One of the most notable gym's in Japan in recent years is the Watanabe Gym, a successful and well established gym in Tokyo which has created a number of champions at every of the sport.
Whilst we expect many fans have seen Watanabe gym fighters in action, and have likely seen the Watanabe gym logo, there is a lot to the gym. So here are some facts about the gym in Gotanda, as we cover the Watanabe in our latest "Did you know...?" -The gym was set up by former fighter Hitoshi Watanabe, who boxrec list as having gone 8-5-2 as a fighter in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Mr Watanabe was a Middleweight and reached a #3 ranking on the Japanese domestic scene before retiring. -The gym was founded in July 1981 -The first fighter from the gym to win a title of any kind was Hiroyuki Yoshino, who won the Japanese Welterweight title in 1988. -The first fighter from the gym to challenge for a world title was Kimio Hirano in 1991, who faced the sensational Ricardo Lopez. The bout, at the Kusanagi Gymnasium, Shizuoka, saw Lopez stop Hirano in the 8th round. -The gym's first world champion was a female fighter! That was Naomi Togashi, who won the WBC "interim" female Light Flyweight title in 2008 and was later upgraded to the full champion. The first man from the gym to win a world came in 2010, when Takashi Uchiyama won the WBA Super Featherweight title. -The gym has a relationship with TV. It has had it's fighters featuring on TV Asahi, NTV, Sky A Sports +, TV Tokyo and most recently TBS. Of those only really their on going relationship with TBS is in place, though their fighters do appear on some G+ cards. -In total the gym has created 7 world champions. These include not only Togashi and Uchiyama but also Kohei Kono, Ryoichi Taguchi, Hiroto Kyoguchi, Yunoka Furukawa and Kayoko Ebata. -In 2010, when Takashi Uchiyama became the WBA Super Featherweight champion, the gym became the first Japanese gym to have had both a male and female world champion. Since then Ohashi, Shirai Gushiken and Shinsei have also managed to have both make and female world champions. -The gym was the second gym in Japan to have guided multiple women to world titles, following on from Futur gym. -The gym hosts shows under the "Watanabe Family" moniker, which features the Wtanabe gym fighters along with fighters from gyms run by former Watanabe gym fighters. These include the EBISU K's Box gym, TEAM 10 COUNT and RK Boxing Gym. These gyms really show how well established Watanabe are to have had multiple fighters from the gym setting up their gyms after retirement.
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With a host of big Heavyweight bouts coming up in the next few months, and a huge one this weekend, we thought this week's "Did You Know" should concern a Heavyweight bout, and why not go back to one of the first Heavyweight title bouts held in Japan! With that in mind we decided to look at 1973's clash between Heavyweight champion George Foreman and Puerto Rican born challenger Jose Roman, which took place at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. -Foreman won the bout in the opening round, to record his first defense of the WBA and WBC Heavyweight titles. -The bout came after a 7 month lay off for Foreman, the longest of his career up to this point, though no where near the 10 year lay off he had from 1977 to 1987. -The fight was the first ever World Heavyweight title bout held in Japan, and would be the only one held there until Mike Tyson stopped Tony Tubbs in 1988! -The bout was shown on NET TV in Japan. This channel was the renamed Nihon Educational Television. In the years since the bout the channel has been renamed several times, and is now known as TV Asahi. -Foreman's purse for the fight was $1,000,000, that was 10 times bigger than Roman's purse of $100,000 -It was the third time Roman had faced an opponent called "George" after wins over George Ford and George George Holden. In the years that followed Roman would go on to beat George Jerome, twice, leaving his record against George's at 4-1 (3) -It took almost 15 years for the next round 1 T/KO defense of the Heavyweight titles, with Mike Tyson stopping Michael Spinks inside a round in 1988. In the time between the bouts James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Michael Dokes had both managed to claim the WBA title inside a round, but there hadn't been an opening round blow out defense. -On a similar note this was the first time the titles had been defended in the opening round since Muhammad Ali's controversial second bout with Sonny Liston -Roman entered the bout as the #9 ranked challenger by both the WBC and the WBA. -This was Roman's only world title fight and his only fight in Asia. More remarkably he was the first Puerto Rican to challenge for a world title! -On the under-card Ricardo Arredondo stopped Morito Kashiwaba to retain the WBC Super Featherweight title. This was Arredondo's fifth bout in Japan, the country that he won the title in in 1971. He would return to the country twice more and lose in both of those there, making this his final win in Japan. -Foreman would return to Japan more than 20 years later, beating Crawford Grimsley of the IBA Heavyweight title. This bout, the Grimsely one, was a bout that didn't take place under the auspices of the JBC but instead the ill fated IBF Japan, hence it being listed as an "unsanctioned show" On February 11th 1990 the sport of boxing got one of the biggest upsets in history, as the supposedly invincible Mike Tyson came un-done and was stopped by the unheralded James "Buster" Douglas. The bout is one that every fan knows about and most fans have seen, numerous times. It's a bout that has been debated, due to a supposed long count, for years, and it's still a bout that gets brought up regularly in conversation.
Whilst the bout is famous, to say the least, there are a lot of details that are under-reported, with so much focus on the betting upset and the behind the scenes stuff with both fighters. We all know that Douglas's mother died in the build up to the fight whilst Tyson was going through his messy break up with Robin Givens, with the two finalising their divorce in 1989. So today's "Did you know" looks at some details of Tyson Vs Douglas that fans may not be aware of, or may have forgotten. -The bout was actually sold under the banner "Tyson is Back!" -The fight was the second time Tyson had headlined at the massive Tokyo Dome, where he had beaten Tony Tubbs in 1988. As we write this this was actually the last boxing event at the Tokyo Dome, most 30 years ago! Though there is now talk of the venue being used to stage a potential Ryota Murata fight. -On the under-card were two future world champions, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and Eloy Rojas. -As well as the future world champions the card also featured a trio of world title challengers. Yuichi Hosono, a future 3 time world title challenger, Hitoshi Kamiyama and Noree Jockey Gym, who both challenged for titles once. -On the subject of the under-card and Noree Jockey Gym the show featured Noree's rematch with Naoto Takahashi. The bout failed to live up their thrilling first bout, which had taken place 9 months earlier, and was the start of the end for Takahashi. -This was the only time Douglas, who fought more than 40 times as a pro, would have a professional bout outside of the USA. -According to Compubox Tyson threw just 214 punches by the time was stopped. Given we were almost half way through round 10 this works out as less than 23 punches a round. Douglas on the other hand had thrown 441 punches, and landed more than Tyson had actually thrown! -Although regarded as a ridiculous under-dog Douglas was ranked in the top 5 by the IBF (#2), WBC (#3) and WBA (#4). He was a top contender, though was regarded as such an under-dog to Tyson's destructive reign. -Two of the three judges were Japanese, and both seemed to give Tyson the benefit of the doubt where they could, the third official, American Larry Rozadilla, was the only judge to have Douglas winning. The rise of Naoya Inoue has been one of the most significant talking points in world boxing the last few years, with Monster taking the boxing world by storm and becoming a 3-weight world champion in the space of just a few years. His success, along with that of his younger brother Takuma Inoue and their cousin Koki Inoue, has been remarkable and it's all been spearheaded by their trainer, Shingo Inoue.
Whilst most fans who have followed the rise of the Inoue clan will be aware of Shingo there is a lot that probably isn't know about the patriach of the Inoue family. So today we'll take a look at Shingo Inoue as he features in our "Did you know..." series. -Shingo's parents divorced when he was in elementary and he was brought up by his mother -Shingo was just 19 years old when he got married. He and his wife have now been married for close to 30 years and have 3 children, the eldest of which is a daughter, then there's Naoya then Takuma. -Although best known by fight fans as a boxing trainer Inoue is also the head of Meisei Paint Co., Ltd., who are a painting company based in Zama city. -Shingo has revealed that Naoya wanted to become a boxer after seeing Shingo himself training at home. At the time Naoya was 6 years old. -Whilst Shingo didn't turn professional did have a short amateur career, reportedly running up a 2-0 record. He didn't have the time to turn professional or do much gym work, due to his painting company. -Takahiro Shiraishi, a tenant at a condo that Shingo owned but didn't manage, killed 9 people in what was a massive news story. For those interested in more details on this Gabe Oppenheim did an interesting feature on it last year. -In 2015 Shingo became a published author, with his 256 page book "努力は天才に勝る!" ("Effort is better than Genius"). The book is currently available on the Japanese Amazon website. -Inoue shares his name with a Marathon and Ultra Marathon runner. Arguably the most famous rivalry in this sport was the one between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The rivalry not only gave us 3 legendary fights but also gave us the most famous bout in Asian boxing history, the "Thrilla in Manila".
The bout was the third, and final, bout between the two men who first met in 1971 then against in 1974, was a tremendous war that we expect every single fight fan to have heard about, if not seen multiple times. It's one of the most iconic bouts the sport has given us and a testament to the punishment two men can take. Today we look at some of the little known details of the "Thrilla in Manila" in our latest "Did you know" article. -In the build up Ali introduced his then mistress, Veronica Porche, to President Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos as his wife. This wouldn't have been an issue had Ali's actual wife Khalilah Ali, not seen the introduction on TV. OOPS! Muhammad Ali and Khalilah Ali would divorce less than 2 years later and Ali would later marry Veronica Porche. -Zach Clayton was unable to referee the bout as Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo refused to let Clayton out of his duties as a civil service employee. This was part of a smart game plan by Eddie Futch who managed to the get Carlos Padilla Jr the role of referee. -Larry Holmes was on the under-card, beating Rodney Bobick in 6 rounds. Holmes would, of course, later beat Ali in one of Ali's final career bouts. -Also on the under-card was another future world champion, Rolando Navarrete, who lost to Fernando Cabanela. The two would rematch in 1978 with Navarrete avenging his loss, before later claiming the WBC Super Featherweight world title in 1981. -Although the bout took place in Metro Manila it didn't take place in Manila City. Instead it was the neighbouring city of Quezon. -The bout took place on a Wednesday! In fact it took place on a Wednesday morning to accommodate a US closed circuit audience. -Frazier would never win a bout after this. He suffered his second stoppage loss to George Foreman 8 months later before a comeback in 1981 that saw him fight to a draw with Floyd Cummings. -Despite all 3 scorecards having Ali in a comfortable lead at the end of the 14th round the Associated Press had the bout even, 63-63. We continue our Did You Know... series by moving through the weights and looking at the OPBF Super Middleweight title. Given the the fact the title has been around for over 30 years we would expect some interesting facts, and there are some...some which genuinely shocked us.
-There have only been 42 OPBF Super Middleweight title bouts, including interim title bouts, since the title was inaugurated in 1988 with 18 reigns of the regular title, and 2 interim title reigns. Australian Rod Carr was in the first 4 bouts for the title, Yuzo Kiyota has been in 12 of those and Yoshinori Nishizawa has been in 9. -Most of the title reigns have been by Australians. In fact 9 Australian's have held the title, for a combined 10 reigns of the belt. -Only 1 OPBF Super Middleweight champion has won a world title, with that being Danny Green. Several have however fought for world titles -Yoshiaki Tajima was the first Japanese fighter to challenge for a Super Middleweight world title title, losing in 7 rounds to In Chul Baek. He's the only Japanese world title challenger at the weight to have never won the OPBF Super Middleweight title, though he did win the OPBF Middleweight title. Both Yoshinori Nishizawa and Yuzo Kiyota have both won the OPBF title, multiple times, and challenged at world level. None of the three men managed to win their world title bouts though. -The OPBF Super Middleweight title has been held by two Korean fighters. The first was Byung-In Kang, who won the title in 1993 and defended it twice before losing to Australian Darren Obah and retiring with a 12-1 (7) record. The second was Yong Suk Choi, who actually took the belt from Obah in 1996, in just his third bout and also retired with 1 loss, ending his career in 2009 with an 11-1 (5) record. -Yoshinori Nishizawa is the only 3-time champion. Rod Carr and Yuzo Kiyota both had 2 reigns. Interestingly Carr and Kiyota ended their first reigns by vacating, and won the title they themselves had vacated before anyone else had won it. This gives Carr the first and second reigns and Kiyota the 15th and 16th reigns. -At the time of writing, the last bout for the belt was way back in September 2018, as Jayde Mitchell made his second defense of the belt -Although not related to the OPBF title directly Korean fighters are the only Asian fighters to win world titles at Super Middleweight, with Chong Pal Park and In Chul Baek both holding world titles. Park was the first, holding the IBF title from 1984 to 1987 and the the WBA title from 1987 to 1988, and then Baek followed holding the WBA title from 1989 to 1990. The JBC Minimumweight title has been in existence since the mid 1980's and has been an interesting title. It's been held by 29 fighters since it's inception, and has been held by a number of world champions. It may not be the most prestigious of titles, but it's certainly an interesting one with a solid list of former champions.
With that in mind we thought it was a great idea to cover the belt in our latest "Did you know..." -Kenji Ono was the first champion but not only fought in the first ever Japanese Minimumweight title fight, beating Missile Kudo for the belt, but less than 3 months later he was also involved in the first ever OPBF Minimumweigjht title bout, losing to Samuth Sithnaruepol. -Missile Kudo, who lost to Kenji Ono in the inaugural bout for the title, would win the belt at the third time of asking but lost in his first defense. Incidentally his career record was 10-12-2 (3), meaning he had more losses than wins -A staggering 4 men held the title in 1988! These were Kenji Yokozawa, who began the year as the champion before vacating early in the year, Yasuo Yogi, who held the title from February 25th to June 27th, Missile Kudo, who held the belt from June 27th to November 13th, and Hisashi Tokushima, who was the last champion of the year. This is even more peculiar when you consider there wasn't a single bout for the title in 1989! -Kusuo Eguchi and Katsuaki Eguchi, who fought for the vacant title in June 1993, were brothers! This is the only time a Japanese title has been fought for by brothers! -The most defenses of the title is a record jointly held by Rocky Lin and Satoshi Kogumazaka, who both defended the title 7 times -Makoto Suzuki is the only fighter to have had multiple reigns, holding the belt twice. His first reign ran from June 1999 to January 2001, when he lost to future world champion Yutaka Niida, whilst his second reign ran from September 2001 to September 2002, when it was ended by previous interim champion Hiroyuki Abe -Hiroyuki Abe's interim title reign is the only time the title has been held as an interim belt, and that only lasted from June to September 2002. -World champions who have held this title are Hiroki Ioka, Keitaro Hoshino, Yutaka Niida, Katsunari Takayama, Akira Yaegashi and Tatsuya Fukuhara -Having just mentioned Katsunari Takayama it's interesting to note that he won a world title, then the Japanese title, then went back to world level, claiming more world titles as he completed his "Grandslam" of world belts. At the time of writing the OPBF Minimumweight title hasn't been fought for since Lito Dante shocked Tsubasa Koura in March 2019, despite that we thought it was an interesting title to look at for our latest "Did You Know" feature...
-The first ever OPBF Minimumweight champion was Samuth Sithnaruepol, who was in the final ever 15 round world title bout. Samuth would defend the OPBF title 4 times before winning the IBF Minimumweight title, defending it twice. Interestingly he lost the IBF title to Nico Thomas, who later went on to win the OPBF Minimumweight title as well! -Samuth and Thomas aren't the only 2 OPBF Minimumeight champions to win world titles. Others include Hi Yong Choi, Rodel Mayol, Akira Yaegashi, Merlito Sabillo, Kosei Tanaka, Ryuya Yamanaka and Hiroto Yamanaka. Interesting Thomas wasn't the only man to win a world title before winning the OPBF title, with Xiong Zhao Zhong doing the same, winning the WBC title before taking the OPBF belt -As mentioned Samuth Sithnaruepol was the first champion and he made 4 defenses of the belt. That 4 defenses record is actually a record for the most defenses of the title title. Samuth is also the only Thai to have won the title. -The title has been held by fighters from Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Philippines and China. Whilst that might not seem something worthy to mention it is actually the only OPBF title to be held to be held by fighters from those 5 particular countries. In fact it's the only one to have ever been won by a Chinese fighter! -The first 4 champions, and 16 of the combined 22 title reigns to date, have ended with a champion vacating the title! -Given the title has changed hands 5 times, rather than being won from a vacancy as it has been 17 times, it's interesting to note that it's only been won from a reigning champion ONCE by unanimous decision. This unique result saw Yasutaka Kuroki defeat Toshikazu Waga on November 16th 2008. -From the 53 title bouts 3 have ended in a draw, including 1 technical draw. Amazingly the most recent of those was more than a decade ago! -There wasn't an OPBF Minimumweight title bout in 2013, 2001, 1997, 1996 and 1994 -Incidentally the longest reign of a fighter was 3 years and 11 days, from February 11th 1995 to February 22nd 1998, by Nico Thomas. It is worth noting however that for more than 24 months of his reign he didn't actually defend the belt. A new year is here and we continue our "Did You Know" series by looking at another of Japan's many notable gyms, this time a new gym that has began to make it's name in recent years. The gym is one lead by a former world champion, and is regarded as one of the very best gyms in Japan for top talent. That, is the Ohashi Gym.
The gym was set up in the 1994's by former WBC and WBA Minimumweight champion Hideyuki Ohashi and in the 25 or so years since it has become a gym that has attracted a lot of attention, both in Japan and wider afield. -When the gym was first opened it was named "Ohashi Sports Gym", not "Ohashi Boxing Gym", only changing the name in 2002. -The gym had their first world champion in 2004, when Katsushige Kawashima stopped Masamori Tokuyama inside a round to claim the WBC Super Flyweight. Kawashima's reign would only last around 13 months, before he lost in a third clash to Tokuyama, but it put the gym on the map. -The gym is one of the few to have had both male and female world champion, with Ayaka Miyao winning the WBA Atomweight title in 2012. At the time this made the gym only the second in Japan to have had male and female world champions, following the Watanabe Gym. -Ohashi Gym fighters have fought on almost every TV channel in Tokyo. They have featured on TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, G+, TBS and most recently Fuji TV, who they have a current outlet deal with. -Since being set up in the 1990's the gym has had 4 world champions, Kawashima, Miyao, Akira Yaegashi and Naoya Inoue. It's also had an interim world champion, former WBC "interim" Bantamweight Takuma Inoue. -The gym is one of the few Japanese gyms with multi-weight world champions, with Akira Yaegashi and Naoya Inoue both being 3 weights champions, a rarity still in Japan. -In 2010 the gym relocated from it's then location, at the Aiwa headquarters, to it's current location! -The physical gym has 2 main floors, each with a training ring in it, as well an oxygen chamber and a 65" monitor -Despite the gym being known as Ohashi gym, and being owned by Mr Ohashi, the gym is actually operated under the Phoenix Promotion Co., Ltd. Name, a company that took it's name from Mr Ohashi's own boxing nickname of the Phoenix, hence the cards the gym run being known as "Phoenix Battle". With the recent news that Kyoei would be shutting its doors as a professional boxing gym, at least temporarily, there seemed no better time than feature the legendary gym in the latest of our "Did you know" features
1-The gym was founded by former fighter Masaki Kanehira, the father of recent chairman Keiichiro Kanehira. As a fighter Masaki Kanehira ran up a record of 16-19-3 (1) during a career that ran from 1954 to 1959. Despite fighting almost 40 times there wasn't really anyone notable that he faced 2-The gym was one of the early success stories of Japanese, along with other highly established gyms like Teiken, Misako, Yonekura and Kadoebi. For years the main rivalry of gyms in Japan was Teiken Vs Kyoei, with the two being the biggest and strongest, by far. Sadly though since the death of Masaki Kanehira in 1999 Kyoei did fall behind Teiken, quite badly. 3-One of the gyms most notable "firsts" was promoting the first Japanese professional female fighter Masako Takatsuki, who fought way back in the 1970's. Takatsuki's career was a short one, and boxrec only list her as having 2 professional bouts. Japanse sources on the other hand suggest she had 11, going 8-2-1 (3). 4-The gym is an historically significant one for fans who have enjoyed the recent rise of fighters from former Soviet nations. In 1989 they signed a number of top amateurs from the former USSR, including Orzubek Nazarov and Yuri Arbachakov, who later went on to be among the most influential "Russian" fighters, laying down the ground work for the current rise of fighters from Russian, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. 5-Something we intend to talk about in more details one day is "The Orange Incident", but it fits in nicely here. "The Orange Incident", also known as "the poison orange incident", was a massive controversy in the early 1980's when Masaki Kanehira, the then gym chairman, was accused of mixing drugs into orange juice used by Yoko Gushiken and Katsuo Tokashiki. It's unclear what they were poisoned with, though the talk is that it could been a muscle relaxant or a laxative. The accusation was so serious that the JBC stripped Mr Kanehira's licenses and Gushiken's retirement ceremony, which was to take place in 1982, was canceled. 6-The Kyoei gym had arguably the greatest North Korean professional boxer ever fighting for them back in the 1990's. Thanks to Mr Kanehira's relationship with professional wrestler, become promoter, become politician, Antonio Inoki the gym managed to sign 1992 Olympic gold medal winner Choi Su Chol. The North Korean isn't too well remembered now but between 1996 and 1999 he went 3-0 (3) as a professional and scored a very notable win over Samuel Duran. Sadly though his career never managed to reach the heights it could have, and he remains one of boxing's many enigma's. 7-The gym has had 12 world champions, and one interim world champion. Those world champions are Hiroyuki Ebihara, Shozo Saijo, Yoko Gushiken, Yasutsune Uehara, Katsuo Tokashiki, Katsuya Onizuka, Yuri Arbachakov, Orzubek Nazarov, Osamu Sato, Koki Kaneda, Takefumi Sakata and Yota Sato. They also lead Tomoki Kameda to a reign as the WBC "interim" Super Bantamweight champion. 8-Among Kyoei's former fighters are Akira Jo (aka Joe Yamanaka), who would go on to have an excellent career as a musician and be well remembered for his charity work, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who was dubbed "Santa Tokyo" whilst fighting in Japan, and voice actor Atsushi Imaruoka, who was in Super Street Fighter IV, Overwatch and several Way of the Samurai games, among other work. |
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