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 Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong to 2-time Thai world champion Chana Porpaoin. 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-Chinese fighter Xiong Zhao Zhong is best known for being the first Chinese fighter to win a world title, winning the WBC Minimumweight 2012. That win was a history defining one for Chinese boxing, even if his reign was a rather disappointing one. Prior to that title win his most notable bout was actually a loss in Japan to Daisuke Naito, for the WBC Flyweight title. 2-It's fair to say that Daisuke Naito had a really interesting career with a number of notable bouts, including the one with Zhong as well as bouts against Koki and Daiki Kameda. Whilst his rivalry with the Kameda family is certainly memorable so to is his 4 fight rivalry with Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. 3-Thai legend Pongsaklek Wonjongkam won his rivalry with Daisuke Naito, 2-1-1, and famously blew out Naito in their first bout. He also had a very over-looked Flyweight title reign, with defenses against a number of top fighters and future world champions, including Naito, Gilberto Keb Baas, Tomonobu Shimizu and Luis Alberto Lazarte. Despite losing it to Naito he would reclaim it by beating Koki Kameda, on a card that also featured Oleydong Sithsamerchai, who retained the WBC Minimumweight title with a win over Yasutaka Kuroki. 4-Oleydong Sithsamerchai made 6 defenses of the WBC Minimumweight title during his reign that ran from November 2007 to February 2011. His reign ended when he was stopped in 5 rounds by Kazuto Ioka, who was fighting in just 7th professional bout. 5-Kazuto Ioka isn't the only fighter to win a world title in his 7th bout, another man who achieved that feat was Korean great Sung Kil Moon, who achieved the feat when he took a technical decision win over Khaokor Galaxy to claim the WBA Bantamweight title in 1988. 6-Sung Kil Moon might have won his first world title in his 7th bout but his reign didn't last long and he lost the belt in his third defense, when he travelled to Thailand and faced Khaokor Galaxy in a rematch. On the same show as Moon's title loss was a then rising young Thai, Chana Porpaoin, who would later become a 2-time WBA Minimumweight champion.
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Japanese fighters leaving a mark in the US isn't something we see too often. Today we look at a fighter who did leave a lasting impression on his US debut, despite losing. That is Nihito Arakawa (32-7-2, 18).
Everyone will remember his incredibly gutsy effort against Omar Figueroa in 2013, and some may also remember his 2014 loss to Jorge Linares, as he returned to the US for his second bout in the country. That was less memorable and was the final time he fought on US soil. Despite disappearing off US TV Arakawa remained an active competitor until last year, with his final career bout coming in Ukraine against Denys Berinchyk. Today we continue our 5 Midweek Facts series by looking at Nihito Arakawa, and his life and career! 1-Although Arakawa made his name as a boxer, and was a successful one, boxing wasn't the first sport for him. That was actually baseball. He was apparently a good pitcher at high school level and was so good he was made team captain. 2-Of course Arakawa didn't go on to play baseball at a high level and instead turned to boxing. Sources in Japan suggest that Arakawa really didn't have a lot of amateur experience before turning professional, with reports being that he had gone 4-1 (3) before turning professional and making his debut in 2004! 3-Prior to facing former world title challenger Takehiro Shimada in 2012 Arakawa had been ranked #1 by the WBC at Lightweight. 4-Arakawa's November 2012 bout against Daniel Estrada was incredibly controversial. The WBC accidental foul rule came into play as did instant replay and even resulted in a rematch being ordered. The bout saw Arakawa lose a wide decision, but that only tells half the story. Arakawa had caused serious swelling around Estrada's eye, which was originally ruled a head clash, then over-ruled on replay to coming from punched, then the over-ruling was over-ruled again. In that time Arakawa had a point deducted, then the deduction cancelled. An accidental elbow from Arakawa was then blamed for the worsening facial injuries of Estrada. The bout would later have a rematch ordered, with Estrada reportedly turning it down, leading to Arakawa's legendary bout with Omar Figueroa as a result. For those wanting instant replay in boxing, this was a case of it not working, properly, and as football (soccer) fans have seen, instant replay can't solve the issues of inconsistency and misuse. 5-Arakawa currently remains involved in the sport, working as an instructor at the KOD Lab, the gym set up by former world champion Takashi Uchiyama. A few years ago we were getting the brilliant "Super Fly" shows in the US, highlighting one of the best division's in the sport at the time. Whilst those shows did shine a light on the division they have, seemingly come to a complete end and fans are unable to access the division in the same way. With that in mind volume of "5 Bouts to enjoy during Isolation" is focused completely on the Super Flyweight division. All the bouts featured have taken place in the last 15 years and all are fantastic. We start with a Rookie of the Year, and finish with one of the best bouts featured on a Super Fly show. Seiya Meguro (5-0, 3) vs Keisuke Iwasaki (4-1, 1) [2019] Akira Yaegashi (26-6, 14) vs Hirofumi Mukai (16-5-3, 6) [2018] Rex Tso (19-0, 12) vs Ryuto Maekawa (11-0-1, 7) [2017] Kohei Kono (17-3, 7) vs Teppei Kikui (21-4, 4) III [2007] Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (42-4-1, 39) Vs Roman Gonzalez (46-0, 38) I [2017] In the 1970's and 1980's Korean boxing was thriving with numerous notable fighters making their mark on the sports. When the IBF were set up Korea was one of the countries that quickly took to the fledging organisation. A number of the early IBF champions came from Korea and it seemed like a golden era for Korean fighters.
Soon Chun Kwon was one of those early IBF champions, that really isn't too well known in the west, but was popular and notable in Korea where he built his career, became a world champion and enjoyed a notable career in that spanned from 1977 to 1987. During his career he ran up a 27-5-3 (18) record. Of course Kwon's not well known, so with that in mind we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Soon Chun Kwon. 1-Kwon was born in September 1955, and was the youngest of 3 brothers. 2-Kwon began boxing in 1972, with a story being that he accidentally ended up there and learned how to box out of curiosity. Although he wanted to achieve in the sport he really didn't have much success if note as an amateur, winning no notable awards or trophies. 3-Outside of boxing Kwon was involved in the Printing business in the 1970's, with some reports stating he was a printing engineer. 4-Interestingly Kwon's career was very stop-start. He debuted in in October 1977 but was then out of the ring for 22 months, before returning to the ring and losing to Chung Kwon Choi in August 1979. He was then away from the ring for 15 months before returning against. This meant his first 2 wins were separated by more than 3 years. This is even weirder when we consider that Kwon scored 4 wins in 12 days in 1980! 5-In December 1980 Kwon was crowned the Korean Rookie of the year, at Flyweight, thanks to his win over Yang Lim Lee. 6-Kwon was the Inaugural Champion IBF Flyweight champion, winning the bout on December 24th 1983. 7-In 1984, when Kwon beat Joaquin Flores Caraballo, he was actually supposed to face the very good Alberto Castro, a big punching Colombian. The switch of opponent badly damaged the standing of the IBF in South Korea and lead to real anger at those in charge of Korean boxing, who seemingly knew about the switch and still allowed the contest to go ahead. Sadly though Kwon's future opponents, including Shinobu Kawashima did little to build the IBF's standing in the country 8-In 1985 Kwon fought a trilogy of world title fights with fellow Korean Jong-Kwan Chung. In the first two Kwon narrowly kept a hold of the IBF Flyweight title, with split decision draws. The third bout however saw Kwon being stopped by Chung, in the 4th round, ending Kwon's reign at Flyweight. This was the only T/KO loss on Kwon's record, with the Korean losing a technical decision to Jiro Watanabe and a split decision to Tae Il Chang in his other losses at world level. 9-As of a 2011 report Kwon had 2 children. At the time one was in high school and one had graduated from college. Fair to assume, in the time since then, both have now complete school. 10-After retiring he set up his own boxing gym, as many Korean world champions did after hanging up their gloves. One of the fighters under his guidance was Seung Suk Chae, who challenged for the OPBF Bantamweight title in 2010. With the rise of Central Asian fighters in the professional scene we expect to see Asian fighters leaving a big mark on the higher weights in the year to come. That makes the Super Middleweight division an interesting one right now, packed with talented and exciting fighters from Central Asia. With that in mind lets look at the current top 10, and like many divisions the drop off at the bottom end of this top 10 is massive.
1-Azizbek Abdugofurov (13-0, 5) The 28 year old Uzbek Azizbek Abdugofurov is a bit of a forgotten man in the division at the moment. He was supposed to have big bouts in 2019 and is expected to have some big bouts this year, but it's been a while since anyone has really spoke much about him. Despite only having 13 bouts to his name he has beaten the likes of Sirimongkol Singwancha, Dmitrii Chudinov and Wuzhati Nuerlang. A very talented boxer Abdugofurov once looked like he was on the verge of huge things, but he only fought once last year and his win over Chudinov is now more than 2 years old. We have him at number #1, but he has another Uzbek closing in him and on the verge of moving ahead of him. 2-Bektemir Melikuziev (5-0, 4) Whilst Abdugofurov is the top of this list he may be over-taken very quickly by the "Bek Bully" Bektemir Melikuzie. ,The Uzbek destroyer looks like the one man who is nailed on to be a future world champion. Melikuziev is a former amateur standout who turned professional in 2019 and blasted out experienced fighters like Martin Fidel Rios and Ricardo Luna Flores in his first two bouts. Since then he has proven he can box, as we saw against Vaughn Alexander, and has much more to his arsenal than his frightening power and vicious body punching. This man is one of the top prospects in world boxing, and is someone who might only be a fight or two away from a world title fight. 3-Ali Akhmedov (16-0, 12) Fast rising Kazakh youngster Ali Akhmedov looks like one of the most exciting fighters making his way through the sport. The unbeaten 24 year old is exciting, aggressive, heavy handed and still very much an improving fighter, who is getting ring time at an early age before aiming for bigger and better things in the future. At the moment we're still awaiting to see Akhmedov take a step up, but we suspect when he does he will impress. He has defenses flaws to work on, but is an offensive machine and he looks like he will be in the mix for a world title in the coming years. 4-Aidos Yerbossynuly (13-0, 9) Another Kazakh heading towards big things, potentially, is the unbeaten Aidos Yerbossynuly. The 28 year old has been a professional since 2015 and has slowly and quietly gone about his business so far. Last year he stepped up competition well, and beat Rocky Jerkic, in a career best win. With a number of regional titles around his waist he is heading towards big things, but there are big questions about his chin, his punch resistance and his ability to step up. He's a talented boxer-puncher, but there is still a lot of questions for him to answer. 5-Nurzat Sabirov (11-0, 9) A third Kazakh in this list is Candian based 26 year old Nurzat Sabirov, who has quietly been quietly building some career momentum in recent years. Last year he scored 3 wins, including one over the unbeaten Laszlo Toth and one over veteran Ricardo Adrian Luna Flores. Although not the most well known of the Canadian based Kazakh fighters he is being managed by a team who know how to bring prospects through and is in a strong unit. Sabirov is likely a few fights behind those above him, but has ability, a good set up and a lot of promise. It's going to be interesting to see what Eye of the Tiger Management have planned for him when boxing resumes in Canada and we suspect that he's maybe 2 or 3 years away from a huge fight. 6-Vijender Singh (12-0, 8) Once tipped for massive things Indian fighter Vijender Singh appears to be another of those fighters who was viewed as a star but failed to fully make his mark in the professional ranks. It was hoped that Singh would put Indian boxing on the map, be the star the country needed to unleash a generation of future boxers from the untapped Indian market. Sadly though inactivity, and promotional issues along with injuries have seen the 34 year old fighting just 12 times since his 2015 debut. Although still a big name in India it very much feels like Singh is only going to be sliding down this list, and then eventually off it, with out ever having a career defining fight. Talented, but not the star we had hoped for. 7-Zulipikaer Maimaitiali (12-2-1, 8) Chinese fighter Zulipikaer Maimaitiali gave Vijender Singh a really close and competitive bout in 2017 and looked like being a really bright hope for Chinese boxing at 168lbs. Now however the jury is well and truly out on him. A surprise upset loss in 2019 to Abdallah Paziwapazi, who was taken out in 2 rounds by Rocky Fielding just a few months later. The 25 year old Maimaitiali is a fun to watch and aggressive fighter, but he now needs to get his career back on track as quickly as possible. Fingers crossed 2020, or rather what is left of 2020, gives him a chance to get back on track and get a win over a decent opponent. 8-Wuzhati Nuerlang (13-3, 10) Close on the tail of Zulipikaer Maimaitiali is another Chinese fighter, Wuzhati Nuerlang. The 24 year old Nuerlang has shown promise but with losses in 2 of his last 4, and a team that appears will to throw him in too deep too soon we do wonder what can come of Nuerlang. He's talented, exciting and aggressive, but needs to be kept away from the likes of Azizbek Abdugofurov and Fedor Chudinov going forward, with both of them easly beating the Chinese fighter. 9-Arman Rysbek (7-0, 6) Another Kazakh making his way into these rankings is 29 year old Arman Rysbek. He's someone who has already fought in the US, Argentina and Kazakhstan, but desperately needs a step up in competition sooner rather than later. His career is a weird one, fighting in the west before heading back to Kazakhstan for his last 4 bouts. His competition so far has been terrible, and he has stopped his last 5 opponents in a combined 7 rounds. Although he passes the eye test as a talented fighter his career really is in need of an injection, and hopefully he will kick on when boxing resumes later in the year. 10-Dias Tastemirov (4-0, 4) We round out the top 10 with another fighter we want to see moving up in class shortly, with 29 year old Kazakh Dias Tastemirov filling out the rankings. The unbeaten puncher from Almaty has taken out his 4 opponents in a combined 6 rounds, but desperately needs to be fed better competition. He's just turned 29, so he does have a few years of time, but being based in Kazakhstan he may not have the team needed to back him in the way that helps really bring him along and develop him. On the bubble: Ravshan Ergashev, Tae San Kil, Chaloemporn Sawatsuk, Rafi Majid and Dinh Hoang Truong Quite often when we do research for one thing we stumble on something that's just weird and very different to what we were looking in to. We were recently researching the career of Koji Arisawa for a piece that will go up later this year, likely in or around December, and stumbled on Masayuki Koguchi (19-7, 3). More specifically we stumbled on the event that made Koguchi a well known name in Japanese boxing in the early 00's. Koguchi had began his boxing career in 2000 and like many lesser known fighters he had very mixed success early on. He would lose his second professional bout and would also lose to Kazuyoshi Kumano in the 2002 Rookie of the Year. He really wasn't much of known fighter heading into the end of 2005, but that all changed on December 13th 2005. Aged 28 at the time and sporting an 8-4-2 (2) record Koguchi was really still just an under-card fighter, often fighting on cards featuring the more well known Koji Arisawa, the man we were researching when we stumbled on Koguchi's story. On December 13th 2005 Arisawa fought for the final time, in an easy bout against Pichitchai Kawponkanpim to go out on a win. Prior to Arisawa's bout Koguchi was facing Daichi Shibata and during the bout the wig Koguchi was wearing to cover his baldness began to come off his head. After the wig coming undone several times his cornerman removed it from the fighter between rounds 4 and 5. The incident lead fans into a sense of shock, and then loud laughter filled the arena as they realised what had happened whilst Koguchi continued the fight with his bald head on show. Koguchi ended up winning the bout, stopping Shibata in 7 rounds, but the results was barely a footnote compared to the hair wig incident. Following the bout Koguchi was cautioned by the JBC, as fighters weren't to wear anything other than gloves above the waist. He was given a "severe caution" but it was accepted that the wig had no impact on Shibata and the result wasn't over turned, though the two men would go on to have a rematch the following year. Following the incident Koguchi was contacted by a number of TV shows, wanting to feature him and interview him, as well as hair growth companies wanting to sponsor him. Despite not being a particularly successful fighter he had suddenly become the man of the moment in Japanese sport. When speaking about the whole wig situation in 2019 Koguchi revealed that he wanted to "look good" explaining why he wore it to fight in. Later on however he fought with out them, likely realising the the JBC wouldn't let him get away with it again. Whilst Koguchi didn't fight in a wig after the the incident he did begin to wear various wigs as part of his ring walk and threw them into the crowd, often to great crowd reactions. Following Arisawa's retirement Koguchi would go on to have his most successful run in the ring. He would headline a number of shows and even managed to secure a Japanese Super Featherweight title fight in 2009, which he lost to future world champion Takashi Miura. Outside of the ring Koguchi got married in 2012, and works in the transportation industry. At the moment he still dreams of opening a boxing gym of his own in the future, but that dream does seem rather unlikely to come true. We're back again with another did you know it's a bit of a bumper one focused on the Japanese Flyweight title. We're only looking at bouts for the title since the JBC began their recognised line, which does predate the JBC being founded, but we think we've come up with a solid number of facts here!
-The first reign of the Japanese Flyweight title, as recognised by the Japanese boxing commission, predates the JBC. It's the reign of Yoichiro Hanada, who was recognised as the champion from 1947 to 1949. In reality Hanada was regarded as the best Flyweight in the country under the previous system, and his reign is sometimes listed as being from 1934 to 1949, or with Hanada having 2 reigns, despite never losing his claim, during that period. -The second champion, again as recognised by the JBC was actually the fighter who essentially caused the JBC to be founded. That was Yoshio Shirai, the man who was also the first Japanese world champion. Shirai is one of a number of world champions to have been recognised by the JBC as the best Flyweight in Japan. -The third man to hold the title was Akira Hayashi, also known as Speedy Akira, who was also the first southpaw to hold the title. His reign saw him make 6 defenses in a single reign, a record that has never been beaten, but has been matched several times. He also held the title a record 3 times, being the first man to recapture the title and the only man to hold it 3 times. -Another early champion was Hitoshi Misako, the man who went on to open the legendary Misako Gym in Tokyo, which still exists to this day. -Another legendary gym set up by an early Japanese Flyweight champion was the Yonekura Gym, set up by Kenji Yonekura. -The title's 13th recognised reign was had by Seisaku Saito who would later become a well known comedian and actor in Japan before passing away in 1985. -The belt was held by Kiyoshi Tanabe, who was the first ever Japanese boxer to win an Olympic medal. It was actually the only belt Tanabe held before his career was ended due to an eye issue that forced him to retire with an excellent 21-0-1 (5) record. -Speedy Akira wasn't the only "Speedy" to win the title. Tetsuro Kano, also known as Hiroshi Hayase, was also a "Speedy" and was best known as Speedy Hayase, who held the belt twice in the late 1960's. -The second fighter to be recognised as the Japanese champion before winning a world title was Susumu Hanagata. Hanagata fought in 8 bouts for the title, and would be a 2-time champion before winning a world title in what was his 62nd professional bout -As well as Yoshio Shirai and Susumu Hanagata, others who have held the title and won world titles include Leopard Tamakuma, Yuri Arbachakov, Celes Kobayashi, Takefumi Sakata, Daisuke Naito, Tomobu Shimizu and Toshiyuki Igarashi -We mentioned Speedy Akira set the record of 6 defenses in a reign, this record has been matched a number of times. Others to have managed 6 defenses in a reign include Kazumasa Tamaki, Shuichi Hozumi and Nolito Cabato. -The most defenses by a fighter is 7 defenses, with that number being set by Takuya Kogawa over his two reigns. His first reign saw him make 3 defenses and his secnd reign saw him make an extra 4. -From all the men who held the title from 2000 to 2019 only two didn't fight for a world title, these were Hiroshi Nakano and Kenji Yoshida, showing just how significant the title is for those looking to fight at the elite level. -At the time of writing there have been 177 bouts for the title, including 4 for the "interim" title. -The first time a "KO1" was recorded in a bout for the title was 1990, when Puma Toguchi defended the belt against Jun Takada. Incidentally the next was when Yuri Arbachakov won the title, just 11 months later, stopping Takahiro Mizuno who was a late fill if for Toguchi. The belt was also win inside a round by Tomonari Tamura, who stopped Tatsuya Sugi when Yuri Arbachakov vacated the belt. -The shortest ever bout for the title was Daisuke Naito's 24 second win over Takeyuki Kojima in 2004. -Also in 2004 the title was twice won by fighters winning 6 round technical decisions, with Hiroshi Nakano winning the title with that result in February and then losing it to Naito 4 months later. -Daisuke Naito's defend against Noriyuki Komatsu was the first time a JBC recognised defenses, so excluding those before Hanada's reign in the late 1940's, the belt was defended over 12 rounds. That was due to the bout being a unification with the OPBF title. -At the time of writing, the last "TKO4" result for the belt was way back in 1992 -There have been 11 draws in bouts for the title. Amazingly 4 of those took place in 5 bouts from August 1976 to December 1977, with Chikara Igarashi involved in 3 of them. -Talking about Chikara Igarashi he and Kenji Kato split a 3 fight series for the title, going 1-1-1 -Suguru Muranaka is the only man stripped of the belt for failing to make weight, something that happened in 2015 ahead of his mandatory title defense against Tetsuma Hayashi. -Kenji Yonekura and Hideyasu Ishihara both attempted to win the belt in their 3rd professional bouts -Despite coming up short in his first Japanese title fight Kenji Yonekura did win the belt in his 5th fight, a record for the Japanese Flyweight title, and only one bout more than the Japanese record at any weight, with a number of fighters winning national titles in their 4th professional bouts. For the latest in our 5 Bouts to enjoy during Isolation series we've decided to go with a theme, and the theme here is the Super Featherweight division, with all the bouts being featured taking place at 130lbs! The Super Featherweight might not be one of the "Original 8" but it's hard to deny just how great the division has been over the years and we're now going to bring you just a tiny bit of the great stuff the division has delivered in Asia! The 5 bouts selected include some top class action at world level and some lower level action, but it is all brilliant just a sliver of the great stuff the division has given us! Yusaku Sekishima (6-1, 4) vs Ken Koibuchi (4-1, 3) [2011] Daiki Kaneko (26-5-3, 18) Vs Pavel Malikov (11-0, 5) [2017] Taek-Min Kim (13-3, 8) vs Sonny Manakane (14-9-3, 8) [2011] Takanori Hatakeyama (20-0-1, 15) vs Koji Arisawa (18-0, 15) [1998] Yong Soo Choi (21-2, 13) Vs Lakva Sim (5-0, 4) [1997] 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 Young Kyun Park and Takanori Hatakeyama. 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-Dubbed the "Bulldoxer" Young Kyun Park was one of the real exciting Korean fighters from the early 1990's and a very solid WBA Featherweight champion. Sadly he's not as well remembered as he should have been, and whilst he burned very brightly at one point his prime was very short, with a world title reign that lasted less than 3 years. When he reign ended it came to Eloy Rojas. 2-Eloy Rojas' WBA Featherweight title win over Park came in 1993, and what is often forgotten about the Venezuelan is that he was a Teiken managed fighter at one point. In fact he is one of several Teiken managed Venezuelan fighters to win a world title, along with Edwin Valero and Jorge Linares. 3-Jorge Linares may not have been the toughest boxer out there but there is no doubting his skills, and he is widely regarded as one of the most naturally boxers on the planet. His blinding hand speed and skills are through the roof and he is one of the most exciting fighters to watch. What often goes over-looked is that Linares' brother, Carlos Linares, as also a notable fighter, albeit significantly less successful than Jorge. 4-Whilst Carlos Linares is a bit of a forgotten name as a boxer, though is now distinguishing himself as a trainer at the Teiken gym, he was a really exciting fighter to watch. He lacked the well developed skills and boxing brain of his brother but made up for that with nasty power, scoring 8KO's in his 9 professional wins. His final bout came in 2007 when he lost to Tadashi Yuba, in a Japanese Middleweight title bout. 5-As a fan outside of Japan who Tadashi Yuba was and they will likely look confused. In Japan however he was a 5-weight national champion who fought close to 60 bouts. More than half of his career bouts took place at Korakuen Hall in a career that spanned form 1996 to 2014! In 1999 he fought Rick Yoshimura, with the two men fighting to a draw in a really under-rated bout for the Japanese Lightweight title. 6-Rick Yoshimura's only other draw, along with the Yuba one, came 4 fights later when he challenged WBA Lightweight champion Takanori Hatakeyama, in a barn burning thriller of a world title bout. For those who haven't seen that bout it's well worth a watch! At the end of 2014 the combined attention of the boxing world, turned to Japan, more so than usual. On December 30th Naoya Inoue announced himself as a sensation by blowing out Omar Andres Narvaez, claiming a second world title in just his 8th bout. Just a day later Hishashi Amagasa challenged Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. Whilst Amagasa lost his effort saw him gaining significant international attention. He had gone from unknown outside of Japan, to the guy dropped Rigondeaux twice and was left with a massively swollen face. Although Amagasa came up short against Rigondeaux, being saved by his corner, the lanky Japanese fighter had put himself on the map and would remain in the mix for big fights through to his retirement in 2018, before hanging them up with a 33-7-2 (21) record. Before retiring he had not only fought Rigondeaux but had also travelled to Europe to fight Josh Warrington in England. Whilst many will know about Amagasa's bout's with Rigondeaux and Warrington we're here for something else today as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Hisashi Amagasa! 1-Prior to turning to boxing Amagasa had been a soccer enthusiast. He had admired soccer players at a young age, but drifted away from the sport. He would later stumble on boxing almost by accident, taking up a free trial at a gym, and decided to stick with it, even leaving home to live with his sister to begin boxing. 2-For several fights Amagasa's ring walk music was "Arise" by Loka. We've included this song at the end of the article for those wanting to give it a listen. Prior to that he used the theme tune ftom Japanese drama series Amachan. 3-Amagasa's famous 2014 bout against Guillermo Rigondeaux came about when Shingo Wake turned the bout down and Amagasa essentially replaced his countryman on short notice. This made it even more impressive than he managed to get down to 122lbs given his huge frame. In fact prior to facing Rigondeaux he had never made the Super Bantamweight division, and he never would again. 4-From Amagasa's 42 career bouts a staggering 39 took place at Korakuen Hall. That makes almost 93% of his career bouts took place in the one venue! 5-Amagasa is a close friend of fellow boxer Tomomi Takano. It's reported that Takano began boxing after watching an Amagasa bout with a friend, and the two would often feature on the same cards together. He's also close friends with Akifumi Shimoda, who handed him a bouquet of flowers at his 2018 retirement ceremony. |
Thinking Out East
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