On Monday A-Sign Boxing streamed the latest Hachioji Nakaya card, headlined by teenage sensation Jin Sasaki (9-0, 8) who took out Tatsuya Miyazaki (9-14-1, 9) in the final seconds of the opening round. The win saw Sasaki claim his third straight stoppage win and his second win this year. It also saw Miyazaki take his 11th stoppage loss, and likely sent the 36 year old into retirement.
On paper this wasn't great match up, no one will tell you otherwise. It was, potentially a chance to see whether Sasaki could take a shot, if Miyazaki landed, but the expected outcome was always an early win for Sasaki, and he continues to head towards bigger and better things. Given Miyazaki had already been stopped in the opening round twice before it was expected that he would be stopped very early here, and he was, at the 2:53 mark of round 1. Despite the outcome being expected it was a bout worthy of a closer look and one that we felt deserved the Take Aways treatment. 1-Sasaki carries himself like a star We said this last time we covered a Jin Sasaki bout and we'll say it again, the 19 year old exudes an aura of a star. He came into the ring with some high energy music, a huge robe, and the look of someone who was looking to turn heads. This is a young man who realises he's in the position to be something big in the boxing world, and he knows that to do that he needs to connect with fans, something he is doing every time he steps in the ring. From his entrance to his performance he gets it. He knows he needs to entertain and that's what he did through out the contest. Like a fighter who know he needs to shine, he finished the bout in style, and took the next step forward on his journey to stardom. 2-Miyazaki didn't come to lose Despite a lengthy losing run and being seen as the very obvious under-dog Tatsuya Miyazaki didn't enter the ring to make up the numbers. He came forward, looked to use his experience and heavy hands and even backed up Sasaki at times. Whilst he did pay for trying to make a fight of things no one can say he came for a pay day. Had he been there to collect his purse he would have stayed down after being dropped may way through the round and not taken the heavy leather that came afterwards. He was gutsy, came to win and was simply up against someone better, stronger, quicker and more powerful. 3-The referee was in the right place through out The ending here nearly got very ugly. With the clacker gone Miyazaki was in an awful position on the ropes and could have easily ended up taking a number of clean, unprotected shots. Credit, however, goes to Akihiko Katsuragi for being in the perfect position and stopping this one before that happened. It's easy to complain about referees, and then getting it wrong, but once again we were impressed by a referee. Through out the bout Katsuragi was scarcely needed, but when he had to act he did, and he was never out of position. Referees around the globe should be watching some of these Japanese fights and realising where the referees are standing. We recently watched a bout in the UK where the referee was almost constantly too far away, and had this situation happened with that referee in question Miyazaki would have ended up taking 3 or 4 shots too many. 4-Sasaki should fight at 140lbs This was Sasaki's first bout as a Welterweight and if we're being honest we hope this is his last bout at the weight for a while. He's a natural 140lb fighter at the moment, and he will certainly grow into a 147lb fighter one day, but for now lets have him fighting at 140lbs, rather than carrying around the extra water weight. Thankfully it does seem like this was a one off and his next bout will be at 140lbs, when he returns on December 26th for a Japanese Youth title bout against Aso Ishiwaki. 5-Sasaki Vs Ishiwaki is gonna be awesome! Having just mentioned Jin Sasaki Vs Aso Ishiwaki we really don't think we can explain just how excited we are about this one. The styles, mentalities, and toughness, power, aggression, strengths and flaws of both men should gel amazingly well here. It's not a given that we end up with a Fight of the Year contender, but our guess is that this is going to be something very, very special. The bout was rumoured earlier in the year, and now with the two men putting pen to paper we have a post-Christmas gift to look forward to. Interestingly both men have had trouble getting opponents, so facing off against each other is the perfect solution. They built this fight brilliant after Sasaki's win here and had the two men stare down on the entrance way to the ring, and this really does fill us with a sense of pure excitement. Bonus Take Away - Ichitaro Ishii deserves real respect from the boxing world The stream for this bout was put on by A-Sign Boxing and it was a fantastic stream with Junto Nakatani doing guest commentary and adding some star power to the show. The entire show only had 3 bouts and one of those was mismatch. Despite that we he left us feeling like it was really worth tuning in. Once again he has put together a product that was fantastic, and giving us the Sasaki Vs Ishiwaki announcement after Sasaki's win really added to the allure of that bout. It's easy to hate on promoters, but Ishii is proving that they aren't all bad. He's used a low profile card to build towards something big amd that is what promoters should be doing every show. Fingers crossed that one day Ishii gets the budget to run wild and do exactly what he wants to do, but until they we'll need to appreciate what he's doing with limited financials and a smart brain.
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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 Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao to former Japanese world title challenger Daiki Kaneko.
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- It's fair to say that Manny Pacquiao is a true living legend. What he's done in the sport is unlikely to be matched any time soon and his rise through the ranks is sensational. Born on December 17th 1978 the Filipino has become one of the all time greats. Incidentally on the same day that Pacquiao was born Korean great Jae-Doo Yuh fought his final. As weird as that sounds Pacquiao was born on the day that Yuh retained the OPBF Middleweight title with a win over Hung-Won Kang. 2- Whilst we don't think many will have known that Jae-Doo Yuh had his final bout on Manny Pacquiao's birthday we do suspect that everyone know's that Yuh had a legendary 2 fight series with Japanese star Koichi Wajima. In the first bout Yuh stopped Wajima in 7 rounds, to become the WBA Light Middleweight, whilst their rematch saw Wajima avenge that loss to reclaim the title. 3-Amazingly Koichi Wajima is the only 3-time WBA Light Middleweight champion. He's also a 2-time WBC Light Middleweight champion, a feat he's not alone in having with mover than 5 men to hold that title two, or more, times. Another is the under-rated, and far too often forgotten, Vernon Forrest. 4-Despite often being under-rated Vernon Forrest was a real skilled guy with so much talent and his ability to compete at an incredibly high level in to his mid-to-late 30's was a testament to his ring craft, brilliant jab and fine boxing skills. Away from the ring he was a classy and brilliant guy who's charitable work was amazing and the work Destiny's Child Inc does is incredible. On the same show as Forrest's final fight was the US debut of Indonesian fighter Daud Yordan. 5-Although the hope was that Daud Yordan would carry the Indonesian flag after Chris John eventually hung up the gloves "Chino" never really managed to reach the heady heights hoped of him. Despite that he has had a notable career, fighting in several world title fights and competing in and around the world level for much of his career. He may have failed at the top but was certainly a key figure in a down period for Indonesian boxing. One of his most notable wins was his brilliant 2018 win over Pavel Malikov. 6-Although Russian fighter Pavel Malikov was stopped by Daud Yordan that was not the only fight he had against a notable Asian fighter. Others included Leonardo Doronio, Carlo Magali, Adones Aguelo and, in 2017, Daiki Kaneko, in what was a brilliant 2017 clash. Sadly whilst that was a tremendous bout it was also the final bout of Kaneko's career. Between 2001 and 2014 Japan's Daigo Nakahiro (24-4-2, 10) managed to have a pretty over-looked impact on the Super Flyweight division.
During his career Nakahiro fought a genuine who's who, including Kohei Kono, Daisuke Naito, Pongsaklek Wonjongjkam, Hidenbobu Honda, Ryo Akaho, Yota Sato and Malcolm Tunacao. Whilst he had mixed results against the top guys he certainly played a bigger part in the sport than many realise. Not only did Nakahiro face some very notable fighters but he also had some real success winning Rookie of the Year and the Japanese Super Flyweight title and also went on to be leave boxing for another successful career. With that introduction out of the way, let ups bring you 5 Midweek facts about Daigo Nakahiro. 1-Boxing wasn't the first sport to bite Nakahiro, who was previously in the high school football team. Interestingly he played along side Futsal player Akihito Seto and professional soccer player Kenji Haneda, who played over 150 times in the J League. 2-In December 2002 Nakahiro won the All Japan Rookie of the Year crown, at Super Flyweight. In the final he defeated future 2-time WBA Super Flyweight champion Kohei Kono. 3-In an interview after his retirement Nakahiro admitted that the only bout he never thought he could win was his WBC world title bout against Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. 4-Interestingly Wonjongkam has also spoken about the bout with Nakahiro, telling RingTV's Anson Wainwright that Nakahiro had the best defense of anyone he faced. Wonjongkam stated "I couldn't hit him", which is a rare odd phrease to use when the judges had it a a clear win for Wonjongkam. Though Nakahiro's defense for the bout did come at the expense of his offensive. Nakahiro spent much of the bout fighting behind a tight guard and ducking and diving, making Wonjongkam miss, but not making him pay. 5-Following his retirement Nakahiro has become an occupational therapist working, to help people with physical and metal health rehabilitation. Prior to that role he had been working as a staff member at Senogawa hospital whilst he was still fighting Boxing in Japan has become an international thing in recent years, and when a top Japanese fighter is in action the entire boxing world takes note, as we saw with the WBSS Bantamweight final a year ago. Back in an era of imperial Japan however things were very, very different. The one massive star of the era was Tsuneo Horiguchi, also known as Piston Horiguchi. Whilst we don't expect many fans to be too aware of "Piston Horiguchi" he's a really interesting fighter, one that we won't really be able to do full credit to in this series. Despite that we'll try to teach you something new about Horiguchi with the latest in this series, with 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Piston Horiguchi 1-Horiguchi was the son of a police chief 2-Horiguchi was managed by Yujiro Watanabe, the man who is dubbed the "father of boxing" in Japan. Although Watanabe isn't too well known by fight fans now a days his influence in Japan early on is huge, and he set up the first Japanese boxing, the Nippon Kento Club in 1921. 3-Horiguchi wasn't just managed by a legend, in Watanabe, but he was also trained by a Japanese boxing legend, in the form of Fuji Okamoto, who would later become the president of the Japanese Professional Boxing Association. Although Okamoto's full record isn't known he is regarded as one of the early Japanese champions, and his career pre-dates the Japanese boxing commission. 4-In 1935 Horiguchi played himself in a Japanese movie called "King of the Ring", 5-Horiguchi is reported to be a former Japanese and Oriental Featherweight champion and former Japanese Middleweight champion. It should be noted that these titles pre-date the JBC and OPBF. 6-The May 28th 1941 bout between Horiguchi and Takeshi Sasazaki was dubbed "Fight of the Century" in Japan. Althoygh the venue isn't listed on boxrec we have been informed that it was at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. 7-With over 170 bouts to his name, including at least 138 wins and 82 KO's Horiguchi holds a number of Japanese national records that are not likely to ever be beaten. It's worth noting that there are differing reports on his career record, but the minimum numbers are 176 bouts, 138 wins and 82 KO's, with others reporting he had 183 bouts, 142 wins and 87 KO's. It's worth noting that his official record, as per the gym he set up, is 138-24-14 (82), different to the Boxrec record. 8-Horiguchi passed away in October 1950 at the age of just 36. He died after being hit by a train close to Chigasaki. There are mixed reports as to what he was doing on the train line, though the two main lines of thought are that he was either drunk or suicidal. 9-On Horiguchi's grave, in Chigasaki City, there is an inscription that translates as "Fighting is my Life" 10-The gym that was set up by Horiguchi, the P-Horiguchi Gym, is now run by Horiguchi's grandson. Prior to it's current chairman it had been run by Piston's son, meaning it is now been in the family for 3 generations. Extra Fact 1 - Horiguchi met Babe Ruth, and the two had their picture taken together, which we've included. Extra Fact 2 - Horiguchi's career really was intense. He fit his whole 170+ fight caerer into 17 years, which included 0 fights in 1945 and just 2 bouts in 1944. Amazingly he in 1946 he fought 20 bouts, a Japanese record! (Image courtesy of p-horiguchi.co.jp) One thing we don't want to do too often in this series is share an incomplete round, however every so often we feel it's just and fair, and that's the case here with a round from a truly sensational war from 1995. It was a bout that everyone should make time to see, but if they can then we suggest you plonk yourself down, grab a biscuit and enjoy the brilliant, though incomplete, round 7 from a true classic. Saman Sorjaturong (26-2-1, 21) vs Humberto Gonzalez (43-2, 30) To set the stage we need to realise what we had in the ring here. In one corner was unified Light Flyweight champion Humberto "Chiquita" Gonzalez, one the best little men in history. He was like a mini Tyson with power, aggression and tenacity. Although he had 45 bouts to his name he was only 29 years old coming into this fight and had looked sensation in his previous 7, avenging one of his two losses, twice! In the other corner was little known Thai Saman Sorjaturong. The Thai had fought for a world title once before, and found himself being demolished by the legendary Ricardo Lopez in 2 rounds. Saman was dropped in round and twice in round 2 by "Finito" as his hopes of becoming a world champion were dashed. At least for the time. Some 11 wins later he was then given a shot at Gonzalez. From the open bell the bout was sensational and it had seen tremendous action almost immediately. That action quickly turned into drama, with Gonzalez being dropped in round 2 before starting to break down the Thai, who was dropped in rounds 5 and 6. Heading into round 7 it seemed like the pressure, power and experience of Gonzalez was going to be too much for the Thai. And then we got into the round. Just seconds into round 7 they were trading with Saman forced to fight with his back on the ropes, he managed to turn the tables and quickly dropped Gonzalez, who got up with blood smeared all over his face. Gonzalez tried to take the fight back to Saman but the Thai was buoyed by the knockdown and by seeing the crimson mask on Gonzalez. From there the bout was his as he just unloaded, forcing Lou Filippo to step in. If you've never seen this minute of carnage you really should treat yourself, no matter how busy your day is! When we talk about the Heavyweight division we really do talk about one of the strangest divisions. The size disparity in some of the fights in the division is frankly ridiculously and the term "David Vs Goliath" can be used in the division in a way it can't be used in any other. It's pretty much the only division in the sport where we can see the height difference between two fighters being a foot, if not more. Sure some divisions have freaks, we're looking at you Sebastian Fundora, but they are one of off's, whilst the Heavyweight division has a lot of variation in size and shape. Today we are looking are looking at one of the notable David Vs Goliath bouts. The fight may not have been the most exciting, but it sure was a notable event, and an upset. Date April 14th 2007 Venue Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Ruslan Chagaev (22-0-1, 17) vs Nikolay Valuev (46-0, 34) We don't tend to think of Asian fighters making a mark at Heavyweight but that's exactly what Ruslan Chagaev did, both in the professional ranks and the amateurs. Following a successful amateur career he committed to professional boxing, albeit not until he had gone back and forth between the two codes. By spring 2007 he was a rising contender in the professional ranks and had earned a place as the WBA's #1 ranked contender. At that point he was 28 years old and although a very talented southpaw, and an unbeaten one at that, he had struggled against Volodymyr Vyrchys and John Ruiz. Stood at just 6'1" and with a 74" wingspan Chagaev was seen as being on the smaller side for a Heavyweight, but was still well regarded. Despite being small few, if any, fighters dwarfed him quite like 7'0" behemoth Nikolay Valuev, the then WBA champion and the man that Chagaev was needing to face. At this point the 33 year old Valuev was looking like man that the money men were angling to break the 49-0 record of Rocky Marciano. He was 46-0 and had defended the belt 3 times, all by stoppage. Not only was Valuev a giant unbeaten man, but he also seemed to have key players behind him, that seemed like they were pulling strings to keep his unbeaten record intact. That had seen him take close wins over Larry Donald and John Ruiz, and it was assumed that if he was still standing he would get the decision against anyone. In terms of his boxing skills he was limited, slow, and fought at a low pace, but he was also a genuine behemoth in the land giants. He was over 300lbs, an awkward guy to get close to, with huge arms and when up close he could exhausted fighters by clinching them and leaning on them. Although very limited, he was so awkward that he managed to be a very, very hard man to beat. Heading into the bout Valuev was the betting favourite. It was assumed that even if he "lost" he would get the decision. All he had to do was make it close enough to give the judges a nudge. Given his size advantages, and with the bout taking place in Germany that wasn't expected to be too much of an issue. From very, very early on we knew this wasn't going to be very exciting. From the off Chagaev, who looked like a child in comparison to Valuev, was trying to stay away, use his speed, and not allow Valuev to hold him. Valuev, who took the center of the ring, followed Chagaev, but lacked the mobility to really close the distance, and instead applied rather slow by deliberate pressure. Although not exciting it was an interesting first round that saw Chagaev trying to figure out the giant, and have some success late in the opening round. It was a close round but one where Chagaev's class in the final 45 seconds or so proved to be the difference. The pattern of the first round set the style for a number of rounds. What Chagaev was doing, to neutralise, the giant was smart, toying with his lead hand, countering, drawing mistakes and relying on his amateur background. Despite that though Chagaev wasn't exactly wowing audience, instead he was taking a cautious approach to the action, creating additional space and making Valuev follow him and making Valuev miss, a lot. To his credit the big man kept plodding forward, pressing and showed surprising energy for someone so big. He kept throwing out the jab, and kept the pressure on. Sadly for himself the jab, against a southpaw, wasn't an effective weapon, despite his reach. After 4 rounds he seemed to bow his head and looked a little dejected at the way the fight was going. Despite his effort he was having very limited success and eating some solid left hands from the challenger. By the the end of round 6 it was clear that Chagaev wasn't going to hurt Valuev, who he had caught clean with some really solid left hands, but that he had also piled up the points with some very effective, if unexciting, boxing. He was fighting to a tailor made game plan and it was working marvellously against the clumsy but game Russian champion. It was however a game plan that was always going to be a tough one to keep to mentally, especially given the success he was having and the sheer amount of movement he had to do to control the bout on the back foot. In round 7, for the first time, we began to see cracks in Chagaev's game plan, as he got too close, letting Valuev clinch him a couple of times. Chagaev also ended up trapped in the corner once or twice as Valuev managed to have some genuine success. The success of Valuev in round 7 may not have been quite enough to take him the round but he built on it and had a very good round 8, snapping Chagaev's head back with a jab early in the round and having success through out. It seemed like the giant champion was finally turning the tide and that maybe, just maybe, Chagaev was starting to feel the effects of Valuev's constant pressure. Despite seemingly building some momentum Valuev's success was thwarted in round 9, with Valuev looking slower and less energetic than he had in the previous two rounds. The pressure was still there but there wasn't as effective, and instead it was Chagaev's clean left hands catching the eye. As we went into the final 3 rounds it seemed clear that Valuev was going to have to step on it. At worst it seemed like Chagaev needed just 1 rounds to secure a decision, though from the first 9 it was quite possible to have already given him 7. Things then got worse for Valuev as Chagaev put on one of his tidiest rounds for a while and forced Valuev to back off at one point, essentially securing the round and the bout on the scorecards. With more than enough rounds in the bank Chagaev then got super negative in round 11, making the action messy, spitting out his gum shield, and being as risk averse as possible. Although he was negative through out he was more so in round 11, trying to counter less. It was clear that was feeling the bout, his legs not as quick as they were earlier. He wasn't being dominated, not by any stretch, but he was certainly throwing fewer full blooded left hands than earlier in the bout and looking to "old man" Valuev, who finished the round very nicely. Despite some nice flashes in the final round, Chagaev again seemed happy to keep the tempo slower and tie up when he needed to, smartly doing it so late in the bout that there was no real chance for Valuev's bulk to tire him. It was a really messy round to finish the fight but it was the sort of round that worked fine for Chagaev and his early lead. After 12 rounds Chagaev celebrated, knowing he was deserving of the win. Valuev on the other hand went back to his corner looking dejected and exhausted. Despite Chagaev having done some great work, there was always the risk of him being robbed on the cards, especially given the relatively strong finish for Valuev. It was something that Chagaev and his corner didn't seem to consider. They seemed to have felt he dominated the bout and did so in a way that he couldn't be robbed. Despite Chagaev seemingly winning the bout with ease the first card was read out as 114-114, drawing huge boos, the second score was 115-113, a card that felt all too close, then the third card came in 117-111. The bout was a majority decision...with Chagaev being announced as the new champion. The win wasn't just a solid upset, without being a massive one, but was also a massive moment for Asian boxing, with Chagaev, from Uzbekistan, becoming the first Asian to win a Heavyweight title. Sadly Chagaev's reign was a terrible one with two defenses in 2 years before a rematch with Valuev was cancelled and Chagaev would then lose to Wladimir Klitschko. Despite how poor his reign was this win, this fight, this moment was huge for Chagaev and for Uzbek boxing. It would take until 2019 for another Uzbek fighter to win a world title, when Murodjon Akhmadaliev took the WBA and IBF Super Bantamweight titles with a huge win over Daniel Roman. Back on Monday we saw Shohjahon Ergashev (19-0, 17) pick up his latest win, as he scored a stoppage win over Belorussian foe Dzmitry Miliusha in Russia. It now seems likely that Ergashev will have some serious questions to answer the next time he speaks with his promoter, Salita Promotions, but if that can be ironed out he's in a great position to have some very interesting fights in 2021. Something he genuinely needs, and seriously deserves at this point in his career.
Assuming there isn't a major hold up in Ergashev's career due to legal issues we're going to take a look at some potential match ups for Ergashev in our weekly "Five For" series. 1-Batyrzhan Jukembayev (18-0-0-2, 14) The number one bout that we want to see Ergashev in is an all Asian clash with unbeaten Kazakh Batyrzhan Jukembayev, which was a bout that was in talks for 2020 before Jukembayev turned to the bout down. Whilst the reason the bout didn't get signed off is debated, with Jukembayev's promoter and his manager stating different things, it was a bout that looked brilliant we wished had been a done deal. Hopefully there is still interest enough in this bout to get it made and give us a fantastic all Asian 140lb war between two men each seeking a big win in the new year. 2-Shakhram Giyasov (10-0, 8) We know we don't live in a perfect world but, in a perfect world, Ergashev's future would involve an all-Uzbek bout with fellow Uzbek Shakhram Giyasov. This bout has been spoke about on Uzbek websites as a potential future bout, and it is one both men have spoke about as well, showing their is interest there from the fighters. As for the actual match up, what a bout this would be between two talented, heavy handed boxer-punchers. Ergahsev is the more experienced professional, and appears to be slightly further along but Giyasov was an excellent amateur, winning an Olympic silver medal, and has been matched harder than Ergashev. In a perfect world this would be next for both men, though it does seem unlikely to happen any time soon. 3-Miguel Vazquez (42-10, 16) If Ergashev can't get in to the ring with Jukembayev then getting into the ring with someone who has previously faced Jukembayev would be a good move. With that in mind a bout between the hard hitting Uzbek and the skilled, awkward, frustrating and accurate Miguel Vazquez would certainly make for an interesting match up. Although Vazquez is certainly not the most dangerous out there or the must aggressive he's very among the most talented fighters at 140lbs and is very capable of giving a fighter like Ergashev a real test. Ergashev should be too good, too strong and too powerful, though Vazquez's counter punching, timing and movement would mean Ergashev would have to work for his win. 4-Anthony Yigit (24-1-1, 8) One thing Ergashev needs is a real test. Someone who is tough, talented, know his way around the ring and won't be there to lose. With that in mind talented and tough Swede Anthony Yigit would make for a solid test. It's one where Ergashev's power, aggression and physicality would be expected to be too much, however Yigiti can certainly fight, he can box and he's rebuilt well since a 2018 loss to Ivan Baranchyk, in a IBF world title bout. It's one of those bouts where there will be a very clear favourite, but we do expect that to get a real work out and a very serious test, two things we want to see from Ergashev sooner rather than later. 5-Liam Paro (19-0, 12) One final possibility would be a bout between Ergashev and unbeaten Australian Liam Paro, who could, potentially, clash in an IBF or WBO world title eliminator. The heavy handed Ergashev would be the favourite here, but Paro can't be over-looked and the 24 year old from Queensland has been impressing in recent years, taking 3 unbeaten records in his last 6 bouts. Paro maybe lacks the power to keep Ergashev honest, but certainly has the skills to ask questions of the Uzbek. Interestingly Paro is ranked higher than Ergashev with both the IBF and WBO, but it's fair to say that Ergashev would be favoured. Our "Reliving the Finish" series is a chance to look at some of the best KO's in the history of the sport, and we have one such KO today, in fact it's long been one of our absolute favourite KO's and is among the most visibly appealing KO's ever. Sadly it did come against a rather unknown fighter, but given that we enjoy KO's for what they are, rather than who they come against, we can still absolute love this one! Takanori Hatakeyama (12-0, 10) vs Jae Woon Park (0-0) We suspect any regular readers will be fully aware of our love with Takanori Hatakeyama. The Japanese Super Featherweight come Lightweight is a regular in our Closet Classic series, and his wars against the likes of Yong Soo Choi, Lakva Sim, Koji Arisawa, Hiroyuki Sakamoto and Rick Yoshimura are all worthy of a watch any day of the week. Here we're looking at his 13th professional bout, and it was a contest that came a long time before he won a world title. Despite that this is probably his most visually amazing KO. Although Hatakeyama was racking up wins, often quick, he wasn't a man with much quality on his resume by this point. He had won the 1994 Rookie of the Year but was still being matched relatively softly whilst getting ready for a potential OPBF title fight. Jae Woon Park on the other hand was an unknown Korean. According to Boxrec this was his debut, though we suspect he had had a few fights even if Boxrec haven't recorded them in their database. The evidence for that racks up with this being a scheduled 10 rounder and with the on screen graphic before the fight suggesting he was a ranked fighter and with Park not having another recorded fight until 2001. Regardless of Park's history before this bout it's really this contest that he's known for. The first round saw the Korean put up a fair effort. He didn't win the round but did prove that he wasn't there to just fall over the first time he was touched. Sadly for him though things changed massively in round 2, within the blink of an eye. As soon as round 2 began Hatakeyama rushed as Park. Park saw a chance to strike and threw a right hand, which was partially blocked by Hatakeyama. Then it was Hatakeyama's time to let a shot go. When the Japanese fighter fired off he did so with a monstrous and lightning quick left hook. The shot landed clean and sent Park spinning, with his head swivelling on the spot, and his body following, turning 180 before crashing with his neck falling onto one of the ropes before he bounced back into the ring. It was gorgeous and looked like a KO from a movie. This is a truly spectacular finish and something worth watching back over and over. The round starts and within the blink of an eye we have one of the greatest looking KO's ever.
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 2-weight female world champion Momo Koseki to Manny Pacquiao.
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 Momo Koseki might not be a massive name in the world of sport, but few can argue with her success in the sport. She is a 2-weight world champion, a former unified world champion and a fighter with 17 success defenses of the WBC Atomweight title under her belt. She was the MVP of the Atomweight division for around a decade.As a professional she fought of the Aoki Gym and was a stablemate of Sho Kimura. 2-The teak tough and regularly entertaining Sho Kimura is best known for his short, but very fun, reign as the WBO Flyweight champion. He won the belt in a big upset win in China and would defend the belt twice before losing it to fellow Japanese fighter Kosei Tanaka. Prior to winning a world title he won the WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight title, beating Masahiro Sakamoto for that title. A prior hold of that title was Tepparith Singwancha. 3-After winning the WBO Asia Pacific title in 2010 Tepparith Singwancha went on to win the WBA Super Flyweight title. Whilst the way he won the title was a mess his reign was a solid one, defending the belt 3 times, all against world class opponents. Another Thai who won the WBA Super Flyweight title was the legendary Khaosai Galaxy, who held the title for more than 7 years and ran up a record of 19 defenses. 4-Whilst Khaosai Galaxy is regarded as the most successful of the Galaxy brothers his twin Khaokor Galaxy also had very notable success, and was a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion in the 1980's. 5-As mentioned Khaokor Galaxy was a 2-time WBA Bantamweight champion, though surprisingly he failed to record a single successful defense from his two reigns. Interestingly he made his debut on October 9th 1985. That was the same day that Ji Won Kim made his 3rd defense of the IBF Super Bantamweight title, stopping former former champion Sung In Suh in 66 seconds. 6-Amazingly Ji Won Kim is one of only two men to ever defend the IBF Super Bantamweight title with an opening round win. The other is Manny Pacquiao, who achieved the feat on October 26th 2002, when he blasted out Fahprakorb Rakkiatgym in 166 seconds! In the late 1990's and through much of 2000's Noriyuki Komatsu (24-6-6, 10) would be a staple on Flyweight scene. He would feature in 9 OPBF title bouts, 2 Japanese title bouts and a world title bout. Although he never won a world title he rarely in dull fights and many of them were close, hotly contested and exciting bouts. Sadly Komatsu is probably best known internationally for being stopped in 5 rounds by Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. In reality it's unfair to remember a fighter for just a single bout, and that is especially true of someone like Komatsu, who achieved much more than just coming up short in a world title bout. He was exciting, successful and sadly passed away far, far too young. His two bouts with Trash Nakanuma were amazing, his bout with Daisuke Naito was thrilling and his bout with Rolly Lunas was incredibly dramatic. Today we hope to shine a light on the former OPBF Flyweight champion as we bring you 5 Midweek facts about Noriyuki Komatsu. 1-At 15 bouts Komatsu had a very odd looking 10-0-5 (4) record. Yeah you read that right he had 5 draws in his first 15 professional bouts! Even more oddly they included 4 technical draws. He would only have 1 more draw, it's self a technical draw as well, in the 21 bouts that followed this odd start. 2-Komatsu used rock song "Tough Boy" by Japanese band Tom Cat as his ring entrance. The high energy track was also used, albeit with some minor edits, as the theme song for "Fist of the North Star 2". We've included the song at the end of this article for those wanting to give it a listen. 3-Komatsu's 2004 loss to Trash Nakanuma, in what was their second bout, was regarded as incredibly controversial and resulted in one one of the judges being suspended. The bout was regarded as a highly dubious result, with one judge putting in an inexplicable 10-8 round, which prevented a majority decision draw, which would have seen Komatsu retain his title. 4-In 2006 Komatsu, the then OPBF Flyweight champion, clashed with Daisuke Naito, the then Japanese champion, in a unification bout. The bout is the only time those two particularly titles were ever unified, and it's the only time in the JBC era that the Japanese Flyweight title has been fought for over 12 rounds. 5-Komatsu died in freak incident in April 2009. He appears to have drowned after falling from the top of a waterfall in Otsu City, Shiga whilst training. He was meant to fight Daiki Kameda the following month. He was aged just 29, just 8 days shy of his 30th birthday. |
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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