Although not a huge name, and not particularly well remembered in the west, Japan's Keiji Yamaguchi was regarded as hot stuff when he turned professional in 1992, at the age of 18. Yamaguchi managed to have some solid success during his career, which saw him run up a 30-8-1 (11) professional record and claim the WBA Light Flyweight title.
Given how many fans will not be aware of Yamaguchi he seems, to us, a perfect fighter to cover in our weekly "10 facts you probably didn't know about"... series. So here are 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Keiji Yamaguchi 1-As an amateur Yamaguchi won the National High School Boxing Selection Tournament, Inter High School and National Sports Festival titles in 1991, becoming the first high school triple crown winner. He managed to amass a very impressive 28-3 (11) record in the unpaid ranks, and was incredibly highly regarded when he decided to turn professional. 2-When he turned professional he had a Japanese record signing contract, with multiple gyms trying to secure his signature, including International, Green Tsuda and Kyoei. The professional contract he signed was similar to Yasutsune Uehara, Satoshi Koguchi, Satoshi Shingaki and Yamato Mitani and was for a reported ¥10,000,000 3-Yamaguchi was a converted southpaw 4-Yamaguchi walk out music was Europe's iconic track "The Final Countdown" 5-When Yamaguchi did finally sign a professional contract it was with the Green Tsuda gym, in 1992, supposedly after advice from Yoko Gushiken. He would stay a Green Tsuda fighter until 1999, when he left to join the gym TAIKOH Kobayashi Jim, lead by former world champion Hiroshi Kobayashi. His stay with Kobayashi was a short one, and in 2000 he signed with Shin Nihon Kimura Boxing Gym, before signing back with TAIKOH Kobayashi for his final bout. 6-Yamaguchi was a big Prince Naseem Hamed fan, incidentally Hameda and Yamaguchi debuted in the same year! 7-Yamaguchi was awarded the Hakodate Citizen's Honor award. 8-Yamaguchi would go on to become the head trainer at the Ioka Boxing Gym following his retirement, linking back up with fellow former Green Tsuda fighter Hiroki Ioka. The two men had careers that were very close, with Yamaguchi fighting on a number of Ioka under-cards. 9-In recent years Yamaguchi has been running the Hadokate Bare Hamed in Osaka City. 10-On October 10th 2019 Yamaguchi's teenager son Shinba Yamaguchi made his professional boxing debut. Just like his father Shinba won his debut with an opening round win, taking out Thailand's Buncha Natheekeereekan in just 40 seconds at Korakuen Hall.
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Having had a bit of fun last week looking through the history of the PABA Lightweight title we thought we'd go through the weights this week and look at the even wackier history of the PABA Heavyweight title. Prior to being deactivated, when the WBA rid themselves off the PABA, the title had been held by a number of future word champions and was fought for a lomg way from Asia. Before we get started with this weeks "Did You Know...", we'll just quickly explain a little bit about the PABA. It was the Pan Asian Boxing Assocation and the idea was that it would be the WBA's answer to the well recognised, and successful, OPBF. The title doesn't currently exist, with the WBA moving away from the PABA when then re-named it's self before seemingly faded in to a black hole, but for a time it was seen as the secondary regional only to the OPBF belt. Of course, Heavyweights in Asia aren't a common thing, but that's hardly an excuse for some of the things we saw here. With that out of the way, let us bring you "Did you know... the PABA Heavyweight title" -The first ever fight for the PABA Heavyweight title was in....England! That's where future world champion Oleg Maskaev won the belt, stopping Russian born Kazakh Nikolay Kulpin. -The second man to win the title was Hungarian born British-Australian Joe Bugner, who won the title at the age of 46! He won the belt in 1996, 29 years after his debut and 23 after fighting Muhammad Ali! Amazingly Bugner would win the title for a second time in 1998 at the age of 48! -As mentioned Oleg Maskaev's first reign began in the UK, his second, in 1998, began in the US! He claimed the title a second time in Louisiana, when he blasted out Toakipa Tasefa inside a round. He would later defend the belt successfully in the US twice, before losing it to Canadian Kirk Johnson. Yes we had a Candian holding an Asian title, that he won in the USA! -American fighter Rob Calloway won the belt in 2005, and made a single defense, defending it back at home in the US! -Staying with non-Asian champions German based Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez won the belt in 2007. So too did did US based Nigerian Friday Ahunanya. -In the title's later years it was was fought for in the Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia, Montenegro and Chile, among other places. -During it's rather odd life span the title was held by a strong for future Heavyweight world title holders. There was Maskaev, as mentioned, along with Nikolay Valuev, Ruclsan Chagaev and Joseph Parker -Despite being the "Pan Asian" title the only Asian fighters to claim it were Oleg Maskaev, who was born in Kazakhstan and represented Uzbekistan as an amateur, and Ruslan Chagaev, who was Uzbek born fighter who later relocated to Germany. -In 2002 Nikolay Valuev defended the title in South Korea, beating a then 3-0 Taras Bidenko! This fight can be seen below! 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 a former Thai world champion to a former Japanese world, as we connect Indonesian boxing great Chris John to multi-time Thai world title challenger Terdsak Kokietgym. J1ust 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-Indonesian fighter Chris John is arguably the most significant fighter from the country. Although he was only a 1-time world champion, unlike Elly Pical who was a 3 time champion and Muhammad Rachman who was twice a world champion, he had the longest reign, most world title defenses and most significant single reign. In fact comparing his reign of the WBA Featherweight title to the other reigns by Indonesian fighters is pretty unfair given how much stronger John's reign was. Before he won a world title John had a number of wins of note, the most notable of which was his 2002 win over Ratanachai Sor Vorapin. 2-Following his loss to John in 2002 Ratanachai Sor Vorapin went on to win the WBO Bantamweight champion. He won the title in 2004, when he beat Cruz Carbajal, and would lose it in his second defense, to Jhonny Gonzalez in October 2005. Gonzalez would himself lose the title to Gerry Penalosa. 3-The Penalosa name is one of the most iconic in Filipino boxing, and Gerry was one of three fighting brothers, from the second generation of the family to fight. Gerry, along with Dodie Boy and Jonathan were all sons of Carl Penalosa, who fought in the 1960's. 4-Whilst Carl Penalosa wasn't as successful as some of the fighters that followed in his footsteps, including Gerry and Dodie Boy, he was actually a pretty solid fighter in his day, despite what he records states. Notably he defeated future world champion Pedro Adigue Jr for the Filipino Lightweight title in 1963. Whilst he lost it in his first defense, in a rematch with Adigue, that was a big win, and one that now, almost 60 years later, stands out as a great win. 5-Now, years on from Penalosa's reign, the current Filipino Lightweight champion is Roldan Aldea, who has held the title since 2018 and has defended the title twice. Although not a star Aldea is certainly an interesting fighter and someone who has proven to be an upset minded boxer-puncher, as we saw last year when he stopped Mikhail Alexeev. 6-In 2015 Roldan Aldea made his international debut, and lost in 4 rounds to multi-time world title challenger Terdsak Kokietgym. Although he never won a world title Terdsak did challenge the likes of Takahiro Ao and Steve Luevano for full versions of world titles and battled Juan Manuel Marquez and Orlando Salido for interim titles in a 14 year, 68 fight career. Before Gennady Golovkin was leading the way for Kazakh boxers there was another former amateur standout who turned professional and made his name in the US. That was Vasily Jirov. The "Tiger", or "Balkash Tiger" as those in Kazakhstan referred to him, was one of the stars of the Cruiserweight division in the late 1990's and early 00's. Although never a huge star he certainly left his mark on the sport, and his 2003 fight with James Toney, and to a lesser extent his 2004 fight with Joe Messi, was genuinely incredible. As fighter Jirov left his mark on both the amateurs and professional scene in a big way, winning Olympic gold and professional titles, but here are 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Vasily Jirov 1-Jirov was one of 6 children in his family, who were raised by their mother. His mother, Nina Grigoryevna Repchenko, has been awarded the Kүmіs alқa, which is literally awarded for mothers who have lots of children. His father left when he was 4, resulting in his mother bringing up all 6 kids by herself. 2-He was inspired to become a boxer by the Rocky movies, and wanted to be like Sylvester Stallone's iconic character. 3-In the Kazakh press Jirov has revealed he won the 1996 Olympic gold medal with a broken right hand. Due to drug testing he did so without any pain killers, and had the hand iced every day. It was at the Oly pics that Jirov won the Val Baker as well as the Gold medal 4-Jirov amateur coach, Alexander Ivanovich Apachinsky, used some unorthodox training methods, such as setting dogs on the fighters to make them run faster. Jirov has stated that he took no offense, though did feel sorry for the dog which was sometimes beaten in the face 5-Although Jirov was first signed to Bob Arum, who promoted much of Jirov's early career, he later had his career guided by the mysterious Al Haymon, and was one of Haymon's first fighters, following a split with manager Ivaylo Gotzev. 6-Although not his best remembered fight in the West Jirov has claimed his win over Alex Gonzalez in 2001 was his most memorable. That was his only fight in Kazakhstan, and the country's leader attended the event. 7-Jirov was pencilled in to compete on a K-1 show in Nagoya in June 2004, though cancelled that when talk began that could end up with another world title fight in boxing. Sadly that talk never actually lead to a world title fight, with his following fight actually being a 9th round TKO loss to Michael Moorer in a bout for a couple of regional Heavyweight titles. That would be the only time Jirov was stopped in his career. 8-Jirov had 2 children with his ex-wife, Jacob born in 2001 and Nicholas born in 2005. Jirov and his wife at the time, then divorced in 2009, but are said to still enjoy a friendship. 9-In 2016 director Kanat Beisekeev did a short biographical film on Jirov, entitled "Balkash Tiger", as part of the "Kazakhstanis in the USA" project. We have included this short documentary below. 10-Jirov converted to Islam in recent years, with news reports stating he did so in 2017 For a second week running we've decided to take an international fighter and look at 5 Asian options that they may consider for a future bout, following on from something similar we did last week in regards to Emanuel Navarrete. This week things are a little bit different however, as the international fighter we look at is very closely linked to Japan, and actually fights for a Japanese promoter. Despite that we thought it was worth talking about Nicaraguan star Roman Gonzalez (49-2, 41) in our second international "Five For...".
Thankfully due to Gonzalez's links to Japan and comments made after his recent win over Kal Yafai it's obvious he is willing to return to the Land of the Rising sun for bouts, and there's where two of the bouts would likely take place, though we certainly have other potential match ups for Chocolatito. 1-Kazuto Ioka (25-2, 14) The bout that Gonzalez himself seems to be chasing is arguably the most interesting between himself and an Asian fighter, with that being a clash with WBO champion Kazuto Ioka, . Gonzalez, the current WBA champion, would be looking to unify with Ioka and this is a bout between two men who have circled each other for much of their careers, but things never really lined up. By the time Ioka won his first world title, the WBC Minimumweight title, Gonzalez had left the division. By the time Ioka moved up to 108lbs Gonzalez was on his way out of the division and by the time Ioka was looking settled at Flyweight Gonzalez had moved up again. Neither man blatantly avoided each other, but the windows for the two men to fight were rather slim, they existed but only for a matter of months rather than years. Now they are in the same division, both are world champions and this would be a very special unification bout between 2 men who have held world titles in 4 weight classes. 2-Donnie Nietes (42-1-5, 23) Another potential bout between a couple of 4-weight world champions would see Gonzalez take on Filipino veteran Donnie Nietes. The Filipino has chased this bout publicly but has failed to secure it, with his team not really having the financial clout they once did. On paper this would have been a brilliant match up when the two men were in their primes, but with his 38th birthday fast approaching, and with more than a year away from the ring, we really need to wonder what Nietes has left in the tank. At his best the talented Filipino was a nightmare for anyone, with fantastic skills, and a brilliant high level IQ, but would that ever have been enough to deal with the power, poise and pressure of Gonzalez? This is probably a safer option for Gonzalez to face next, but in reality Gonzalez has rarely been able having "safer" fights as title defenses. 3-Jerwin Ancajas (32-1-2, 22) Another potential bout that would see Gonzalez not only facing a Filipino, instead of Neites, but also getting a chance to unify, instead of facing Kazuto Ioka, is a bout with Jerwin Ancajas. The long reigning, though somewhat underwhelming, IBF champion has the longest active reign in the division, dating back to September 2016, but has yet to get that A level championship type of bout. He's beaten a mix of B tier contenders, and worse, but hasn't yet notched a real top tier defense of the IBF crown. If this bout takes place it would finally give Ancajas a chance to face an A tier opponent, and he would have significant size advantages over the Nicaraguan, but Gonzalez would almost certainly be the betting favourite. 4-Kosei Tanaka (15-0, 9) Not the most likely choice, but an interesting choice all the same, would be a bout between Gonzalez and 3-weight world champion Kosei Tanaka. Both men are chasing a bout with Kazuto Ioka, and a clash between the two would essentially be an eliminator, of sorts, to face the WBO king. In reality neither man needs this bout, but it would be a brilliant match up with the old veteran looking to tame the young lion. Gonzalez would be strongly favoured, and would be expected to take out Tanaka, but Tanaka has shown an incredible will to win, and has the speed to make life difficult for someone like Gonzalez. The bout would test what Gonzalez has left, and give Tanaka not only a chance to become a 4-weight champion but also a chance to announce himself internationally. It's an unlikely bout to happen but one worth thinking about, and a really fun one to imagine. Sadly though if Gonzalez is 80% the fighter he once was he would likely grind down Tanaka around the middle rounds. 5-Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-5-1, 41) III We've mostly looked at bouts where Gonzalez would be the favourite, but lets finish this by looking at a bout where the Nicaraguan wonder would be the under-dog, a bout with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Or rather a third bout with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. The heavy handed Thai is the only man to have beaten Gonzalez, having done so twice, and is known to be looking to get back into the world title mix in 2020. For Srisaket the bout would be against a fighter he knows he can beat, and beat decisively, as he did in the rematch. It would also be a bout where Srisaket can, after Gonzalez's last performance, come in knowing the Nicaraguan isn't a shot fighter, and is still very much a top name at Super Flyweight. As for Gonzalez it would give him a chance to avenge his defeats and beat the only man to have beaten him during his legendary career. Of course when it comes to Roman Gonzalez the modern day legend has numerous other options out there, including a second bout with Juan Francisco Estrada, or a potential bout with one of the current Flyweight kings such as Moruti Mthalane or Artem Dalakian, or unbeaten Australian Andrew Moloney. There are so many options out there for him that his win over Kal Yafai opens the doors to yet another amazing champter for Gonzalez, and a chapter we are really lookign forward to seeing play out of the coming months and years. This past week we saw WBA Minimumweight champion Knockout CP Freshmart (21-0, 7) record his 8th defense of his world title as he out pointed Norihito Tanaka in Nakhon Sawan. It wasn't the greatest performance we'll see from the Thai champion, but extends the champions reign, which began back in the summer of 2016 and hasn't yet caught fire.
With his win being the most significant by any Asian fighter this week it makes sense to look at some future options for Knockout as he becomes the focus for this week's "Five For..." 1-Pedro Taduran (14-2-1, 11) Although it's unlikely to be any time soon the most obvious match up, at least as a fan, for Knockout would be a bout with IBF champion Pedro Taduran. It's the easiest unification to get made, and would see Knockout facing a champion who is willing to travel, and it looking to get revenge on Thailand for his 2018 loss to Wanheng Menayothin. Given Taduran's style this should be a fun fight, and it's fair to say that Knockout needs a fun fight after some rather dreary recent contests. This is the bout we'd like most for Knockout, but sadly one that doesn't seem likely to be made next. 2-Vic Saludar (20-4, 11) Another interesting Filipino option for Knockout would by the hard hitting Vic Saludar, who will be looking to become a 2-time world champion. Saludar, a former WBO champion, was apparently in talks to travel to Thailand for a unification bout and, had he not lost to Wilfredo Mendez last August, we would likely be talking about a unification bout now between Saludar and either Knockout or Wanheng Menayothin. Saludar poses a real threat to Knockout, given his power and physicality, but Knockout would have the edge in skills, and would likely also have the financial pull to attract Saludar to Thailand. 3-Ginjiro Shigeoka (5-0, 4) One bout we would expect to see Knockout being lured away from home for would be a clash with Japanese youngster Ginjiro Shigeoka. The 20 year old Japanese wunderkind is regarded as one of the brightest hopes in world boxing, and Shigeoka's KO5 win over Rey Loreto in December is a better result than Knockout managed over the hard hitting Filipino. At the moment Shigeoka's plans for his next bout haven't been announced but it's clear he'll be looking to win a world title before the end of 2020 and Knockout is certainly a potential target for the hard hitting and lightning quick southpaw. Shigeoka would be the under-dog against Knockout, but would be a live under-dog and make for a very serious test. 4-Melvin Jerusalem (15-2, 9) We got back to the Philippines for this option as we look at 26 year old Melvin Jerusalem, a very talented and often over-looked Filipino. Jerusalem came up short in his only other world title bout, losing in early 2017 to Wanheng Menayothin, and has rebuild his name with decent wins on the domestic scene. Jerusalem has a good engine, likes to fight at a high pace and would be a great test of what Knockout can down when the champion is under pressure. Knockout is the more skilled fighter, and the more experienced, but Jerusalem is an energetic and high octane type of fighter who could give the champion absolute fits. 5-Jing Xiang (17-4-2, 3) With Corornavirus essentially putting a pause on boxing in China for the first few months of the year, with that said it would be a huge boost for the sport if a Chinese fighter got a chance after the virus clears up. With that in mind Jing Xiang getting a shot at Knockout CP Freshmart would be a great way to give China something to celebrate in boxing. Xiang would need to fight a perfect fight to beat Knockout, but the highly skilled Chinese fighter has earned a shot on the back of some solid wins and would certainly ask questions of the champion. Technically this would be an interesting fight, and if Xiang's team could lure Knockout away from home things would be even more interesting, with Xiang's skills and a partisan fan base both being things that Knockout would have to deal with. Newer fans to the Asian scene likely won't remember the PABA title, which was the WBA's answer to the OPBF. The title has been completely killed off in the last few years, being replaced by other affiliated WBA regional titles, but for around 20 yaers we would see PABA title fights on a regular basis, particularly in Thailand.
For today's Did you know... we look at the relatively short lived, yet rather notable, PABA Lightweight title, which was fought for through out Asia and had several notable champions, and contenders. -The first champion was future Mongolian world champion Lakva Sim! That alone is pretty notable but even more amazingly he won the belt in 4 rounds on his debut back in December 1998! So Sim, unlike most fighters, actually debuted in a 12 round regional title fight! -Whilst Sim holding it is pretty notable it was actually won by a number of Mongolian fighters. There was Sim, Zorigoo Sosorbaram and Sukhbayar Nemekbayar, the 1st, 3rd and 5th champions respectively. -The first 4 bouts for the title all ended with a stoppage, in fact 7 of the first 8 did! -Prawet Singwancha's 13 defenses of the title were the most, by far...in fact no one else had more than 2 defenses of the belt! -Despite being the "Pan Asia Boxing Association" title, it was once fought for in Germany! It was in the European country that German based Azeri fighter Azad Azizov won the belt. -Two future world champions have held the title at some point. There was Lakva Sim, as mentioned previously, and Eduard Troyanovsky -On the subject of Eduard Troyanovsky, he defended the title against a trio of Colombian fighters, Walter Estrada, Orlen Padilla and Luis Zambrano -In 2015 there was also an Argentinian trying to win the belt! That was Leonardo Esteban Gonzalez fought George Kambosos Jr for the "interim" title, and was stopped in 3 rounds. -One of the champions, relatively early in the title's lifespan, was David Kosawara. Kosawara, like Lakva Sim, won the belt on his debut, but would later blow up, and fought as heavy as 260lbs later in his career, almost double the Lightweight limit! -Ahmad Abbybastnov only recorded bout was in a PABA title fight. The Uzbek was stopped in 2 rounds when challenging Prawet Singwancha in 2002. 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 former 2-weight Filipino world champion Luisito Espinosa to... 2-time world champion Masamori Tokuyama. 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-The talented and well liked Luisito Espinosa fought from 1984 to 2005 and racked up an impressive 47-13 (26) record, whilst winning world titles at Bantamweight, winning the WBA title in 1989, and Featherweight, winning the WBC title in 1995. His first title win came in Thailand, where he stopped Khaokor Galaxy inside a round, in what was a rather big upset at the time. 2-Although not as well remembered as his twin brother, Khaosai Galaxy, the talented Khaokor Galaxy was a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion. Khaokor may have been over-shadowed by his brother but his record features two huge wins, a split decision over Wilfredo Vazquez and a unanimous decision over Sung Kil Moon. The only other Thai to be a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion is Daorung Chuwatana. 3-Talented southpaw Daorung Chuwatana held the WBA Bantamweight title twice in the 1990's. Neither of his reigns were particularly long but yet both were fairly notable. The first came to an end against future legend Veeraphol Sahaprom, with Daorung seeking his third defense, whilst his second ended with a TKO to Nana Yaw Konado in 1997, in what was Daorung's final bout. On the card that Daorung reclaimed the title were a former world champion, Pichit Sithbanprachan, and future world champion Yodsanan 3-K Battery. 4-Theera Phongwan, better known as Yodsanan 3-K Battery, was one of the biggest Thai stars of 00's and is a former WBA Super Featherweight champion. Blessed with destructive power, and fighting out of the southpaw stance he was one of the most popular Thai fighters of his time. He claimed his world title with a clear win over Lakva Sim and made 3 defenses before losing to Vicente Mosquera in 2005. Yodsanan, was mentioned, a heavy handed southpaw. He was also born in Si Sa Ket. That's 3 things he has in common with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. 5-Wisaksil Wangek, better known as Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, is a 2-time WBC Super Flyweight champion best known for his wins over Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada. The Thai really developed a killer instinct as his career developed, becoming a genuine monster in the ring. Early on however he struggled, badly, losing 3 of his first 5 bouts, at least from what we've been able to confirm. These included a debut TKO3 defeat to Akira Yaegashi. That loss to Yaegashi puts Srisaket in a small group of Asian world champions to have been stopped on debut, along with Sho Kimura, Tae Shik Kim and Manny Melchor. 6-Filipino fight Manny Melchor was stopped in 3 rounds by Roque Villanueva on his debut, in fact he lost his first 3 bouts, but rebuilt over the years to pick up the IBF Minimumweight title, and score a decent number of upsets. One of those came in 1992, when he upset Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr to become the IBF champion, and another came in 1996 when he beat future world champion Masamori Tokuyama, taking the unbeaten record of Tokuyama in the process! What make this win all the more surprising was that Melchor had lost his previous 3, and wouldn't score another win for well over 2 years! One of the fighters we were asked to cover for this series was Indonesian veteran Muhammad Rachman. The "Rock Breaker", who earned that name for beating Ernesto "Hard Rock" Rubillar", ran up an excellent 65-13-5 (35) record during a career that ran from 1993 to 2016 and was memorable for his WBA Minimumweight title reign, which began at a division setting record age of 39.
Despite those well known details of Rachman's career little is really reported about the fighter. So here we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Muhammad Rachman 1-Rachman was the third oldest, of 9 children. His parents were a civil servant, his father, and a farmer, his mother. 2-As a child Rachman was unruly at times, and there were stories of him sleeping on the streets and spent time imprisoned due to his behaviour. He began boxing in his teens, learning at an amateur boxing gym in Merauke. 3-Originally Eddy Pirih, one of the most notable Indonesian promoters, refused to sign Rachman, who was 20 at the time, due to his age. 4-Rachman was 23 when he made his debut in the professional ranks. Despite years of training as an amateur he had never actually fought as an amateur, meaning his 1993 bout against Muhammad Daud is his actual boxing debut. 5-In the year 2000 Rachman notched a win over another of Indonesia's few world champions, stopping former world champion Nico Thomas inside a round! Like Thomas was a former IBF Minimumweight champion, holding the same title that Rachman would later win, in 2004. 6-As already mentioned Rachman won the IBF Minimumweight title in 2004, when he beat Daniel Reyes to become the 4th Indonesian world champion. Interestingly his third defense, against Benjie Sorolla, came on Rachman's 35th birthday! 7-He is the only Indonesian fighter to have won world titles from 2 different world title bodies, winning both the IBF and WBA Minimumweight titles. He is however, not the only multi-time Indonesian world champion as Elly Pical is a 3-time IBF Super Flyweight champion. 8-When Rachman stopped Kwanthai Sithmorseng in Thailand 2011 to claim the WBA Minimumweight he became the first Indonesian fighter to win a world title away from home. 9-In an 83 fight professional bouts Rachman fought in only 3 countries. Indoensia, where he had 75 bouts, Thailand, where he fought 6 times, and the Philippines, where he fought twice. Incidentally he went 1-6-1 outside of Indonesian and 64-7-4 at home. He was also only stopped once in his career! 10- Rachman is a bachelor of law from Putra Bangsa University. |
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