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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 Ryol Li Lee to Marlon Tapales.
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-When he was much younger Ryol Li Lee went to the Osaka Korean High School in Osaka. Another fighter who went to the same high school was Teiru Kinoshita. 2-During his 30 fight professional career Teiru Kinoshita managed to achieve a significant amount. He went unbeaten in his first 20 bouts, won the Japanese Super Flyweight title and recorded 5 defenses of that title and later fought for the IBF Super Flyweight title. Twice. The first of those world title bouts came against Zolani Tete in 2014, for the vacant title. 3-Sadly for Kinoshita he came up very short against talented South African fighter Zolani Tete, who dominated from the opening round. Tete would go on to record just a single defense of that title before moving up in weight and begin to campaign at Bantamweight. Tete's title win saw him become the second South African to win the IBF Super Flyweight title, following in the footsteps of Simphiwe Nongqayi. 4-Sadly Simphiwe Nongqayi is often an over-looked fighter, despite the fact he won the belt in Mexico against Jorge Arce and defended it on the road, in France, against Malik Bouziane. Unfortunately Nongqayi's reign ended in his second defense, when he was stopped by Juan Alberto Rosas. 5-Mexican fighter Juan Alberto Rosas had a solid career between 2001 and 2016, fighting more than 50 times and scoring more than 40 wins. Given the length of his career, and the fact he had double digit losses, it's surprising that he was stopped only once, with that stoppage loss coming late in his career to David Sanchez. 6-Less than 18 months after David Sanchez beat Juan Albert Rosas he scored another win of note, defeating Filipino fighter Marlon Tapales, who would later go on to become the WBO Bantamweight champion! This was, notably for Tapales, only his second career defeat.
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One thing we don't think about when we talk about Japanese boxing is Japanese Heavyweights, In fact the history of the sport gives us very, very few Japanese Heavyweights and you could say they are as rare hens teeth. One of the very few to make any sort of a mark on the division was Kotatsu Takehara (15-13-3, 8) who had one of the most interesting boxing careers of any Japanese Heavyweight.
Takehara fought between 2001 and 2019 and was a bit of a road warrior, fighting in Japan, Australia, USA and China before ending his career. He also took on some really notable names, such as Alex Leapai, Magomed Abdusalamov, Johann Duhaupas, Lucas Browne, Kyotaro Fujimoto and Nobuhiro Ishida. Sure now sensational fighters, but for a Japanese Heavyweight that's much better than we'd have expected. Whilst Takehara failed to become a big name himself, he was certainly someone who is worth knowing more about. With that in mind here we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Kotatsu Takehara! 1-Before turning to boxing Takehara played Rugby and was regarded as a good Rugby player at a young age, playing sport into his days at University. Sadly though an accident whilst at University ended his days as a Rugby player. 2-Takehara's blood type is A type, this is actually the most common blood type in Japan. Under Japanese blood theory this would make Takehara a "Well Organised" person. Typically these people are sensitive, patient, wary, polite and attentive. 3-Although he is best known as Kotatsu Takehara, the fighter was born Masataka Takehara, and only changed his ring name in 2013. Incidentally Masataka Taniguchi is also the name of a Japanese businessman, known for his work with Japan Electronic Materials Corporation and Marumitsu Co., Ltd. 4-A sad fact, that we hope changes in the future, is that Takehara has had the most attempts at winning the Japanese Heavyweight title without winning it. In fact at the time of writing, in April 2021, Takehara has been involved in half of the 6 Japanese Heavyweight title bouts so far, and has lost in all 3. The only man to have been in more bouts for the title is Kyotaro Fujimoto, who has been in 4 of the 6 title bouts. 5-Taking this full circle and heading back to Rugby, Takehara is friend with Tsuyoshi Yamamoto the former Japanese professional Rugby player, who played at international level. The two men were class mates at University. In 2011 we got a number of upsets and if we're being honest the Super Flyweight division played host to a lot of them. Today we going to look at one of the most forgotten and over-looked upsets from the division that year. It was a bout that saw a man not even ranked by Ring Magazine beating the man they had at #1. It was an under-dog who few had given much of a chance to, and was reportedly a 4/1 betting under-dog. It was supposed to be the next defense by a man who already 4 under his belt. But instead we got a notable shock! Tomonobu Shimizu (18-3-1, 9) Vs Hugo Fidel Cazares (35-6-2, 25) Now a days we don't see much mention of Tomonobu Shimizu, even on Japanese sites, but when he turned professional there was big expectations on his shoulders after a solid amateur career. Sadly however an opening round stoppage in just his second professional bout, a huge upset in it's self to Kaennakorn Klongpajol, slowed his climb through the rankings. Despite that speed bump he managed to get a world title fight just over 3 years after debuting, and was stopped by Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. A year after his loss to Wonjongkam we saw Shimizu claim his first title, the Japanese Flyweight title, with a narrow win over Kenji Yoshida. Just 3 months later he was again stopped in a world title bout, this time by Daisuke Naito in the 10th round whilst leading on the cards. He would then go on to defend the Japanese Flyweight title 4 times, defending against the likes of Toshiyuki Igarashi and Shigetaka Ikehara, before vacating in 2011 as he began the search for a third title bout. That saw him moving up in weight to take on Hugo Fidel Cazares. At this point in time Hugo Fidel Cazares was the WBA champion and was widely recognised as either the #1 or #2 in the division. He had held the WBA title since claiming it in May 2010 with a win in Japan against Nobuo Nashiro, in their second bout, and had defended it 4 times. They included some defenses against poor competition, such as Everardo Morales, but also a win in Japan against Hiroyuki Kudaka, who then fought as Hiroyuki Hisataka. Prior to winning the WBA Super Flyweight title Cazares had been a notable player at Light Flyweight, some how shrinking his huge frame down to 108lbs. It was at the lower weight that he ha won the WBO title and made 5 defenses before losing to Ivan Calderon. A rematch to Calderon saw Cazares lose again before leaving the division and making his move to Super Flyweight, where he had quickly made a name for himself with a win over Roberto Vasquez, and his two bouts with Nashiro. Although he had 6 losses to his name Cazares had only lost twice in 11 years, both close decisions to the brilliant Ivan Calderon. He had been a world traveller and was dubbed "El Increible". He was the clear betting favourite against the 4/1 Shimizu who was ranked #7 by the WBA and given little chance to over-come the Mexican, especially given his issues with durability at Flyweight, never mind Super Flyweight. Despite being the under-dog Shimizu employed a smart game plan against Cazares. The Mexican champion was a notoriously slow started and Shimizu used that to his advantage, racking up the early rounds, taking the fight Cazares early on and using his speed brilliantly well. The Mexican looked the bigger, stronger, more powerful fighter but the Japanese fighter was putting down the early marker by using his speed and skills. After two good rounds for Shimizu we began to see Cazares get going and by the end of round 3 he was working his way in to the contest, putting his foot on the gas and coming forward. The new pressure form Cazares made the round much more compelling than the two before it and began a charge from champion who came on strong over the middle rounds. By round 7 it was as if Shimzu's good start had been turned back, and that Cazares was now in the ascendency. His work rate, power, and physical strength was showing and he was the one bossing the fight, pressing and pressuring Shimizu who was being forced to dig deep. To his credit however Shimizu was fighting back, gritting his teeth and not rolling over for the champion, despite Cazares's success. The big surge from Cazares had seen him sneak in the lead on the judges cards, whilst giving us a genuinely fantastic bout, but it hadn't seen him dent the desire of Shimizu who refused to go away. In fact it made Shimizu dig deep and turn the tables in rounds 8 and 9, as his body shots began to slow down Cazares, and he even seemed to hurt the Mexican at one point, with Cazares being on the retreat mid-way through round 8 after a brutal flurry to his mid-section. Cazares was again looking hurt in round 9, this time to the head as we got another fantastic round. The big effort from Shimizu in rounds 8 and 9 weren't able to be sustained and Cazares came back well in round 10 as both men realised this was close. Despite this being close both men were beginning to slow a little, with both feeling the pace. Round 11, whilst still exciting, was a much slower round than many that had come before it, with both men just taking a bit more time to get things off. This suited Shimizu who managed to create space and work at range, taking the final two rounds. Cazares was still hungry but his speed and energy had dropped off and he was regularly eating counters when he rushed in, and was picked off at range as Shimizu fought a smart final round. After 12 rounds it was clear we had had a close bout and that was reflected on the score-cards with scores of 115-113, twice, and 114-115. Thankfully for the local man the two 115-113 cards both went his was, whilst the third card narrowly favoured Cazares. The cards, as close as they were, had seen the clear under-dog pick up a career defining victory. Sadly for Shimizu his reign was a short one, losing in his first defense 8 months later to Tepparith Singwancha. His reign was notable however as he would become Champion in Recess for much of his reign due to an injury he suffered in this bout, and the bout with Tepparith was a unification of the "Recess" and "Regular" titles. As for Cazares he fought on until 2016, and remained a notable figure in the sport. Sadly he finished his career at Featherweight, where his size and and physicality really didn't work. For a second straight "Reliving the Finish" we stay in the US, though move from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to the Forum in Inglewood, California, for another KO. This one isn't quite as iconic as the Manny Pacquiao Vs Ricky Hatton one, but is another notable. Sadly though this came at the expense of a previously unbeaten Asian who had the hopes of Thailand behind him, and one which left more questions than it probably should have. Teerachai Kratingdaenggym (38-0, 28) Vs Lucas Martin Matthysse (38-4-0-1, 35) Although he sported a ridiculously long name Teerachai Kratingdaenggym wasn't a well known fighter, and in the US he was introduced as Tewa Kiram, rather than being called by the Thai fighting name he had used in his homeland. Although not well known the 25 year old Thai had one of the longest unbeaten records in the sport at the time, having scored 38 straight wins. Sadly, though as is common place in Thailand, a lot of those wins were stay busy wins against lesser opponents. Those wins had seen him and his team essentially piggy back on the PABA title to gain a high WBA ranking, and in January 28 he looked to turn that ranking, and loyalty to the WBA's regional body, into a world title reign. For those who hadn't seen him Teerachai was a bit of a mystery man, though plenty of footage was out there. He had proven to be a solid boxer-puncher, and a huge man for a Thai. He wasn't a blown up fighter fighting above his best weight, but instead a very big Welterweight who had matured into a fighter who probably could have been better off moving up in weight, which he actually did after this bout. For the bout in question Teerachai battled against big punching Argentinian Lucas Martin Matthysse, for the vacant WBA "regular" Welterweight title. At the age of 35 it was now or never for the incredibly hard hitting, and popular Matthysse. Up to this point Matthysse, dubbed "La Maquina", was the nearly man of professional boxing. He had knocked on the door of a proper world title numerous times, though the best he could get was the WBC "interim" title. He had 4 losses to his name, but the first two of those were very questionable decisions to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander. Following those defeats he had gone on to beat the likes of Humberto Soto, Ajose Olusegun, and Lamont Peterson, who was then the IBF champion. Sadly for Matthysse his other two losses had come in actual title fights, with a close decision loss to Danny Garcia and a TKO loss to Viktor Postol. Those were both in world title bouts and it seemed like he was going to be denied a "full" title until he moved up in weight and got the shot against Teerachai for the vacant WBA belt. Before we talk about the stoppage, we do need to point out the title had only become "vacant" due to the politics of the WBA and they still had a "super champion" in the form of Keith Thurman. Despite being seen as a massive under-dog Teerachai really did incredibly well early on. He was making Matthysse look his 35 years of age, and out moving, out working, out jabbing and out boxing Matthysse. Matthysse seemed to be landing the better single shots, and had more power on his shots, but was very much being made to work incredibly hard to cut the distance. Of course the last thing a fighter usually loses is their power, and even at the age of 35 Matthysse still had that. Big time. Midway through round 8 Matthysse's power told and he dropped the Thai with what appeared to be a hard 1-2. For a moment it seemed Teerachai was done, before he got to his feet. That wasn't the end, but a clear warning of what Matthysse' power could do. Less than a minute later Matthysse's power struck again. This time the Argentinian backed the Thai up and, on first viewing seemed to drop him with a sharp, short, left hand. The Thai was flat out as the referee waved off the bout with Teerachai's head lying under the ropes. In real time it looked like a jab had knocked out the Thai, and on replay it seemed that was the case, though it seemed like it was almost a delayed reaction KO, with Teerachai throwing his own shot before dropping to the canvas in what was a really odd ending. Following the finish Teerachai was accused of taking a dive and looking for a way out. In fairness that may well have happened, with the pressure from Matthysse increasing and Teerachai likely realising he couldn't hurt the Argentinian. Though it was something he and his team did deny. Whatever the outcome we didn't see Matthysse hold the title for long, losing to Manny Pacquiao in his first defense. As for Teerachai he bounced back, moved up in weight and began moving towards a second world title bout, this time at 154lbs. Whether this was a delayed reaction KO, a dive, or a man simply shaken into the point of accepting a loss, it looked great 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 former IBF Flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng to Ryol Li Lee.
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-On May 18th 2012 Amnat Ruenroeng made his professional debut, defeating Indonesian journeyman Rino Ukru via 4th round TKO in Ratchasima. In the main event of that card Thangthong Klongjan was scoring a TKO10 win over Macbute Sinyabi. 2-Sadly for Thangthong Klongjan the May 18th 2012 bout was the final one of his career, he passed away just over a week later, at the age of 33, following a motor vehicle accident that also took the life of his wife and two nephews. Prior to his untimely death he was 24-0 (17) and had held a number of minor titles, including the IBF Pan Pacific Super Bantamweight title which was later won by Ryohei Takahashi. 3-In 2014, prior to winning the IBF Pan Pacific, Ryohei Takahashi won the All Japan Rookie of the Year. Another man who won Rookie of the Year in 2014 was talented Featherweight Reiya Abe. 4-Several years after winning Rookie of the Year Reiya Abe scored a very big domestic win over former multi-time world title challenger Satoshi Hosono at Korakuen Hall, in what was a huge break out win for the highly skilled Abe. 5-During a 38 fight career Satoshi Hosono, known as "Bazooka" managed to win both the Japanese and OPBF Featherweight titles and also fought in 3 world title fights. One of the fighters he challenged for a world title was Thailand's Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, the then WBA Super Bantamweight. 6-Sadly Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym's career essentially came to an end in late 2012, following the discovery of a blood disorder, cancelling a scheduled bout with Guillermo Rigondeaux. As a result his career ended with a professional record of 48-2 (33), with the second of those losses coming to Japanese-Korean fighter fighter Ryol Li Lee in 2010. Between 1997 and 2014 Japanese fighter Daisuke Nakagawa (22-4-2, 17) was a fixture on, and around, the Japanese title scene. Although he never made a mark outside of Japan he managed to be one of the few 3-weight Japanese national champions, winning national titles at Welterweight, Light Middleweight and Middleweight during a very solid career.
Not only did Nakagawa win 3 divisional titles but he also beat a number of notable domestic fighters along the way. His most notable wins included victories over the likes of Koji Numata, Akinori Watanabe, Koshinmaru Saito, Yosuke Kirima, Takehiro Shimokawara and Tomohiro Ebisu. With those little details out of the way lets take a look at five Midweek Facts about Daisuke Nakagawa! 1-During his career Nakagawa once started that his heart rate was around 30BPM, stating so in an old blog post. For a typical person a normal heart rate is between 60 and 100BPM. 2-Nakagawa had a stop-start career. After his first 4 bouts, all in 1997, he took a 6 year break from the ring. He would take another lengthy break in 2010, due to an injury, that kept him out of the ring for around year. That injury forced Nakagawa to vacate the Japanese Welterweight title and abandon a planned defense against Koji Numata in August 2010. Had that bout gone ahead it would have been a third between the two men, with Nakagawa having won the first two. 3-Nakagawa was given the nickname of the "Japanese Margarito" due to his similarities to controversial Mexican fighter Antonio Margarito. The two men were of a similar heigh and similar facial appearances. 4-Amazingly all 28 of Nakagawa's professional bouts took place at Korakuen Hall*. Whilst he's not alone in having all of his fights at the "Holy Land" of Japanese boxing, it's rare for someone to have had such a long career and never fought at any other venue, especially a multi-weight Japanese champion. 5-This Daisuke Nakagawa, the boxer, is one of several notable people with the name! There is also a professional Japanese Shogi player with the same name, as well as a Japanese actor, born in 1998, who is best known for his work on "Kamen Rider Zero-One". For those unsure what Shogi is, it's a chess variant played in Japan. *Note - Boxrec lists no venue for Nakagawa's second and third professional bouts, but both of those took place at Korakuen Hall according to Teiken. 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 multi-weight world champion Daiki Kameda to former world champion Amnat Ruenroeng.
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-Japanese fighter Daiki Kameda is often over-looked when we discuss the Kameda boxing family, with holder brother Koki Kameda and younger brother Tomoki Kameda all getting significantly more attention than Daiki. Despite that Daiki was a 2-weight world champion and scored some solid during his career. Sadly however Daiki is best known for his 2007 loss to the then WBC Flyweight champion Daisuke Naito. 2-The talented Daisuke Naito was a successful fighter, and during his career he was very open about some of the struggles he had had earlier in his life. These included being a victim of bullying. He's not the only notable Japanese fighter who has revealed that he was bullied, with another being Ryoichi Taguchi. 3-During his career Ryoichi Taguchi won the Japanese, WBA and IBF Light Flyweight titles, and scored a number of very notable victories. Interestingly Taguchi was the 7th fighter to win the WBA Light Flyweight title, with the first of those being Yoko Gushiken way back in the 1970's. 4-After winning the WBA Light Flyweight title in 1976 Yoko Gushiken would go on to record 13 defenses. The only fighter to have more defenses of that title that Gushiken is south Korean legend Myung Woo Yuh, who managed 17 defenses of the title in his first reign, before reclaiming the title and adding 1 more defense in 1993. 5-Sadly the Light Flyweight division during Myung Woo Yuh's day wasn't as strong as the division is now a days, and one big complaint about Yuh's reign is the lack of major names that he beat. That's despite the fact that he defeated the likes of Leo Gamez, Rodolfo Blanco, Hiroki Ioka and Bi Won Jung. 6-It's fair to say that few fans, outside of Asia, will be too familiar with Bi Won Jung, who lost to Myung Woo Yuh in 1984 before Yuh was even a world champion. That's despite the fact Jung would later win the IBF Flyweight title, in fact he was the third holder of that title. Some 30 years after Jung's title win that same belt was around the waist of Thailand's Amnat Ruenroeng. To many international fans the first major Korean fighter to make a name for himself was Ki Soo Kim, the first Korean to win a world title. For Korean fans however Kim wasn't the first boxing star, that was an honour held by Se Chul Kang (who has a reported record of 15-18-2, 7), a man who would actually lose to Kim 3 times during his career!
Kang was a genuine star in Korea and fought as a professional between 1953 and 1966, fighting 35 bouts and having some mixed success in the ring, along with a lot of scandals outside of it. Despite some issues in his personal life Kang was a major player in Korean boxing. In fact when he died in 2007 Kang was described by Bo Young Hang, the then vice chairman of the Korean Boxing Committee, as "The deceased was the most important person in the early days of professional boxing in Korea". With that in mind lets take a look at what made Kang so important to Korea boxing in the 1950's and 1960's. 1-Kang began boxing in the 1940's, as a teenager, and trained alongside Kwon No Kap, who would later become a notable Korean politician and be involved in financial scandals at the turn of the millennium. 2-In 1957 Kang won a Korean national title, but it wasn't until 1960 that he became a star. That happened in November 1960 when he won the OPBF Light Middleweight title. This win saw him become not just the inaugural OPBF champion at the weight, but also the first Korean to win an OPBF title, in any weight class. This bout was said to have drawn a huge crowd, with more than 10,000 fans in attendance at a baseball stadium to see Kang become the Oriental champion. 3-In 1965 there was a request from the JBC to suspend Kang due to an issue where Kang had violated a contract. He was scheduled to fight in Tokyo, had been paid money before the fight and then failed to turn up. This was reportedly the second time he had done this. Interestingly prior to these issues Kang had challenged for the Japanese Welterweight title, back in 1958, losing to Jiro Takada. This bout is recognised as a successful defense for Takada despite the fact Kang wasn't a Japanese fighter. 4-Se Chul Kang wasn't the only successful boxer in the the family. In fact after he retired his son, Hubert Kang, went on to become a very successful fighter himself. In fact Hubert Kang was one of the most notable Korean fighters of the 1960's and 1970's becoming a huge star in Korea and winning both the OPBF and South Korean Featherweight titles. During his career the talented Hubert defeated several notable fighters, including Kuniaki Shibata. 5-Surprisingly Kang had a decent grasp of English, with KNNews reporting that he sport English though it's unclear to what level. What is known is that his ability to understand English played a major role in Kang being sent over from Korea to the US to some Heavyweight world title fights. Sadly reports on which ones are unclear, though it's reported that he covered Sonny Liston's 1962 bout with Floyd Patterson and Liston's 1964 bout with Muhammad Ali, which saw Ali become the Heavyweight world champion. Bonus Fact - In 2005 a Korean newspaper reported that Kang was an alcoholic "Kang who is seventy-eight this year, is a drunk old man who has to drink a bottle or two of beer every day. Before the Chungmuro Samgyeopsal restaurant or beer corner opens for dinner, Mr. Kang stumbles drunk". Sadly Kang died just a few years after this report. Recent we've been very Japan centric in this series of looking at great KO's so this week we want to go as far from Japan as we can get, and look at a bout that took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas back in 2009. Not only was the bout at one of the best venues in the sport, but it was also one of the best KO's in recent memory. This was gorgeous, brutal, vicious, eye catching and a KO that even now, a decade on, is just as jaw dropping as it was at the time. Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36) vs Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32) We don't really think we need to do much of an introduction for either man here. One is an icon of world boxing, and the other is one of the most popular British fighters in history. Despite that we will look, briefly, at the back story. After Manny Pacquiao shocked the boxing world in 2008, beating Oscar De La Hoya in a legitimate upset, he was the hottest thing in the sport. Pacquiao had jumped from Lightweight to Welterweight and although Oscar was a faded force he was still expected to over-come the little Filipino. Instead Pacquiao put on a sensational performance, beating De La Hoya and become one of the biggest names in the sport, by a long way. Just 5 months later he went to Light Welterweight and took on the then IBO champion Ricky Hatton. With world titles at Flyweight, Super Bantamweight, Super Featherweight and Lightweight Pacquiao was well and truly on the higher end of the pound for pound list before he beat De La Hoya, but that win cemented his place as a living legend. Ring Magazine had him at #1 pound for pound and it was hard to argue with that ranking given Mayweather had retired following his win over Hatton almost 2 years earlier. Hatton, from England, had been the face of the 140lb weight class since beating Kostya Tszyu in 2005. He had moved up in weight, but had never looked as good at Welterweight as he had at 140lbs. He first dipped his toe at Welterweight to beat Luis Collazo, narrowly surviving the final round, and had returned there in 2007, suffering a 10th round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather. Between those bouts he had returned to 140lbs, and resettled there, and he settled there again following the loss to Mayweather. Although Hatton had lost to Mayweather he had maintained a high pound for pound ranking, with most having him in or around the top 10, and he was widely regarded as the best fighter at 140lbs. The weight suited him. He was physically imposing at the weight, powerful, and could bully opponents. Although the bout was highly anticipated it turned into a massive mismatch with Hatton being dropped twice in the opening round. To his credit however Hatton managed to make his way into round 2. To his credit Hatton actually had an acceptable round 2, for the most part, and it appeared that he may be getting a toe grip into the fight. At least it did until around 10 seconds before the end of the round. With 11 seconds of round 2 left Pacquiao landed a thunder bolt of a left hand that landed bang on the chin. It couldn't possibly have landed cleaner. It was as on point as a punch could ever get. The shot instantly turned out Hatton's lights. He was gone as his body went limp before he hit the canvas, hard. He was out cold and the referee quickly abandoned the count, knowing that he could have counted to 100 and the Englishman wouldn't have gotten back to his feet. Medical staff at the venue quickly saw to Hatton, who recovered his senses. His then trainer, Floyd Mayweather Snr, suggest Hatton should retire which he actually seemed to do, for 3 years, before making an ill fated comeback in 2012 when he lost to Vyacheslav Senchenko. As For Pacquiao he would remain a top level fight for more than a decade after this knockout, though sadly the knockouts did dry up and this was probably the most iconic of his early finishes. We suspect you've all seen this one before, but it's one that you should probably see again...and again...and again. It is one of the best KO's in the sport's long history.
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 champion Den Junlaphan to former multi-weight champion Daiki Kameda.
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-Between 2000 and 20007 Thailand's Den Junlaphan made his name as one of the best Minimumweights in the sport. He began his career in Thailand, move to Japan early in his career and became a 2-time WBC Minimumweight champion, before ending his career with an 18-2 (6) professional record. Another Thai who once held the WBC Minimumweight title was Napa Kiatwanchai, who was the second man to hold the title way back in the 1980's. 2-As mentioned Napa Kiatwanchai was the second man to hold the WBC Minimumweight title. The man he belt for the belt, on November 13th 1988, was Japanese star Hiroki Ioka, who lost the belt in his third defense. 3-The Ioka name is one of the most notable in Japanese boxing. That is, in part, due to Hiroki Ioka, who would become a 2-weight champion during his career, and in part to his nephew, and modern day Japanese star, Kazuto Ioka, who has exceeded the achievements of his uncle and become a 4-weight world champion. 4-As an amateur Kazuto Ioka was only the third man in Japan to win 6 high school titles, following in the footsteps of Takahiro Ao and the little known Ryo Osaka, who dominated the Middleweight division back in his days as a high school fighter. 5-Despite being a fantastic young talent Ryo Osaka never amounted to much as a professional, fighting just 3 times from 2006 to 2007, though did manage to go 3-0 (2) in the paid ranks. Sadly he never faced anyone of note though his second bout did come on a show that was headlined by a world title fight, in fact it was a show that saw Takefumi Sakata finally become a world champion, winning the WBA Flyweight title! 6-Although rarely spoken about now a days Takefumi Sakata was a notable name in Japan between 1998 and 2010. He was a popular fighter, involved in some great fights and memorable events. His trilogy with Lorenzo Parra was great, his two bouts with Roberto Vasquez were hotly contested, as were his two bouts with Trash Nakanuma. He was also in some very notable bouts with Daisuke Naito and Denkaosan Kaovichit. In his final bout he lost a decision to the then WBA Flyweight champion Daiki Kameda! |
Thinking Out East
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