For the second week in a row we're going to look at a Gym as part of our Did you know series, this time a much newer gym and one which has only really been making it's mark on the sport over the last decade or so. Despite being newer it has quickly built a reputation for its self as a very good gym which can attract top amateurs and looks like it will go one to develop a number of future world champions in the coming years.
This week we look at the World Sport Boxing Gym in this week's Did you Know... -The gym was set up by former Japanese amateur standout Tatsuya Saida. Although not a big name outside of Japan Saida racked up an excellent record of 108-19 (40) before becoming a trainer at the International Boxing Sports Gym. -The gym was founded in 2005 when Saida left the International Boxing Sports Gym to go independent, and was joined by Kinji Amano and Prosper Matsuura, who both became trainers at the gym. -Interestingly Tatsuya Saida wasn't the only member of the family involved in business. Saida's parents own Sanyo Paper Industry Co., Ltd. With Saida's father being the president of the company. They produce things like boxes and packaging. -The gym's first champion was Takuya Mitamura, who won the Japanese Minimumweight title in 2011 -The gym managed to sign trainer Toshiyuki Fujiwara in 2012, securing the services of the 2006 Eddie Townsend Award Winner. -The gym has had a single world champion so far, with that being Naoko Shibata, a former IBF female Light Flyweight champion -Whilst the gym is a boxing gym is also serves as a fitness gym and has several other interesting things happening there. This includes a yoga class, a public bath and a sauna. They also work with a Osteopathic therapist, which is on the first floor of the gym. -In 2007, 2009 and 2012 the Gym had the highest winning rate of any gym in Japan, something very impressive given the gym was only founded less than a decade earlier! -In the last few years the Gym has quickly become a major player on the Japanese domestic scene, thanks to the development of Takeshi Inoue and Kazuto Takesako, who have both unified domestic and regional titles.
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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 world champions Saman Sorjaturong and Khaosai Galaxy! 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 Saman Sorjaturong will never be forgotten by hardcore fight fans thanks to his sensational bout with Humberto Gonzalez in 1995, a bout that was named the Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. That was one of only two bouts featuring a Thai to be named Fight of the Year by Ring, with the other being Somsak Sithchatchawal's war with Mahyar Monshipour. That leaves us with Saman and Somsak being the only Thai's involved in Ring's Fights of the Year. 2-Whilst Somsak Sithchatchawal is best known for his sensational war with Monshipour that wasn't his only bout of note. He also fought the likes of Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, Ratanachai Sor Vorapin and Celestino Caballero. 3-Panama's Celestino Caballero might not be an Asian fighter but he did mix with Asian fighters several times during his successful in ring career, including Daud Yordan and Satoshi Hosono. That Hosono fight actually occurred in Japan on December 31st 2011 at the Bunka Gym in Kanagawa on a card that also featured the then debuting Ryo Matsumoto. 4-Whilst Ryo Matsumoto is yet to reach the heights expected of him the Ohashi fighter is only 26 years old and still has time on his side to become a world champion in the future. Interestingly Ryo is one of 3 "Matsumoto's" at the Ohashi gym along with fellow fighter Keisuke Matsumoto and former fighter, nor a current trainer, Koji Matsumoto*. 5-During the 1990's Koji Matsumoto was a 3-time world title challenger. The talented former Japanese fighter may never have won a world title but was a talented, entertaining and skilled fighter who managed to win domestic and regional honours during his often over-looked career. In his debut Matsumoto shared a card with Shunichi Nakajima, who retained the Japanese Flyweight title in the show's main event. 6-Shunichi Nakajima was another of the Japanese fighters who managed success on the domestic scene but failed when it came to world level. He not only lost twice to future world champion Katsuya Onizuka but he also lost in his sole world title fight, being stopped in 8 rounds by Khaosai Galaxy in June 1990, in what was Galaxy's 14th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title. *Just to add Koji is Keisuke's father, neither is actually related to Ryo. We continue our 5 Midweek Facts series by looking at former world title challenger Kazuhiro Ryuko (13-2-3, 4). Although Ryuko isn't a name that many fans will recognise, therefore he's ideal for this series, he did manage to leave a decent mark on the sport as both an amateur and a professional. Ryuko's professional career was a short one, running from 1995 to 2002 and yet it was one with a lot of promise and a decent level of achievement. He debuted in 1995, fighting out of the Watanabe Gym, and beat future world champion Celes Kobayashi in just his 4th professional bout. He would later go on to win the Japanese and OPBF Super Flyweight titles but lose in his sole world title bout bout in 2002. 1-Although Ryuko would be a pretty successful boxer, and was a very decent amateur boxer at high school level, he actually wanted to become a singer and not a boxer. He was scouted by the Watanabe gym and his career as a singer got put on the back burner. 2-We mentioned Ryuko was a good amateur boxer and we weren't joking. His reported amateur record was a very impressive 85-25 (40) and he fought for the Kinki University team and the Japanese national team. 3-Ryuko went to the Kyoto Kogakuin High School in Kyoto. That's the same school as Shinsuke Yamanaka, Shun Kubo and Ryota Murata, all of whom went on to win world titles! Sadly for Ryuko he himself would never win a world title, but did, as mentioned, challenge for one in his final bout. 4-Currently Ryuko works at the RK Boxing gym as a trainer, which he also owns. He also serves as an adviser for the Matsuyama University boxing team. 5-Ryuko is a close personal friend of Japanese recording artist Ryuichi Kawamura and often used Kawamura's song "Love is..." as his ring walk music. Kawamura also sang the national anthem in Ryuko's final career bout, against Masamori Tokuyama. For those wanting to hear "Love is..." we have included it below. When we talk about Japanese boxing legends few compare to Fighting Harada, a man who is still regarded as the greatest Japanese boxer of all time and one of the true legends, not just of Asian boxing but of boxing in general. The former Flyweight and Bantamweight champion fought from 1960 to 1970 and racked up a 55-7 (22) record and etched himself a career that later earned him a place in the hall of fame. Although Harada is a true legend there's a lot that we suspect fan's don't know about one of the all time greats. With that in mind, let us bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Fighting Harada 1-Katsuhiro Harada, who also fought as Ushiwakamaru Harada and Fighting Ushiwaka, was Fighting Harada's real life brother. As professional Katsuhiro ran up a 36-20-14 (14) record and won the Japanese Bantamweight and Featherweight titles. Although not as well known as his brother he did face a number of notable fighters including a then unbeaten Danny "Little Red" Lopez, future 2-weight world champion Soo-Hwan Hong, who he actually beat, and Chucho Castillo, who he held to a draw! 2-Harada was the first multi-weight world champion from Japan, and only the second ever world champion from Japan. 3-He would beat fellow Japanese legend Hiroyuki Ebihara in the 1960 Rookie of the Year. During that bout Ebihara was down twice and Harada was cut. This was the only fight between Harada and Ebihara, but their careers would regularly intertwine and the two would be very, very close friends. So close in fact that Harada would admit crying at Ebihara's funeral but not at that of his parent's. 4-During his 62 fight career Harada was only ever beaten by 1 Asian fighter, Pone Kingpetch. His other losses came to Edmundo Esparza and Jose Medel, from Mexico, Lionel Rose and Johnny Famechon, both from Australia, and American Alton Colter. On a similar note 4 of those losses came in his final 9 bouts, dropping his record from 50-3 to 55-7 5-In 1966 Fighting Harada recorded a single, "Boxing Kouta", this can be head at the end of this article. 6-In 1989 he became the president of the Japan Professional Boxing Association, then known as the All Japan Boxing Association. It was the first time any former world champion had taken the role. 7-Harada's fights would twice break a 60% market share in the Kanto region. The first of those was his bout The first of those came in November 11 1965, when he beat Alan Rudkin in his first defense of the Bantamweight throne, which was viewed by 60.4% of the market. The other came just a few months later, in his rematch with Eder Jofre in May 1966, which drew a 63.7% of the region's audience. 8-After retiring Harada would become the chairman of the Fighting Harada Boxing Gym in Yokohama and do a significant amount of commentary, often alongside Tsuyoshi Hamada. 9-Harada has been played on screen several times. In 1990 he was played by Katsuo Tokashika, in TBS drama special "Showa's Champ Tako Hachiro Story", whilst in 2014 he was played by Hayato Ichihara in "Ohgon No Bantam: Fighting Harada Story" 10-Legendary Australian race horse Haradasun was named after Fighting Harada Extra Fact 1 - In 1988 Mike Tyson, who had admired Harada as a fighter, didn't recognise the Japanese legend. That was due to Harada having increased significantly in size from his fighter. Extra Fact 2 - In January 2005 Harada collapsed after suffering a hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage, he had surgery afterwards and thankfully he recovered and was back doing commentary the following year. When we started doing the top 10 series we didn't expect to come in to too many issues and in reality we didn't....until we got to the Light Heavyweight division. Sadly however when we hit 175lbs, and again when we looked at Cruiserweight, we realised there just wasn't the depth needed for a top 10. As a result we are going cut the numbers for both divisions down to a top 5 ranking.
With that now out of the way, here are our top 5 Asian Light Heavyweights. 1-Fanlong Meng (16-0, 10) Leading the way in the division is unbeaten Chinese Light Heavyweight Fanlong Meng, who is supposed to be getting an IBF world title fight later in the year. The 32 year old Southpaw has proven to be a talented boxer-puncher and wins over the likes of Adam Deines, Frank Buglioni and Emmanuel Danso have shown his ability. Sadly whilst he is a very skilled fighter with a strong amateur background he has shown a questionable chin and has been down several times during his career. He's, unfortunately, supposed to take on divisional destroyed Artur Beterbiev next and that is not a good style match up for "Cold Blood". 2-Rustam Tulaganov (3-0, 1) Former Uzbek amateur standout Rustam Tulaganov comes in second, despite having only 3 bouts to his name. The talented Uzbek made his debut in 2017, but was out of the ring for over 2 years before impressing in late 2019 with his second professional win. Like many top Uzbek's Tulaganov looks like he can be fast tracked, and we expect big things of him. At 28 he doesn't have any more time to waste, but by that same token he's only a few fights away from an alphabet rankings and a potential world title eliminator. Yes he's only had 3 professional bouts, but he is very advanced for a man with just 3 fights. 3-Mingcun Chen (6-0, 6) We return to China for our third ranked fighter at 175lbs wuith Mingcun Chen, a 22 year old novice who debuted at the end of 2017 and has slowly been making a name for himself. To date his best wub us iver Clint Alderson, for a low level WBF title, but given his age and potential there is reason to be excited in the youngster, and hopefully we see him taking on some stiffer competition from Australia and Eastern Europe in late 2020. Sadly his career is a bit shrouded, but outside of the top 2 he's pretty much the best of the rest. 4-Abdulkhamid Khakimov (5-0, 3) Another Uzbek making his name in the division is 28 year old Abdulkhamid Khakimov. Whilst Khakimov doesn't have much hype behind him he did kick off 2020 with a solid win over Russian journeyman Karen Avetisyan, and that's a win worthy of note, even if Avetisyan is little more than a journeyman. In reality that one win is pretty much better than what the other Asian fighters in the division has. That's how weak the division is in terms of Asian fighters right now. 5-Zhaoxin Zhang (8-1-1, 4) Rounding out this surprisingly weak top 5 is 24 year old Chinese fighter Zhaoxin Zhang, who suffered a loss in 2019 to Zulipikaer Maimaitiali, and then struggled past Chase Haley later in the year. On paper Zhang got his best win in November 2019, when he stopped Jianzheng Wang, but that still wasn't a big or meaningful win outside of China. Fingers crossed that in the coming years the Light Heavyweight division sees a burst of amateur talent making it's mark there from Central Asia but at the moment, only the top two Asian fighters in the division are really worthy any attention at all. Although not a big name in the West Japanese fighter Tatsuki Kawasaki (22-5, 17) has one of the sports many interesting stories. In fact in some ways his story is the complete opposite of Jiro Watanabe. He may not have been anywhere close to the success of Watanabe, but his life certainly bares some comparison to the Super Flyweight great.
If you're reading this article we suspect that you may know that Jiro Watanabe went from being a boxing great in Japan to a member of the Yakuza and a man who's professional boxing career has been overshadowed by his criminal activity. Kawasaki on the other hand went from the Yakuza to professional boxing. As a youngster Kawasaki was in trouble regularly. He was however a lonely man, who would sleep on the stairs in multi-tenant buildings, go in to bars alone and seemed to be a youngster carrying a lot of anguish. His mother had died when he was in elementary school and and the relationship with his father was fraught, to say the least. It was during the rough patch in his youth that he began to box, learning to fight. The tools he had learned had however been used in a way they weren't supposed to be, and he would later be arrested for an assault. Kawasaki's criminal activity grew, getting worse. He went from an assault, to being caught with an illegal pistol, and then ended finding solace in the criminal under-belly. Looking for a family, and for elders he could feel comfortable around Kawasaki joined the Yakuza, explaining it was like a family to him. His life in the Yakuza saw him being taken under the wing of some of those much higher up the organisation than he was. But it didn't take long for Kawasaki's links to the Yakuza to break down. Things went from bad to worse as Kawasaki began to meddle in drugs. He would end up paranoid and suffering from hallucinations. Life was so bad he attempted suicide, and would later end up in a drug rehabilitation facility as he tried to beat his personal demons. Around a year after entering the facility he would leave, and would then end up rekindling with a former flame. Yuka, his girlfriend, acted as a rock when Kawasaki had finished rehab. She acted as an inspiration to him, as he began to work normal jobs. She was the reason Kawasaki avoided rejoining the Yakuza, and helped him connect with some old friends. Those old friends included the Arisawa brothers, Kazu and Koji. The friends suggested that Kawasaki should return to boxing, now his life was back on the straight and narrow. Rather than making a decision himself Kawasaki turned to Yuka for guidance and she was fine with the idea. Before being allowed to get a license with the JBC Kawasaki had to put his money where his mouth was and pay a significant amount to erase a large tattoo on his back, as well train. Whilst the tattoo, which was genuinely huge, wasn't completely removed it was reduced, drastically. That was one of the first steps Kawasaki made before devoting himself to the sport. In July 2000, at the age of 26, Kawasaki would finally make his professional debut and by the end of the year he was 3-0 (3), getting his career under-way and had completely turned his life around. Over the years that followed Kawasaki would embark on an exciting career, that saw him often fight in a "stop or be stopped" manner. From his 27 professional bouts 21 ended inside the distance, with Kawasaki fighting right through to the end of 2008. Whilst he failed to win any titles he did face a number of notable fighters. He scored wins over the likes of Tetsuya Suzuki, Kazutaka Nishikawa and Keiichi Arai and lost to the likes of Crazy Kim and Nobuhiro Ishida, twice. He would challenge for the OPBF and Japanese Light Middleweight titles and be involved in some thrilling bouts thanks to aggressive in ring style. It's hard, maybe, to see a fight that was a pure highlight for Kawasaki in the ring, though reports of his bout with Crazy Kim suggest that was something special. The highlight however was the dramatic turn around in his life. He had left his past behind him and become a bright, popular and exciting boxer on the Japanese scene. Whilst Kawasaki failed win titles he managed to win in life. He went from being part of the Yakuza, to trying to commit suicide as a drug addict to becoming a success story for boxing. The hard hitting southpaw may have had the potential to go further in the sport had he committed to boxing earlier, but it's fair to say that boxing, along with Yuka, help save Kawasaki from himself and gave him purpose. With so many bad stories of boxers in the press for things to do with criminal activity, and general misbehaviour it can be easy to overlook the positive stories, and Kawasaki is certainly a positive story for boxing to look at. Not all upsets happen at the highest level, and not all get a lot of attention. Today we look a rather obscure upset from 2018, but that was truly shocking a a man regarded as a true Thai prospect wasn't just beaten, but was completely taken out by someone who was, for all intents, little more than a Filipino journeyman. Saying that however the journeyman in question is one of the best journeyman in the sport. Date January 19th 2018 Venue Pathum Thani, Thailand Fighters Saenganan Sithsaithong (19-0, 7) vs Edison Berwela (15-37-8, 4) At the start of 2018 Thai teenager Saenganan Sithsaithong, also known as Thiranan Matsali, looked to be on his way to big things. Despite only being 18 years old he had amassed a 19-0 record, claimed a number of minor titles and had looked like he was heading in the direction of something big. Of course at 18 that "something big" was still some way away, but he was seen as a real hopeful for Thai boxing. Several years earlier their was talk about Saenganan viewing the Thai record for the youngest world champion. They held off on pushing the Thai like that but the fact their was even talk showed that he was seen as someone worth getting behind. In the opposite corner to Saenganan was Filipino journeyman Edison Berwela. The 34 year old had lost 37 of his 62 bouts at this point. He was rarely stopped but had little in terms of stopping power, with just 5 stoppage wins. Coming in to this he had won just 2 of his previous 12 bouts and had gained a reputation as the type of fighter who will put in an effort but ultimately lose. Notably in 9 previous bouts outside of the Philippines Berwela had failed to score a single win. He was regularly travelling to lose bouts, and the same was expected again here. The bout started slowly with Berwela looking like he was going to fight in sparring partner made. Oddly Saenganan was himself fighting with very little intensity and he seemed to almost look lazy himself. He did nothing to get Berwela's respect and did nothing with any intensity. In round 2 it seemed that Berwela's confidence had grown and he moved from sparring partner mentality to that of a fighter who began to look like he felt he could win. He had gotten his belief, and Saenganan was doing nothing to take it away. Although Berwela was a journeyman he was, and still is, a capable fighter. That was shown when he dropped the Thai in round 3. He then began looking for the stoppage. Realising Berwela was better than his record suggested Saenganan began to fight scared, moving away from the Filipino and hold every time he needed to. Sadly for the supposed future off Thai boxing Saenganan couldn't keep Berwela away for ever, and in round 6 he was put down a second time, from a hard, sweeping left hand landing clean on his jaw. This time Saenganan failed to get as Berwela took the biggest win of his career, and scored a major shock. The only negative for Berwela is that he failed to make weight for the bout, and as a result missed out on the WBC Asian Boxing Council Bantamweight title. Interestingly both men are stilled active fighters. Since this win Berwela has gone 2-7 whilst Saenganan has gone 7-0 and rebuild his career following this shocking loss. We're planning to end this series at the end of June, so with that in mind we have a few more to bring you. This volume of 5 Bouts to enjoy during Isolation features brothers battling in Japan, a hidden gem from Thailand, an under-rated 2019 war and two amazing world title bouts. This isn't a themed 5 bouts, like we've done a few times recently, but we suspect you'll all find something to enjoy here! Kusuo Eguchi (10-3, 4) vs Katsuaki Eguchi (10-4, 1) [1993] Kongfah Nakornluang (14-0, 8) vs Den Sithsaithong (0-6) [2016] Kento Hatanaka (9-0, 9) vs Jaysever Abcede (19-8, 12) [2019] Jung Koo Chang (24-1, 11) vs Katsuo Tokashiki (19-3-2, 4) [1984] Katsunari Takayama (27-6-0-1, 10) vs Francisco Rodriguez Jr (17-2, 13) [2014] After a monster "Did You Know" last week, we have a shorter one this week looking at the long established Misako Gym. The gym is located in Tokyo and whilst it's not one that fans in the Western world will be too familiar with, especially not when compared to Teiken, Watanabe and Ohashi, it is a really important one in Japan. It's old, it's well established, secure, very successful, and one with a huge roster of notable fighters.
With that said, let us bring you this week's, did you now. Did you know... The Misako Gym -The gym was set up by former Japanese and OPBF Flyweight champion Hitoshi Misako, who fought as a professional from 1950 to 1958, and compiled a 31-14-5 (6) record. -As a fighter Misako himself fought out of the the Noguchi Gym, doing so at the same time as Masaki Kanehira, who later set up the Kyoei Gym. -The gym was established in 1960, making it one of the older active gyms in Japan. -Despite being established in 1960 the gym actually relocated in 1990 -The Gym has developed 3 world champions so far, the first of which was Koichi Wajima, followed by Tadashi Mihashi and then Tadashi Tomori. -At the time of writing the gym has had 10 OBF/OPBF champions, some of whom have held titles more than once, and 15 Japanese Japanese. -Over the years a number of gyms have been set up by fighters who have fought out of the Misako Gym and the gym has close relationships with a lot of other gyms. Quite often the gyms work together and the group is dubbed the Sansako Ichimonkai, or the Sasako Clan, putting on quite a few shows together. -When Ryota Murata turned professional he actually did so as a Misako Gym fighter, due to his links as an amateur to the gym, and not a Teiken fighter, who listed him as an "affiliated" fighter. Essentially he was licensed by Misako and promoted by Teiken and Top Rank. This deal opened up the opportunity for for him to work with Fuji TV. -Murata is actually the second Japanese Olympic gold medal winner to fight out of the gym, following Takao Sakurai, who won gold way back in the 1964 Olympics. -The Gym won a "Good Design Award", due to the stylish design of the gym's building -Current trainers at the gym include former OPBF Bantamweight champion Hiroki Shiino and Kenta Kato, who won an award as the best trainer in 2019 -Having mentioned Kenta Kato's personal success at the end of 2019 it's worth noting that the year ended with 5 Japanese national champions. -Hitoshi Misako stepped down as the chairman in 2014, and his son, Takashi Misako, took over the day to day running of the gym. -Sadly Hitoshi Misako passed away in 2019, at the age of 85. He was posthumously awarded the 2019 Professional Boxing Special Award just months later. -The gym has been a major provider of boxing content for Fuji TV's "Diamond Glove" series. At one point they were providing bi-monthly shows for the series. -The gym is often used by other non-affiliated fighters, with a major example of that being Kenshiro Teraji. The Asian scene at Lightweight isn't the strongest right now, but that doesn't mean we don't get good bouts in the division or even exciting moments. In fact just last year one of the best KO's in Asia came in a bout at Lightweight. Not only was it a great KO but it came in a bout that saw the WBO Asia Pacific and OPBF titles being unified in what was a very short, but exciting bout. Of course "Reliving the Finish" isn't about the division or the bout but the finish, and this was brutal. Shuichiro Yoshino (10-0, 8) vs Harmonito Dela Torre (20-2, 12) Entering the bout Shuichiro Yoshino was the OPBF and Japanese Lightweight champion, an unbeaten fighter with a reputation for his power. Harmonito Dela Torre was a promising Filipino who had shown a lot of promise before starting to struggle in his career. Despite Dela Torre losing his way slightly he hadn't travelled to Japan to lose, instead he was at Korakuen Hall looking for a career defining win and to get himself back on the right track. From the opening moments Dela Torre came forward, being super aggressive and trying to make sure Yoshino couldn't settle. It was a smart, but risky game plan from the Filipino youngster. For around 2 minutes Dela Torre was getting the best of things of things and had Yoshino on the retreat. It seemed like he may have even buzzed the local star at one point. He continued to unload and then, just as Yoshino was looking in trouble, he landed a brutal left hook. He dropped Dela Torre hard with one of the sweetest shots he'll ever land. Once again we've included the real "as live" footage and the replay footage, which includes slow motion and an alternative angle. The reverse angle is brilliant in seeing how Dela Torre was instantly out cold when the shot landed. This is a truly spectacular KO and one that Yoshino's highlight videos will be full of if, or when, he gets a big fight at world level.
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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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