Every so often when we do some other article we stumble on a fighter that ends up interesting us. Recently one such fighter was former Japanese champion and former world title challenger Hiroaki Yokota (30-5-2, 16) who fought between 1979 and 2007.
Although not a big name, by any stretch, he is a genuine interesting fighter who achieved a significant amount during his career and set a number of records whilst also being involved in some thrilling bouts. With that said let us bring you five Mid week Facts about Hiroaki Yokota 1-Yokota began his professional career in 1979 as a 17 year old and retired that same year, after losing to Yoshiyuki Uchikoshi. At that point he was 3-1 (1). He would, however, return to the sport in 1987 and begin a much, much more successful run in the sport, which included winning the Japanese Super Bantamweight title and fighting for the WBA Super Bantamweight title. 2-During his return from his first retirement Yokota worked as a branch manage of a company called ARTNATURE. Despite the name suggesting the company did something to do with nature or artwork, they are actually a company who manufacture and sell wigs! 3-That world title fight, which saw Yokota lose a very competitive decision to Wilfredo Vazquez, saw Yokota set a then record as the oldest Japanese fight to challenge for a world title. At the time he was just 32 years old and was younger than the 33 year old champion! 4-In 1995 Yakota retired for the second time, and in 1996 he opened up the Yokota Sports Gym, with the intention of teaching the younger generation. This second retirement didn't last long, and he was fighting again in 1998, before retiring for the third time at the age of 37, due to the JBC rules. He would then petition the JBC, asking for them to revise their retirement age rules and was finally allowed to fight again in 2004, at the age of 43. He would then fight for the final time in 2007, at the age of 45. Unsurprisingly he set records such as the oldest Japanese fighter to win a bout, score a KO and to take part in a bout during this late career run of his. 5-During Yokota's late career run the Yokota Boxing gym was essentially owned by Yokota's brother due to the JBC rules on a fighter not being allowed to have other boxing licenses. Despite that Yokota himself was the de facto manager of the gym. Bonus fact - According to the amazing Boxinglib.com run by the fantastic Seki-chan, there is a mistake on Yokota's boxrec. His second bout with Shigeru Okabe was only an 8 rounder and not a 10 rounder as shown on Boxrec!
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A few months ago whilst enjoying a binge of random fights we came across a number of bouts featuring long forgotten Japanese based Kenyan Isaiah Ikhoni, who is listed on boxrec as Isaya Ikhoni (14-2, 10). Ikhoni had a short but thrilling career in the early part of the 1980's with some genuine tear ups on the Japanese scene. Although his career never saw him make his way to world title bouts, despite being very close to one when his career finished, he was in some absolutely enthralling bouts, and his 1 round war with Hiroshi Osumi is a must watch for fans who enjoy pure shoot outs. Given how much we enjoyed watching Ikhoni we thought we'd try to shine a light on his career and feature him in one of these weekly fact pieces. Given his style and his thrilling bouts we expected this to be one of the easier facts pieces, though surprisingly the former Japanese Super Featherweight champion isn't the easiest of men to get information about. Despite that, we think we've managed to come up with 5 facts that are worth sharing, and of course we've included the bout with Osumi at the end of this article. 1-As an amateur Ikhoni reportedly fought in more than 100 amateur bouts. Whilst his full record is unknown it's known that he on the 1980 Golden Cup of Kenya, came runner up in the 1980's King's Cup in Thailand and won the President's Cup in 1981, in the Philippines. 2-Ikhoni was the first international boxer to join the Yonekura Gym. The Gym, at the time one of the most prestigious in Japan, re-named him Yonekura Ikhoni, and he would only actually fight as Isaya Ikhoni very later in his professional career. 3-In 1985 the hugely popular Hidekazu Akai was forced to retire due to a bleed on the brain. Following Akai's injury boxers in Japan were required to under-go CT scans, and a number of those scanned showed irregularities including Ikhoni who was pretty forced to retire from boxing in Japan as a result. He originally wanted to fight on but was talked out of it by the chairman of the Yonekura gym, who explained that life was more important than fighting. Following his retirement he worked as a trainer at the Yonekura gym. 4-At the time of his retirement Ikhoni was world ranked and seemed on the verge of a world title fight. He had climbed into the rankings on the back of 8 straight wins, including 5 defenses of the Japanese Super Featherweight title. Those 5 defenses saw him tying second, at the time, for the most defenses of the belt 5-As of 2020 Ikhoni was still involved in boxing, and was helping bring through a new generation of fighters in Kenya, where he played a part in the 2020 National Novices Boxing Championships. Japanese Middleweights don't tend to make much of a mark on world level, and even the ones that do tend to do little more than make themselves a footnote in history. One such fight was the heavy handed Teiken hopeful Koji Sato (20-2, 18).
Sato had built a reputation in Japan and Asia from his days as an amateur, where reported very impressive numbers. That reputation had seen Teiken get very excited about him when he decided to turn professional and in 2005 he began a short, but genuinely thrilling, professional career. It was a career that saw him fighting in Las Vegas, have in a world title fight in Germany against Felix Sturm and compete in a sensational 9 round OPBF/JBC title unification bout with Makoto Fuchigami, a bout that everyone should watch! Today we're not here break down the ups and down of Sato's career, but instead take the chance to bring you the latest in our 5 Midweek facts series, as we look at Koji Sato. 1-Koji Sato shares his name with several notable figures. These include a renowned amateur photographer, who lived from 1911 to 1955 and has his photography included in the collections of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Whilst another Koji Sato is an incredibly influential Constitutionalist born in 1937. This Koji Sato has helped reform the Japanese judicial system and has been a massively significant figure in Japanese law, making a massive mark since the 1980's! 2-Unlike many Japanese fighters Sato didn't actually make his professional debut in Japan. Instead he debuted in Las Vegas in April 2005, stopping Francisco Valdez in just 56 seconds. That was one of only two bouts that Sato had outside of his homeland, with the other being his 2009 loss in Germany to the then WBA Middleweight champion Felix Sturm. 3-As a professional Sato faced fighters from 7 countries. These were: Japan (8 times) Korea (6) Indonesia (3) Mexico (2) USA, Australia, Germany (1) 4-Following his retirement from the ring Sato worked for a real estate company, a luxury cruise ship company and a bodyguard for celebrities. 5-Amazingly Sato made a return to boxing in 2019, returning to the amateur ranks at the age of 38. This return came more than 7 years after his final professional bout and more than 14 years after his previous amateur bout. The hope had been for him to qualify for the 2020 Olympics. Sadly for Sato his return was for nought, not because of the Olympic being delayed but because he lost in the 2019 All Japan Championships. We believe, although it's hard to confirm, that that was just his 4th loss to a Japanese opponent in the amateur ranks, where he purportedly went 133-3 (101), won 13 domestic titles and scored a RSC win over Ryota Murata before his ill fated return. Sadly though his full amateur record is unknown with only his domestic records counting towards that record. Still 100 stoppages in the amateurs is rather staggering! Bonus fact - Sato was given the nickname the "Asian Cannon" Japanese Middleweights rarely have success on the international stage and rarely even get a chance to show what they can do internationally. One of the few who did manage to do that in recent memory was the well liked and popular warrior Makoto Fuchigami (23-12, 14) who famously fought Gennadiy Golvokin in a WBA world title fight in 2012, in Ukraine. Unsurprisingly Fuchigami came up very short to Golovkin but still managed to make himself a footnote on the global scene at the weight.
For many fans in the west the bout with Golovkin is the only time Fuchigami did anything of note. In reality however he had a genuinely notable career winning the East Japan Rookie of the Year, the All Japan Rookie of the Year, the Strongest Korakuen, the Japanese Middleweight, unifying that title with the OPBF title and being a 2-time OPBF champion. His record isn't the most spectacular but his "zigzag" career, as he described it in an interview with Boxmob, was certainly a great one to follow and featured a surprising number of fantastic bouts. They include his incredible wars with Koji Sato and Tomohiro Ebisu, both of which are worth a watch any day of the week. Today we want to splash a bit more light on Fuchigami, his career, and his time as a boxer as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Makoto Fuchigami. 1-As an amateur Fuchigami went a less than stellar 5-7, a disappointing record by any measure despite winning a Kagoshima prefectural tournament. Despite that he had genuine success in the professional ranks, and as mentioned in the introduction even managed to earn a world title fight with Gennadiy Golovkin. 2-The Oishi Sake Brewery Co. in Japan sold Shochu, a type of Japanese alcoholic spirit, with Fuchigami's name on the label. The product was sold in part to help support Fuchigami and also to help raise funds for the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, with 100yen from each sale being donated to the areas affected by the earthquake. The drink was 40% ABV and was sold in bottles of 720ml for a price of 1,770yen. 3-In 2011 Fuchigami married a triathlete. Although her wasn't freely available it is known that she was aiming to win the Under 23 World Championships and that she had competed in the Junior World Championships. 4-Fuchigami's nickname, and one that he still goes by, was "Satsuma kongu", which literally translates as "Satsuma Kong". We have asked for an explanation of this but sadly never got one, so we're assuming he just really likes oranges! However it appears that his favourite food is bananas which makes things even more confusing! 5-After retiring from in ring competition Fuchigami went on to become the chairman of the "18 Furukawa Boxing Gym", which is a gym in Furukawa Citya, Miyagi Prefecture. He took over that role in 2019. Boxing has a lot of unlucky fighters, and one of the big parts of professional boxing is luck. One such example of a fighter lacking luck when he needed it was Thailand's fantastic Thanomsak Sithbaobay (56-6, 33) who fought between 1985 and 1996, with a one off comeback bout in 1998 when he was 33.
The talented Thai had success at Flyweight, Super Flyweight and Bantamweight during his 62 fight professional career though sadly came up short in 3 world title fights, losing all 3 by close and competitive decision. Despite being a genuinely talented fighter he has, in recent years, become very much a forgotten man who doesn't get spoken about much, other than fans remember his lack of luck when he needed it. During his long career Thanomsak fought the likes of Soon Jung Kang, Kenji Matsumura, Frank Cedeno, Torsak Pongsupa, Luisito Espinosa, Katsuya Onizuka - twice, Rolando Pascua and Sirimongkol Singwancha and managed to win both OPBF and Thai national titles, though a world title repeatedly eluded him. Today we're not here for a career synopsis on one of the least fortunate Thai's of all time, but instead to shine a small light on him as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Thanomsak Sithbaobay. 1-Although best known as Thanomsak Sithbaobay it should be little surprise to learn that was not birth name, that was Tanom Kongsankam. Like many Thai's also fought under other names, and these were Khaoyai Mahasarakham, Khaoyai Pitsanurachan and Thalerngsak Sithbaobay 2-The talented Thanomsak was the 20th Thai fighter to hold an OPBF title, holding the OPBF Flyweight title from October 1986 to May 1987. During that time he made just a single defense of the title. Interestingly he was only the second Thai to win the OPBF Flyweight title, following in the footsteps of Pone Kingpetch, who had won the belt in 1957 and lost it in 1958, when it was still known as the OBF title. 3-In 1992 when Thanomsak lost to Katsuya Onizuka in a bout for the vacant WBA Super Flyweight title, in the first of two bouts between the men, the Japanese fans regarded the result as a suspicious decision, calling out the judges who had given the bout to the local favourite. This isn't a one off in Japan, but was still very notable at the time with Onizuka being a hugely popular fighter in Japan. Despite the questionable decision not a single judge for either of Thanomsak Vs Onizuka bouts was Japanese 4-Although best remembered for losing 3 times in close decisions in world title bouts, a feat that saw him being dubbed an "unlucky" boxer in Thailand it's even more remarkable that his record outside of Thailand was 0-4, with all 4 losses coming in Japan. Two of those losses came to Onizuka in WBA Super Flyweight title bouts, the others came to Kenji Matsumura, when Thanomsak lost the OPBF Flyweight title, and the final one came in Thanomsak's ill fated 1998 comeback, when he was stopped by Tetsutora Senrima. 5-Professional wrestler Makoto Hatori took his wrestling name, Tanomusaku Toba, from Thanomsak. Fight fans who have any idea at all about boxing from the lower weights will be aware of Naoya Inoue, the multi-weight Japanese world champion who has helped put Japanese boxing on the map, in a big way, in recent years. What may know is that Inoue, as a professional has only faced Japanese fighters 3 times in his career. Two of those are notable fighters, Kohei Kono, a former 2-time world champion, and Ryoichi Taguchi, who went on to unify titles at 108lbs after Inoue beat him.
The third is Yuki Sano (17-3-5, 12), a much less well known fighter who Inoue beat in April 2013, in what was the Monster's third professional bout and his first one to get live TV coverage, courtesy of Fuji TV. With Sano being such a low profile fighter we thought he'd be the perfect fighter to look at and shine a light on in our latest 5 Midweeks fact series. 1-Sano has B type blood. In Japanese blood theory this means he is thought to be selfish and uncooperative but also creative and passionate. Typically the blood type is also linked to being honest and easy going, though will share their opinions and not care too much about whether they hurt people or not. 2-Reportedly Sano began boxing in 5th grade and turned professional after having had around 70 amateur bouts, which explains why he skipped the 4 round bouts we typically see from Japanese fighters. 3-Sano was actually higher ranked by the JBC going into his 2013 bout with Naoya Inoue. Going into the bout Inoue was ranked #5 by the JBC whilst Sano was ranked #1. Despite that Inoue was the clear favourite, and those who had followed Inoue from his amateur days were very confident that the then 20 year old would overcome the 31 year old Sano. Interestingly his bout with Inoue would be the only time Sano was stopped in his 25 fight professional. After that bout Sano left a warning to fellow fighters, stating "Everyone has to fight Inoue now. Next year, next year, it will be even harder." Notably he had been out of the ring for almost a year prior to facing Inoue, that was due to suffering from cataracts. 4-Sano took part in his retirement ceremony on March 30th 2014 at the Aioi Hall. As part of that ceremony he sparred with the then IBF Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama, who gave Sano an IBF T-shirt. Interestingly this took place a week before Inoue beat Adrian Hernandez to become the WBC Light Flyweight champion. 5-Following his retirement from the sport Sano went on to become a trainer at the Matsuda Gym, the same Gym that he fought for as a professional fighter. Bonus fact! During his career Sano was a popular sparring partner for a who’s who of Japanese fighters. Among those sparred with were Kazuto Ioka, Ryo Miyazaki and Katsunari Takayama. When we talk about relatively forgotten recent fighters Japanese Light Flyweight Yuki Chinen (14-2, 7) rarely gets mentioned, despite being a genuine notable Japanese fighter between 2008 and 2014. With him being a bit of a forgotten fighter we felt he was the perfect fighter to shine a little bit of a light on. With that in mind let us bring you 5 mid weeks facts about Yuki Chinen.
1-Before turning to boxing Chinen worked for a used car company, which was run by his father. It was due to the free time he had at work that he actually walked into the Ryukyu Gym, where he began to box. 2-Chinen took up the sport to kill time and even when he was making a bit of a name for himself he wasn't looking to win titles. In fact when he achieved his crowing success, winning the All Japan Rookie of the Year in 2009, he still didn't have any desire to win titles, something that was regarded as unique by his then trainer. After winning Rookie of the Year Chinen was actually unsure if he even wanted to continue being a professional fighter, which was also rather peculiar. 3-Early in his career Chinen was dubbed "Gushiken II". In part that was due to Chinen fighting at Light Flyweight, the same division that Yoko Gushiken made his name at in his prime and partly due to the fact Chinen was fighting out of Okinawa. 4-On April 3rd 2013 Chinen clashed with Ryoichi Taguchi for the Japanese Light Flyweight title, at Dangan 69. Going into the fight the two men were both world ranked, with Taguchi ranked #6 and Chinen ranked #14. Going into that bout the winner knew they'd have to defend the belt against the winner of a bout between Naoya Inoue and Yuki Sano, who clashed less than 2 weeks later. Interestingly Chinen is also on of the very, very few fighters that Taguchi fought who was actually taller than him! 5-Chinen was 12-0 in bouts scheduled for fewer than 10 rounds, and went 2-2 in bouts for 10. Though in fairness his two losses did both come to future world champions. The first of those was the aforementioned Ryoichi Taguchi and the second was Yu Kimura. Incidentally they both came in Japanese title fighters, and it meant that Chinen never did manage to win a title belt during his career. We all like knockouts and we all love watching a punching in action, and for this week's mid-week fact article we've decided to look at a true KO artist from the Japanese domestic scene! The man in question is former Japanese Middleweight champion Tomohiro Ebisu (17-5, 17), who never needed the judges to help him get a win as 17 of his professional wins were by stoppage. His career was relatively short, running from 2008 to 2017, but it was a thrilling one, whether Ebisu was winning or losing! With that introduction out of the way here we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Tomohiro Ebisu! 1-As an amateur Ebisu went 17-7 (10), and won a National Sports title in 2006. The enxt major achievement of his career was winning the All Japan Rookie of the Year in 2009. 2-During his in ring career Ebisu was not just fighting out of the Yokohama Hikari Gym but working there too! He was there working as a fitness instructor at the gym. 3-On December 24th 2016 Ebisu became the first, and so far only, man to hold the interim version of the Japanese Middleweight title, thanks to a thrilling win over Makoto Fuchigami. For fans wanting to enjoy a fantastic fight we've included this below thanks to A-Sign Boxing. 4-Ebisu's retirement came in the same month as fellow Yokohama Hikari Gym fight fighter Daiki Kaneko, who has previously challenged Takashi Uchiyama. This saw Ebisu and Kaneko both hanging up the gloves in September 2017. 5-Due to Ebisu's power and weak chin his first 21 bouts all ended early, with 17 wins by stoppage and 4 losses by stoppage. In total those 21 bouts lasted just 77 rounds, around 3.6 rounds each. Amazingly he only went the distance in his final career bout, a decision loss to Hikaru Nishida in 2017 in a Japanese Middleweight title bout. Amazingly 12 of his 22 career bouts never even got beyond round 3 When we discuss the most talented Filipino fighters of the last couple of decades to never win a world title then we need to mention Z Gorres (31-2-2, 17), a talented yet tragic figure in the world of boxing.
Gorres is probably best known for one of 3 fights. His close and controversial loss to Fernando Montiel, his controversial draw with Vic Darchinyan and his career ending bout with Luis Melendez. At one point he was part of a very promising trio from ALA, alongside Rey Bautista and AJ Banal, and was the most talented of the trio. Sadly though he, like the other two, failed to win a world title. We're not here fo a biography however and instead we're here to bring you 5 Midweek facts about Z Gorres! 1-Gorres fought in the US 5 times, winning all 5 of those bouts. The first of those saw him knocking out Glenn Donaire, the brother of Nonito Donaire, inside a round and another was a TKO win over former world champion Eric Lopez. The final US bout was his tragic win over Luis Melendez, which ended with Gorres collapsing and later suffering a career ending brain injury. 2-Gorres' brother, Jun Gorres, was stabbed in a street fight, and sadly passed away from the injuries he suffered. Jun in his early 30's and had been a former boxer himself, running up a good record of 25-3-1 (22). 3-After his career ending injury Gorres' medical costs at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas reportedly went over $600,000. This actually lead to legal students pushing for more insurance for fighters, who suffer injuries in the ring. At the time it happened the insurance only covered up to $50,000. 4-In 2010, at the 28th Cebu Sports Awards, Gorres received the Presidential Award. He shocked the other attendees by climbing out of his wheel chair to receive the award. Antonio Lopez Aldeguer, stated that he had a 5 page script that he hoped to read to inspire the audience but admitted that he couldn't inspire in the way that Gorres, getting to his feet at the event had. 5-Gorres got divorced in 2015, something he described in 2018 as being difficult in an interview with Spin.PH. For this week's fact piece we've decided take a look at the often forgotten Michael Domingo (42-18-3, 23), a talented, highly capable Filipino who's record really isn't an accurate reflection of his talent and ability. Like many Filipino fighters he was given tough fights early on, had to travel for bouts and fought on short notice, resulting in a lot of early losses. Despite that he carved out a very solid career that saw him coming within touching distance of a world title fight before his career came to an end.
Dubbed "Bruce Lee" the skilled Domingo fought between 1999 and 2012 shared the ring with a number of notable names. Among those were the likes of Jimrex Jaca, Sod Looknongyangtoy, Somsak Sithchatchawal, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, Rolly Lunas, Miguel Roman, Jose Navarro and Vusi Malinga. Although not the biggest name in Filipino boxing he will go down as one of the country's most over-looked fighters and a man who deserves a lot more attention and time. With that in mind lets take a look at some mid-week facts around Domingo! 1-During his in ring career Domingo was a well travelled fighter. He not only fought in the Philippines but also Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, France, the USA and South Africa. His form on the road was rather startling and mixed. In Thailand he went win-less, going 0-5, in Japan he was was also win-less, going 0-5-1, whilst in France and South Africa he went 0-1. Yet he was unbeaten in South Korea, 2-0, Indonesia 3-0, and the US, 1-0 2-Domingo fought on his 24th birthday! Not only did he fight on his birthday, on August 23rd 2003, but he also took a win, scoring a 3rd round KO win over the previously unbeaten Jake Verano. 3-Unlike most fighters who move up through the weights Domingo actually moved down the weights, quite significantly in fact. His debut was at Lightweight, and just 4 months later he had dropped 18lbs and was fighting at Bantamweight, which was arguably the weight he was best suited at. Sadly though the talented Filipino struggled to get regular Bantamweight fights and would regularly fight at Super Bantamweight in his prime, including his career defining upset win over Miguel Roman in 2007. 4-Following his retirement from in ring competition Domingo went on to become a trainer at the ALA Gym. Among the fighters he was responsible for included Merlito Sabillo and Jimmy Paypa. 5-The Domingo name lives on in the sport with Michael's nephew Esneth Domingo being a very promising youngster himself. Extra Fact - In 2008 Domingo had a bout with world ranked fighter Nestor Rocha called off after having a test showing he had Hepatitis B. He would be cleared to fight again just a few months later when he was tested in the Philippines. The result of Domingo being pulled from that bout saw Rocha take a win over journeyman Oscar Andrade before getting a WBC world title fight with Hozumi Hasegawa in 2009. |
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