Shocks and surprised are simply part of boxing. They happen and there is no way to expect them, or anticipate them. Sure there might be signs, sometimes, of what is to come but they rarely show their face at the time and when we see the signs we often have the advantage of 20-20 hindsight vision. We look at one such bout today as we take you all the way back to 1977. Date July 19th 1977 Venue Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan Fighters Shuzo Yoshida (23-10-2, 12) vs Dong Kyun Yum (50-4-6, 21) II We suspect that some of the of these semi-regular features will have some pretty recognisable names, this one doesn't. In fact from the two fighters the name of Dong Kyum Yum is the more rrecognisable, and we suspect only hardcore fans will even recognise that. The Korean was a notable fighter in the 1970's, winning the Korea, OPBF and WBC Super Bantamweight titles during a long and successful career. Whilst there had certainly been some controversy along the way he had managed to score very notable wins over the likes of Royal Kobayashi, Spider Nemoto and Jose Cervantes. His world title reign only last 6 months but his OPBF title reign consisted of 5 defenses and spanned close to 2 years. Shuzo Yoshida on the other hand wasn't much of a success and is certainly not someone we suspect many fans will be familiar with. In fact outside of Japanese boxing circles the number of fans who will recognise his name is tiny. His most notable win was a decision over Flipper Uehara, for the Japanese Featherweight title, but he lost in a rematch just 2 months later. That was the highlight of Yoshida's otherwise unremarkable career up to 1977. With 9 losses from his first 34 bouts Yoshida wasn't expected to test Yum when the two men clashed the first time, in April 1977 in Korea. Yoshida however put in a good enough effort against the then WBC Super Bantamweight champion, in a non-title bout, to get a rematch with the Korean in Yokohama just 3 months later. In between the bouts Yoshida was rested, spending 3 months completely out of the ring, whilst Yum had lost his title to Wilfredo Gomez and lost a decision to Soo Hwan Hong. We're not sure what the idea was for Yum to fight 4 times in just over 3 months but it was clear he couldn't possible be in the best of shape here. Despite that he was still expected to win against the Japanese fighter. The first round of the bout saw Yoshida looking to create space and room, boxing at range. Yum had no issue with that and looked comfortable, he didn't throw much, not a surprise given the level of activity he had had in recent months, but he didn't look in any problems in a slow and pedestrian opening round. Yum applied pressure but didn't do much with the pressure before heading on to the back foot himself and looking to use his educated footwork. If we're being honest round 1 was completely unremarkable. Round 2 was much of the same early on, nothing much to talk about. Both men sticking to mostly their jabs, and happy to fight at range in a slow tempo affair. It was almost like a public spar, with neither man showing any sort of intensity. With just seconds in the round left however Yoshida caught Yum with a peach of a lefthook-straight right hand combination, dropping the Korean as the round ended. Yum went to his corner, didn't look interested as the referee counted 10 and just left the ring. Whilst the "KO" wasn't a clean one, Yoshida had shocked the former world champion, and scored a massive upset win. Surprisingly this was only Yum's second stoppage loss, and would turn out to be his final defeat. He bounced back with 4 wins before ending his career in 1980 with a draw against Soo Hwan Hong. As for Yoshida, he went 4-4 (4) afterwards before he retired, losing in his final bout in 1980. This is a real oddity of a result, and finish, but on hindsight, Yum's team were likely pushing him too much too soon and it took it's toll on him.
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The second in our "themed" 5 Bouts to enjoy during Isolation series focuses on break out wins. These are, for us, the bouts that really made us realise that fighters we were watching were something special. Whether that was in their potential to go all the way, or just the special type of fighters that we feel are must watch. For this particular series of fights all 5 are Japanese bouts, and they feature 3 men who went on to win world titles, one winning a world title in the bout we've featured, and one we have very high hopes for, still! These are a nice blend of destructive action skills, and a chance to see some talent before the fighters became success stories. Seiya Tsutsumi (2-0, 2) vs Junpei Inamoto (2-0, 1) [2018] Kongfah CP Freshmart (14-0, 10) Vs Daigo Higa (6-0, 6) [2015] Naoya Inoue (2-0, 2) v Yuki Sano (17-2-4, 12) [2013] Kosei Tanaka (3-0, 1) Vs Ryui Hara (18-0, 10) [2014] Oleydong Sithsamerchai (35-0-1, 13) Vs Kazuto Ioka (6-0, 4) A few days ago we shared our Lightweight rankings and confessed that the division was a hard one to really talk about. There was a unified champion, Yuichiro Yoshino, but the rest of the division was a bit of a mess and there was no clarity within it. Things don't get any clearer at 140lbs. In fact Light Welterweight might be an even harder division to rank, but also one of the most interesting with a number of people all banging on the door of big fights.
1-Batyrzhan Jukembayev (18-0-0-2, 14) Unbeaten Canadian based Kazakh contender Batyrzhan Jukembayev is really banging on the door for a world title fight. Although not too well known internationally Jukembayev has ready scored noteworthy wins against the likes of Cosme Rivera, Patricio Lopez Moreno and Miguel Vazquez. A talented boxer puncher, but still a work in progress, Jukembayev is part of the chasing pack wanting a world title fight sooner rather than later. At 29 the Kazakh will be wanting to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible, and certainly doesn't have too much time to waste if he's going to have a solid time at, or around, the top of the sport. He's not old, but he's also no spring chicken. 2-Shohjahon Ergashev (18-0, 16) The most explosive and exciting fighter in this top 10 is the powerful, but technically flawed, Shohjahon Ergashev. The heavy handed American based Uzbek is a fighter who can completely destroy opponents with his left hand, but can also be made to look rather rudimentary and basic by those who can control the action against him. Ergashev burst on the wider scene in 2018, when he dismantled Sonny Fredrickson in a charismatic and thrilling performance, and has notched 7 more wins since then. He looked very human against the awkward Mykal Fox, but absolutely terrifying against Nazareno Gaston Ruiz and more recently Adrian Estrella. The crude dangerman of the division. 3-Shakhram Giyasov (9-0, 7) Another US based unbeaten Uzbek hopeful is 2016 Olympic gold medal winner Shakhram Giyasov. The talented "Wonder Boy" has shown a lot of potential, and looks to be a better boxer than Ergashev, but has got a lot of questions to answer before we move up any further up this list. Although he's a hard hitting boxer-puncher there are defensive holes we've seen from Giyasov and the now 26 year old did not look good against Emanuel Taylor last year. He scored an impressive blow out against Darleys Perez last time out, but still has a lot to prove. We suspect that when Giyasov steps up in class he will impress more than he has so far, but it might be a case of waiting for another year or so before we come close to seeing how good Giyasov really is. 4-Downua Ruawaiking (16-0, 13) Thailand's Downua Ruawaiking, also known as Apinun Khongsong, was preparing for a world title fight before the global situation pout a halt on worldwide boxing. When we come out of this current situation we would expect to see the Thai getting a shot at unbeaten Scottish fighter Josh Taylor. The Thai hasn't got many wins of note on his record, but his 2019 win over Akihiro Kondo in Japan was very impressive and certainly sees him deserving a high ranking here. Although he's not the quickest, he has shown under-rated technical ability, real power and he is much better than many Thai's around this weight. We don't expect him to defeat Taylor, when the two finally clash, but he is certainly among the very best at 140lbs in Asia, and is going to be someone who would be fancied against pretty much everyone in region. 5-Koki Inoue (15-0, 12) The unbeaten Koki Inoue is the "lesser known Inoue", and is the cousin of Naoya and Takuma. Inoue isn't as well established as his two cousins, but is another boxing product of Shingo Inoue and the Ohashi gym. Inoue has proven to be a solid punching boxer-mover who has shown the ability to bang when he wants to, as we saw against Jheritz Chavez last year, and box when he needs to, as we saw against Valentine Hosokawa. At times he's been a bit dull to watch, but there is always a sense of tension with his fights, knowing he can go into another gear as, and when, he chooses. Currently Inoue is the Japanese and WBO Asia Pacific and we see him moving onto the next level sooner, rather than later. 5-Daud Yordan (40-4-0-1, 28) Indonesian veteran Daud Yordan appears to have been around forever, but the former world title contender is still only 32 and his career, which began in 2005, is still very much active. Originally a contender at Featherweight Yordan has seen his body fill out over the last decade and he's now fighting between Lightweight and Light Welterweight. Although not the physically imposing fighter he was lower down the weights he's certainly still a handful and a genuine gatekeeper. His 2018 proved he still deserves to be mentioned here in among the best in Asia, with an excellent win in Russia against Pavel Malikov and a game performance in a loss to Anthony Crolla. Yordan is some way from being world class, but is a definite gatekeeper level fighter. 6-Zhankosh Turarov (24-0, 17) The second Kazakh to make it on to this list is the unbeaten 29 year old "Kazakh Kid" Zhankosh Turarov. The unbeaten Turarov has been a professional for more than a decade but has yet to make a real mark at the top, not help by the fact he spent around 21 months out of the ring from September 2017 to June 2019. Although talented there has, seemingly, been lacking direction and hunger in his career and he really needs some stiffer competition to see what he's really made out of. It'd be great to see Turarov taking on a test this year, but we do wonder if the desire is really there. He was supposed to be in a tournament last year but pulled out with injury and with that in mind we do need to wonder if he's perhaps, maybe, a touch fragile and injury prone. A talent, but one who needs to be questioned and needs to do more, soon. 7-Rikki Naito (22-2, 7) OPBF champion Rikki Naito is in an interesting position. He's clearly a talented boxer who has won the Japanese Super Featherweight title and now holds the OPBF title at 140lbs, but he's a talented boxer with some real issues. We know his stamina isn't great, and he tends to run on fumes in the championship rounds. We know he lacks power, which further makes his lack of stamina and issue, as bouts do go long, and physically he's not the strongest at the weight. Despite those flaws he's fast, very skilled, smart and know how to move around the ring. As with Turarov his ability isn't going to be questioned, but boxing isn't all about ability and we can all see Naito's flaws, so to will future opponents. Jheritz Chavez and Daishi Nagata have pushed Naito all the way, and we suspect any decent regional level fighter will do the same, but he has been finding ways to win! 8-Daishi Nagata (14-2-1, 5) It's hard to know how good 20 year old Japanese fighter Daishi Nagata is. It's clear he can fight, it's clear he's a warrior and his performances against Rikki Naito, in a razor thin loss, and Cristiano Aoqui, in a 2019 win, showed what he could do. Sadly though he's been fairly inconsistent, struggling past the unheralded Min Ho Jung and being battered into submission by Vladimir Baez. When he's on song Nagata could well be a nightmare for those ranked above him, as he was for Naito, but his next bout is likely to be against Inoue and we suspect there will be a clear between the two Japanese fighters when we get around to seeing that one. 9-Andy Hiraoka (15-0, 10) Talented Japanese fighter Andy Hiraoka is someone we should have seen fans talking about internationally back in April. He was pencilled in to fight on the under-card of the now cancelled Naoya Inoue Vs Johnriel Casimero bout and the reality is that he would have got a lot of eye balls on him there. The talented 23 year old is big, strong, tough, fast and has the athletic traits to be a real one to watch in the division, with the potential to quickly outgrow the Asian scene. Despite the athletic ability Hiraoka is still a work in progress and needs to develop the technical skills to go with his athletic tools. We saw Hiraoka make good development last year, and his decision win over Akihiro Kondo was a career best win, but the best is yet to come. 10-Ablaikhan Khussainov (11-0, 8) Rounding off our top 10 is another Kazkh, Ablaikhan Khussainov. Khussainov, like Jukembayev, fought much of his career in Canada but is now based in the US where he is hoping to have a big break through in the near future. The talented Kazakh fought much of his career at Lightweight but his last two bouts have suggested that a move to being a fully fledged Light Welterweight it now on the cards. Although not as proven as the others on this list Khussainov is a good former amateur, who has proven his professional ability around the globe and is clearly ready to be tested. His future may lie at Lightweight but for now we're ranking him at 140lbs, where his 29 year old body may be better, rather than draining the extra 5lbs. We're hoping that when the sport returns in 2020 we see Khussainov in a real test, as we genuinely believe he'll rise to the occasion. On the bubble: Hiroki Okada, Yusuke Konno, Baishanbo Nasiyiwula, Tuguldur Byambatsogt and Hwang Kil Kim Last time in our "Reliving the Finish" article we looked at In Joo Cho's brilliant KO win over Pone Saengmorakot and mentioned, in passing, his KO loss to Masamori Tokuyama. Now was we move on to that Tokuyama win, which was another absolute beauty. Masamori Tokuyama (23-2-1, 5) Vs In Joo Cho (18-1, 7) II So to set the scene, these two had clashed in August 2000, when Tokuyama took a clear decision over Cho to take the WBC Super Flyweight title, becoming the first "North Korean" to win a world title. Around 9 months later Tokuyama travelled to Seoul to give Cho a chance to reclaim the WBC title in a much anticipated rematch. For Tokuyama the bout was his second defense, whilst Cho was getting a shot to avenge his sole loss. Through 4 rounds the bout had been fairly competitive, but Tokuyama, had been doing just a bit more and had got his nose in the lead on 2 of the scorecards. With just 12 KO's between the men, in a combined 45 bouts, few would have expected this one to finish early. Not only did neither man posses much of a punch, but neither had been stopped. Less than a minute into round 5 hour the unthinkable happened. Tokuyama landed the best punch of his career, a perfect right hand, that had followed a jab that had just missed. Cho pulled straight back, making Tokuyama miss the jab, but the right hand that followed were enough to send him on to his backside. As we did last time we have included the live KO and the replays, and boy is this a beauty of an over-looked KO.
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 fighters from opposite ends of the scales, going from former Minimumweight and Light Flyweight Hiroki Ioka to former Heavyweight king Ruslan Chagaev. 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-Japan's Hiroki Ioka was a world class fighter in the late 1980's and most of the 1990's, featuring in 13 world title fights and being a 2-weight Japanese world champion. He was also the final student of the legendary Eddie Townsend, and the uncle of future 4-weight world champion Kazuto Ioka. Ioka made his debut on January 23rd 1986. Another fighter who fought on January 23rd 1986 was the excellent Kongtoranee Payakaroon, who picked up his 6th professional win fighting in Rangsit, Thailand. 2-Although Kongtoranee Payakaroon wasn't as well as his younger brother, who we'll name in a minute, he was an excellent fighter himself and was very unlucky not to take a professional boxing title, to go alongside his Muay Thai achievements. His brother was the amazing Samart Payakaroon, one of the great Muay Thai fighters of all time and excellent boxer himself. 3-Samart Payakaroon's first world title win in professional boxing saw him win the WBC Super Bantamweight title. His reign came to an end in 1987 when he was beaten by Australian fighter Jeff Fenech. 4-Although a massive success as a professional Jeff Fenech was also an excellent amateur boxer and competed at the 1984 Olympics reaching the quarter finals before losing to Steve McCrory. 5-Given that Steve McCrory was part of the US boxing team in 1984 it's needless to add he was part of the US Olmypic team that picked up 9 gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The bronze medal winner was Evander Holyfield, probably the greatest Cruiserweight of all time and one of the all time great Heavyweights. 6-In 2008 Evander Holyfield fought Nikolay Valuev, losing a hotly debated decision to the Russian giant who had previously been beaten by Ruslan Chagaev. Interestingly, though as an aside, Valuev was supposed to face Ruslan Chagaev in 2009, in what would have been their second bout and would have followed Valuev's win over Holyfield. Despite being ordered the bout never took place, due to a medical issue with Chagaev's blood test showing that he had Hepatits B. As we continue to await live boxing's eventual return we also continue our 5 Midweek Facts series. This week it's the turn of fighter turn promoter Shosei Nitta (22-9-2, 16) who fought from 1987 to 1997. Although he wasn't a star during his in ring career he is a significant figure in Japanese boxing, especially now a days, and he's someone who fans perhaps should be more aware of than they are. That's despite the fact he's not fought in well over 20 years!
Nitta has really done everything related to boxing. He may not have been a major success but he's fought, run a successful gym and is now a major player behind scenes in Japanese boxing 1-Nitta began his boxing career as a fighter at the Kaneko Boxing Gym, which was established in 1980. Although the Kaneko gym isn't a huge one it is a pretty notable one and he would be their 3rd fighter to win an OPBF title, following Eijiro Murata and Kevin Palmer. 2-Outside of the ring Nitta is a smart guy and he graduated from the Yokohama National University, which attracted attention early in his career, as very few boxers are university graduates. Later in his career he would become the first OPBF champion to have graduated from a national university. 3-In 1997 Nitta lost the OPBF Bantamweight title to In Shik Go and retired from the sport. In retirement he moved to the US, though returned to Japan in 1999 and began working for what was then Kenwood, the audio equipment company. 4-In 2003 Nitta set up the Nitta Boxing Gym, which was then renamed the Kawasaki Nitta Boxing Gym in 2010. That's the gym that has produced the likes of Masayuki Kuroda, Gaku Takahashi and Gakuya Furuhashi. Interestingly those 3 won Rookie of the Year in consecutive years, with Kuroda in 2006, Takahashi in 2007 and Furuhashi in 2008. In regards to Rookie of the Year Mr Nitta himself was beaten in the 1988 East Japan Rookie of the Year final by Mitsumasa Ikeda, who lost in the All Japan final to Katsuya Onizuka. 5-Nitta is one of the main figures behind the campaign to get justice for Iwao Hakamada and has also helped expand boxing in Vietnam. He has served as both the director and secretary general of the JPBA and has been responsible for boxing's growing influence in community in Japan, with the Kawasaki Nitta Gym fighters working hard to help the local community in Kawasaki. We continue with this mini series with a themed "5 bouts to enjoy during isolation". This time we're looking at rematches, with a fun little opener Korean opener from 2018, thanks to BoxingM, and then finishing with one of our favourite bouts from 1998. On route we get a Rookie of the Year final from 2019 and a truly brilliant Japanese title bout from 1987. Again for fans wanting something different to enjoy during these weeks without boxing we think we've put on a nice little collection here and we suspect you'll enjoy these little treats from Asia! Jae Min Kim (2-0, 1) vs So Won Shin (2-1, 1) II [2018] Katsuki Mori (4-0, 1) vs Shu Nawai (3-1, 2) II [2019] Jun Kitano (11-1-1, 2) vs Keisuke Yokoyama (17-8-2, 8) II [2002] Naoto Takahashi (11-0, 7) vs Mitsuo Imazato (22-10, 12) II [1987] Takanori Hatakeyama (21-0-1, 17) vs Yong Soo Choi (24-2-1, 14) II [1998] In recent years unbeaten records have become a marketing tool, to help promote a fighter. In the past they weren't quite the same thing and fighters who had them didn't out and out try to protect them. As a result fighters who retired as world champions with unbeaten records were few and far between. One of the few from Asia was Korean Ji Won Kim, who retired in 1986 with a 16-0-2 (9) record following 4 defenses of the IBF Super Bantamweight title. To this day Kim is one of only 2 Asian men to have retired as an unbeaten world champion, with the other being Pichit Sithbanprachan.
Whilst we suspect many have heard of his name we also doubt fans know much at all about Kim, his life and his career. So here we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Ji Won Kim 1-Kim was one of 6 children in the family. 2-Prior to turning professional Ji Won Kim was an excellent amateur. Whilst we've not been able to track down his full amateur record we know he won the 1980 Asian Championships in Bombay among other international tournaments, and had Korea not boycotted the 1980 Olympics he was expected, by those in Korea, to be in the mix for a medal 3-The first 9 of Ji Won Kim's bouts all went the distance. That's not that interesting until you realise that only 2 of his final 9 bouts went the distance, and only 1 of his 5 world title bouts went the distance, with 3 of them not even going beyond 5 rounds. He is a great example of a fighter developing his power as he built his in ring experience. 4-Whilst Kim's record of 16-0-2 (9) is pretty well known something that perhaps isn't too well known is that both of his draws came to Neptala Alamag, a Filipino who later went on to win the OPBF Bantamweight title. This was the only opponent that Kim failed to defeat during his 18 bout career. 5-Only one of Kim's opponents wasn't from Asia. Ruben Dario Palacio, from Colombia, was the only person Kim faced who wasn't from Korea, the Philipines or Indonesia. In fact Palacio and Saipa Monod, from Indonesia, were his opponents from places other than Korea and the Philippines. 6-Ji won Kim was the third man to hold the IBF Super Bantamweight. He won the title from Sun In Suh, the second champion, and would defend it against both Bobby Berna, the first champion, and Suh. In what is a rather peculiar little detail to his reign as the champion. 7-Kim reportedly earned ₩27,000,000 for his defense against Bobby Berna 8-According to Korean sources the official date of Kim's retirement came on November 24th 1986, more than 5 months after his final world title defense. That means his 18 fight career lasted less than 5 years, and his world title run, which included 4 defenses, lasted less than 2 years. 9-After retiring Kim would go on to have success as an actor and a singer. Interestingly his family are actually talented in the entertainment field as well, with several of his siblings being involved in some form of entertainment, be it singing, acting or even a director. In fact his brother, Jee Woon Kim, has been a very successful director and picking up numerous awards for his work. Whilst Ji Won's sister Ji Sook Kim has been a very successful actress. 10-Also after retiring Kim admitted that he was rather lazy and had he devoted himself to the sport he felt he could have been Korea's first 3 weight world champion. It seems clear that Kim, who stated he retired after issues with the Korean Boxing Commission, could have done a lot more with his career given he was only 26 when he walked away from the ring. Extra Fact - Ji Won Kim's cousin, Suk-Kim Chang, competed at the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran. Boxing is a sport that is full of tragedy. It's a sport that has more depressing stories than pretty much any other. The amount of boxers who been murdered or died doing what they love is sadly longer than anyone wishes to even think about. Sadly though the tragedy of the sport and it's stars is part of it's history, and even, in some morbid way, part of the fascination with some fighters.
Today we look at one of the fighters who managed to get out of the sport with faculties intact, but even then was unable to have a long and prosperous life outside of the ring. In fact when he passed away he had spent several years of his life in a vegetative state, with the hope being that he would make a recovery, a recovery that never came. Today we're going to be talking about Hwan Kil Yuh (26-2-3, 11), who fought as a professional from 1979 to 1985. He was dubbed the "Korean Hagler", due to his hair style, and was an exciting, tough fighter who's career was exciting, short but ultra active. Whilst his career was a short one it was intense. During his 6 years in the professional ranks Yuh claimed the OPBF Featherweight title in 1981, when he beat Jung Han Hwang, and then went on to win the IBF Super Featherweight title in 1984. Yuh began his career in March 1979 with a win over Yun Bok Cho in Busan and ended the year with a 7-0-1 (5) record. He would remain busy in 1980 with another 6 wins, though ended the year with his first loss, a decision to future South Korean Featherweight champion Hyun Ahn in Seoul. The loss to Ahn was then followed by a fantastic run from Yuh, who went on to win 15 in a row. That winning run saw Yuh over-come Jung Han Hwang for the OPBF title in 1981, ending Hwang's reign less than 2 months after he took the total from Royal Kobayashi. Sadly Yuh's reign with the OPBF title wasn't a great one, but he did make 3 defenses in the space of 10 months. As he edged towards a world title fight he vacated the OPBF belt, setting up his 1984 clash with Rod Sequenan for the IBF Super Featherweight title. Yuh's bout for IBF Super Featherweight title saw him take a close decision over veteran Sequenan to become the first ever IBF champion at the weight. He also made a single successful defeat, stopping Sak Galaxy, the man who gave Khaosai Galaxy his sole professional loss. Sadly though he lost in his second defense, as he lost a close decision to Lester Ellis in Australia, in what was a real tough and messy fight. After losing the IBF title Yuh fought just once more, beating former world title challenger Tae Jin Moon, before walking away from the sport at the age of 23. He achieved more than most fighters ever will, being both a regional and world champion. Given he was so young when he hung them up he essentially had a long life ahead of him. At least that was the hope. Following his in ring career Yuh ran a restaurant Goyang, Korea. That was until September 2006 when he was injured in a hit and run incident. The injuries he suffered left him in a vegetative state at the Myongji Hospital. He would spend more than 2 year in hospital, with the hope being that on day he would show some signs of recovery. Sadly those signs never came and he would pass away on April 21st 2009, aged just 46. Sadly, given that usually Korean papers are amazing to read through online, there isn't a lot available of Yuh. A shame given his place in history, as the first IBF Super Featherweight champion. Given his short career that's perhaps no surprise but it is still a shame that the "Korean Hagler" had his life cut short, essentially in his mid 40's. Yuh got out of the sport fine, but sadly was still taken far, far too soon. We continue to through the Asian rankings today as we look at the Lightweight division. The division is a relative weak one in Asia however and really is in a transitional state which we expect to see changing over the coming years. Thankfully it appears likely that the division will become a stronger one in the years to come.
1-Shuichiro Yoshino (12-0, 10) With no world champion, or even former world champion, in the Lightweight division the #1 pick for the Asian scene is an easy one, Shuichiro Yoshino. The unbeaten Japanese fighter is a flawed but talented boxer puncher who has unified the JBC, OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific and is the #1 pretty much with out question here. Although Yoshino isn't the best pure boxer he is a real threat in the division and no one should take too many risks against. We have seen him score some sensational KO's already, including the brilliant one against Harmonito Dela Torre last year, and we expect big things form him. Although talented we have seen him being out boxed and there is a risk that he will run into someone who can take his power and will defeat him. So far, however, we've not seen anyone do that to him. 2-Valentine Hosokawa (25-7-3, 12) A potentially controversial choice at #2 is Japanese veteran Valentine Hosokawa. The 39 year old is a former Japanese Light Welterweight champion who has moved down in weight and looks stronger than ever. Although he has 7 losses to his name they include defeats to the likes of Koki Inoue, Shinya Iwabuchi and Min Wook Kim. Hosokawa has aged like fine wine in recent years and despite being 39 he may be at best. Powerful, with great stamina, an aggressive mentality and with more bang on his punch than his record suggests he's a very hard fighter to beat and we suspect he has the potential to really shine now that he's not giving away natural size at 140lbs. 3-Yongqiang Yang (13-0, 10) Unbeaten Chinese hopeful Yongqiang Yang has quickly risen through the ranks without getting much attention. He was supposed to face Masayuki Ito in China earlier this year, before the situation in China forced the show to be cancelled. Although certainly not a big name or a high profile fighter Yang has notched a string of respectable wins recently, beating Takuya Watanabe, Harmonito Dela Torre, Ernie Sanchez and JR Magboo in his last 4. Yang is a solid boxer-puncher, he's very strong and powerful, and at just 27 he's still getting better and getting stronger. Yang has only been a professional since 2016 but he is certainly already on the fringes of a legitimate world ranking. 4-Romero Duno (22-2, 17) Hard hitting Filipino Romero Duno is a pretty well known 24 year old who has been fighting in the US frequently in the last few years. Duno made a big impact on his US debut in 2017, when he stopped the touted Christian Gonzalez, and since then score some decent wins over the likes of Juan Antonio Rodriguez. Sadly for Duno his rise through the ranks took a huge hit last year when he was stopped inside a round by Ryan Garcia. Duno can box, he can punch and he is a dangerman, though the loss to Garcia certainly showed him to be a clear level below world class, and he did look very slow in the bout. We suspect he'll be a gatekeeper going forward, but with his power he'll always be a risky opponent and someone who prospects will see as a solid test. A beatable. but solid test. 5-Ravshanbek Umurzakov (10-1, 7) It's really hard to know where Uzbek hopeful Ravshanbek Umurzakov stands right now. The 26 year old looked like he was going to be moved quickly towards big things after early career wins over Eden Sonsona, Rimar Metuda and Roldan Aldea. Sadly however back in January we saw Umurzakov being stopped in 7 rounds by Esneiker Correa. That loss to Correa was a bad one for Umurzakov who took a lot of punishment and had his defensive flaws shown up time and time again. Although talented he really does have a lot of work to do before moving onwards and upwards. He's more proven than many fighters on this list, but the loss to Correa is going to loom his head for quite some time. 6-Elnur Abduraimov (5-0, 5) Staying with Uzbek fighters Elnur Abduraimov is certainly worthy of some attention. The 25 year old would rank above his compatriot had it not been for the stop-start nature of his career so far. Abduraimov made his debut in September 2018 and fought 3 times by the end of the year. Sadly he only fought twice in 2019, with his last fight coming in May, when he stopped Issa Nampepeche in 4 rounds. Talented, explosive, heavy handed and very promising we're really hoping to see more of Abduraimov, but it seems like he'll not fully commit to the professional ranks until after the Olympics, so it could be a while before we really see what he can do. 7-Viktor Kotochigov (11-0, 4) Another hard fighter to place is 26 year old Kazakh Viktor Kotochigov. The well travelled Kazakh, who has been a professional since December 2015, has shown some real promise, with wins over Piotr Gudel, Jairo Lopez and Javier Jose Clavero. Whilst clearly a talented fighter Kotochigov does have a knack of fighting within himself and there is a worry he'll never be able to find that extra gear that he'll need to make a mark on the world stage. He's a talented boxer but also has question marks remaining over his power, and we've yet to see him go in against someone with hunger and power. It would be nice to see him tested when the sport resumes, but in reality we suspect we'll see him being given some easy bouts when the sport continues. 8-Ju Wu (9-0-2, 2) Chinese boxer Ju Wu is another of those less known fighters who has quietly gone about things and made his name without too much of a fuss. The 20 year old southpaw drew 2 of his first 3 but has won his last 8 bouts including wins over Adones Aguelo, Rimar Metuds and Alain Chervet, with the win over Chervet coming last December in Switzerland. Although not a puncher Wu is a genuine talent, a very good boxer, a very smart fighter and a young man who is still some time from developing his man strength. 9-Shu Utsuki (6-0, 5) Whilst Yoshino is the divisional king of Japan it's hard to not mention Shu Utsuki, who is 26 years old and looks like a star in the making. He's a former Japanese amateur standout who turned professional in 2018 and scored notable wins over Jerry Castroverde and Omrri Bolivar last year. He's not as polished as some of the man ranked above him, but with 24 rounds to his name, nasty past, good movement and tight defense it's hard not to get excited about him. We were expecting a big 2020 for him, but it seems unlikely that we'll see too much from him now, but 2021 could be a huge year for the man from the Watanabe gym. 10-Izuki Tomioka (7-3-1, 2) With 3 losses to his name Izuki Tomioka looks a little out of place here, but the reality is that no one has had an easy time with him. His first loss came against Masayoshi Nakatani, in 11 rounds, his second was a razor thin split decision to Shuya Masaki and he was stopped earlier this year by Shuichiro Yoshino, whilst in the lead on the cards. Despite those losses Tomioka is only 23 years old, he's developing and he's maturing and as he matures we suspect he'll manage to toughen up and become a very good fighter. Head to head he could certainly hold his own, if not beat, men ranked well above him, but his results and set backs have really dragged him down the rankings here. On the bubble: Xiang Xiang Sun, Apichet Petchmanee, Abdurasul Ismoilov, Kaiki Yuba and Masanori Rikiishi |
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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