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It's often been said that the "little guys can't punch", but the reality is that anyone in the sport can punch. Even those little guys with a low knockout rate can still punch. Today we intend to prove that by showing off one of the best knockouts of 2014. Not only was it a great knockout but it came from a guy who had been seen as a puncher, and it was a genuine beauty. Suguru Muranaka (20-2-1, 6) vs Yusuke Sakashita(12-4-2, 7) Although not a big name fighter we were big fans of Suguru Muranaka when he was in the ring. He was a battling little guy with a great work rate, an exciting style, and incredible physical strength. Sadly he was also someone who failed to keep his weight under control and missed weight a frightening number of times, and was almost certainly having the success he had thanks to being a giant weight bully. Later in his career he would move up to Bantamweight and fail to make weight there. Despite issues with weight Muranaka's best run came at Flyweight, where he had taken the Japanese title in 2013, with a win over Takuya Kogawa, and then defended it with a TKO win against Masayuki Kuroda. By that point it was clear he could fight. He may never have looked like a future world champion but he was a very solid fighter who was riding a 14 fight unbeaten run, going 13-0-1 (4) during that stretch. In his second defense of the Japanese Flyweight title Muranaka took on the relatively unknown Yusuke Sakashita. Although Sakashita would later win regional honours he had done little to up to this point in his career outside of winning the 2011 All Japan Rookie of the Year. Sadly follow his Rookie of the Year win Sakahsita had suffered a couple of losses in 2012 and his career seemed to be leading no where far when he got the call to face Muranaka. Despite being the clear under-dog Sakashita had fought well over the first 7 rounds and was running Muranaka really close. He had put in a fantastic effort and was giving the champion genuine fits. Sadly for Sakashita with just over 20 seconds of round 8 remaining all of his good work was deleted in an instant. With Sakashita backing off Muranaka feinted with the left, drawing a jab from Sakashita, before launching a massive over-hand right as a counter. The shot landed clean on the jaw of Sakashita, who's head swivelled on his shoulders. He was out in an instant and crashed backwards, on to the canvas, falling in a really nasty way, with the referee instantly waving off the contest. This was a gorgeous, brutal KO scored by a man who had only scored 6 stoppages in his previous 23 bouts. Sadly for Muranaka this was the highlight of his reign and he would lose the title 6 months later on the scales. From there on his career never really hit the heights expected of him. In 2017 he did get a world title fight, but lost a very clear decision to Kal Yafai in the UK. Sakashita on the other hand would rebuild from this loss and later go on to claim, and defend, the WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight title.
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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 2012 Olympic bronze medal winner Satoshi Shimizu to touted Japanese youngster Ginjiro Shigeoka.
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 Satoshi Shimizu really made his name in the amateur ranks, where he competed at 2 Olympic games, fighting at the 2008 games in Beijing and the 2012 Olympics in London. His most notable amateur achievement was his Olympic Bronze medal, which he won in London. Interestingly his opponent in the 2012 Olympic semi-final was Englishman Luke Campbell, the eventual Gold medal winner. 2-English fighter Luke Campbell wasn't the only British fighter to win a Gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. In fact Campbell was one of 3 British fighters to achieve the feat along with Nicola Adams and Anthony Joshua. 3-Whilst the Olympic Gold medal at the London Olympics is the defining moment of Anthony Joshua's amateur career it was certainly not the only major triumph he has had in the sport, becoming a multi-time unified Heavyweight champion in the professional ranks. Among his most notable wins was his victory over Joseph Parker, on March 31st 2018. That very same day Kosei Tanaka defeated Ronnie Baldonado in Nagoya. 4-Although well known for winning 3 world titles in just 12 bouts Kosei Tanaka's first title wasn't a world title, but instead the OPBF Minimumweight title, which he won in 2014 when he stopped Ryuji Hara in 10 rounds. Surprisingly the OPBF Minimumweight title has rarely seen a champion dethroned by T/KO, though in 2019 we saw that happen when Lito Dante stopped Tsubasa Koura in the 12th round of their bout. 5-Following his OPBF title win Lito Dante would sit on the sidelines for the better part of a year, until he returned for a non-title bout, almost 9 months after his title win. That non-title bout saw the tough Filipino lose a 6 round decision to the the talented Yudai Shigeoka, who was fighting in just his second professional bout. 6-Although very talented in his own right, as both an amateur and professional, Yudai Shigeoka's career so far has been overshadowed by that of his younger brother, Ginjiro Shigeoka, who is widely tipped to be a mega-star of the future for Japanese boxing. The sport of boxing is full of great stories, many of which are unknown outside of the local fanbase. Despite that the sport has long been linked to redemption and turning lives around. One great example of that was the hugely popular Hironari Oshima (21-5-1, 13), who fought between 1997 and 2005. Outside of Japan his name won't mean much at all, but in Japan he was incredibly popular and a story of a fighter who turned his life around, going from criminal activity to being someone keeping youngsters on the right track. In the ring Oshima was a tall, range fighter who really connected with fans and made for fun, entertaining fights. He began his career at the Wajima Sports Gym, who managed him to Rookie of the Year success and his first title fight, before later becoming a staple at the Cheyenne Yamamoto gym, where he later worked as a trainer. He's now retired as a boxer, but Oshima is still popular with fans and has remained connected to the sport in various ways, and is very open about what the sport means to him, essentially admitting it really saved him from a torrid life. With that small introduction out of the way let us bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Hironari Oshima! 1-Prior to becoming a boxer Oshima fell in with the wrong crowd and was a member of the Yakuza, joining the criminal organisation after graduating Junior High School. He would end up spending time imprisoned at the Odawara Boys' Institute during his days as a Yakuza member and was injured multiple times. 2-It was whilst imprisoned that Oshima was inspired to become a professional boxer, with his father, himself a former boxer, visiting him regularly. 3-Back in January there was a lot of discussion about Kazuto Ioka and the tattoo he sported on his left arm, and how it wasn't covered properly for his bout with Kosei Tanaka. Japanese boxing's issue with tattoo's isn't a new issue however and it was one that Hironari Oshima had to deal with as well, with Oshima having to remove his tattoos. To have his tattoos removed he needed to have skin grafts, to cover up tattoos on his chest and shoulders. In 2017 he explained it took 6 or 7 hours, and for 4 months afterwards he was unable to do much at all and couldn't train for 6 months following the operation. 4-In February 2000 a then 11-0 (7) Oshima challenged Japanese Lightweight champion Rick Yoshimura. The bout reportedly set the record for the most visitors to the Korakuen Hall and was such a highly anticipated bout that it was aired live on TV Tokyo during prime time. Sadly for Oshima this was one of three title bouts he had, and he came up short in all 3 of those bouts, including a 2005 loss to Norio Kimura in what was Oshima's final professional bout. For fans who haven't seen Oshima's bout with Yoshimura we've included it below. Those who believe Japanese fans are "quiet" might be surprised by the noise here! 5-Following his retirement from the ring Oshima has been a busy boy! He has worked at the Cheyenne Yamamoto gym, which was run by his former trainer Cheyenne Yamamoto, he has opened his own fitness gym, opened a store and has even been in some acting roles and released an auto-biographical book in 2016. Between 1970 and 1982 Japanese fighter Shoji Oguma (38-10-1, 20) put together one of the most confusing records in the sport. He suffered 10 losses in 49 fights, but fought more than 25% of his bouts fighting at the world level. Not only that but he was also a 2-time WBC Flyweight champion, and the linear champion in both of those reigns. He was also in the ring end of year rankings in 5 separate years, and was clearly one of the best Flyweights of his era.
Sadly however Oguma came around during a golden era for Flyweights and his competition reads like a who's who with bouts against the likes of Betulio Gonzalez, Miguel Canto, Alfonso Lopez, Sung Jun Kim, Chan Hee Park, Antonio Avelar and Jiro Watanabe, and fighting that type of competition as regularly as he did will lead to losses. Rather doing a full career analysis here however we're going to take a look at some facts about the former 2-time champion we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Shoji Oguma! 1-Oguma share's his birthday with several interesting figures. These include guitarist Richard Bennett, who has performance alongside Niel Diamond, Mark Knopfler, Billy Joel and Barbara Streisand. As well as well as tragic former NFL player J. V. Cain and Patriarch Daniel of Romania. 2-Oguma went to the Fukushima Prefectural Koriyama Kita Technical High School. That's the same high school as manga artist Hidekazu Himaruya, who is best known for his webmanga series "Hetalia: Axis Powers" and Tsutomu Nihei, also a manga artist, known for work such as "Blame!" and "Knights of Sidonia". Nihei was also responsible for "Wolverine: Snikt!" 3-Although he was a southpaw Oguma was actually right handed. According to the JPBA this was actually due to his previous experience learning Kendo 4-During his career Oguma fought 49 times as a professional. Interestingly that included a 4 fight series with Betulio Gonzalez, trilogies with Chan Hee Park and Miguel Canto, and 2 fight series with Sung Jun Kim, Kazuo Aikawa and Masakuni Kawakami. So depite having 49 professional bouts he only fought 38 different fighters and more than 20% of his bouts were rematches. 5-The first fight between Oguma and Chan Hee Park ended up being a very rough and tough fight with the fans throwing things into the ring after Oguma tossed Park to the canvas. The commentary for the bout, which was actually provided in English, blamed referee Larry Nadayag for losing control of the bout. Reportedly there were armed police on high alert for the bout due to anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea at the time. 6-Oguma is the first, and only, world champion to have won a world title whilst fighting out of the Shin Nihon Boxing Gym in Nogata, The gym, which was established in 1961, has had a number of Japanese and OPBF champions, but no other world champion. 7-Oguma was named the The Ring magazine "Comeback of the Year fighter" for 1980. Interestingly this was the first time the award had been given out by Ring Magazine. Despite being the inaugural winner, Oguma was a worthy recipient, given 1980 was a genuinely brilliant year that saw Oguma reclaim the Flyweight title, with a win over Chan Hee Park, and defend the belt against Sung Jun Kim and Park in a rematch. 8-During his career Oguma had an amazing 8 world title challenges, going 2-5-1 during those shots. Despite having a losing record in world title challenges Oguma was success at world level, winning the WBC Flyweight title twice and amassing a total of 3 successful defenses. That takes his record in world title fights to 5-7-1. 9-Oguma was the temporary coach of Leopard Tamakuma in 1990, and helped lead him to a world title. 10-After retiring Oguma opened the Oguma Boxing Gym, in Saiitama Prefecture. Prior to opening the gym he had worked in waste disposal and had a business interest in Karaoka boxes. 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 hard hitting Japanese fighter Satoshi Shimizu.
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-In 2012 Chinese Minimumweight Xiong Zhao Zhong won the WBC Minimumweight title, becoming the first Chinese man to win a world title. Since then he has been followed by several other fighters, including former WBO Flyweight champion Zou Shiming. 2-Despite Zou Shiming not managing to be the break through star that many though he would be for Chinese professional boxing, he was one of the first Chinese fighters to be a star on the amateur ranks, and he really was an amateur star. In fact Shiming was a 2-time Olympic champion and a 3-time World Amateur Champion. Another 3-time World Amateur Champion was Azeri Super Heavyweight Mahammadrasul Majidov. 3-Hard hitting Mahammadrasul Majidov turned professional in 2019, following an excellent amateur career, with his first professional bout coming on September 13th 2019, when he stopped Ed Fountain at Madison Square Garden. Earlier that same day Ryo Sagawa won the Japanese Featherweight title, with a decision win over Reiya Abe in Tokyo. 4-Earlier this year Ryo Sagawa lost the Japanese Featherweight title, in his third defense, when he was stopped in 7 rounds by the highly touted Hinata Maruta. This was a mandatory defense by Sagawa of the title, albeit one that was delayed by almost a year due to the Covid19 pandemic and was supposed to take place in the first half of 2020. 5-The highly skilled Hinata Maruta fights out of the Morioka Gym in Hyogo, a gym that was originally set up by former fighter Eiji Morioka. Sadly however Mr Morioka passed away in 2004 before he got the chance to see Maruta having his success and winning the Japanese title. 6-Before setting up the Morioka Gym Eiji Morioka had a notable career as a fighter. His professional career was a short one, going 6-4 (3) but he was a very good amateur and at the 1968 Olympic games he won a bronze medal at, Bantamweight. Another Japanese fighter who won a Bronze Olympic medal in the Bantamweight division was Satoshi Shimizu, who achieved his feat at the 2012 London Olympics. In recent months we've spent a lot of time getting lost in Japanese domestic fights from the 1970's, 80's and 90's. One name that popped up a lot during our binging sessions was Cheyenne Yamamoto (22-8-6, 12), who fought between 1979 and 1987.
Although not a name many international fans will be aware of we did enjoy watching bouts of Yamamoto, who became a 2-time Japanese Lightweight champion during his career and was also involved in some fantastic bouts. His career came to an end following the sole stoppage loss of his career, against Iwao Otomo, which seemed to spell that his style and toughness was having an impact on his punch resistance. Yamamoto's success came down to hard work, and the fact he ended up winning 22 of his 36 professional bouts was a real surprise given he had gone 1-2-3 after his first 6 bouts and was 4-3-4 after 11 bouts. Despite that peculiar start he left his mark on professional boxing and to this day stands as just one of 7 men to reclaim the Japanese Lightweight title. With a couple of details about Yamamoto already shared, lets now take a look at 5 Midweek Facts about Cheyenne Yamamoto. 1-Yamamoto fought under his birth name, of Koji Yamamoto, until 1982 when he adopted the Cheyenne name, using it for the first time in a fight against Sincere Inoue in February 1982. 2-During the early part of his career Yamamoto was a sparring partner for former WBC Super Bantamweight champion Royal Kobayashi, with the two men both fighting out of the International Gym. Given that Yamamoto began his professional career in 1979 and Kobayashi retired in 1981 it shows just how highly International thought of the youngster. 3-After retiring from in ring competition he ran the Cheyenne Yamamoto Gym, where he served as the chairman and as a trainer, before later becoming the chairman of the Reboot Gym. 4-In 2014 there was speculation that Koki Kameda was set to transfer to the Cheyenne Yamamoto gym, following the JBC stripping various licenses from the Kameda Gym. The attempt to join the gym was essentially shot down by the JBC who put in a condition that only a gym with a history of managing world champions would be allowed to sign Kameda. Theislater saw Kameda being linked to the UNITED gym and the Kadoebi Gym, though he also failed to sign with any of those and ended up finishing his career fighting outside of Japan. Had the deal gone through with the Cheyenne Yamamoto Gym, Kameda would have been, by far, the most notable name to ever fight under the the gym's banner. 5-In the summer of 2017 Yamamoto was hospitalised following a traffic accident. He required an operation and rehabilitation following the accident. Over the last few years female boxing has been receiving mainstream attention in the West with a growing number of female fighters getting chances to show what they can do in the Olympics as well as the US and UK. Female fighters like Katie Taylor, Claresa Shields, Mikaela Mayer and Seniesa Estrada have all managed to shine in big opportunities.
In the past however female boxing was mostly over-looked in the West meaning a lot of top female talent from the past ended up being pretty much left as historical footnotes to many fans. One such fighter was Naomi Togashi (10-1-1, 5), one of the first major female stars of Japanese boxing. Today we're going to help shine a light on Togashi, her career and life in general as we bring you 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Naomi Togashi 1-Before turning to boxing Togashi was originally interesting in playing Volleyball, something she did when she was at High School 2-Sadly Togashi's father passed away when she was still a teenager. 3-Despite not picking up boxing until she was in her 20's Togashi managed to have genuine success in the unpaid ranks. She ran up a 16-4 record as an amateur, winning two All Japan titles along the way, before turning to professional boxing. Before turning professional she had hoped to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which were expected to be the first Olmypics to have female boxing before those plans were scrapped. 4-Rather interestingly Togashi was class mates with Kayoko Ebata, a fellow fighter who also turned professional. The two women would bother make their names in the professional scene as fighters who fought out of the Watanabe Gym 5-As a fighter Togashi was given the nickname of "The Fighting Midwife". For those wondering, that was because she actually was a fighting midwife, and worked in a hospital in Tokyo. In fact to be even more specific she worked as a midwife at the NTT Medical Center in Tokyo. She qualified to become a midwife in 2001 after previously going to a nursing school 6-In 2011 Togashi released a book, with a title that translates as "Run! Midwife Boxer". The book is 218 pages long. 7-During her career Togashi really was a bit of a trend setting a key figure in the early adoption of female boxing in Japan, particularly with the JBC, who were very slow to recognise female boxing. She would go on to become the first ever world champion out of the Watanabe Gym, winning the WBC female Light Flyweight title in 2008, and she was also the first Japanese fighter to capture a world title on the road in 16 years, with Akinobu Hiranaka being the previous one in 1992! Winning the title in just her 4th professional bout saw her also setting a Japanese record, that still stands to this day! She was also the first Japanese female world champion to be recognised by the JBC. 8-Togashi is a big fan of Theatre and used the Lion King song "Circle of Life" as her ring walk music. 9-At Togashi's protest bout her mother admitted that she had objected to her daughter becoming a boxer. Though it was later reported that she travelled with Togashi, to Korea, for her world title win in 2008. 10-In her 12 fight career Togashi only had 3 bouts that weren't world title bouts, her first 3. Following that she had 9 straight world title contests, including a unification bout in 2009 with Etsuko Tada. With this stat she is one of the very, very few fighters to have fought 75% of her career at world level. Notably only one of her opponents had more losses than wins when she faced them. Staying with statistics Togashi fought 5 of her 12 bouts outside of Japan, including her first, her world title win, 2 successful defenses of the WBC female Light Flyweight title, and her final bout, at the age of 36! Bonus fact! Togashi is married to former fighter Yuji Takita, himself a former fighter at the Watanabe Gym! This week's "What a Shock" is one from an historical bout that was a genuinely thrilling bout, but saw the bookies get it very, very wrong... along with a referee who wanted to play his part in an historic occasion. Kohei Kono (30-8-1, 13) Vs Koki Kameda (33-1, 18) In 2015 we saw the first ever All-Japanese world title fight to take place in the US, as WBA Super Flyweight champion Kohei Kono travelled over to Chicago to take on mandatory challenger Koki Kameda. The bout was a politically confusing mess, due to the fact Kameda was banned in Japan due to a licensing situation with the Japan Boxing Commission, but was able to box away from home. As a result Kono went on the road, for his first bout away from home. Coming in to this Kameda was the clear betting favourite, priced at 1/9 to win and become the new champion. He was already a former world champion at Light Flyweight, Flyweight and Bantamweight, albeit only the WBA "regular" champion at Bantamweight. He had been a huge name in Japan, and along with his brothers Daiki and Tomoki the Kameda's had been stars at home. Controversial stars, admittedly, but still big names. Although he was the favourite Kameda really hadn't looked good in recent bouts. At Bantamweight his struggled against pretty much anyone. His power wasn't enough to keep fighters honest and his work rate lacked. It was however assumed that Super Flyweight was going to be a weight well suited to him, and against Kono it seemed that Kameda had a lot of advantages. Kameda was 28, he was naturally quicker than Kono, he was a southpaw and he was fighting outside of Japan for the 5th time. Kono on the other hand was a 34 year old dubbed the "Tough Boy", technically Kono was never an outstanding boxer. He was however an excellent fighter, who rugged, had a great work rate and always came to fight. Against movers he struggled, and he could be out boxed, but few were going to win in a rough house fight against him. On paper his style was made for Kameda, who was a good mover with fast hands and a tight guard. Although Kono had 8 losses to his name they had, typically, been at world level and 7 of his 8 losses had come before he had won a world title. Although he was a gutsy, brave, aggressive fighter, Kono's limitations had long been known about. If you moved, used your feet, and had good speed you should be able to beat him. If you tried to have a tear up with him it was going to be a toss up. Amazingly Kameda selected to have a war with Kono. From the opening stages the bout was being fought at close quarters and this was a very different type of fight to many of Kameda's bouts at 118lbs, where he sat back. This worked well in the opening round with Kameda's aggression and speed being far too much for Kono through the first 3 minutes. In round 2 however it began to turn around with Kono having the success in a rather dramatic and action packed round. The round saw Kameda land a number of low blows, with Kono going down from a series of them, and being given time to recover. Only seconds after the bout resumed Kono dropped Kameda with a straight right hand down the pipe. From there on the bout became an all action war, with Kono's pressure forcing the action and dragging Kameda into a brawl. Kameda was deducted 2 points in round 3 for repeated low blows whilst the action continued to heat up due to Kono's pressure. Referee Celestino Ruiz was really involving himself in the action, but that didn't really change the tempo of the fight, which was dictated by Kono. Not only was he dictating the action but by the start of round 4 Kono was already in a comfortably lead, thanks to the knockdown and the two deductions from Kameda. The momentum of Kono continued to press and pressure and force the fight with Kameda left to try and respond, despite being in a hole. Round 5 was a really good back and forth round as the two fighters traded shots on the inside. It was a much better round for Kameda than the previous 3, and began a good rally from the Osaka, who also seemed to do enough to take round 6. He had began to find his rhythm, used his hand speed well, tightened his guard and countered well, forcing Kono back at times. The momentum then swung backward to Kono who won rounds 7 and 8 before being deducted a point himself in round 9 for pushing Kameda down. By then it seemed immaterial to the scoring, Kono was in a comfortable lead and Kameda, who had scored 1 stoppage in his last 6, needed a KO...against a man who had never been stopped. Instead of Kameda going for the stoppage we actually saw Kono dominate after his deduction in round 9, our working, out punching and out battling Kameda in the championship rounds. With the bout going the distance Kono ended up taking a unanimous decision, with scores of 116-108, 115-109 and 113-111, a score that is truly appalling. With the win Kono not only retained the WBA Super Flyweight title, scoring the second of 3 successful defenses during the ring, scored a major betting upset, and also sent Kameda into retirement. Kameda did continue to be involved in the sport, and held some exhibition style events including one against Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, but never again fought as a professional. As for Kono he went 2-4 after this bout, losing to the likes of Naoya Inoue, who stopped him in 6, Rex Tso, in an under-rated classic, and Jason Moloney, before retiring with a 33-12-1 (14) record. The bout, although a fantastic 12 round battle fought at an excellent pace on the inside, was marred by a referee who didn't speak the same language as either fighter. He also tried to over-control the fight, which probably actually needed a Japanese referee, for both language issues and styles issue with Japanese fighters typically allowing more inside work than Western referees. Despite that no one can take away a career defining for Kono and a bout that was a massive upset. We love knockouts. Anyone who has followed this series over the last year or so will know that we really love knockouts, seeing them, watching then, replaying them and sharing them. Sadly we need to admit some fighters best KO's aren't their most seen, most watch or most well known. With that in mind this week we want to look one of the less well known KO's by a Kazakh star. This came before the fighter in question became a global star, but is a great sign of what we would later see on a bigger stage! Gennady Golovkin (21-0, 18) vs Lajuan Simon (23-3-2, 12) In one corner was "GGG" Gennady Golovkin, a man we would come to all enjoy watching fight. This however wasn't the Golovkin who was ripping up the Middleweight division in the US. Instead this was the Golovkin chasing an opportunity, fighting almost in the depths of boxing a long, long way from the glitz and glamour of Madison Square Garden. This was a 2011 Golovkin. A Golovkin who's biggest win up to this point was against Kassim Ouma. He was a man being avoided in Europe and ignored in the US. In the opposite corner was the tough, but past his best, Lujuan Simon. The American, who was 32 at this point, had never been stopped but had come up short against the likes Arthur Abrahama and Sebastian Sylvester and Dionisio Miranda. He was rugged, had a bit of name value, but was known as being a step below that of a genuine world class fighter. Coming in to the bout Golovkin has amassed 18 KO's in 21 bouts. He had stopped his previous 8 in a row and was typically doing so in a round or two. What few would have expected was that he would do the same here against a man who had taken Abraham the distance. The expectation was that Golovkin would win. Of course he would. But that he would be taken rounds. The thought process was that as long as he had a better result than Abraham he'd be able to put pressure on some fighters for an opportunity, and stop fighting the likes of Milton Nunez and Nilson Julio Tapia. Golovkin however wanted to prove a point and with just over 2 minutes of the opening round gone Golovkin found a gap for a left hook up top. It landed clean as a whistle as he pivoted and caught Simon perfectly as he came in himself. It was a blink and you miss it shot, but it was perfect. Simon instantly crashed to the canvas, where he lay motionless for a moment before trying to sit up. He had no idea where he was or how his body worked for a few seconds, as the referee gave Simon the 10 count. This was a KO that got some buzz in Europe, Boxnation showing the bout in the UK, but sadly it was another 9 months before Golovkin made his US debut, prior to which he had another pointless and easy win over the over-matched Makoto Fuchigami. Whilst we all know that Golovkin would go on to become a star in the years that followed this win Simon actually fought once more, almost 2 years later, and was stopped by J'Leon Love in 6 rounds, before retiring. 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 title challenger Angky Angkotta to former Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong.
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 long career Indonesian fighter Angky Angkotta fought a relative who's who, including a notable WBO Super Flyweight title bout in 2010 against Jorge Arce. Sadly for Angkotta he is better known for his losses, rather than his wins, however there are some notable victories on his record, including a very notable 2004 win over the then unbeaten Donnie Nietes. The win is regarded as hugely controversial one, with Angkotta missing weight by 6lbs and still only managing a split decision, at home, but it is still a win on his record, and his biggest win by far. 2-Despite the loss to Angkotta the talented Donnie Nietes would bounce back and go on to record one of the most amazing careers of any Filipino fighter. He would have world title reigns at Minimumweight, Light Flyweight, Flyweight and Super Flyweight, and would record wins over a genuine who's who, of who, from the lower weight classes. He would also, rather notably, have success outside of his homeland. Among his many international jaunts was a win over Manuel Vargas in Mexico in September 2009. On that very same card was a bout featuring exciting American Brandon Rios. 3-At his best Brandon Rios was a thrill a minute fighter, with rather limited technical skills but an incredible work rate, toughness and will to win. During his career he would have a number of amazing bouts, including his first 2 with Mike Alvarado, a brilliant fight Urbano Antillon and a criminally under-rated one with Miguel Acosta. Notably however he only won one world title, the WBA "regular" Lightweight title, which he won in 2011. That title was, several years earlier, held by Yusuke Kobori. 4-Fight fans outside of Japan are unlikely to recall much off Yusuke Kobori's career, but a good chunk of his career he was the Japanese Super Featherweight champion and even unified that title with the OPBF title before taking the WBA "regular" Lightweight title late in his career. His world title win saw him stopping Nicaraguan Jose Alfaro in a tremendous 3 round fight and came just 8 months after he gave Takashi Miura his first professional loss. 5-On July 15th 2017 we saw Takashi Miura step into the ring for the final time as a professional fighter, losing a 12 round decision to WBC Super Featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt. On that very same day WBA Minimumweight champion Knockout CP Freshmart retained his title with a unanimous decision win over Filipino slugger Rey Loreto. 6-Sadly since winning the WBA Minimumweight title Knockout CP Freshmart has had an awfully underwhelming reign with very few impressive performances or notable wins over major names. One of the few notable fighters he has beaten during his career was former Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong, who he beat in China in 2018, in what would be Zhong's final professional bout. |
Thinking Out East
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