As for Inoue a bout with Ishida would give him the chance to defend his OPBF title and take huge strides towards a second world title fight of his own. The bout wouldn’t be big for fans outside of Japan, but in Japan this would be part of the classic rivalry between East and West Japan and would certainly be a very, very interesting technical match up. Back on January 16th we saw Japanese Welterweight fighter Ryota Toyoshima (13-2-1, 8) score the biggest win of his career, by far, as he overcame Riku Nagahama at Korakuen Hall to claim the OPBF Welterweight title. The victory over Nagahama was a hard fought bout overall but one where Nagahama seemed to be the clear winner, and one where his performance was genuinely fantastic. He was full of energy throughout the contest, kept throwing bombs and seemed on the verge of a stoppage, several times.
With that win under his belt, and with the current restrictions with entry to Japan we’ve decided to take a look at 5 potential opponents for Toyoshima’s first defense. Sadly due to the restrictions in Japan we’ve only looked at fighters currently based in the Land of the Rising sun for this “Five For...” though there is every chance things will change by the time Toyoshima returns to the ring much later in the year. 1-Yuki Beppu (21-1-1, 20) One thing we’re huge fans of are unification bouts. By that we don’t just mean world title unification bouts but unification bouts at every level of the sport, including regional unification bouts. With that in mind seeing Toyoshima put his OPBF title on the line against WBO Asia Pacific champion Yuki Beppu makes an obvious #1 pick for us here. The two men are both based in Japan, both hold regional titles, but are heavy handed, and both make for good action fights. Together they should give us brutal action and thrilling back and forth exchanges for as long as the two men can last. Of the two Beppu is the more proven and the more experienced, but Toyoshima’s win over Nagahama is pretty much on par with Beppu’s best win, over Ryota Yada, and the two men would match up very, very nicely in the ring. This is genuinely a bout we’d love to see later this year and one which would likely give us a FOTY contender. 2-Shoki Sakai (25-11-2, 13) Talking about potential FOTY contenders, a bout between Toyoshima and the teak tough Shoki Sakai would also have the potential to deliver something amazing. Toyoshima is a big punching boxer-puncher, when that style goes up against a tough and aggressive pressure fighter we tend to get something very special and that would be expected if Toyoshima clashed with Sakai. Although not too well known in Japan, where he has only fought twice, Sakai has proven his value as a gatekeeper in the West with bouts against the likes of Gor Yeritsyan, Alexis Rocha and Eddie Gomez. This would be a real mental test for Toyoshima, who would be facing a man with the edge in experience and toughness, but also a chance to legitimise his reign. It would also give Sakai a shot at a regional title, adding it to the WBC Youth world title he won way back in 2015. 3-Rikuto Adachi (14-2, 11) It’s fair to say that against either Beppu or Sakai we would expect to see Toyoshima being given hell. A much easier bout would be a defense against Rikuto Adachi, as long as Adachi gets through his March bout for the Japanese Youth title. Compared to Beppu and Sakai it’s fair to say that Adachi would be a massive down ground, but the heavy handed youngster, who now fights out of the Ohashi gym, would likely jump at the opportunity to take on the OPBF champion. Adachi is very much a work in progress, and although he’s been at the Ohashi gym for a while now he hasn’t been active, due to injuries, and will likely need a couple of wins under his belt before taking on Toyoshima. On the other hand that might suit the champion who damaged his hand in 2019, and may well feel like a good rest after his war with Nagahama, which was a very punishing bout for both men. If this doesn’t take place this year it will certainly be one that could end up happening somewhere down the line, given that both men are still relatively young. 4-Yuichi Ideta (14-15-1, 7) Whilst we love unification bouts there is also a bit of us that loves seeing a fighter rewarded for a really big win. Last year Yuichi Ideta scored a massive win as he upset Ryota Yada in December, ending a very long winless run. At the 36 Ideta isn’t going to have many bouts left in his career, and as a feel good story it would be great to see Ideta get a shot at a title. With that in mind, why not have Ideta get a shot at Toyoshima later in the year. On paper it would be a massive mismatch, but so was Ideta’s bout with Yada and he showed that when he was determined and hungry he could score big upsets. It’s a shame in some ways that Ideta beat Yada, as a bout between Yada and Toyoshima would be more interesting on paper, but we certainly wouldn’t complain if Ideta got a crack at the OPBF title as a reward for beating Yada last year. 5-Keita Obara (23-4-1, 21) We go back to unification bouts to finish this off, as a bout between Toyoshima, the OPBF champion, and Japanese national champion Keita Obara would certainly be one worth considering. On paper Obara would be the massive favourite, given his higher level of experience and his more proven career track record. However at 34 years old Obara is certainly getting on in terms of age and isn’t actually a natural Welterweight, despite looking good at the weight. He fought much of his career at Light Welterweight and only moved up to 147lbs in 2017, following a loss to Eduard Troyanovsky. He has also had mixed success at Welterweight, with a loss to Alvin Lagumbay in 2018 really standing out as proof he can be beaten by regional level fighters. Saying that, Obara would be favoured over Toyoshima but Toyoshima certainly has the power and energy to make this interesting and the win over Nagahama will have filled him with a lot of confidence. This would be explosive and exciting, but also potentially, very tense. Last week we saw Takuma Inoue (14-1, 3) claim the OPBF Bantamweight title by dethroning Keita Kurihara (15-6, 13) at Korakuen Hall in what was a highly anticipated match up, getting interest not just in Japan, but internationally. The bout managed to get listed on betting websites in Europe, Russia, the UK and US and fans genuinely seemed to want to watch it on Thursday, with many complaining about the lack of a live stream or a live TV broadcast. Thankfully it was aired, albeit on tape delay, a few days later.
With the bout now aired, and with fight fans having had a few days to give it a watch we’re now going to look back on the bout and share some of the things we took from the contest. 1-The cut was a major problem for Kurihara The first thing that needs to be mentioned was that the cut that Keita Kurihara suffered in the first round was a genuine problem for him. It was a nasty cut as soon as it happened, and it was one that really could have forced a much earlier conclusion to the bout than we had. The bout went to the scorecards after round 9, but in fairness there were worries that the contest could end up being stopped in the first 4 rounds, which would have resulted in a technical draw. It was a deep one, it was a big one, and it was one that certainly gave Kurihara some issues throughout the bout. Thankfully Kurihara didn’t make excuses or use the cut as an excuse, and in fairness we suspect even if he had avoided the cut it wouldn’t have changed the winner of the bout. 2-Kurihara failed to set things up One thing that surprised us here was how little Kurihara tried to use his reach and jab, and how he trudged forward whilst paying with the jab, rather than really letting it go. It was a good weapon in the first round, and should have been used throughout the contest to set up his power shots. He has a genuinely good jab, and we saw it in the first minute or two of the bout. Sadly though the jab almost vanished as he began looking more and more for a hail Mary shot. We suspect this is likely due to the cut, which came across his left eye, but it really showed as the bout went on. He came out looking for big right hands and heavy hooks and was caught time and time again. If he’d used his jab he could well have gauged range better and landed his harder shots. It’s a shame his jab really did vanish after he had early success with it. 3-Inoue’s footwork was fantastic Whilst we can easily talk about how Kurihara failed to create openings and work on them it needs to also be said that Inoue did brilliantly at making Kurihara reset. We constantly saw Inoue on his toes, moving, changing directions, keeping Kurihara from having a range where he could have success. It wasn’t the eye catching, sparkling footwork of someone like Vasyl Lomachenko, but instead it was very, very effective footwork. Inoue was almost always in control of the range and the tempo of the bout, despite mostly fighting on the back foot. He used half-steps, forwards and backwards, small pivots, he created angles, made Kurihara fall short and really neutralised the reach advantage of Kurihara. He knew was the quicker man and made full use of that by using really smart footwork right throughout the bout. 4-Inoue KO backers - What were you thinking? One of the strange things before the bout was the amount of money that went on an Inoue T/KO win, taking the result to almost events on the betting market. We’re not sure why so much money poured on a stoppage for the challenger here, and we suspect even he’s not sure. Before the bout he stated that he was going to box his bout, and that was a style that had only seen him pick up 3 low key stoppage stoppage wins. Kurihara has been stopped before, but his last stoppage came to Hiroaki Teshigawara, and we really don’t understand why money poured on an Inoue stoppage. Given the way Inoue fought there was no plan to go for the finish early on, and although he caught Kurihara with some very clean shots in the second half he never really hurt the champion. 5-Despite a year out Inoue was razor sharp Prior to this bout Inoue had been out of the ring since November 2019, when he lost to Nordine Oubaali. That was his first loss and we had expected him to look, at the very least, a bit rusty. Instead he looked razor sharp from the opening moments to the eventual conclusion of the bout. His defense was on point, his footwork - as already mentioned, was fantastic, his offense was clean and crisp, and he boxed fantastically. Everything he did was pretty much on point, and we dare say that was, in part, due to the danger that Kurihara posed. We’ve seen Inoue turn off in bouts, get lazy in others, and give rounds away. Here however he was focused throughout, he was fighting like a man who knew if he was tagged he could be hurt and didn’t want to be dropped again. It was only for around 30 seconds in round 5 that we saw him in any trouble at all, and he quickly regained his composure and went on to land some of his best shots afterwards. Given this is the same Takuma Inoue that was run incredibly close by Kentaro Masuda and Mark John Yap, and was dropped by Rene Dacquel, Froilan Saludar and Mark Anthony Geraldo, this was the performance he needed. In fact we would go as far as to say this is the best we’ve seen from Inoue. This past weekend we got the first live televised Japanese card of 2021 and if we’re being honest it wasn’t the best show we’ve seen in recent months. In fact, to be bluntly honest, much of the card seemed to meander, with a few highlights. That was until the chief support bout, which saw Jukiya Iimura (1-0, 1) make his professional debut, taking on Daisuke Yamada (6-6, 1). This was not a bout that had us frothing at the mouth or overly excited going in, but afterwards we felt we’d seen someone a little special make their first mark on professional boxing, and it seems we weren’t alone in thinking that. In fact it seems Iimura has instantly become someone worthy of making a real buzz around.
With that in mind we’ve gone and taken a look back over the bout and decide to share some of our take aways from the contest. 1-Iimura stood out immediately It’s rare for Japanese fighters to standout in their ring walks, at least during the early stages of their careers. Iimura however stood out immediately. Part of that was the sombrero he was wearing to the ring but there was also an almost cheeky smile and a confident look to him. He didn’t look like a youngster stepping into his first professional bout, but instead he looked like a man who was about to show everyone that he was something special. It was clear, almost immediately that he wanted to catch the eye, he wanted to grab fans attention, and he wanted those watching to make a note of him. We’ll get onto his performance in a moment, but the aura that he gave off on his ring walk was telling and should have been enough to tell everyone in the venue that they weren’t about to see another rather cautious contest. 2-Iimura’s style is VERY pro-ready Earlier on the card we had seen a number of other Kadoebi debutants, with Yudai Murakami, Yugo Kono and Jun Ikegawa all debuting on this show. All of them looked good, including Kon who suffered a 6th TKO loss to Koji Tsurumi, but they all looked like they hadn’t quite adapted to the professional style of boxing. Iimura on the other hand looked like he was made for this. Unlike the other debutants he wasn’t looking to sharp shoot at distance or point score at range. Instead he wanted to leave an impression. He came forward early on, he looked like he wanted to fight, rather than fiddle, and applied intelligent pressure. That pressure opened up opportunities to land heavy shots and he twice dropped Yamada with fantastic counter right hands, forcing a stoppage after the second knockdown. His style is already looking like that of an experienced professional. He is not only a man who seems to like being in front of an opponent and using subtle movements and footwork, but also has solid power, intelligent shot selection and he looks like a genuinely powerful young kid. His legs look particularly powerful and we suspect the amount of pop he is going to get into his shots is going to become very scary when he gets some more experience under his belt. If you missed the performance we seriously suggest you go and watch the fight. It was very impressive from the youngster. 3-Daisuke Yamada was there to win Although nowhere near the best fighter in the Flyweight division in Japan Daisuke Yamada didn’t get into the ring to lose. This was obvious from the way he fought. He came out with ambition and hunger. He pulled himself up after being dropped, both times, and he wanted to fight. He even had some moments of success. Unfortunately for him he was up against a fantastic young prospect who really was several levels above him, but we can’t take anything away from Yamada who wanted to do more than just make up the numbers. He wanted to take home a victory. We need to see more fighters, especially in the west, fight with Yamada’s mentality of wanting to win, even if you are very much up against it. 4-The finish was damn impressive We mentioned that Iimura dropped Yamada twice but we really need to explain just how impressive the second knockdown was. It was a perfectly placed counter right hand, on the chin, over the extended right hand of Yamada. Watching the slow motion replay really did show how brilliant the shot was. We’re amazed that Yamada managed to get to his feet following the shot, though he obviously had little control of his body as he collapsed into the arms of Michiaki Someya and then later left the ring on a stretcher. We’ve not been told how Yamada is, but we suspect the stretcher was used as a precaution more than anything else. 5-Genuine concern and respect for Yamada When Yamada was on the canvas after the bout was stopped it was great to see genuine concern and respect from both the crowd and Iimura himself. The youngster had just scored a really impressive win on debut, and rather than celebrating like we suspect he probably wanted to, he was subdued in his corner, and it wasn’t until he had checked on Yamada and spoke to his team that he put back on his Sombrero. As for the crowd they were silent in respect of Yamada until he was being carried out of the hall, where they gave him a round of applause. It wasn’t a big thing, from either the victory or the crowd, but it was still nice to see, and we’d like to see more youngsters showing some concern for their opponent in situations like this. We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect Korean legend Jung Koo Chang to former world champion Malcolm Tunacao.
Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them. 1-Korean great Jung Koo Chang was a true legend of the sport, one of the all time great Light Flyweights and a sensational fighter who, in his prime, was something very special. Although an offensive machine, with a style built around intense pressure and work rate, he was a defensively smart fighter, who often slipped shots with surprising ease. Sadly when he ended his career, in 1991, he wasn't in his prime. On the under-card of Chang's final bout was future Korean world champion Yong Soo Choi, who picked up a win over Won Taek Lim. 2-The exciting, talented, and fun to watch Yong Soo Choi would go on to have an under-rated reign as the WBA Super Featherweight world champion. During his reign he would make 7 defenses of that title, including one against Japan's Koji Matsumoto, in what was a very, very close bout. That was Choi's 5th defense and was Matsumoto's second world title bout, with many feeling that had the bout not been in Korea the title would have changed hands. 3-Although Koji Matsumoto failed to win a world title in of his three world title fights he did help craft some of the top talent at the Ohashi gym after he retired from being a fighter. He was, and is, regarded as one of the very best trainers in Japan and has been for a while. One of the fighters he has helped turn into a world champion is Katsushige Kawashima, who won the WBC Super Flyweight title with a upset win over Masamori Tokuyama in June 2004. 4-As mentioned Katsushige Kawashima was the WBC Super Flyweight champion. His reign might be forgotten by some though it was a pretty notable one. Not only did he dethrone the talented Tokuyama inside a round but he also made 2 defenses, including one against the then unbeaten Jose Navarro. Another Japanese fighter who won the WBC Super Flyweight title, and made 2 defenses, was Yota Sato. Sato's reign is, also, sadly forgotten by fans but it was actually ended at the hands of the then rather unknown Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. 5-Yota Sato is one of a rather small number of fighters to win a world title after losing on his debut. In his debut he was beaten by split decision by Kazuki Yamato at Korakuen Hall in 2004. Another fighter who lost on his professional debut before winning a world title was Celes Kobayashi, who was beaten on points by Isao Mori in 1992 before building his career and winning the WBA Super Flyweight title in 2001 with a TKO win over Leo Gamez. 6-Although Celes Kobayashi would win the WBA Super Flyweight title in 2001 he had come up short in a previous world title challenger. His first world title bout saw him fighting to a draw with the then WBC Flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao in 2000. That would turn out to be Tunacao's one and only successful defense, with the Filipino being stopped in a round in his next bout, by the Thailand's Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Whilst we have covered a number of fighters in this series one thing we haven't really done is look at female boxers. That changes today as we look at shining a light on a Japanese legend Fujin Raika (25-8-1, 10).
Whilst not a major name on the international boxing scene Raika was one of the trailblazers for the female boxing scene, particularly in Japan. She wasn't the first Japanese female fighter but is one of the most important and also a woman who had a really interesting life. Today we're going to shine a little bit of a light on Raiki as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Fujin Raika, though the reality is we can't really do her justice here and what she did for the sport in Japan is massive, with effects still being felt now, more than 20 years after her professional debut. 1-Due to various reasons Raika grew up in an orphanage from the age of 3 to when she graduated from high school. 2-Before becoming a boxer Raiki had worked as a dental hygienist. Sadly however this career didn't seem to be for her and she reportedly left the field after just a few months. 3-In 2002 Raiki released an auto-biography, with a title that roughly translated as "I Want to Find a Whereabouts" or "I want to find a place to live". The book is available on Amazon.jp, is 204 pages and it seems like it came very much in the early stages of her career, sadly missing out on the bulk of her in ring action, including her biggest successes as a combat sport participant. 4-The poster for Raiki's 2007 bout with Ann Saccurato, the first of two bouts between the two, had a poster designed by Jyoji Morikawa, the man behind Hajime No Ippo. That's the same Morikawa who famously did a Ring magazine cover featuring his stylised version of Naoya Inoue. 5-Following Raika's retirement from professional boxing she continued in combat sport, participating in both Kick Boxing and MMA. On January 22nd we’ll see a potentially thrilling Japanese Super Bantamweight title fight, as hard hitting champion Yusaku Kuga (19-4-1, 13) looks to defend his title against the gritty Gakuya Furuhashi (26-8-1, 14) in the headline bout of DANGAN 238, which will be streamed live on Boxing Raise. With that bout in mind we thought it was a great time to return our “Did You Know…” series, as we take a look over the history of the Japanese Super Bantamweight title, which sees it’s history dating back to the mid 1960’s and has seen numerous notable fighters holding the belt. -The first man to hold the title was Hajime Taroura, who won the inaugural title in 1964. This was around 12 years before the WBC recognised the weight class and around 13 years before the WBA recognised the weight class! -Taroura’s reign saw him defend the title 9 times in total between August 7th 1964, when he won the title, to February 12th 1969, when he finally lost it. Meaning that by the time he lost it, there was still no recognition of the weight class by the world title bodies. His 9 defenses still stands as the most defenses in a single reign! His reign, that lasted almost 4 years and 6 months, is still the longest, by some margin. -Staying with Taroura’s reign, all 10 of his title bouts, his title win and 9 defenses, went to decision. -A final Taroura fact is 3 of his 9 defenses ended in draws, including 2 of his 3 defenses against Koichi Yamamoto. Since then there have only been 4 more draws for the title. -The second champion was Kuwashi Shimizu, who stopped Taroura in 3 rounds to score the first KO in a bout for the title. -Shimizu’s reign lasted less than 3 months as he, himself, was stopped in his first defense by Kanjiro Nakajima in late April 1969. -Despite losing in his first defense Shimizu would quickly reclaim the title, stopping Nakajima in a rematch in July 1969. -When Kenjiro Nakajima retired his record was a losing one, with a career ledger of 9-13-3-1 (5) -In 1970 the amazingly named Attack Harada won the title. Sadly his reign lasted just over 3 months. Despite his short reign he was involved in the first, and became the first fighter to lost the belt by technical decision, when he lost to Sarutobi Koyama. -Sticking with Harada for a moment, he finished his career with a strange looking 23-29-4 (4) record, having fought outside of Japan 15 times, with 5 bouts in the US. Strangely his record in the US was an unbeaten one, going 4-0-1 (2). -The first man to vacate the title was the aforementioned Sarutobi Koyama, who dethroned Attack Harada and ran up 4 defenses before handing the title back. He vacated due to issues with his eyes, which also lead to his retirement. -Snappy Asano, probably the second best name of any fighter to hold this title, filled the vacancy left by Koyama. After winning the belt Koyama reportedly entered the ring and gave flowers to the new champion. -The 9th man to hold the title was Waruinge Nakayama, the first fighter born outside of Japan to hold the title. The Kenayn born 3-time Olmypian held the title for less than 2 years but ran up an impressive 4 defenses before a 1977 loss to Yu Kasahara. -During his Japanese title reign Nakayama fought in the first ever WBC world title fight at the weight, losing to Rigoberto Riasco. This makes him the first Japanese Super Bantamweight champion to fight for a world title. In fact he did so twice in 1976, also facing Carlos Zarate later that same year for the WBC Bantamweight title. -The man who dethroned Nakayama was Yu Kasahara in 1977. Kasahara would be the first Japanese champion to fight for the WBA title, facing Soo Hwan Hong. This wasn’t just the second ever WBA Super Bantamweight title fight, but it was also the first time a world title at the weight had been contested in Japan, the country that had recognised the division for well over a decade by this point! -Kasahara, like his predecessor, also managed 4 defenses. -On 1979 Kasahara was dethroned by Hiroyuki Iwamoto who’s first reign was an underwhelming one, with just 2 defenses. He would however reclaim the title in 1980 and record a subsequent 8 defenses, making him first in terms of total defenses of the title, at 10, and second for a single reign, at 8. He’s the only man with more defenses of the belt than Hajime Taroura, though did need 2 reigns to manage to break his record which had stood for well over a decade. -In 1983 Takuya Muguruma dethroned Hiroyuki Iwamoto, via 4th round RTD. As a champion Muguruma held the title for just over 3 years, one of the longest reigns, and notched 7 defenses, good enough for the third most defenses of the title, before vacating it in late 1986. More notable than all that however was that Muguruma became the first man to go from Japanese champion at the weight to a world champion, winning the WBA Bantamweight title in 1987, when he stopped Azael Moran for the vacant title. -The 1980’s seemed to be the era where the title really did come into its own. Not only did we get Iwamoto’s 8 defense reign and Muguruma’s 7 defense reign but the popular Mark Horikoshi also secured a solid reign with 6 defenses. -Horikoshi, who was born in America, was the second non-Japanese born fighter to win the title, following the Kenyan born Wakayama. -In 1988 Horikoshi defended the belt against Atsushi Oyakawa, this was the last time the belt was fought for in Osaka! Current champion Yusaku Kuga wasn’t even born when that happened! -Sadly for Horikoshi his reign is best remembered for the way he lost the title in 1989, coming up short in a bout often regarded as one of the best fights to ever take place at Korakeun Hall. That was his sensational battle with Naoto Takahashi, which we’ve included at the end of this article. If you’ve never seen it it is worth watching any day! -Despite going through hell to win the title Takahashi’s reign was a short one, with the “Prince of the Reversal” defending the belt just once before vacating it at the end of 1989. -Manabu Saijo was the man who filled the vacancy left by the hugely popular Takahashi, and was also the first champion of the 1990’s. Sadly his reign was also a short one, losing in his second defense, when he was stopped by Hiroaki Yokota. -Yokota’s reign ended in 1992 when he vacated the belt after 3 defenses. He would later go on to challenge Wilfredo Vazquez at the age of 32, a then record for the older Japanese fighter to fight for a world title. -The vacancy left by Yokota was filled by Yuichi Kasai, a future multi-time world title challenger. Kasai would go on to record 2 defenses before vacating the belt, to challenge for world titles and later win the OPBF title. Much later on Kasai would become one of the most highly regarded trainers in Japan. Kasai was also the first champion at the weigh from the Teiken gym in Tokyo, though there had previously been an Osaka Teiken champion. -Kasai to do win the vacant title and to vacate it himself, something that has only happened twice since. -Following Kasai’s decision to vacate we saw a genuine upset as Silverio Tan stopped Yasushi Arai for the title in 1994. There is some dispute about Tan’s record, though it is accepted that Tan had more losses than wins when he stopped Arai for the belt, and the TV graphics for his first defense had him listed as 4-6 (4). -After Tan won the title he would go a reported 1-5. Again there is some dispute about his final career record but that would give him a definite losing record when he retired in 2002. -One final fact about Tan, he joined Nakayama and Horikoshi as champions born outside of Japan who won this Japanese title. -Yasushi Arai would get revenge over Tan in a rematch that the two had in 1995. Amazingly after winning the title Arai notched his first 3 defenses inside a year, all of which went 10 rounds. -In 2000 Manabu Fukushima won the belt by split decision, defeating Yutaka Manabe. This was the first time the title had ever changed hands by split decision, with all other split decisions, of which there had been 2, favouring the champion. -Since the year 2000 the most defenses by a fighter has been 6 defenses, with Junichi Watanabe and Masaaki Serie both managing half a dozen defenses of the belt. -In 2004 Yoshikane Nakajima defended the belt against Setsuo Segawa on a world title double header. This was the last time the bout was fought for outside of Tokyo, with the bout taking place in Saitama. -In 2005 Shoji Kimura won the title, becoming the second man to win it by split decision. This was rather a notable bout as it came on the under-card of world title double header which saw Yutaka Niida retain the WBA Minimumweight and Hozumi Hasegawa begin his legendary reign as the WBC Bantamweight champion. -In 2007 Akifumi Shimoda won the title and made 3 defenses. He would later win the OPBF title, and then go on to win the WBA title, making him the first Japanese fighter to complete the set at 122lbs, winning domestic, regional and world honours. He was also the first Japanese national champion at Super Bantamweight to win a world title at the weight, rather than Muguruma who dropped down in weight to win a Bantamweight world title. -Shoji Kimura became a 2-time champion in 2009, becoming only the third man to reclaim the title. Unlike the previous 2-time champions Kimura didn’t beat the man who had beaten him for the title, and didn’t have reigns that sandwiched his conqueror, but instead it took him almost 4 years to reclaim the belt. A record that still stands as the long gap between reigns of the belt. -Masaaki Serie became the third man to win the title by split decision when he dethroned Kimura in 2009, he almost made his first defense by split decision, giving the title it’s first back-to-back split decision bouts. -During Serie’s reign we saw the “interim” title being used for the first, and so far only, time with Mikihito Seto winning the interim title in April 2011. This was due to Serie missing the 2011 edition of the Champion Carnival due to injury. The interim title wasn’t needed for long however with Serie defeating Seto to unify the titles in July 2011. -Serie vacated the title in 2012 and was followed by Hidenori Otake, who won the previously vacant title by split decision before running up 5 defenses and then vacate it himself. This means Otake was the second man to win the vacant title and vacate it himself. -Rather surprisingly Otake’s successor followed suit, with Yukinori Oguni winning the title Otake had given up, and vacating it himself. -Oguni joined a very select list of fighters who held the title before going on to win world honours, upsetting Jonathan Guzman in 2016 for the IBF Super Bantamweight title, in one of the very final bouts of 2016. -Since Oguni vacated the belt only 4 men have held the belt. These were Yasutaka Ishimoto, Yusaku Kuga, twice, Shingo Wake and Ryoichi Tamura. -Interesting Kuga has beaten 2 of the 3 other champions that have held the title since Oguni, beating Ishimoto for his first reign and Tamura for his current reign, though was beaten himself by Wake. -With 2 reigns to his name Kuga is one of just 4 fighters to reclaim the title. -Amazingly the first “TKO1” in a bout for the title came in 2018, when Yusaku Kuga stopped Ryo Kosaka. Kuga is also the only man to have achieved that result twice, having also stopped Yosuke Fujihara inside a round in 2019. -At the time of writing there has been 143 bouts for the title, and 1 interim title bout. -There has been 42 reigns of the title, 1 reign of the interim title and 4 fighters have recaptured the belt. -As previously mentioned there has only ever been 7 draws in bouts for the title. Amazingly 3 of those came in the first 7 bouts for the belt! -Since 1998 all but 1 of the bouts for the title has been held in Tokyo, with the one exception coming in Saitama. |
Thinking Out East
With this site being pretty successful so far we've decided to open up about our own views and start what could be considered effectively an editorial style opinion column dubbed "Thinking Out East" (T.O.E). Archives
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