This past week Japanese fight fans at Korakuen Hall saw Kazuki Nakajima (9-0-1, 8) score his latest win, as he dipped his toes at Super Bantamweight and took out Kenta Nomura in 3 rounds. Following that win his promoter, Hideyuki Ohashi, suggested that next year Nakajima would be fighting for a Japanese or OPBF title.
Whilst Nakajima was fighting at Super Bantamweight for the contest he seemed open to fighting at either Bantamweight or Super Bantamweight, and with that in mind we have some interesting for the hard hitter in this weeks "Five For..." Given travel restrictions in Japan we have kept to just looking at Japanese opponents for Nakajima, but that's not a bad thing given the Japanese depth at Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight. 1-Keita Kurihara (15-5, 13) With Bantamweight being one of the division's where Nakajima is plying his trade we can't think of a more exciting bout than seeing Nakajima take on Keita Kurihara in what would be a thrilling shoot out. The hard hitting Kurihara is the current OPBF Bantamweight champion but has only defended his belt once since winning it in December 2018. Given the power of both men and their styles this would be a sure fire barn burner, for as long as it lasted. This would be a huge step up in class for Nakajima, but given he wants a title fight he needs to step and this is an ideal match up. 2-Toshiki Shimomachi (12-1-2, 8) A completely different type of match up for Nakajima would be a clash with the slippery and skilled Toshiki Shimomachi at Super Bantamweight. The talented Shimomachi is the type of fighter who would expose Nakajhima's technical flaws and over-all stiffness, but the bout would always have the potential to end with just a single shot, from either man. Although he's slippery Shimomachi is a heavy handed counter puncher and he could pounce on a mistake from Nakajima, whilst Nakajima's power will mean he's always a threat. A really interesting match, even if it's not the assured fire works of a bout with Kurihara. 3-Yusaku Kuga (19-4-1, 13) Back to potential wars, a bout between Nakajima and the heavy handed Yusaku Kuga would have the ingredients for a Japanese Fight of the Year. Nakajima is the better boxer, but he is rather rigid at times, and a bit on the predictable side. Kuga, the current Japanese Super Bantamweight champion, is less technical but is rather unpredictable in the ring and can box, brawl or bang. Kuga would likely bring the pressure and the aggression and it would be interesting to see if Nakajima could control the distance and make Kuga pay for his offensive charges. This is, probably, the toughest bout for Nakajima but also the one with the biggest rewards. A win over Kuga would not only see Nakajima become a Japanese champion but also take huge strides towards a world ranking. 4-Yusuke Suzuki (11-3, 7) Current Japanese Bantamweight champion Yusuke Suzuki is another interesting potential match up, and one that looks easy on paper, but would deliver fireworks. Nakajima's chin, mental toughness and work rate would all be questioned by Suzuki who is insanely tough, improving with every fight and will be hungry to keep the title he won last year. In his title win Suzuki fought through some serious facial damage and gutted out the victory, showing his will to win was incredible and we suspect that would be a major problem for Nakajima, who would begin to question himself when Suzuki was still there 6 or 7 rounds into the bout. 5-Ryoichi Tamura (13-5-1, 7) If Nakajima can't land a title fight then a bout with Ryoichi Tamura is as good as it gets from a fan perspective. Tamura is insanely tough, has an amazing work rate, heavy hands and real desire to show what he can do in the ring. Technically he is limited, but he's a nightmare to face due to his physicality and strength. If Nakajima is looking to see what he can do at Super Bantamweight a contest with Tamura, himself a former Japanese champion at 122lbs, would serve as a great test for Nakajima before a title fight at the weight.
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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 World Amateur Super Heavyweigth champion Bakhodir Jalolov to former IBF Minmumweight champion Ratanapol Sor Vorapin! 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-Uzbek Super Heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov may not yet be a big name in professional boxing, but it seems inevitable that he will be in the future. He's however not the only big Uzbek to shine on the amateur scene and another is Ruslan Chagaev, who also won the World Amateur Championships at Super Heavyweight, all the way back in 2001. 2-Whilst Ruslan Chagaev is probably best know for winning the WBA Heavyweight title in the professional ranks he was a legitimately excellent amateur. Among his amateurs wasn't just the World Championships win in 2001 but also the 1998 Asian Games, where he took home the Heavyweight gold. Another gold medal winner at those games was Thailand's Somluck Khamsing. 3-Thailand's excellent Somluck Kamsing was a brilliant boxer, winning Olympic gold in 1996 and winning gold at 2 Asian Games. One thing he was less good at was singing, though that didn't stop him trying, and he recorded several songs with fellow boxer Khaosai Galaxy. 4-In his boxing pomp Khaosai Galaxy was a long reigning WBA Super Flyweight champion, and one of the divisional greats. Another man who held that title was Japanese fighter Nobuo Nashiro, who held the belt twice during his short, but often exciting, career. 5-The teak tough Nobuo Nashiro first won the WBA Super Flyweight title in his 8th bout, becoming one of the few fighters to win a world title in so few fights. Another man who also won their first title in their 8th bout is fellow Japanese fighter Hiroto Kyoguchi, who beat Jose Argumedo in his 8th fight. 6-The title that Hiroto Kyoguchi won by defeating Jose Argumedo was the IBF Minmumweight title. That was the same title that Ratanapol Sor Vorapin held twice in the 1990's, when he dominated the IBF title scene. Although not too well remembered internationally Ratanapol holds the record for the IBF Minmumweight title, having 12 defenses in his first reign and 6 in his second. (Images courtesy of Olamsport and Komthai) This week we turn our attention to South Korea for the latest in this series, and we talk about the little known Young Chun Min (17-2, 11). Min was never a big name outside of his homeland, but has a fair noteworthy Korea between 1986 and 1991. Min debuted as a Featherweight but found his biggest successes at Bantamweight later in his career. Although his career was a short one, with just 19 bouts in total, he did mix with some more notable fighters, such as Frank Cedeno, Luisito Espinosa, Jang Kyun Oh and Daorung Chuwatana. During his career his crowing glory was his short lived reign as the OPBF Bantamweight champion, which ran from June 1996 to October 1996, which was ended by Daorung Chuwatana. Following that loss he retired at the age of 23. With that bit of background out of the way we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Young Chun Min. 1-In 1986, just 12 days after making his professional debut, Min won the Korean Rookie of the Year in the Featherweight division. As well as the Rookie of the Year title he was also awarded the MVP award for the tournament. 2-On his 20th Birthday Min defeated Dae Yong Park, to move to 10-0 (7) 3-In 2013 Min released a music album entitled "Herwabi". According to Korean news stories from the time he also provided a song service for the elderly living alone. We've included one of his performances on a TV show below. 4-In 2017 Min began helping youngsters in Korea by setting up a scholarship with money he had earned from running a restaurant. Prior to that he had driven taxi's and run a number of failed business, going as far as to consider suicide due to feeling like a failure, and wanted to help others get a head start in life. 5-Earlier this year Min was killed when he was stabbed in the neck, passing away on January 13th. Reports from Korea were that he knew the assailant. One of the most popular Japanese warriors of recent years if former 3-weight world champion Akira Yaegashi. The popular action fight from the Ohashi Gym has wowed fans in Japan for years and build a legitimate cult following among international fans for his thrilling battles and blood and guts mentality. Whilst he was never really close to being a top 10 fight in terms of pound-for-pound ranking he had long been in the top 10 most exciting fighters to watch. Win or lose Yaegashi was always a fan favourite.
Whilst we know fans love watching Yaegashi, there are a lot of details regarding the warrior that fans likely aren't aware of. So with that in mind here are 10 facts you probably didn't know about...Akira Yaegashi 1-When Yaegashi beat Pornsawan Porpramook for the WBA Minimumweight title he became the first world champion from Iwate Prefecture 2-As an amateur Yaegashi went 56-14 (15), winning 2000 Inter-High school tournament, at Mosquitoweight, and the 2002 National Sport tournament, at Light Flyweight. Interestingly 4 of his losses came to the same man, Toshiyuki Igarashi, who Yaegashi would later beat in the professional ranks for the WBC world title. 3-Yaegashi has won a number of awards at the annual Japanese awards ceremony, including the New Comer award (2006), the Fighting Spirit award (2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015), Best Fight (2012 Vs Kazuto Ioka) and Excellent Fighter (2016) 4-Yaegashi's entrance music, for a number of fights including his bout with Roman Gonzalez, has been "Move on" by Japanese musician AK69. Incidentally AK69 has done a live walk out performance for Yaegashi's former opponent Kazuto Ioka. Something the fighters share in common, other than their great bout, is being fans of AK69. 5-When Yaegashi won the OPBF Minimumweight title, in his 5th professional bout, he tied the Japanese record for fewest fights to win the title. He tied the then record of Tadashi Mihara and Eiji Kojima. Interestingly the record was also tied by Yaegashi's stable mate Naoya Inoue. That record has since been broken, by Kosei Tanaka who won the title in his 4th professional bout in 2014. 6-His nicknames in Japan have translated as "Sonic Fist" and "Fighting King" 7-Yaegashi has the unfortunate record of losing in the shortest Light Flyweight world title bout. His opening round loss to Milan Melindo, in 165 seconds, is the shortest world title bout in the division's history. 8-Yaegashi got married in 2010 and has two children 9-Having just mentioned that Yaegashi is married it's worth adding that Mr and Mrs Yaegashi actually own a cafe together, called the Count8. The Cafe and bar is in Yokohama, not far from the south exit of the Seya Station, and Yaegashi works there on a frequent basis and there's memorabilia from his career exhibited there. 10-In 2013 Yaegashi completed the Iwate Kitakami Marathon, completing the marathon in 4 hours and 6 minutes. Extra Fact - From Yaegashi's 7 losses he suffered 6 in world title fights, the only defeat he had away from world level was in a 2008 bout to Masatate Tsuji in a 6 rounder. Yaegashi was one of 3 Japanese champions that Tsuji would get a successive wins over, with Tsuji also beating Norhito Tanaka and Kenichi Horikawa. Earlier in his career Tsuji had also beaten Yasutaka Kuroki, giving him 4 wins over men who held Japanese titles. Whilst we absolutely love sharing and talking about fights we also appreciate that it's sometimes hard to get the time to sit down and enjoy a long, drawn out in ring story unfurl. With that in mind we've decided to start another new series, yes, yet another one... where we take a look at just a single round from a fight, in a series we're dubbing "Remarkable Rounds". These are some of the rounds that we feel are must watch rounds, with incredible action, intense exchanges are brilliant drama. With only a maximum of 3 minutes of action these are pretty much a bite sized version of our Closet Classic series, and there will be some over-lap there, but we feel the idea is perfect for that little window of time where you want to remember why you love boxing. The reason you follow the sport, and the little moments that make us all appreciate we really do follow a brilliant sport. Kengo Fukuda (7-1, 6) vs Tomio Shibata (1-2, 1) As you've all probably come to expect of us we kick this off with an obscure round, but a brilliant one from 1987. The match up saw the hard hitting but flawed Kengo Fukuda take on novice Tomio Shibata. From the opening seconds we saw Shibata coming forward and Fukuda boxing on the back foot. Although regarded as the under-dog Shibata was there to win and really was forcing the fight, looking to land booming hooks. His high risk strategy came at a cost and after just over a minute he started eating big shots and was dropped. That could have dissuaded him, but instead it seemed to solidify his intentions and less than 30 seconds later he put Fukuda down. With both men going down within the space 30 seconds we then ended up with final minute or so being a tear up with Shibata feeling like he could take his man out until he was rocked late in the round and Shibata began to look for a finish. Real credit to both men for giving us a thrilling opening round here! Later in his career Fukuda would become more well known with several Japanese Featherweight title bouts, his first bout with Seiji Asakawa becoming a memorable war in it's self. As for Shibata this was pretty much it for his career and he would never fight in another noteworthy bout. Please enjoy the first in this series of "Remarkable Rounds"! One of the great things about boxing is the fighters who can consistently surprise us, despite being regularly written off. It's strange how many of these fighters come from the Philippines, where many fighters seem to pick a lot of losses, but also pick up more than their share of upsets. Numerous Filipino fighters pick up losses early in their career, whilst developing their skills, and suffering other losses by taking fights on short notices and in weight classes that they aren't best suited for. When they are up for fights, well trained and fighting at their best weight they can be genuine banana skins and we see this regular, both in Asia and when they travel further afield. Today we look at one such upset. Date May 18th 2018 Venue Bangkok University, Thonburi Campus, Bangkok, Thailand Fighters Stamp Kiatniwat (19-1, 7) Vs Jaysever Abcede (15-8, 10) In one corner was Thai youngster Stamp Kiatniwat, a talented young fighter who many in Thailand had tipped as a future world champion. He had made his debut at the age of 15 and had won the WBA "interim" Flyweight title in 2015, when he took a decision win over Gregorio Lebron at the age of 17. He had defended that title once, in a rematch against Lebron, before losing in a bout for the full WBA title against Kazuto Ioka, in what was a surprisingly tough bout for the Japanese star. Although Stamp lost to Ioka he was expected to bounce back and remain a good world level contender and go on to become a world champion some where down the line. After 4 wins, following his loss to Ioka, Stamp took on Filipino southpaw Jaysever Abcede. Coming in to the bout it was known that Abcede could upset fighters, as he did against Pigmy Kokietgym in 2015, but was also not the best out there. In fact in his previous 7 bouts before facing Stamp he had gone 3-4 with stoppage losses to Lito Dante and Tsubasa Koura, and decision losses against Wanheng Menayothin and Ivan Soriano. He was, essentially, seen a game but smaller fighter, who was getting beaten up by Minimumweights and should have been no real threat to a big, strong, young Flyweight like Stamp Kiatniwat. What few considered coming into the bout was that Abcede was suffering losses against Minimumweights because he was a natural Flyweight boiling down in weight. Although some fans want to suggest that there's nothing between those lower weights the difference can be huge on a fighter. A fighter who is a natural Flyweight boiling down to 105lbs, or even 108lbs, can lose a lot. It appears that has long been part of issue with Abcede. No one knew that at the time. The bout started slowly, with both men getting a feel of the other. Within a minute of the fight starting Abcede began to look more confident, coming forward, throwing straight shots and applying simple but effective pressure. There was nothing too amazing about his work, but he was out landing and out working the younger man. Stamp looked the quicker fighter, but also the much smaller man, and he was forced to take some solid straight left hands from Abcede. The success from the Filipino saw him look to make the round clear as he put on the jets late on and made it almost impossible for anyone to score it to Stamp. In round 2 we saw Abcede build on his success, quickly taking what was left of Stamp's confidence as the local began to find himself being backed on to the ropes. Stamp then began to fight like a desperate fighter. The tactic from Stamp failed to get respect from Abcede, who pressed more, backing him on to the ropes again and let his shots go. The Filipino then dropped Stamp with a sneaky left hand to the body as the two squared up, and the Thai failed to beat the count as Abcede scored a career best win. Since this bout Stamp has seen his career fade away and he is no longer regarded as a prospect. As for Abcede he is very much an upset minded fighter looking for scales. Just 5 months after this win he upset Seigo Yuri Akui in Japan and later went on to give Kento Hatanaka a close bout in 2019. In a space of just 16 months he had gone from very limited journeyman at Minimumweight to a sort of gate keeper at Flyweight. This put him on the map, helped him find his weight and establish him as a very dangerous man capable of testing those groomed for greatness. Just over a week ago we had a card in Tokyo headlined by Shuichiro Yoshino, who retained his OPBF, WBO Asia Pacific and JBC Lightweight titles. On the same was an exhibition featuring WBC Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (17-0, 10). With "The Amazing Boy" still having no bout scheduled we thought this was an ideal time to look at some potential opponents for Teraji, and give him the "Five For" Treatment.
Although travel restrictions regarding travel to Japan are expected to be loosened in the near future we have tried to make these selections viable from a travel perspective. Sadly this rules out fighters from South Africa, the US, Mexico, the Philippines and Indonesia. As a result we have limited this list to Japan, where internal travel restrictions aren't an issue, and Thailand, where we know the current situation is somewhat under control and a viable country to get visiting fighters from. As WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi has his next bout arranged, and without full venues, he's not been considered as a potential opponent here. 1-Tetsuya Hisada (34-10-2, 20) The most interesting potential bout for Kenshiro, by far, would be a defense against Japanese veteran Tetsuya Hisada. This bout has several interesting sub stories. Firstly it would give us a way to compare Kenshiro to Hiroto Kyoguchi, who beat Hisada in a competitive bout last year. Secondly it would see us getting a bout we were supposed to get years ago, when Hisada was the mandatory challenger to Kenshiro when he was the Japanese champion. And thirdly it would also see the champion taking on the man the WBC rank as the #1 contender. With Hisada turning 36 in October and opportunities being very limited for him this would be a great option, and a potentially very interesting match up for the champion. 2-Satanmuanglek CP Freshmart (11-1, 5) Hisada isn't the only former Hiroto Kyoguchi that we would like to see challenge Kenshiro. Another former Kyoguchi opponent that we'd like to see Kenshiro share the ring with is Thailand's Satanmuanglek CP Freshmart. This would be a very interesting match up against a challenger in his prime who showed skills and toughness against Kyoguchi despite losing a clear decision. It's a shame we've not see Satanmuanglek in a boxing ring since his loss to Kyoguchi, but he has remained active and has fought in a few kick boxing bouts since then. He's a talented, hungry and tough challenger, who would ask questions of Kenshiro, and again allow comparisons to Kyoguchi. 3-Masamichi Yabuki (11-3, 11) Going back to Japan a bout between Kenshiro and Japanese national champion Masamichi Yabuki would be a well received domestic show down, even if it wouldn't generate much international buzz. The hard hitting Yabuki has looked incredibly since dropping down in weight, last year, and has dismantled domestic youngsters Rikito Shiba and Tsuyoshi Sato. At 28 years old and riding a 4 fight stoppage run Yabuki has got momentum behind him, but a bout with the WBC champion would be a massive step up in class. This is probably the easiest bout to make, given Yabuki has spoke about fighting for a world title, but also one of the ones that wouldn't create any attention outside of Japan, sadly. 4-Panya Pradabsri (33-1, 21) The bout we actually want the most from this short list is Panya Pradabsri, a talented 29 year old Thai, who may well be the toughest opponent on the list. The talented Thai is a solid boxer-puncher with decent power, nice aggression and under-rated speed and skills. Sadly he has been wasting his time, and he will continue to do so later this month in another stay busy fight, but he is a very solid fighter who has scored plenty of solid regional wins during his career. We see him potentially posing the most problems for Kenshiro and having the tools to question the champion. Sadly though he is busy with a bout on September 25th, hasn't travelled since controversially losing to Xiong Zhao Zhong in 2017, and looks to be unsure if he really wants to continue at Light Flyweight, with his next bout being at 105lbs. 5-Tsubasa Koura (15-1, 10) A wild card suggestion for number 5, but an option we really like, would be a bout between Kenshiro and once beaten fighter Tsubasa Koura, who would have to move up in weight for the but we don't see that being much of an issue. For Kenshiro this would be regarded as an easier defense, against a smaller, less experienced man who was stopped just 2 fights ago, but it would be a very easy to make bout. For Kenshiro this would scratch an itch, keep him busy and get him some ring rime, whilst Koura would get a world title fight, and a chance to get his career back on track after a frustrating year or two. In the ring this would be a pretty interesting for a few rounds, before Kenshiro finds his groove and puts his foot on the gas. If Kenshiro wants an easy defense, after having been out of the ring since December, this one makes a lot of sense. When we started this series we didn't expect to be talking about many great KO's scored by a fighter making their debut, but this time around we get to talk about a great KO scored by a fighter on their pro debut. Not only that, but it was also scored earlier this year! Rentaro Kimura (0-0) vs Yuya Azuma (5-3-1, 1) After having had a successful amateur career Rentaro Kimura turned professional earlier this year. As an amateur he had won 3 national titles, scored over 70 amateur wins and had a lot of hype in Japan before making his debut. Unlike many Japanese debutants he didn't debut against a foreign fighter, sadly for him that wasn't something that was possible due to the global situation. Instead he had to take on a domestic fighter, and as a result he was matched with Yuya Azuma behind closed doors at Korakuen Hall. It's fair to say that any amateur standout making their professional debut will want a crowd, they'll want family and friends behind them, seeing them begin their professional journey. Sadly that wasn't possible for Kimura, though thankfully we did have the Fuji TV camera's rolling and they managed to show his entire debut just days after it took place. Before we talk about the finish we do need to talk, briefly about Yuya Azuma. He had a somewhat scratchy looking record but had won his last 3 bouts, including an upset over Ryo Tanimoto, and, with a little bit of luck, he could easily have been 8-1. He had never been stopped and he had only been clearly beaten once, by Ryuku Oho in June 2018 in what was Azuma's 4th professional bout. Although no world beater Azuma had proven his ability at at the lower level of the Japanese domestic scene. The win over Ryo Tanimoto was solid, but he had also given rising prospect Tom Mizokoshi a very close run contest. Azuma had come to win, he had proven that in the first round, by trying to box with Kimura and then trying to take the fight to him in the early stages of round 2. Midway through round 2 however we saw Kimura show his class in a short, but brutal, combination that saw everyone watching get very, very excited about the youngster. The finish began when Kimura backed Azuma on to the ropes. He then followed up with a few feints, drawing a mistake from Azuma, which was then instantly punished by a brutal combination of straight left hands and sensational uppercuts. The combination send Azuma crashing to the canvas, and forced the referee to wave off the bout. Within the blink of an eye we had seen Kimura lay out Azuma, and poor Azuma had no idea what had happened. On replay things looked even more brutal, with the finishing uppercut in particularly looking incredibly nasty as it snapped back the head of Azuma. The finishing combination had been a straight left that had rocked Azuma, a right uppercut, a left hand around the guard, another right that looked more like a jab than anything, a monstrous left hand, and then another right uppercut. The uppercut at the end snapped back the head of Azuma before he crashed to the canvas. Despite Azuma being badly hurt from the first shot in the combination there no way the referee could have stopped the action, the flew from Kimura with such speed and accuracy that the referee was simply unable to save Azuma from the final blows. This was nasty from Kimura and the perfect way to make a statement on his debut. Despite having no fans in attendance Kimura had left the TV audience with something to remember and had left Fuji TV with the perfect highlight reel quality KO. This is how you make a statement in a fan free environment, and this was the perfect way for Kimura to close the show!
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 Young Kyun Park Bakhodir Jalolov. 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 "Bulldozer" Young Kyun Park is best known for his WBA Featherweight title reign in the early 1990's. He made an impressive 8 world title defenses in less than 3 years and looked like one of the hottest things in Asian boxing at the time, with his aggressive and exciting style. Among the challengers he knocked back with under-rated Japanese fighter Koji Matsumoto. 2-Koji Matsumoto made his professional debut on June 27th 1989, defeating Yuzo Yamauchi with a 5 round decision win. That victory came on the same day that the future Heavyweight great Lennox Lewis also made his debut, stopping Al Malcolm in England. 3-Whilst Lennox Lewis is best known for his incredible success in the professional ranks it's impossible to forget his success as an amateur. The highlight of which was his Olympic gold medal in 1988. Another gold medal winner at those games was Korean fighter Kim Kwang Sun. 4-Following his Olympic success Kim Kwang Sun turned professional, making his debut in November 1990, when he beat Filipino Manny Melchor. On the very same card fans also saw the talented Jung Il Byun score a 9th round KO win against the tough but limited Eddie Torres, in what was actually Torres' only stoppage loss in 17 bouts. 5-In just his 9th professional bout Jung Il Byun won the WBC Bantamweight title. Sadly for him however his reign was a short one, losing the belt less than 9 months after winning it. He lost the belt to Yasuei Yakushiji, who not only took the belt from Byun, albeit controversially, but then stopped the Korean fighter in a rematch 7 months later, sending Byun into retirement. 6-Rather oddly on Yasuei Yakushiji 47th birthday Uzbek Heavyweight fighter Bakhodir Jalolov scored an amateur win over Florian Schulz in Germany, as part of the 2015 Chemistry Cup. Just 3 days later Jalolov would go on to win the tournament, stopping Max Keller in the final of the Super Heavyweight division! Back in the 1990's the Japanese Super Featherweight scene was legitimately red hot. The country had fighters like Takanori Hatakeyama, Koji Arisawa, Yamato Mitani, Ryuhei Sugita and Kengo Nagashima all making waves. They also had the popular and heavy handed Yuji Watanabe (25-5-1, 23), ripping through the scene.
Although not the most successful of the Japanese fighters from the era Watanabe was one of the most exciting, and his bouts rarely went the distance. In fact from his 31 professional bouts 20 ended in the first 3 rounds. He was exciting, popular and a fighter well worth tracking down footage of, as his bouts were often full of bombs from the off. Today we're not here to wax lyrical about how exciting Watanabe was, but instead bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Yuji Watanabe! 1-Prior to turning professional Watanabe had been a pretty impressive amateur, running up a record of 45-3 (34) in the unpaid ranks and won the Lightweight title at the 43rd National Sports Festival. 2-Due to his power and style Watanabe was dubbed the "Nerima no Taison", essentially the "Tyson of Nerima". Tyson after Mike Tyson and Nerima after the place he was born, Nerima ward. 3-After making his debut in 1990 Watanabe's stop or be stopped attitude meant none of his first 16 bouts went the distance! That included wins over the Japanese title against Takeyuki Akagi, and a defense against Toshikazu Suzuki, as well as a win over former world champion Steve Cruz. Sadly it also included losses to Genero Hernandez and Marcus Guevara. Sadly the attitude continued through his career and he would only go the scheduled distance twice. The first of those was his unanimous decision win over Cris Saguid and the second was his 2000 draw with Seung Ho Yuh. It's also worth noting that Yuh stopped Watanabe in a rematch 9 months later, to give Watanabe his final defeat. Immediately after that bout Watanabe announced his retirement. 4-Watanabe's nephew is promising Japanese Super Flyweight Suzumi Takayama, who won the Japanese Youth Super Flyweight title in his third professional bout. 5-Despite having retired from in ring participation almost 20 years ago Watanabe is still involved in boxing. The former fighter is now a trainer at the Saida Boxing Gym, the same gym that managed his career when he was an active fighter. |
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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