These articles aren't always going to be about the big names, or the modern day fighters, instead we do want to occasionally turn our attention to some less known fighters to try and bring attention to why they were significant and their importance in the boxing world. That is why today we want to bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Kenji Yonekura.
Yonekura isn't a name that many Western fans will have heard of but his significance in Japanese boxing is huge, as you'll find from some of these facts. 1-Yonekura participated in the 1956 Olympics, losing in the quarter final to French fighter Rene Libeer. This loss aside, Yonekura was regarded as a very good amateur and he compiled a 71-7 (19) record in the unpaid ranks. 2-Due to his amateur pedigree big things were expected from Yonekura in the professional ranks. As a result he made his professional debut in an 8 round bout against 17 fight veteran Shichiro Kimura. 3-In November 1958, less than 5 months after making his professional debut, Yonekura fought for the Japanese Flyweight title, facing off with Sadao Yaoita. This was just Yonekura's third professional bout. Had he won it would have set a Japanese record for the fewest fights to a Japanese title. A record that would still stand today! The current record is 4 fights, and is currently held by 5 fighters including Naoya Inoue and Joichiro Tatsuyoshi. 4-Although Yonekura came up short in winning a Japanese title in his 3rd pro bout he did actually win the title just 2 months later, in his 5th pro bout, as he defeated Atsuto Fukumoto for the title in January 1959. That title win came less than 7 months after his professional debut! 5-Despite being tipped as a future world champion when he turned professional Yonekura would end his career with a professional record of 13-10-1 (1). Despite that less than great record he won the Japanese Flyweight and OPBF Bantamweight titles, and twice fought for world titles, losing to Pascual Perez and Jose Becerra. 6-For his world title bout, a loss to Pascual Perez, there was close to 11,000 fans in attendance at the Tokyo Metrpolitan Gymnasium. This was Yonekura's 7th professional bout, his second against Perez. Reportedly Perez was paid $40,000, with Yonekura said be getting a fraction of that, reportedly just under $1400. Interestingly the most expensive tickets for the bout were ¥5000, about $14 at the time. Rather interestingly after the fight Perez told the press that Yonekura was the hardest puncher he had ever faced, a real surprise given Yonekura would only score 1 stoppage his entire professional career. 7-After retiring from being a fighter Mr Yonekura set up the Yonekura Gym in 1963. The gym was run by Mr Yonekura until August 2017 when it closed it's doors due to his age and health. 8-The gym Yonekura ran created 5 world champions. Kuniaki Shibata, Guts Ishimatsu, Shigeo Nakajima, Hideyuki Ohashi and Hiroshi Kawashima. Of course we're still seeing Yonekura's effects in the sport with Mr Ohashi now running the successful Ohashi gym, which has hired former Yonekura fighters Yoshinori Nishizawa and Koji Matsumoto as trainers. 9-In 2011 Yonekura had ¥800,000, around $6,780, stolen from the Yonekura Gym. A man took an attache case that had the cash in it and ran out of the gym with it. 10-Yonekura was the 9th president of what is now known as the Japan Professional Boxing Association, being in the role from March 1986 to March 1989
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All too often during these "Tales from the East" segments we talk about serious, and often depressing things. Deaths, suicides, lives taken too soon. Today however we get to talk about a fun and interesting story from 2012 that we don't think many would have heard about, at least not those outside of Japan.
On March 28th 2012 a man was pulled over by the police as the Seibu-Shinjuku Station. He was asked to explain what he did for a living, as he looked rather suspicious. The man in question was sporting a seriously bruised and swollen face, rather unkempt hair, tattoos on his arm, wearing some sports clothes and was carrying a ruck sack with a spanner in it. He looked, for all intents, like a man who had, perhaps, been involved in a bit of a fight. Or was planning revenge for what had been done to him. Unbeknowst to the police officer the man in question had indeed been in a big fight. In fact just a day earlier he had been in a world title fight at the Korakuen Hall. He had been stopped by the police officer on his way to a press conference, to talk about his big win the day before. He didn't want to start the conversation by telling the police man that he was a newly crowned boxing world champion, after all the fighter in question was known to be reserved and quite shy. Even if he was more confident, if the policeman didn't recognise him, it would likely seem like a lie to just blurt out that he was a world champion. Seemingly he didn't feel like he was famous enough to tell them who he was and instead spent 10 minutes answering questions from them. For those wonder, that man was Yota Sato, who, just a day earlier, had beaten Suriyan Sor Rungvisai to win the WBC Super Flyweight title, shocking the talented Thai with 2 knockdowns to secure the win. Whilst he may have explained his job, and why he was looking bruised and beaten, and even where he was going, you may be wondering why exactly did he have a spanner? Well Sato might be a world class boxer but his big out of the ring hobby was skateboarding. He had the spanner to help tighten things on his board. Not to clobber people with. So, a day after he won the WBC Super Flyweight title, Yota Sato was stopped by a policeman wanting explanations as to why he looked like he had been in a fight. Apparently Sato was actually stopped again a few weeks later, though this time he was carrying his WBC Super Flyweight title around with him, helping to explain that he was indeed a world champion. Interestingly this isn't actually a one off. There was also a case where Takahiro Ao, the then WBC Super Featherweight, was questioned by police in regards to bike thefts in Oji. Rather funnily Ao had previously been put in the position to be the Chief of the Kashiwa station for a day, meaning he had been in a "higher position" than the officer questioning him. When we talk about big upsets one of our absolute favourites came in early 2014 when our attention was focused on Monaco, for a Gennady Golovkin lead show in Monte Carlo. It wasn't Golovkin in the upset, but in many ways the upset is much more memorable than the bout that did feature the Kazakh star the show. Rey Loreto (17-13, 9) Vs Nkosinathi Joyi (24-2-0-1, 17) I In one corner was little known Filipino Rey Loreto, who was a complete unknown outside of the Philippines. With losses in 13 of his 30 bouts he wasn't seen as being a particularly testing opponent for Joyi and with only 9 stoppages in 30 bouts few would suggest he was a puncher. Like many Filipino fighters however Loreto's record only tells a fraction of the real story, and he was very much an improving youngster at this point. Even with 30 bouts to his name he was only 23 years old and was very much a different fighter who lost his first 4 bouts, or the 20 year old who was once 8-11 (4). Those improvements had been shown just a few months earlier when he battered former world champion Pornsawan Porpramook into retirement. Whilst Loreto was an unknown Filipino youngster Joyi was someone hardcore fans had known about for quite some time. He had been the IBF Minmumweight champion for more than 3 years, holding the belt from June 2009 to September 2012, and had scored notable wins over the likes of Florante Condes, Raul Garcia and Katsunari Takayama. When he finally lost his title, to Mario Rodriguez in Mexico, some of the blame was put down to the conditions and a loss to Hekkie Budler in 2013 seemed to signal that it was time for Joyi to move up in weight. On paper at least this looked like being an easy win for Joyi at Light Flyweight as he began the hunt for a second divisional world title. What happened was very different to what was expected. The fight started with both men looking to get their distance and it wasn't the most incredible of starts, but was a fun way to kick the bout off. It seemed Joyi was the more polished fighter though Loreto wasn't intimidated by the reputation of the South African who pressed forward for the most part. Loreto did land a few solid shots of his own but for the most part they seemed wild shots, whilst there was more technical work from Joyi. The South African probably did enough to take the opening round, but it was close. In round 2 the South African seemed to settle more and began to keep Loreto at range more effectively. The Filipino still looked like he was there to win, but it was Joyi who seemed to get his rhythm and got behind a busy, long jab. It was clear he and his team were aware that throwing down with Loreto wasn't necessary and should be avoided where possible. Towards the end of the round however the good work of Joyi's came to an end with Loreto unloading on the South African in the corner, making the round a tricky one to score. Through the first two rounds we had seen enough of Loreto to know he was dangerous, but few would have anticipated what we saw to begin round 3. Loreto really just went after Joyi, forcing a fire fight on the South Africa and after 25 seconds he landed a monstrous left hand onto the jaw of Joyi. The shot shook the South African who avoided an immediate follow up but couldn't avoid them all, and one landed like peach dropping Joyi flat on his back, and there was no getting up from it. The upset was massive, one of the biggest of 2014, and really put Loreto on the map, building on his win over Pornsawan in Thailand. Loreto would then prove it was no fluke when he stopped inside a round in a rematch in 2015. Since then Joyi has gone 5-1-1 and is still an active fighter, a real surprise given what we saw 6 years ago! As for Loreto he is also active and ended up getting a world title fight in 2017, losing a decision to Knockout CP Freshmart. More recently Loreto fought in Japan losing to rising young stud Ginjiro Shigeoka. The Middleweight division isn't one that we immediately think of when we think of Asian boxers, but it's a surprisingly interesting one right now, thanks in a big part due to the recent surge of Central Asian fighters making their mark on the sport. With that in mind this is actually a really interesting top 10 mixed with some nice match ups as well as some solid fighters of notes.
1-Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35) Like many we believe the 38 year old Gennady Golovkin might be heading towards the end of his days as an active fighter, but the reality is that he is, still, one of the very best Middleweights on the planet. The iron chinned and rock fisted Kazakh was given a hell of a test last October, against Sergey Derevyanchenko, and is expected to make a mandatory of his IBF title later in the year. Although not the force he once was there's not many fighters in the division that would be expected to give "GGG" a real test. Time is ticking on Golovkin's career, but with wins against some of the best Middleweights from the last decade it's hard to argue anyone should 2-Ryota Murata (16-2, 13) Another fighter with rocks for hands and an iron jaw is Ryota Murata, the WBA "regular" champion. The 34 year old from Japan is a legitimate star in the Land of the Rising sun and draws huge audiences to see him in action. Since winning a Gold medal at the 2012 Olympics Murata has been one of the most marketable stars in the sport, and the hope of him headlining a major Dome show in Japan seemed to be on the verge of happening. Sadly however with global situation that now looks to be little more than a pipe dream. Murata, like Golovkin, is probably on the back end of his career, but he's not had the long damaging career that Golovkin has had and may well have another few years left in the sport, if he wants them. 3-Janibek Alimkhanuly (8-0, 4) Confident, skilled and still only 27 years old Janibek Alimkhanuly looks like the natural successor to Gennady Golovkin for Kazakh fans wanting a Middleweight to get behind. The talented Alimkhanuly has called out the likes of Demetrius Andrade and has made it clear he wants to be facing the best in the world. Although not a destructive puncher Alimkhanuly has looked to be sitting on his punches more in recent bouts and has started to polish off his style which was once looking a bit too amateurish. He's a long way behind the two men ranked above him, but has shown a lot of promise already. 4-Meiirim Nursultanov (13-0, 8) Another Kazakh fighter worthy of some attention is Meiirim Nursultanov, a 26 year old who has been quietly making a name for himself without too much fuss. The US based Kazakh is managed by Egis Klimas and was busy in 2019, with 4 bouts. Given his competition seems to be improving fight by fight he's certainly someone we expected to be tested properly in the near future. Sadly though he appears to lack championship level power and will need to rely on his boxing skills more than his power. 5-Kazuto Takesako (12-0-1, 11) It might seem hard to believe that there's two Japanese Middleweights in the top 5 for Asia but it's a surprising time in boxing and Kazuto Takesako is certainly in in and around the middle of the top 10. So far the hard hitting Takesako has has looked devastating on the domestic scene, and has unified the Japanese and OPBF titles. Although not the most polished fighter out there he's strong, aggressive, takes a shot and has very heavy, thudding shots. Wins over the likes of Shuji Kato, Shinobu Charlie Hosokawa, Sanosuke Sasaki and Hikaru Nishida has made him the clear #2 in Japan behind Murata 6-Kanat Islam (27-0, 21) One tipped as a big hopeful for Kazakh boxing Kanat Islam's career has really come to a screeching halt in recent years. In September 2017 he looked on the verge of something big after stopping the then 18-0 Brandon Cook but since then injuries and inactivity have been a major problem for "Qazaq". Islam was a really talented boxer-puncher at Light Middleweight but at Middleweight last time out against Walter Kautondokwa he looked poor, and like he really wasn't suitable for the 160lb weight class. That bout was full of controversy, with Islam being injured and hurt multiple times layer on. At 35 we don't see Islam getting any more suited to the weight and suspect the move up will turn out to be a bad one. 7-Yuki Nonaka (34-10-3, 10) At the age of 42 Japanese Southpaw may end up being the oldest man on any of these ranking lists, but the WBO Asia Pacific champion is certainly here on merit. Nonaka, a talented Osakan, first made his name at Light Middleweight, where he won the Japanese and OPBF titles, then made a mark at Middleweight, winning the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific titles. Nonaka is very much a throwback type of fighter, who has done things the hard way, faced a true regional who's who, and has managed to some of his best performances the wrong side of 40. His time is clearly coming to an end, and he didn't look good last time out against Hyun Min Yang, but there's still very few Asian fighters we would back against him. 8-Hurshidbek Normatov (10-0, 3) The unbeaten Hurshidbek Normatov is a 28 year old Uzbek who hasn't had the attention many of his countrymen have had. Instead he's been quietly going about things and has notched noteworthy wins against Nicklaus Flaz, Walter Wright and Uriel Hernandez. There is still very much a "jury's out" feeling to Normatov, who clearly needs to be matched tougher than he has been, but there is real potential there and he has some freakish intangibles. Stood at 6'2" and fighting out of the southpaw stance he has two things that can make him a very awkward man to beat, though a lack of power may be a downfall when he steps up in class. 9-Ainiwaer Yilixiati (17-1, 12) Chinese warrior Ainiwaer Yilixiati is an interesting fighter who perhaps could be much higher up this list, if he and his team pushed better match making. The aggressive and fun to watch 27 year old looked exciting on his climb through the ranks, was much more competitive with Jayde Mitchell than the scorecards said in 2017, and has slowly moved on since that loss. Wins against Ryosuke Maruke and Betuel Ushona in 2019 seemed to suggest that there was progress with his career but we need to see that continue when boxing resumes in China later in the year. He's talented, young-ish at 27, but needs to be allowed to test himself. 10-Riku Kunimoto (4-0, 2) The final place in these rankings was a hard one, with several names all in the running. We've gone with potential rather than anything else here, with Riku Kunimoto. The Japanese novice is just 23 but already looks like the countries next major Middleweight player. His first two bouts were relatively straight forward wins but last year he stopped Shoma Fukumoto in a big step up and is clearly a very capable youngster, able to make a mark. He was supposed to face Kazuto Takesako this year, though speculation is that that bout may end up slipping to 2021 due to the on going situation, and in reality that is probably a good thing for Kunimoto and his career. On the bubble: Abay Tolesh, Shinobu Charlie Hosokawa, Shuji Kato, Ulugbek Khakberdiev and Odiljon Aslonov Whilst we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and we can begin to see fights just around the corner they aren't here yet. With that in mind we look at more bouts to enjoy during isolation with 5 bouts that all took place at Super Bantamweight. These include a global fight of the year contender, a bout that helped launch a mega star and one of the most brutal bouts ever to take place at Korakuen Hall. Bong Chul Kim (8-0, 2) vs Jae Won Choi (7-0, 3) [1988] Naoto Takahashi (15-2, 10) Vs Mark Horikoshi (17-1, 13) [1989] Yong In Jo (11-2, 6) vs Tae Woo Kim (1-2, 1) [2000] Manny Pacquiao (32-2, 23) vs Lehlo Ledwaba (33-1-1, 22) [2001] Somsak Sithchatchawal (45-1-1, 35) Vs Mahyar Monshipour (28-2-2, 19) [2006] We return with the latest in our "Did You Know" series as we look at some random facts concerning the OPBF Light Middleweight title!
The belt has been around since 1960 and whilst it's certainly not the most prestigious of titles it's an interesting one all the same, so let ups bring you "Did you know... The OPBF Light Middleweight title" -The first man to hold the title was Se Chul Kang, who won the belt in November 1960. Entering the title bout he had a reported record of 9-8-1 (4) and was 34 years old. Interestingly he managed to defend the best once before losing it the following November. -The first 3 champions were all crowned at home! These were Kang, as mentioned, Keowan Yontrakit, who won the belt in Thailand, and Shigemasa Kawakami, who won the belt in Japan. -The first champion to be crowned outside of their country of birth was Ansano Lee, a Korean fighter who won the vacant title in Japan in 1966. His title win was also the first time a new champion was crowned by a decision, with the previous 3 champions all claiming the title by T/KO. -Hideo Kanazawa has the longest single reign in terms of defenses, 8, and length of reign, holding the belt for over 5 years. Kanazawa wwas also the first man to score a KO1 win in a bout for the belt. Kanazawa actually won the belt with a KO1 against Ansano Lee and then defended it against Napp Flores with a KO1. -Whilst Kanazawa did mange a lengthy reign he did lose a number of non-title fights, including losses to future world champion Koichi Wajima and Jae Doo Yuh. -The first draw in a bout for the title came in 1978, when Ho Joo defended the beat against Tsutomu Hagusa in their third bout bout, second for the title. -Tadashi Mihara was the first man to won the belt then go on to win a world title. -Mihara was actually followed by In Chul Baek, who also won a world title, though Baek won his world title at 168lbs, not 154lbs. -On the subject of In Chul Bak he has the longest combined reign, with 13 defenses over his two combined reigns as the champion, which stretch for well over 6 years. He was stripped in the summer of 1984 then won title back, giving him the 12th and 13th reigns with the belt. -Carlos Elliot was the first American to win the title, winning it in 1987. Elliot would go on to be a 2-time champion. Charlie Ota, or Charles Bellamy, would become the second American to win the belt when he win it in 2010. -In 1988 Francisco Lisboa became the first Indonesian to win the title, upsetting Carlos Elliot to win the title. Elliot would avenge this loss to reclaim the title just 5 months later. -It took until Christmas day 1993 for a Filipino to hold the title, with Armand Picar becoming the first Pinoy to win the belt. -Picar's title win saw him getting revenger over Young Kil Jung, who had beaten him in two previous bouts. -Ernie Artango was the first of 3 Australian fighters to win the belt. He has since been followed by Nader Haman and Daniel Geale, who won the interim title. -Chang Tae Kim's 1997bout with Jun Castillo saw Castillo ripping one of his shoes, and fighting with out a show. -The title has had 4 interim champions. From those 4 men all but one has managed to win the full version of the title. The one exception was Daniel Geale, who managed to unify world titles! -In 1960, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015 the title was only fought for once per year. -The title wasn't fought for at all in 1962, 1967, 1990, 1998, 2012 or 2018. For today's "Reliving the Finish" article we look at a KO that is sadly forgotten but was a brutal finish in a Minimumweight world title bout, a division that sadly lacks brutal KO's like the one we have for you today. This is from late May 2013 and was a really sensational finish that we have again got the live footage and the replay footage for. Ryo Miyazaki (18-0-3, 10) vs Carlos Velarde (23-2-1, 13) At the end of 2012 Ryo Miyazaki won the WBA Minimumweight title when he beat Pornsawan Porpramook in an often forgotten instant classic. In his very first defense he took on Mexican challenger Carlos Velarde, in May 2013. The bout looked great on paper and proved to be pretty interesting through 4 very competitive and entertaining rounds. After 4 rounds the two men were level on all 3 cards and there was little to split the two fighters, who were giving us a solid bout. It wasn't quite as exciting as Miyazaki's title win, against Pornsawan, but it was certainly not a stinker and was really fun to watch. Everything changed late in round 5 however when Miyazaki landed probably the best punch of his career, a crippling left hook, right on to the right on to the chin that sent Velarde down. Just moments before the finishing hook Velarde had taken a solid right hand, taking it like a champ, but had no answer to the left hook, which Miyazaki got everything behind. A absolute beauty of a shot and one of the best recent KO's in the Minimumweight division.
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 the legendary Gabriel "Flash" Elorde to Akira Yaegashi! 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-During his lengthy and successful career Flash Elorde was stopped just 4 times in 118 bouts. The first of those stoppage losses came in his 10th professional bout, by a fighter who was known as "Kid Independence" on October 16th 1951. 2-Whilst Kid Independence is certainly not a fighter we expect many to know anything about, other than now being in shock that such an unknown stopped the iconic Elorde, he did fight a handful of others of note. They include Kyo Noguchi, who beat him in 1960, in one of Independence's final career bouts. 3-In the 1960's Kyo Noguchi was a fairly notably fighter in the Asian scene. He wasn't just a Japanese Flyweight champion but also had title shots at both the OPBF and the World Flyweight titles. His father was Susumu "Lion" Noguchi, himself a pre-war Japanese champion at Welterweight, pre-dating the JBC by several decades. This makes them the first father-son Japanese national champions. 4-Whilst the Noguchi's are regarded as the first father-son Japanese champions, they aren't the only ones. Another example of this is the Teraji's, Hisashi and Kenshiro, and the Naito's, Cassius and Rikki. 5-As an amateur Rikki Naito fought scored a number of notable wins on the domestic scene. Among those was a win over Koki Inoue. 6-Of course Koki Inoue, who is the current Japanese Light Welterweight champion, comes from a fighting family himself. His cousins are Naoya Inoue and Takuma Inoue, and his trainer is his uncle Shingo Inoue. It's not his family we're connecting to but an Ohashi Gym stable mate, in the form of Akira Yaegashi! Heavy handed fighter Yuji Gomez (21-5, 20) was a terror in Japanese rings in the early part of the millennium. He was originally from the Bronx, in the US, and was born "Eugenio Gomez", but fought his entire 26 fight career in Japan, with almost all of his bouts fought under the Yuji Gomez moniker. During his career he won the Japanese Featherweight title, and was involved in some very short and action packed bouts.
Although not the best fighter Gomez did what fans enjoy. He fought every round with a bombs away mentality. He wasn't always reckless, but he was always aggressive, exciting and there really was a sense that a bout could end at any moment in when he was in the ring. With that short introduction out of the way let us bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Yuji Gomez. 1-It's fair to say that Gomez has an interesting background. Although he's best known for his boxing career in Japan he was born in the US to a Puerto Rican father and a mother from the Dominican republic. 2-As an amateur Gomez went a reported 8-3 (8), however boxing wasn't his first athletic endeavour. Prior to turning his hand to boxing Gomez had been a power lifter in high school, then turned to boxing after graduating. 3-Gomez set a Japanese record for most successive 1st round T/KO wins, scoring 7 in a row between November 1999 and October 2010. Whilst his competition during that run was, mostly, poor it did include his All-Japan Rookie of the Year win in 1999 against Jun Hirose and a a win over Filipino Dino Olivetti. In total he would have only 11 bouts that went beyond the first round, scoring 13 opening round wins in 26 bouts! 4-During his career Gomez was known as a fast starting punching, scoring stoppages in 20 of his 21 victories. It's worth noting however that he was also known for lacking durability himself, and would be stopped in 4 of his 5 losses. Interestingly the only loss which didn't see him being stopped was his final bout, against Yuki Kajiyama. That was also the longest bout of his career and the only bout that saw the end of the 8th round. 5-After retiring from boxing Gomez changed his career drastically, and ended up getting involved in the Adult Video industry. Since 2013 he has featured in numerous adult videos. On the subject off his adult work he did, in a Nikkan-Spa interview, reveal that videos featuring him had a surprisingly popular gay fan base. |
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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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