Between 1977 and 1989 Japanese fighter Noboru Godai (24-5-2, 10) was an enigmatic fighter who achieved a lot on the domestic scene, but never managed to really build on any of his major wins. Despite failing to reach his potential, reportedly due to a mixture of moodiness and a wild personality, he is certainly more than a footnote on the Japanese domestic scene and left a clear mark on the sport in Japan. In fact he continues to leave a mark on the sport despite having retired more than 30 years ago!
With Godai being someone worthy or learning more about we've focused on him this wee as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Noboru Godai. 1-Although best known by his fighting name of Noboru Godai the fighter himself was born Toshiyuki Tanaka. Notably he also dropped out of high school at the age of 15, and began his professional boxing career at the age of just 17, whilst fighting under his birth name. Surprisingly it wasn't until very late in his career that he adopted the Noboru Godai name. 2-In 1987 the fighter violated Japanese stimulant control laws and was arrested. Due to his behaviour he was given a suspended sentence by the court and a 6 month suspension by the Japan Boxing Commission. It was after this suspension that he finally took the Noboru Godai moniker. 3-Despite out of the ring issues Godai was the first fighter to become a 3 Weight Japanese national champion. He first won the Japanese Featherweight title, in 1982, he then claimed the Japanes Super Featherweight title in 1986 before taking the Japanese Lightweight title in 1989. Since he achieved this feat not many have actually managed to replicate his feat. Sadly however his 3 title reigns amounted to a combined 2 successful defenses. 4-Following his retirement from the sport Godai began working for a gas company, working there for several years. 5-Currently he runs the Godai Gym in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. The gym was originally left to his father to run, with his father being a former trainer, and with Godai himself only training at night time. However the gym grew and Godai himself took a more hands on role there, becoming the gym chairman.
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From 1977 to 1982 Korean boxing had a thrilling all action hero in the form of Tae Shik Kim (17-3, 13), an aggressive, exciting, heavy handed ball of fury who oozed charisma and knew how to put on a show. He was stopped in his debut before going on an incredible run, winning 14 in a row scoring 11 T/KO's and securing the WBA Flyweight title, with a brilliant win over Luis Ibarra.
Sadly Kim's career at the top didn't last long. He lost the WBA Flyweight title in his second defense and he went 3-2 (2) in his final bout before being forced to retire whilst still in his mid 20's. Despite having a short career, with just 20 fights over a 5 year period, the exciting Kim was a huge star during his career and was the bright hope of Korean boxing at the time. Now a days however he is, sadly, a bit ill remembered with few fans talking about him and few remembering just how good he was. 1-As a child Kim was one of 7 children, having 4 brothers and 2 sisters. Also as a child he was rather prone to injuring himself. He reported damaged his head as a child, falling off something high, and also fractured his thumb, falling off a bike. 2-As a fighter Kim's nickname was "Stone Fist" 3-In 2007 Kim revealed that his first defense of the WBA Flyweight title, against Arnel Arrozal wasn't the bout he was supposed to have. He explained that, originally, was supposed to fight Peter Mathebula but that bout was scrapped about 15 days before hand when Mathebula was unable to get a visa. The South African fighter was in Hong Kong at the time and had to travel back with Arrozal replacing him on very short notice. 4--In that same 2007 interview Kim revealed that he had suffered a broken jawbone in round 4 of that bout with Arrozal, fighting 11 rounds with the injury. He later explained that the hospital staff said he wasn't human for enduring the pain. As for the visa issues of Mathebule, this was, in part, due to the sanctions against South Africa and the Apartheid regime. 5-In his second defense Kim did face Peter Mathebula, losing his title via controversial split decision. For that bout Kim got received 85 million Korean Won. According to Kim the bout had various issues with it, including being fought with 8oz gloves instead of 6oz gloves the 5 minutes it took to tally the scorecards. 6-Sadly after beating Roberto Ramirez in September 1982, by split decision, Kim required brain surgery to treat a subdural haematoma. This surgery forced him into retirement and ended his career when he was in his mid 20's. This injury affected him later in life, and he has admitted that he was treated differently in society afterwards, with people thinking he would be an idiot after the surgery. Thankfully however he made a full recovery from the sugery and was an eloquent individual in the years that followed his career ending injury. 7-In retirement Kim has done several things. These included running a meat restaurant, a coffee shop and a billiard's room. 8-In 2007 Kim opened a new boxing gym, 'Kim Tae-sik Boxing Gym'. opening it when he was in his 50's. 9-There is some confusion about Kim's date of birth. Boxrec have it at July 4th 1957 whilst Korean sources state it was July 4th 1957. 10-Kim got married when he was 37 to a much younger woman who didn't know him from his boxing career. He has stated that she was in the first year of elementary school when he was the world champion. Extra fact - According to multiple Korean sources he was ducked by Yoko Gushiken, who was happy to fight any other Korean fighter at the time, but not Kim. It should be noted however that Kim rarely fought at Light Flyweight and won not just the WBA Flyweight but also the Korean Rookie of the Year at Flyweight, even if he was just over the Light Flyweight limit at the time. 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 Filipino former world champion Dodie Boy Penalosa to former Indonesian world title contender Angky Angkotta.
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 career Dodie Boy Penalosa became a 2-weight world champion winning the IBF Light Flyweight and IBF Flyweight titles in the 1980's. In fact Penalosa was the Inaugural IBF Light Flyweight champion, stopping Satoshi Shingaki in 1983 to win the title in Osaka. On the same show that Penalosa won the IBF Light Flyweight title South Korean fighter Ju Do Chun won the IBF Super Flyweight title. 2-During his reign as the IBF Super Flyweight champion Ju Do Chun ran up 5 defenses of the title which stood as a record for most defenses in a reign until very recently. The 5 defenses figure was matched by Robert Quiroga and Julio Cesar Boboa but wasn't broken until 2018, when Jerwin Ancajas recorded his 6th defense of the belt. 3-Filipino "Pretty Boy" Jerwin Ancajas is best known for his long and lengthy reign as the IBF Super Flyweight champion. For much off his career he was a relative unknown, fighting on low key shows in the Philippines and occasionally in China. His international debut came in 2011 when he faced off with Chinese fighter Jing Xiang, who was 1-0 at the time. 4-The highly skilled, but feather fisted, Jing Xiang has had a criminally over-looked career, with several other Chinese fighters overshadowing him. Despite that he has scored a number of very notable wins, including victories over Ben Mananquil, and former world champions Merlito Sabillo and Kompayak Porpramook. 5-In 2011 Thailand's Kompayak Porpramook became the WBC Light Flyweight champion, beating Adrian Hernandez in arguably that year's Fight of the Year. For fans who haven't seen it, it needs to be watched, and it was a 10 round nail biting, action thriller well worthy of anyone's time. Sadly however Kompayak would lost the title in his second defense, in a rematch with Hernandez. His only successful defense of the title was a controversial technical decision win over Jonathan Taconing. The only other man to defend that title with a technical decision win was Jorge Arce, way back in 2003. 6-During his excellent, and other thrilling, career Jorge Arce fought a relative who's who, of who. Included in the long, long line of fighters Arce beat is Indonesian fighter Angky Angkotta, who Arce beat twice, first in 2010 and secondly in 2011. When we look back over some forgotten fighters from recent years one man that rarely gets mentioned, at all, is Filipino fighter Rev Santillan (26-7-1, 19). That's despite the fact his 15 year career ran from 1995 to 2010 and saw him really make a solid mark on the regional scene. He was never regarded as a genuine threat to a world champion, though did climb pretty high in the rankings at one point, but was very notable in the East during his prime.
Sadly whilst he is a forgotten figure among many fans he is someone certainly worthy of having some attention shone his way, so with that in mind let us bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Rev Santillan! 1-Santillan was known as the "Gentle Giant", not the most imposing of nicknames we admit, however he did stand at 5'11" and began his career at 140lbs, making him a giant at the weight. He was however, not gentle between the ropes, scoring stoppages in almost 56% of his total professional bouts. 2-On the subject of %'s exactly half of Santillan's bouts (17) took place in the Philippines, and the other half (also 17) took place in Japan. A total of 9 of his bouts took place in Korakuen Hall, with all 9 coming in his last 11 professional bouts. 3-With 34 bouts to his name it's fair to assume that Santillan might had some rematches. Amazingly however there was 7 different fighters he faces more than once! These included Motoko Sasaki, Jesus Abril, Jong Jong Pacquing and Kazuhiko Hidaka, who he fought twice, as well as Hiroshi Watanabe and Tata Regatuna, who he fought 3 times. 4-Santillan is the only man to have captured the same OPBF title 4 times. He was a 4 time OPBF Welterweight champion and he has the 26th, 28th, 30th and 33rd title reigns. Whilst there are others who have won OPBF titles 4 times, for example Yoshinori Nishizawa, no one else has had all 4 reigns in the same division. Sadly he only managed a combined 4 defenses across his 4 reigns. 5-Following his retirement Santillan went on to become a boxing trainer, and actually worked at the Shakujii Sports Boxing Gym, the same gym he fought out of late on in his in ring career. He began working as a trainer there in 2013. Fighters are rarely described as "cute" but one fighter who did fit that description was Japanese Light Flyweight Ryoichi Taguchi (27-4-2, 12), who was often described as "cute" by the Japanese press during his career. That description could sound demeaning but the talented Japanese fighter managed to have a solid career between 2006 and 2019.
During his long and successful career Taguchi won Rookie of the Year, the Japanese Light Flyweight title and unified the WBA and IBF Light Flyweight world titles. He also faced a genuine who's who of the lower weights, sharing the ring with the likes of Tetsuya Hisada, Yu Kimura, Masayuki Kuroda, Naoya Inoue, Florante Condes, Alberto Rossel, Ryo Miyazaki, Carlos Canizales, Milan Melindo, Hekkie Budler and Kosei Tanaka. Although we suspect everyone has seen something of Taguchi's career, we also know fans probably don't know much about him, as he was generally quite a private person. With that in mind let us share 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Ryoichi Taguchi! 1-As a child Taguchi was bullied, and in fact it was the bullying that lead him to boxing, which he started doing when he was junior high school. He reportedly began boxing at the Ota Ward Gymnasium, before heading to the Yokohama Hikari Gym and then finally settling at the Watanabe Gym, where he joined after graduating High school. It was, of course, the Watanabe Gym that guided his entire professional career. 2-On the subject of Taguchi's early boxing days he only fought in 2 amateur bouts, tough he did manage to go unbeaten as an amateur, running up a reported 2-0 (2) record. 3-Taguchi's first trainer at the Watanabe Gym was was Korean fighter Hong Dong Sik, who came runner up in the World Junior Championships. Sik spotted Taguchi shadow boxing on his second day at the gym and quickly took a liking to the youngster. Later in his career Taguchi would be trained by Yuta Ishihara 4-It's well known that Taguchi faced off with Naoya Inoue, with Taguchi losing the Japanese Light Flyweight title to Inoue in 2013. Interestingly this wasn't the first time the men shared the ring. In fact they had done so in 2012, before Inoue had made his professional debut, as part of a spar. Originally the plan had been for their sparring session to last 4 rounds, but it was curtailed a round early when it was clear Inoue was too good for Taguchi. Footage of this spar has been posted online since it took place, and it was clear that there was a huge gulf in class between the two men. 5-Although Taguchi wasn't dropped by Inoue in their bout he was put down just two fights later, with former IBF Minimumweight champion Florante Condes dropping Taguchi in the second round of their 8 round clash in 2014. In fact Taguchi is the only fighter, through Inoue's first 20 bouts, to have not been either dropped or stopped by the "Monster". 6-Taguchi used to enter the ring to a song called "ART OF LIFE" by KAT-TUN, partly thanks to his friendship with Tatsuya Ueda. 7-On December 10th 2019 Taguchi took part in his retirement ceremony at Korakuen Hall. As part of that ceremony he sparred with former stablemate Takahashi Uchiyama, and was left in agony towards the end of the session as Uchiyama caught him with a nasty body shot. A sponsor for the show as said to have offered Taguchi a financial bonus if he could knockout Uchiyama, though it was Taguchi who was left close to going down. 8-On the subject of Takashi Uchiyama he and Taguchi were described as being like brothers, and Uchiyama was one of Taguchi's favourites fighters, along with fellow Light Flyweight champion Michael Carbajal. 9-One final fact based on Taguchi's relationship is the fact that Taguchi now works at Uchiyama's gym, the KOD Lab in Tokyo. The gym is one of two that Uchiyama owns, with the other being the KOD Studio in Kasukabe which employees Hisashi Amagasa among others. 10-Taguchi was classmates in junior high school with Saori Fujisaki, the piano player from Japanese band SEKAI NO OWARI. It's fair to say that 2014 was the year of the upset with a huge number of upsets taking place all over the place. Whilst it maybe lacked in terms of title changing upsets, with a relatively low number of those, there was a lot of shockers in the sport among contenders and hopefuls. Due to the sheer number of upsets in 2014 there are some that don't seem to get mentioned on any list of biggest shocks of the year. Today we look at one of those that really was a massive surprise, even if it didn't get much attention at all outside of the Philippines. This was one where going in the bout was seen as nothing more than a easy confidence builder for a former world champion, who was expected to get back into the title mix. Instead it turned out to be a massive, and bloody, shocker. Ellias Nggenggo (8-7-3, 2) Vs Merlito Sabillo (23-1-1, 12) In March 2013 Merlito Sabillo, known as the "Tiger", travelled to Colombia and stopped Luis de la Rose to win the "interim" WBO Minimumweight title, before being upgraded to full champion soon afterwards and he ended the year with two defenses of the title to his name. By the end of the year he was in the Ring Magazine top 10, and had shown himself to be a solid fighter. Sadly though he had lost the WBO title in early 2014 when he ran into the then unheralded Francisco Rodriguez Jr, and was smashed in 10 rounds by the talented Mexican. In Sabillo's first bout after the loss to Rodriguez Jr the Filipino moved up in weight and took on Indonesian journeyman Ellias Nggenggo. Sporting a record of 8-7-3 (2) Nggenggo was given no chance against Sabillo, and was expected to just take the former champion some rounds. Although not a great fighter Nggenggo had proven his toughness and had recently gone the distance with Ryuji Hara and Paipharob Kokietgym, losing pretty much every round against the two contenders. On paper this had UD8 Sabillo written all over it going in to the bout. The champion was going to get some rounds, rebuild his confidence and begin a second charge to a world title fight. That however didn't happen. In fact it never even came close to happening. Sabillo looked confident at the start of the bout, he looked in good shape, despite moving up in weight, and crisp. Nggenggo on the other hand looked crude, wild and rugged, like many of the Indonesian journeymen of the time. There was a lack of skills behind Nggenggo's offensive, with hayemakers being the preferred to jabs from the Indonesian. The first round went as expected, as with Sabillo in almost complete control, landing bombs at the end of the round. Having found his range in the opening round Sabillo turned up the heat in round 2, taking some shots in return but easily out landing Nggenggo, who looked clumsy, slow and defensive poor. It looked like a mismatch, despite Nggenggo having some success until the final seconds of round 2, when Nggenggo began to have his first sustained success. It was suddenly becoming clear that Nggenggo wasn't there to make up the numbers, despite the fact that Sabillo was a former champion and in round 3 Nggenggo began to actually out box Sabillo, who was coming forward but having limited success. By the end of the round Sabillo was being chin-checked by the Indonesian, who had been landing some really good counters. It seemed Sabillo was winning, but having a much, much tougher time of things than anyone had anticipated. Although Nggenggo was exceeding expectations he was still almost certainly behind as we entered round 4. Early in round 4 Sabillo was left with a nasty cut on his right eye. The cut had come from a punch, and immediately the referee took Sabillo to the ringside doctor to take a look. Sabillo, knowing the cut was a bad one, stepped up his aggression, knowing he had very limited time to stop Nggenggo if he was going to win. The Filipino crowd were getting behind their man as he went looking for a finish. Despite the effort the cut wasn't going away, and in fact was just worsening. The local favourite was taken to the doctor for the second time, with around 1 minute of the round left, with blood smearing down his face. This time doctor had no option but to wave off the contest. The crowd, who just seconds earlier were cheering on their man, were left silent. On replays it was clear it was clear the cut had been caused by a left hand from Nggenggo, that had sliced the face of Sabillo. Sadly for Nggenggo he would only score one more win, a decision at home over Jack Amisa, before losing 7 in a row. As for Sabillo his career never really recovered and he was never again in the mix for a world title, losing 6 of his next 10. This was a massive shock and ended Sabillo's hopes of returning to the world level, and yet rarely gets a mention. A genuinely forgotten upset, from a crazy, crazy year of professional boxing. This past weekend we saw Filipino icon Nonito Donaire (41-6, 27) show, at the age of 38, that he is still one of the heaviest handed fighters in the sport as he dominated Nordine Oubaali, dropping him 3 times in 4 rounds to claim the WBC Bantamweight title. The win saw him prove he wasn't shot, and whilst he is certainly old for a Bantamweight, he looked in great condition and bounced back really well form his 2019 loss to Naoya Inoue in the WBSS final.
With the win under his belt we thought it was a chance to focus on Donaire and consider what might be next for him, as we take a look at Five for... Nonito Donaire. 1 - Nawaphon Sor Rungvisai (51-1-1, 41) We begin with a pretty likely bout, even if it's not a hugely attractive one, and that would be a defense against leading WBC challenger Nawaphon Sor Rungvisai, also known as Nawaphon Kaikanha or Nawaphon Por Chokchai, from Thailand. This is certainly not a big fight for Donaire, but we can hardly complain at him having an easy first defense after reclaiming the WBC Bantamweight title. And potentially even having it in the Philippines, where he's not fought since his 2016 win over Zsolt Bedak, in what was actually his first defense of the WBO Super Bantamweight title. Nawaphon would offer very little in terms of a threat to Donaire, but if the "Filipino Flash" wanted to fight in the Philippines once more before he retired Nawaphon would be the ideal safe opponent for such a fight. Nawaphon is also an opponent who would look good on paper, even if his record is awfully padded. 2 - Charlie Edwards (16-1, 6) Whilst there are super fights out there for Donaire, which we'll get on to shortly, there are other options for him, and one of those is a return to the UK, where he fought twice in 2018. If the UK is somewhere that he wants to return the obvious choice for a UK fight is former WBC Flyweight champion Charlie Edwards, who is ranked very highly by the WBC still. Edwards, who previously faced Johnriel Casimero, would not only serve as a potential UK opponent for Donaire but would also give him a chance to have a head to head rival with Casimero, ahead of a potential all Filipino world title unification bout down the line. Edwards has a style that could pose questions for Donaire, but it seems likely that Donaire's power would land, at some point, and take out the Englishman. 3 - Johnriel Casimero (30-4, 21) / Guillermo Rigondeaux (20-1-0-1, 13) winner The first super obvious potential match up for Donaire is a clash with the winner of the upcoming WBO world title fight between Johnriel Casimero and Guillermo Rigondeaux. It's only #3 on this list because we don't really like including opponents who are tied up with bouts in these lists, but sadly we've got to do it a couple of times in this particularly list. If Casimero beats Rigondeaux when the two clash in August we'd have the potential for an all Filipino unification bout between the WBC and WBO world champion, something that would be massive for not just the Bantamweight division but also Filipino boxing. It would give us a unified champion, and set us up with a clear front runner for a potential Naoya Inoue bout. A bout between Casimero and Donaire would be incredible, and would see both men taking on a huge puncher, with the bout not just being an all Filipino clash, but also one that could end at any second. If Rigondeaux beats Casimero it sets up a really, really interesting rematch. Back in 2013 Donaire lost to Rigondeaux, in a bout that stands out as Rigondeaux best win as a professional. By a long way. For Donaire a rematch would be a chance to avenge that loss, and get some sense of revenge for a defeat that really harmed his career. As for Rigondeaux it would be a chance to him to get a second major win over the Filipino icon, and add a lot more to his career, which has promises so much but regularly failed to deliver. Either of these potential options is good with us! 4 - Naoya Inoue (20-0, 17) / Michael Dasmarinas (30-2-1, 20) winner Another 2 for 1 is the winner of the upcoming bout between Naoya Inoue and Michael Dasmarinas. Sure Inoue is the VERY clear betting favourite, but both of these men would make for interesting bouts with Donaire, as long as they win here. Firstly the potential Inoue bout would be a rematch of the WBSS final from 2019, and would see Donaire get a chance to avenge his only loss as a Bantamweight. Their first bout was a brilliant contest, and a rematch would be expected to be another fantastic fight. As well as the history between the two men the bout would also see 3 titles being unified, as we see the Bantamweight division take a step towards having a unified champion. A rematch between these two would also, potentially, allow fans in the US a chance to see the bout in person, after their first fight was in Japan. Given the choice of all the possible bouts for both men, this is probably the one we most want to see, and we suspect most fans also want to see. Of course if Inoue loses to Dasmarinas a bout between Donaire and Dasmarinas becomes a huge fight for Filipino boxing, and would see the two men battling for 3 titles in the biggest all Filipino bout in living memory. This would be massive for boxing and would, in some ways, be even bigger than the potential Casimero bout. Especially given that for this one to take place Dasmarinas would need to have upset Inoue, in one of the biggest upsets in recent years. If this one comes about it would be for 3 titles, and would be on the back of big wins for both guys. 5 - Kazuto Ioka (26-2, 15) A bit of an outlandish one to finish with, but one we'd love to see, would be Donaire taking on Japanese star Kazuto Ioka, who would have to move up from Super Flyweight to Bantamweight. It's well known that Ioka wants to only have big fights, and fighting at Super Flyweight his options are rather limited, with the only readily available name being Jerwin Ancajas or a mandatory defenses against Francisco Rodriguez Jr. Decent fights, surely, but not legacy defining ones. A move up to Bantamweight to face Donaire however, would be a career defining bout, and a chance for him to become the first man from Japan to win world titles in 5 weight classes. As for Donaire it'd be a huge chance to get a win over Inoue's country man and a brilliant name to add to his record. This might seem an outlandish bout to think about, but it would be a compelling contest that would test Donaire's power and timing against the skills and boxing IQ of Ioka. It would be high level stuff, and it would be a very, very intriguing bout. It would be a battle of left hooks, and it could be the bout we didn't know we wanted! Last time out in "Reliving the Finish" we covered a bout between two debutants in Korea, this time we go a little bit more high profile as we look at a world title bout in Monaco featuring one of the biggest names in the sport over the last 10 years and a popular challenger. The bout certainly not the biggest or most notable bout every, but it was certainly a fight with some international attention and appeal, and one that had media interest from around the boxing world. Gennady Golovkin (25-0, 22) vs Nobuhiro Ishida (24-8-2, 9) In March 2013 Kazakh destroyer Gennady Golovkin faced off with Japanese veteran Nobuhiro Ishida in Monte Carlo. At the time Golovkin was the WBA "regular" and IBO Middleweight champion and was carving out a growing reputation on the global scene as a dangerous boxer-puncher. He had made his US debut the previous September, stopping Grzegorz Proksa and had then beaten Gabriel Rosado into submission in January, also in the US. Following those wins US TV were getting behind him, but he wasn't just fighting in the US as he looked to keep one of the busier schedules of any world champion in the sport. As one of his non-US bouts Golovkin travelled to Monaco, something he ended up doing again in 2014 and 2015. In the opposite corner to the hard hitting Kazakh was Ishida, a man best known for his monstrous upset win over James Kirkland in 2011. Sadly since the win over Kirkland Ishida had failed to build on his momentum, but had enough value in is name to face both Paul Williams and the then WBO Middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog in 2012, losing both bouts by decision. Despite those losses Ishida had proven he was tough, he was durable and the hoipe was that he would extend Golovkin, who had stopped 12 opponents in a row. Obviously that didn't happen. The first two rounds had seen Golovkin out box, out speed and out skill Ishida, but he showed the Japanese fighter a lot of respect. He backed off in the first round, picked his shots and scouted Ishida, getting a read on the Japanese fighter. Golovkin put his on the gas in round 2, but Ishida was still holding his own never looked in any real trouble. That was until round 3. In round 3 Golovkin moved up another gear. He was letting his hands go more and putting more on his shots. Gone were the jabs at range, replaced by uppercuts and hooks up close. Just over 2 minutes into the round Golovkin landed a brutal right hand as Ishida was going backwards. Usually going backwards would have taken something off the impact, but here it did little. Ishida fell backwards, like he'd been clobbered by a baseball bat, and his backwards momentum sent him partly through the bottom two ropes. His legs in the ring, his upper body outside of it. Immediately the bout was waved off. It was a wonderful sight, and a slightly scary one until Ishida regained his bearings. In the years that followed this bout Golovkin would go on to become one of the biggest names in the sport, landing a string of big fights and adding the WBC and IBF titles to his collection. Ishida on the other hand returned to Japan and had a run at the Japanese Heavyweight, losing a close decision before retiring to set up his own gym in Neyagawa, Osaka.
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 Korean world champion Min Keun Oh to former 2-weight world champion Dodie Boy Penalosa of the Philippines
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-Korean fighter Min Keun Oh was moved quickly after turning professional and quickly won the IBF Featherweight title less than 4 years after his debut. Interestingly his debut, an 8 round decision win against Cesar Ligan, was on August 8th 1980. That was actually on a card that was headlined by the then OPBF Middleweight champion Chong Pal Park, who stopped Peter Piamonte to retained the OPBF title. 2-Following his OPBF title reign the big punching Chong Pal Park went on to make a mark at world level, and was one of the big stars of the Super Middleweight division. At Super Middleweight he had a very solid and notable reign as the IBF Super Middleweight champion, before later winning the WBA title. Another man who would later go on to win the IBF Super Middleweight title is American fighter Caleb Plant. 3-"Sweethands" Caleb Plant was born on July 8th 1992, on that very same day Chokchai Chockvivat was in action in Bangkok, where defeated Rojanadej Sor Thassanee to retain the Thai Flyweight title, for the first time. This win saw the then 24 year old Chokchai move to 14-1 (4) and it was an 11th straight win for the Thai Fly. 4-After defending the Thai title Chokchai Chockvivat went on to win the OPBF Flyweight title, taking the title in 1993. After defending it 8 times Chokchai travelled over to the Philippines to defend it against a then unknown 18 year old Manny Pacquiao, who completely decimated the then 29 year old Chokchai in 5 rounds, giving the Thai only his third career defeat, and his second stoppage loss. Interestingly Pacquiao would defend the title twice himself before travelling over to Thailand to win his first world title, the WBC Flyweight title, with an upset win over Chatchai Sasakul. 5-In the years that follow his OPBF title win Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao went from unknown to boxing sensation, and one of the most well known sporting talents of his generation. A hero to the Philippines and one of the most fan friendly fighters in recent years. A lot of his late career success was put down to Freddie Roach, who developed Pacquiao from a crude but physically impressive 1-handed young Filipino to becoming a whirling dervish in the ring and a true sensation. Of course Pacquiao isn't the only Filipino Roach has worked with, with another being the often under-rated Gerry Penalosa. 6-The incredibly skilled Gerry Penalosa was one of a number of talented fighters from the Penalosa family. Others included his father, Carl Penalosa, along with Gerry's two brothers Jon Penalosa and Dodie Boy Penalosa! Every so often when we do some other article we stumble on a fighter that ends up interesting us. Recently one such fighter was former Japanese champion and former world title challenger Hiroaki Yokota (30-5-2, 16) who fought between 1979 and 2007.
Although not a big name, by any stretch, he is a genuine interesting fighter who achieved a significant amount during his career and set a number of records whilst also being involved in some thrilling bouts. With that said let us bring you five Mid week Facts about Hiroaki Yokota 1-Yokota began his professional career in 1979 as a 17 year old and retired that same year, after losing to Yoshiyuki Uchikoshi. At that point he was 3-1 (1). He would, however, return to the sport in 1987 and begin a much, much more successful run in the sport, which included winning the Japanese Super Bantamweight title and fighting for the WBA Super Bantamweight title. 2-During his return from his first retirement Yokota worked as a branch manage of a company called ARTNATURE. Despite the name suggesting the company did something to do with nature or artwork, they are actually a company who manufacture and sell wigs! 3-That world title fight, which saw Yokota lose a very competitive decision to Wilfredo Vazquez, saw Yokota set a then record as the oldest Japanese fight to challenge for a world title. At the time he was just 32 years old and was younger than the 33 year old champion! 4-In 1995 Yakota retired for the second time, and in 1996 he opened up the Yokota Sports Gym, with the intention of teaching the younger generation. This second retirement didn't last long, and he was fighting again in 1998, before retiring for the third time at the age of 37, due to the JBC rules. He would then petition the JBC, asking for them to revise their retirement age rules and was finally allowed to fight again in 2004, at the age of 43. He would then fight for the final time in 2007, at the age of 45. Unsurprisingly he set records such as the oldest Japanese fighter to win a bout, score a KO and to take part in a bout during this late career run of his. 5-During Yokota's late career run the Yokota Boxing gym was essentially owned by Yokota's brother due to the JBC rules on a fighter not being allowed to have other boxing licenses. Despite that Yokota himself was the de facto manager of the gym. Bonus fact - According to the amazing Boxinglib.com run by the fantastic Seki-chan, there is a mistake on Yokota's boxrec. His second bout with Shigeru Okabe was only an 8 rounder and not a 10 rounder as shown on Boxrec! |
Thinking Out East
With this site being pretty successful so far we've decided to open up about our own views and start what could be considered effectively an editorial style opinion column dubbed "Thinking Out East" (T.O.E). Archives
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