|
In recent years the 4 world title bodies have all be open to massive amounts of criticism for they do things. The willingness of the WBA and WBC to create new titles, the IBF's strict following of their own rules and the WBO's links to Bob Arum and Frank Warren. Way back in the early days of the IBF, when they were struggling to get recognition they put together some awful bouts, that left a lot to the imagination. One of the clearest examples of how bad the IBF's early champions were came at Super Flyweight, where the first champion, and most of his early challenger, were very poor. Despite the limited ability of some of the fighters in those early title bouts we did manage to get a number of big KO's and today we look at one of those in the latest "Reliving the Finish" Ju Do Chun (15-1-3, 6) vs Diego De Villa (15-12-6, 3) So, for those unaware, the first ever IBF Super Flyweight champion was Korean fighter Ju Do Chun, who had won the title in Japan in 1983 when he stopped Ken Kasaugai. After making a good defense against under-rated Thai Prayurasak Muangsurin, in what was a legitimately solid match up, Chun then took on Filipino foe Diego De Villa in the third ever bout for the title. Chun had made his debut in 1981, scoring a win, but had then struggled to make an impact, and after 4 bouts he was 1-1-2. Following that he had gone 14-0-1 claimed the Korean title and then the IBF title. Given that there were other very Super Flyweights around at the time, such as Rafael Orono, Payao Poontarat and Jiro Watanabe, Chun wasn't really regarded that highly and his title win wasn't against a notable opponent. Whilst Chun was a champion looking for respect his second challenger, Diego De Villa, was a real unknown challenger from the Philippines. He had won the Philippines national title, but that was about the best you could say or him. His record may not be fully complete but what we do know is he had double digit losses, and had been stopped a number of times before clashing with Chun for the IBF title. There really was nothing on his record to suggest he deserved a shot, or that he had any chance. In fairness to De Villa no one seemed to tell him he had no chance of winning, or of becoming a world champion. Or if they had he didn't care. He came out fighting from the opening seconds, and pressed the action from the off. He seemed to think that his big chance was jumping on Chun and pressing the action. For around 2 minutes that aggression and come forward fighting worked well for De Viilla. But he then slowed and around 150 seconds in we got the finish. Almost out of nowhere Chun landed a perfect right hand, landing flush on De Villa as he he came forward. The Filipino hit the canvas face first. He was down and out, lying almost motionless as the referee raised Chun's arm. This is certainly an obscure KO, a rather under-seen one, but a brutal, vicious one that deserves to be seen over, and over. This was genuine out of the blue, it was a thunder bolt of a shot, a single punch KO and one of those ones where the recipient was completely gone. After this De La Villa fought twice, losing both bouts. Chun would go on to make 3 more defenses, all by stoppage against very poor challengers, before he was dethroned in 1985 by Ellyas Pical, in what was another brutal KO. After that loss Chun would never be the same, going 1-2 before ending his career with a 20-4-3 (11) record. He may have been the first IBF Super Flyweight champion but he is certainly not a well remembered one. Thankfully for him he did score this truly brutal KO!
0 Comments
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 Hi Yong Choi to former Korean world title challenger Seung Soon 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-In January 1991 Hi Yong Choi won the WBA Minimumweight title, defeating fellow Korean Bong Jun Kim to win the belt. In his first defense he defeated limited, but tough, Filipino challenger Sugar Ray Mike, in what would be Mike's biggest fight, by far. 2-Of course Sugar Ray Mike isn't the only "Sugar Ray" in boxing history. There's been a host, including the legendary pairing of Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard. One other Sugar Ray who, like Mike, was from the Philippines was Sugar Ray Hynes, another very obscure Sugar Ray, but one who fought a number of top Asian fighter in the 1990's. 3-One of the notable opponents of Sugar Ray Hynes was future WBA Super Flyweight champion Hyung Chul Lee, who scored a 10th round KO win over Hynes in 1992 to move his own record to 12-4 (9) and take his next step towards getting a world title fight. 4-On February 25th 1995 Hyung Chul Lee made his only successful defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title, defeating Tomonori Tamura in Busan via 12th round TKO. The win was Lee's first bout since stopping Katsuya Onizuka for the title in September 1994, and he fought the bout with a damaged hand, having had a pain killing shot before the first bell. On the very same day Englishman Lloyd Honeyghan, former Welterweight world champion, fought for the final time, losing in 3 rounds to the then unbeaten Adrian Dodson in Millwall, England. 5-In July 1988 Lloyd Honeyghan defended his WBC Welterweight title against Korean challenger Young Kil Jung, doing so in a bout that was marred with controversy at the end with Honeyghan winning the bout on the back of a low blow against Jung. The Korean seemed to try to over-sell the low blow, and was ruled to have been unfit to continue by referee Tony Orlando. It was a strange ending to the fight, but it's fair to say that Honeyghan was bossing things against the usually durable and tough, though technically limited, Korean challenger. 6-Whilst Young Kil Jung's performance against Lloyd Honeyghan was rather embarrassing in the end, even if he did feel aggrieved to have been counted out following a ball shot, he was generally regarded as a tough, rugged fighter back home in Korea. He would also show his toughness when he returned to the US and battled Marlon Starling, lasting 12 rounds with the fantastic American. Back in Korea however it was his trilogy of bouts with Seung Soon Lee that really helped him make his name. The two men fought in 1983, 1984 and 1987 in three hotly contested and tough bouts, with Lee winning the first two and Jung winning the third. After the third bout between Chung and Lee, lee himself would get a world title bout, against Mark Breland, where he was subsequently stopped within a minute. In May 2019 we saw Japan's Ryuichi Funai (31-8, 22) fight for the final time as he faced off IBF Super Flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas. The bout was a one sided beating for Funai, who lacked the speed, tenacity and work rate to get to the Filipino, who was too quick, too sharp and far too good. Following that bout Funai retired from the sport, having achieved one of his dreams of fighting in the US.
Sadly Funai is probably better remembered for that loss than anything else in his career, but the very likeable, friendly and rather quite Funai was in fact a very solid fighter. During his 39 fight career he reached the East Japan Rookie of the Year final, won the Japanese Super Flyweight title, beat the likes of Gakuya Furuhashi, Teppei Kikui, Kenta Nakagawa, Takayuki Okumoto, Warlito Parrenas and Victor Emmanuel Olivo. In the ring Funai's style was basic, he lacked world class tools, but he still managed to earn a world title fight, a big fight in the US and a chance to fight for a world title before ending his career. Today we want to shine a light on Funai and his career as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Ryuichi Funai 1-Prior to taking up boxing Funai placed basketball at Junior High School, and didn't begin boxing until he was High School and visited the Watanabe gym. Soon afters he began to train as an amateur fighter and managed to run up a 4-4 (2) record, a less than stellar start to his career, but one that gave him something of an under-standing of the ring and how to box, before he began his professional journey in 2005. 2-Like many fighters from Tokyo, Funai spent almost his entire career fighting at the Korakuen Hall. From his 39 professional bouts, 34 took place at the Japanese "Holy Land" of boxing. The other 5 took place at the Super Arena in Saitama, the Sangyo Hall in Kanazawa, the EDION Arena Osaka, the The Ota-City General Gymnasium and the Stockton Area 3-In 2017 Funai beat Kenta Nakagawa in 7 rounds to claim the Japanese Super Flyweight title. Despite the fact the men fought each other they were actually very good, long term friends who had gone to high school together, Tokyo Metropolitan Port Technical High School, and had set up a boxing club together. Interestingly after their 2017 fight the two had agreed to go to a Ramen shop together, with the loser paying for a meal together. Unfortunately the one they had agreed to go to was closed on the day they went 4-Following his retirement from boxing Funai began to "MR. CHICKEN Chicken Restaurant", where he sold Singaporean chicken rice meals. Since then he has left that job and set up his own business, selling curry from a mobile restaurant. His specialities are "Futara Shoten" and "Keema Curry". Funai getting into the food industry really isn't much of a surprise and in 2020 he revealed that he was debating going to cooking school instead of becoming a professional boxer. He also revealed that he had trained to be a chef early in his boxing career and had a part time job in a kitchen whilst he was fighting. 5-As well as selling curry Funai is also a boxing trainer, working 3 times a week, at 3 different gyms, including the "SOETE" gym of former Watanabe Gym stable mate Akio Shibata. 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 modern day Thai icon Srisaket Sor Rungvisai to former 2-weight Korean world champion Hi Yong Choi.
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-We've all seen Srisaket Sor Rungvisai become a genuine international boxing star in recent years whilst facing some of the best Super Flyweights on the planet. Sadly much of his early career was badly handled, and he suffered a number of early when he was thrown in very deep very early on, but his development to become a multi-time world champion was incredible. As a professional he has fought out of the Nakornluang Boxing Camp and unsurprisingly he's not the only notable fighter out of the camp. Other notable fighters from the gym have included Napapol Sor Rungvisai, Suriyan Sor Rungvisai and most notably of all Veeraphol Sahaprom. 2-The career of "Death mask" Veeraphol Sahaprom was an amazing one. He was a 2-time Bantamweight champion, competed in 10 world title fights and scored notable wins over the likes of Daorung Chuwatana, Rolando Pascua, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and Toshiaki Nishioka. Sadly for him his legendary reign as the WBC Bantamweight champion, which saw him rack up 14 defenses, came to an end in 2005 after he won the title in 1998. His conqueror was the then unheralded Hozumi Hasegawa. 3-At the time of his title win Hozumi Hasegawa seemed to have been a little bit lucky, taking a razor close decision over the legendary Thai. Following that title win however he established himself as a genuine legend of the lower weights and for Japanese boxing, becoming a 3 weight world champion and recording 10 defenses of the WBC Bantamweight title. One of his most notable defenses was his victory over South African fighter Simpiwe Vetyeka. 4-When Simpiwe Vetyeka fought Hozumi Hasegawa he was 16-0 and relatively unknown, but proved what he could do as he gave Hasegawa one of his toughest bouts. In the years that followed that bout Vetyeka would go on to become a thorn in the side of Indonesian boxing beating Daud Yordan and then later ending the long reign of Indonesian legend Chris John, stopping John in Australia to claim the WBA Featherweight title. 5-From 1998 to 2013 Chris John was pretty much the face of Indonesian boxing, and was regarded as the WBA's premier champion at Featherweight for a good chunk of his career, even if the WBA did make some very odd decisions during his reign. Interestingly John was only the third Asian fighter to hold the WBA Featherweight title, following Japan's Shozo Saijo and South Korea's Young Kyun Park. 6-The all action Young Kyun Park, dubbed the "Bulldozer" in Korea, was one of the most exciting fighters of the early to mid 1990's. He was never the most technical fighter but was always an entertaining warrior who came forward and looked to force a war on his opponents. Sadly for Park he lost the WBA Featherweight title on December 4th 1993, on a show that also featured former world champion Hi Yong Choi, who claimed his 15th win by stopping Nilo Anosa. Through the history of the sport we have seen so many fighters being regarded as a sure thing, and as the next big star of the sport, but their career failed to pan out in the way many had expected. One of the most notable examples of such a fighter from Japan was Satoshi Koguchi (11-7-1, 10) who was regarded as one of the nations brightest ever talents when he turned professional in the late 1970's.
Sadly however Koguchi never delivered on his talent when he needed to, and despite turning professional with huge expectations on his shoulders he finished his career with an under-whelming record and little of note to show for his 6 years in the pro ranks. Instead his career serves as a clear reminder that no one in this sport is a sure thing, no matter how talented they are. For those who don't know much about Koguchi we're looking to change that here as we bring you 5 Midweek Factsab out Satoshi Koguchi! 1-As an amateur Koguchi was a standout fighter who recorded a then Japanese record 61 straight wins in the amateurs, a record that stood for more than 30 years and wasn't broken until Kuntae Lee in 2013, when Kuntae Lee scored a 62nd straight win in his brilliant amateur career. As an amateur Koguchi would win two national high school championships and fight at the 1978 World Amateur Championships, but was eliminated in the first round. 2-Koguchi's decision to turn professional was due to the failure of his parent's business, and the need to earn money. 3-There was real controversy over Koguchi's professional standing when he turned professional, which hindered his career. He had signed contracts with both the International Boxing Gym and the Sasazaki Boxing Gym. Which left both feeling feeling they had promotional rights to him. Sadly the contractual issues saw him having his debut delayed by around two years, in what is regarded as the "boxing version of the Egawa Incident", mirroring issues with baseball star Suguru Egawa. It seemed, when he did turn professional, some of his desire for the sport had waned. 4-When he did finally make his debut he did so with special training from former Japanese world champion Shozo Saijo and he even sparred with Carlos Zarate before making his professional debut. Sadly however he neglected road work, and reportedly lacked the attitude to become a boxing star, a preferring to smoke, drink and enjoy the company of females, rather than focusing on his boxing career. Rather interestingly his inability to focus on the sport saw him never winning any form of professional title, though he did fight for Japanese titles 3 times and scored wins over 3 future Japanese champions Tsutomu Itokazu, Tatsunari Hisahiro and Noboru Godai. 5-Following his retirement, in 1985 after losing to Takuya Muguruma, Koguchi became a trainer at the Kyoei Gym, helping train Katsuya Onizuka. He would win the Best Trainer Award in 1992 before transferring gyms in 1994 and helping Shinji Takehara to a world title. He would then go on to open up his own gym in 1996 and later lead Shingo Wake to a world title fight. Bonus Fact - Koguchi's newphew is Manabu Koguchi, the man who gave Hidenori Otake his first loss. One thing about great fights and great knockouts is that they don't need to feature the best fighters or the biggest names. In fact many of the great knockouts feature fighters who perhaps aren't well known at all. Today we get to talk about one such knockout from 2014, in fact it was one of the fights we mentioned back in 2014 as being among out KO's of the year, and it certainly wasn't a high profile KO but was still a gorgeous knockout. Kongfah CP Freshmart (7-0, 3) Vs Saengthong Chor Pakdee (0-0) In one corner was the then rising Kongfah CP Freshmart, also known as Jakkrawut Majoogoen. Kongfah was a genuinely promising young Thai, but was being matched relatively softly. He had won the WBC Youth Light Flyweight title very early in his career and made a defense of that belt, but was still very much taking on novices and local opponents to pad his record and allow him to develop his experience in the ring. On the other hand Saengthong Chor Pakdee was a total unknown, and was seemingly making his debut. Very little information is available in regards to Saengthong, and this not only appears to be his debut, but also his only professional bout. And there's a good reason for that. The first two rounds saw Kongfah taking control and like we see with many Thai prospects he looked several levels better than his foe, who was "giving it a go" but really looked over matched. Saenthong was playing his part in getting Kongfah some ring time and forced the hopeful to stay aware of shots coming back. That was until round 3 when Kongfah put his foot on the gas and began fighting with more intensity. Midway through the round Kongfah landed a gorgeous left uppercut. The shot didn't look like a big one, but Saengthong instant dropped to his knees and then flat on his face. It was as if the shot just turned the lights off on Saengthong and someone pressed the reset button. Thankfully Saengthong did sit up under his own power but looked very confused when he came to. Whilst Saengthong never fought against Kongfah is now 32-1 (16) with his only loss coming by stoppage Daigo Higa, and he is very much on the fringes of a world title fight. Enjoy one of the most under-looked, and yet visually appealing KO's of recent years.
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 Japanese world champion Koji Kobayashi to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
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-The talented Koji Kobayashi is best known for winning the WBC Flyweight title, when he beat Frank Cedeno in early 1984. His reign was however a short one losing in his first defense to Gabriel Bernal. With that loss he became the sixth successive champion to lose the belt without making a successful defense. Another man included in that unfortunate run was Mexican fighter Freddy Castillo. 2-Remarkably Freddy Castillo was only the second Mexican to win the WBC Flyweight title, which has since been won by Gabriel Bernal, Jorge Arce, Juan Hernandez and Julio Cesar Martinez. The first Mexican to win the title was a genuine legend however, and that was Miguel Canto, who ran up an amazing 14 defenses during his legendary 4 year reign between 1975 and 1979. 3-There is no denying the fact that Miguel Canto is one of the greatest Flyweights in the history of the sport. "El Maestro" was a boxing genius and a true world champion. He won the belt in Japan before defending it in Mexico, Venezuela, USA, Japan, Chile and eventually losing it in South Korea. One of the fighters he defended the belt against was Susumu Hanagata, who challenged Canto in May 1976. 4-Fight fans globally probably aren't too familiar with Susumu Hanagata, but in Japan he is a revered figure who was not just a fighter but also a gym owner and has been a major player with in the governance of the sport in Japan, working within the JBC. He is one of the most respect men in Japanese boxing and is someone who really did do it all in the sport, including winning the WBA Flyweight title. Notably he was also the last man to ever beat the legendary Masao Ohba, doing so in 1968 before losing in a rematch to Ohba in 1972. 5-Sadly Masao Ohba passed away when he was still a very young fighter, he was only 23 at the time and was the reigning WBA Flyweight champion. Now, almost 40 years after his death, he is still remembered as one of the best Japanese fighters of all time and someone who was taken far, far too early. As a result of his untimely death he is known as the "Eternal Champion". With 5 defenses of the WBA title he set a record for the title before his death that wasn't beaten until Santos Benigno Laciar's second reign in the 1980's, with Laciar later recording 9 defenses. 6-Argentina's brilliant Santos Benigno Laciar held the WBA Flyweight title twice in the 1980's, losing the belt in his first defense the first time around before recapturing the title and recording 9 defenses between 1982 and 1985. He then moved up in weight and won the WBC Super Flyweight, a title later held by Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Between 1995 and 2004 Japanese puncher Junichi Watanabe (29-5, 20) was putting on some of the most exciting bouts in Japanese rings. Win or lose the man originally from Yamanashi was able to generate real excitement in the ring whilst making a name for himself at both Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight.
To international fans Watanabe might now be a well known fighter but in Japan he was certainly a popular fighter thanks to his unique look, his heavy hands and his rather questionable chin. In fact it was his durability that caused him to suffer 3 of his 5 defeats. Despite those losses he managed to score plenty of notable wins himself, claiming the Japanese Super Bantamweight title in 2001, with a win over Setsuo Segawa, which he subsequently defended 6 times before losing the in 2003 to Yoshikane Nakajima. This week we're going to share some facts on Watanabe as we bring you 5 Midweek facts about Junichi Watanabe 1-Watanabe's boxingnick name was the rather unique, and genuinely brilliant, "Golden Wolf". The nickname was due to how he looked, with his blonde hair and ponytail. 2-Although never an amazing boxer Watanabe had a much feared straight left hand, which was known for it's genuine potency. Whilst he never showed in any sort of major international bout, the power well known about in Japan and that was shown very clearly in September 1998 when he dropped future world champion Toshiaki Nishioka with a single left hand in the opening minute of their bout! Sadly for Watanabe he couldn't finish off Nishioka who recovered and stopped him in the very next round. 3-After winning bouts and doing an in ring interview Watanabe would often sign off by thanking fans and then telling them to drink a beer on their way home. Often adding that it's cold weather and that he thought the fight would have warmed them up. 4-After retiring from in ring activity, following his loss to former WBA Super Bantamweight champion Yober Ortega in 2004, Watanabe went on to become a cook 5-The fighter shares his name with a now deceadedJapanese author. The Junichi Watanabe who was a writer wrote most a lot about extra marital affairs, and his 1997 novel "A Lost Paradise became a best seller in 1997. He was also the winner of the prestigious Naoki Prize in 1970. Sadly the writer passed away in 2014, aged 80, after a battle with cancer. 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 legendary Filipino fighter Flash Elorde to former Japanese world champion Koji Kobayashi.
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-Gabriel "Flash" Elorde is one of the most legendary Filipino fighters ever and his career, which span from 1951 to 1971, saw him win national, oriental and world titles and earn a place in both the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF). Interestingly he was part of the "Class of 1993" when it came to the IBHOF, alongside 4 other greats including "Marvellous" Marvin Hagler. 2-Whilst Marvin Hagler did sadly pass away earlier this year, aged 66, there is no denying that he will live in the minds of boxing fans and his amazing career will out last all of us. He is one of the all time greats and will always be regarded as one of the best ever at Middleweight. Hagler's incredible Middleweight title reign began on September 27th 1980 and ran until 1987, when he lost a split decision to Sugar Ray Leonard. During his reign he scored 2 wins against Venezuelan fighter Fulgencio Obelmejias. 3-Although not a legend, like Hagler and Elorde, Fulgencio Obelmejias is certainly a fighter worthy of attention, something that he rarely seems to get now a days. The hardhitting man from San Jose de Rio Chico, went to the 1976 Olympics and went on to win the WBA Super Middleweight title in 1988, dethroning Chong Pal Park before losing the belt to In Chul Baek. Rather notably he was actually forced to retire from the sport in 1993 due to Venezeulan law, with the law at the time requiring fighters to retire at the age of 40. This same law also forced Luis Estaba to retire in 1978. 4-Between 1967 and 1978 Luis Estaba really bucked a lot of trends that we expect from little men fighters. For example he turned professional aged 28, when most little men are starting to show cracks, he didn't fight for a world title until he was 37, beating debutant Rafael Lovera for the WBC Light Flyweight title in 1975, and he was still competing at the top aged 40. During his career he recorded 11 defenses of the WBC Light Flyweight title. Only one of Estaba's defenses took place away from Venezuela and that was his first defense, when he stopped Takenobu Shimabukuro in Japan. 5-It's fair to say that Takenobu Shimabukuro is among the most obscure Japanese fighters to ever challenge for a world title. He lacked wins of real note, had lost 4 of his previous 6 coming into this bout and had never even won a Japanese title before getting a world title shot at Estaba. Although he failed to win a Japanese title, he did fight for one, losing to Jiro Takada in 1974. 6-Japan's Jiro Takada was a much more recognisable name in the 1970's and 80's than Shimabukuro. He not only won the Japanese Flyweight title, which he did by beating Shimabukuro, but also won the OPBF Flyweight title and challenged for a world title twice himself, losing to Miguel Canto and Guty Espadas in bouts for the WBC and WBA Flyweight titles respectively. Yakada's final bout against a fellow Japanese fighter came against future world champion Koji Kobayashi, who won the WBC Flyweight title in 1984. In recent years we have seen Japanese fighters regularly move from being top domestic amateurs into top professionals, with the likes of Naoya Inoue and Kazuto Ioka being tow of the many examples. Sadly that's not always been the case and some of the best amateursJapan has had haven't made as big of a mark on the professional ranks as we, and many others, had anticipated. One such example is Akihiko Nago (31-8-2, 14), who was tipped for stardom when he turned professional but never managed to reach the heady heights expected of him. Fighting between 1995 and 2013 Nago was always a talented fighter, but an inconsistent one, lacking focus at times when he really needed it. In just his 11th bout Nago won the Japanese Super Flyweight title, and defended it twice including a notable win over Keiji Yamaguchi. Sadly however losses to Hideki Todaka and Masamori Tokuyama in world title fights ended his hopes of winning a world title. Subsequent losses to Amorn Longsiriphoom, in a massive upset, Yokthai Sithoar, Yasuo Kijima, Katsuyuki Takayoshi, Juan Jose Beltran and Takamomi Abe littered the latter part of his career. That was despite scoring decent wins over Setsuo Segawa, Hidenonbu Honda. Today we're going to shine a little bit of a light on Nago's time in the sport as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Akihiko Nago. 1-Nago graduated from the Konan High School, which was the same school as several other notable bothers, including Flipper Uehara, Yoko Gushiken and Puma Taguchi, as well as Shigeji Nakaima, who's better known for his work as a boxing promoter rather than an active fighter. Interestingly Nago would actually be promoted by Gushiken early in his career, only leaving the Shirai Gushiken gym after his loss in to Masamori Tokuyama in December 2000. 2-Prior to turning professional in 1995, as a teenager, Nago had gone 48-6 (27) in the amateurs and won the Interscholastic and the National Athletic meet. That amateur success saw him turning professional with a lot of expectation and hype, with many viewing him as a future star of Japanese boxing. 3-At the time of writing Boxrec is missing a bout that Nago had in July 1999. That bout, which took place as a tune of up for Nago ahead of his bout Hideki Todaka, saw Nago score a 3rd round win over Jun Magsipoc. Interestingly however Boxrec do have a bout for Magsipoc dated July 23rd 1999 against Jerry Pahayahay. 4-Nago's ring walk music was "Victory Song" by the Diamantes. The band are a Latin band from Okinawa and the song can be head below, with the video of the song being included at the end of this article.. 5-Nago had planned a return to the ring, to take on Masashi Noguchi at Korakeun Hall, on September 24th 2016. He would have been edging towards his 40th birthday had the bout gone ahead and had been out of the ring for close to 3 years. The fight ended up being called late on due to Nago suffering an injury and Noguchi instead took on late replacement Jitti Boonsamsan. |
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
February 2022
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
