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We finally finish off our look at current Asian rankings this week with a look at the Heavyweight division, which surprisingly a lot, lot deeper than both the Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight divisions. The reality is that the division still isn't amazing, and it actually a truly frustrating one, but is a lot deeper than the two division's we've just mentioned.
1-Zhang Zhilei (21-0, 16) The leading Asian Heavyweight right now is Chinese veteran Zhang Zhilei, who has proven himself more in the professional ranks than anyone else from the area. He's 37 years old now, and has likely missed the boat of a major fight. Despite that he's very talented, looks very natural in the ring and is a very skilled, surprisingly quick boxer-puncher. Sadly his best win so far is his 2019 victory over Andriy Rudenko and given his age it's unlikely we'll see him really taking on anyone big before his body begins to break down and retirement calls. Interestingly there had been talk of him fighting Anthony Joshua but that talk now looks to be completely dead. 2-Bakhodir Jalolov (6-0, 6) We stick with giants as we go to US based Uzbek giant Bakhodir Jalolov. At the moment Jalolov hasn't fully committed to the professional ranks, hence why he has only fought 6 times in the professionals since his debut in May 2018. He has, however, been busy in the amateurs and in 2019 he won the World Amateur Championships and clearly has been staying busy. He is a big hope for the 2020, or should that be 2021, Olympics. At the age of 25, he turns 26 later this month, Jalolov has time on his side, he's huge, very skilled, a big puncher and has surprising fluidity for such a big man. We'd love to see him fully commit to the professional ranks, and when he does he's going to be a big star. 3-Ivan Dychko (9-0, 9) Another giant, and former amateur standout, is Ivan Dychko, a Kazakh with so much potential that many tipped him as a major star when he turned professional in 2017. Sadly his amateur credentials are now looking like a part of history and in the 3 years that Dychko has been a professional he has really just has frustration after frustration. He's a proper giant, at around 6'9", a smooth operator with power, speed and skills, and like Jalolov is very fluid for such a big man. Sadly inactivity, bouts falling through, poor competition and nothing really going his way has left him really feeling like a man with lost potential. His biggest win to date was his 2019 victory over Ray Austin and it feels like his career should be a long, long way further than it is. A talent, but a talent that is being badly wasted. 4-Mahammadrasul Majidov (2-0, 2) Another Asian former amateur stand out is Azeri banger Mahammadrasul Majidov. The 33 year old looks like to be fast tracked, given his age and links to Matchroom, and has got the strong amateur background to be moved rapidly through the ranks. Sadly Majidov turned professional too late to see what he can really do and really build a professional standing, though he is blessed with brutal power, under-rated skills and frightening physical strength. Given that Majidov was never the quickest we don't think he'll age quickly, but we do feel he's turned pro too young to get the experience he needs to reach the top of the sport. Fingers crossed, however, that Majidov's professional career will light a fire under the backsides of top Azeri amateur to turn professional when they still have time to make a mark on the pros. 5-Zhan Kossobutskiy (13-0, 12) Technically Zhan Kossobutskiy has done more than most in this list, and is more proven as a professional than almost everyone in this top 10. Despite that he's not looking like the natural talent that a Dychko or Jalolov has. Instead he's looked a bit raw, and has been taking on fighters generally on short notice. Despite the complaints about his competition 31 year old has been busy, with 4 fights in 2019, including a career best win over the then 15-0 Agron Smakici for a minor IBF title. Given his age, and now experience, we expect to see him step up this year, especially he's now backed be a rather strong promotional team. We expect to see Kossobutskiy fighting at a higher level, but it's hard to see him getting a world title fight any time soon. 6-Ruslan Myrsatayev (7-0, 6) Another Kazakh making his way into our top 10 is Ruslan Myrsatayev, who is 35 years old and has likely missed the bout to make an impact at a higher level. His best win to date is a KO win over British veteran Danny Williams last year, and since then he has seen his KO run come to an end, being taken 8 rounds by Yury Bykhautsou. Although not the most talented Myrsatayev is a fight with heavy hands, and a decent work rate, but nothing exceptional and we could easily see him losing to fighters below him who make the most of his slowness. From here on we expect him to slow further and really only expect him to slide down the rankings, and not do much of note. Again a shame he turned pro so late as he could have been in some interesting fights just a few years ago. 7-Kyotaro Fujimoto (21-2, 13) Former unified Japanese, OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific champion Kyotaro Fujimoto is one of the more well known names on this list. He was a K1 fighter, the first Japanese national champion in a general and a man splattered by Daniel Dubois last year in the UK. Sadly he's also a man who was looking like a big fish in a little pond. Technically he's actually not a bad fighter, but he's also not a particularly impressive one. He's often negative in the ring, relying on his speed and movement, sadly when he's facing a quicker fighter that big advantage is neutralised and he lacks the power to get respect of opponents. It's great to see a Japanese Heavyweight try and do something on a bigger stage, but the reality is that Fujimoto hasn't got the toughness, chin, size or power to make a mark against the better fighters, even the better Asian fighters. 8-Ryu Ueda (9-1-1, 5) It's hard to know how good Ryu Ueda can become, but at the moment his ceiling looks low. He's the current Japanese Heavyweight champion, claiming the title last year when he beat Kotatsu Takehara in their second bout. He looks the part physically, and is a big, athletic looking guy, but sadly he's relatively uncoordinated and when he gets in the ring the natural athletic ability one would assume he has is lacking. He doesn't look comfortable in the ring. At the age of 28 there is room for improvement, but it's hard to see him improving much and he really is lucky the Japanese scene is very weak at the division. 9-Eric Pen (6-0, 5) American born Cambodian Eric Pen is a very interesting fighter in some ways, but like many Asian Heavyweights his potential to make a mark at the higher levels is very, very limited. Pen is the current WBA Asia champion but his competition so far has been dire and his last win, over Alexander Bajawa came against a very out of shape fighter. It's impossible to know how good Pen is given how easily matched he's been. Saying that however we would love to see him fight Ueda in what would, on paper, be a big step up in class for Pen. 10-Yunlong Shi (1-0, 1) Chinese Heavyweight Yunlong Shi might not have been a success in WSB but he impressed in his professional boxing debut last year, stopping Pawel Sowik in 2 rounds in Poland. Unlike many fighters on this list he's actually based in European, with a Polish team behind him. It's hard to know just how good Shi is, but we were impressed by his debut, and wouldn't be betting against him against Pen or Ueda. It's still very early in his career and he looks like someone to actually be quite excited about. Again very, very early days, but he has size and skills, and on his debut he showed decent power, albeit against a very limited opponent.
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On December 21st we'll see Japanese Heavyweight, yes they do exist, Kyotaro Fujimoto (21-1, 13) take on rising English fighter Daniel Dubois. TheEnglishman is regarded as one of the top Heavyweight prospects on the planet, but much, much less is known about Kyotaro, who, outside of Japan, is really unknown. We know people will have looked him up on boxrec, but that doesn't really give anything than the most basic of information about the 33 year old.
Given his up coming bout, and how unknown he is by an international audience, we felt now was the perfect time to be bring 10 facts you probably didn't know about... Kyotaro Fujimoto. 1-Kyotaro first made his name in K1, where he was a frustrating but talented fighter. Unlike many Japanese fighters he fought with a very negative style, looking to counter. This style caused real issues with fans and TV channels, with his 2008 fight against Mighty Mo being a particularly notable bout that ended up genuinely annoying viewers due to his negativity and accusations of running. 2-Until August 2009, when he was still in K1, Kyotaro fought under various monikers. It was only in 2009 that he began to fight as Kyotaro, ignoring his surname for fighting purposes. 3-In 2010 Kyotaro took part in a K1 rules exhibition bout against professional wrestling Shinsuke Nakamura, who would later go on to be a major star in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is current a WWE Superstar. 4-Staying with K1 Kyotaro was the first Japanese Heavyweight fighter to win the K1 Heavyweight title, doing so in 2009 when he beat Gokhan Saki. That win also saw him becoming the organisation's second ever Heavyweight champion. 5-In 2011 Kyotaro tried his hand at Professional wrestling, and had matches for All Japan Pro Wrestling. This was, however, a very short lived thing and he quickly decided to turn his hand to boxing, signing up with the Kadoebi Gym, who have guided his entire boxing career so far. 6-Kyotaro made his debut on a New Year's show! The show was headlined by the then 8-0 Kazuto Ioka, who successfully defended the WBC Minimumweight title, and also featured former world champion Nobuo Nashiro, future world champion Ryo Miyazaki and current world title contender Sho Ishida. On his debut Kyotaro beat Australian Cruiserweight Michael O'Donnell, taking a clear 6 round decision win. 7-In 2012 Kyotaro made history, as he became the first ever Japanese Heavyweight to be world ranked as a boxer. He achieved the feat by beating Chauncey Welliver and getting a WBC ranking as a result, slipping in at #15. At the time he had also managed to become the OPBF #2 ranked contender. 8-Having managed to make a bit of a buzz and increase interest in the Japanese Heavyweight scene the Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC) reactivated the Japanese Heavyweight title in 2013, 56 years after the last Japanese Heavyweight title fight. Kyotaro would go on to stop Okello Peter in 6 rounds to take the title, making him the second ever Japanese Heavyweight champion. 9-As the Japanese Heavyweight champion Kyotaro would defend the title twice, with the second defense being a split decision against Nobuhiro Ishida. Yes that Nobuhiro Ishida, the one who stopped James Kirkland! In fact that was the second bout between Ishida and Kyotaro, following a razor thin win in an 8 round bout a year earlier. Despite scraping two wins over Ishida Kyotaro would later unify the Japanese titles with the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific Heavyweights titles, making him the first Japanese fighter to hold those titles and a triple champion. 10-According to an interview in Japan Kyotaro started his combat sport life at the age of 3, when he began Karate after his parents saw him being bulled by his two older sisters. Extra fact - Kyotaro became a professional fighter because he wanted to become famous.  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 Kyotaro Fujimoto and...Pone Kingpetch. 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! Also we're very open to suggestions for fighters to link if you'd like to leave a comment! 1-Japanese Heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto will be fighting Daniel Dubois on December 21st at the Copper Box in London. 2-The Copper Box in London was also the venue that hosted the 2012 Olympic Games where Ryota Murata won an Olympic Gold medal.  3-After winning the Olympic gold medal at the London games Ryota Murata signed a promotional deal with Bob Arum and Top Rank, who co-promoted Murata with Japanese promoter Teiken.
4-Another Asian fighter who has been promoted by Top Rank and Bob Arum, is Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao, who spent years guided by Arum who helped to make "Pacman" a global boxing icon. 5-During his legendary career Manny Pacquiao has held a number of titles. His first international title was the OPBF Flyweight title, which he won in 1997 when he stopped Chokchai Chockvivat in 5 rounds back in 1997. 6-The OPBF Flyweight title, which has been around since the 1950's, was once held by Thai icon Pone Kingpetch, who was the first ever Thai world champion, winning the World Flyweight title in 1960 when he beat Argentina's Pascaul Perez.  Recently the new broke that Japanese Heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto (19-1, 11) [藤本京太郎] would be defending his unified WBO Asia Pacific and OPBF Heavyweight titles against Thai foe Suthat Kalalek (12-9, 11). The bout, inspired little excitement, and if we're being honest it was actually a huge disappointment given that Kyotaro is a triple crown winner, having unified the Japanese title along with the two regional belts, and is a world ranked fighter. He should have been looking to move towards a big Heavyweight clash, not face someone best known for challenging for an OPBF Super Middleweight several years ago. Yes you read that right, Kyotaro's next opponent is a blown up Super Middleweight, who faced off with Yuzo Kiyota in 2015 for the OPBF title at 168lbs, suffering a third straight loss with Kiyota stopped him in the 10th round. It would be easy to defend Kyotaro's position if he was fighting in a 10 round stay busy fight, but this will be his first bout since May, when he took on chinny Australian Aaron Russel. For a man who has unified two regional titles his competition has been terrible, and it's actually hard to excuse given the ranked contenders for the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific title. It's not like when Kyotaro was defending the Japanese Heavyweight title in a very shallow talent pool, with no interesting competitors, bar Nobuhiro Ishida who shocked us all and gave Kyotaro two tough bouts well above his natural weight class. Rather than criticise who Kyotaro is facing we've decided to look at some of the alternative contenders that he could have faced, or could face in the future. These are fighters that would have given him a more serious test and really interest fans in a way that the Thai can't and have competed for the unified belts that Kyotaro holds.  1-Zhang Zhilei (19-0, 15) [张志磊] One of the most obvious contenders is former Chinese amateur star Zhang Zhilei, who like Kyotaro is world ranked by the WBO and would make for an exceptionally interesting dance partner for the Japanese fighter. Not only is Zhilei higher ranked than Kyotaro with the WBO, holding a #6 ranking to Kyotaro's #7, but he is also a leading contender for both of Kyotaro's titles, with a the OPBF #1 ranking and a WBO Asia Pacific #2 rankings. The Chinese fighter has an imposing record, and looks to be a puncher, but the bout would be as much of a step up for him as it would for Kyotaro. Like Kyotaro there has been a lot of criticism about Zhilei's competition, with his last 6 opponents all being stopped inside a round. The Chinese fighter would have not only the titles to win but also some respect, just like Kyotaro would. Also at the age of 35 Zhilei may see a win over Kyotaro as a chance to boost his WBO ranking and move towards a potential rematch with Anthony Joshua, who beat him in the 2012 Olympic games. Sadly it appears that the 2009 Asian Boxing Championships gold medal winner has as little interest in Kyotaro as Kyotaro has in him, but the reality is that, from a fans perspective, the bout makes more sense than any other bout for the two men.  2-Junlong Zhang (19-0, 19) [张君龙] A second Chinese fighter who would make a lot of sense for Kyotaro to face is Junlong Zhang, a 36 year old dubbed the “Dragon King”. Unlike his countryman Zhang doesn't currently hold a world ranking, though has been in and out of the WBA rankings over the last year or two. He now needs a ring return, having not fought since December 2017, but would immediately be able to make up for lost time with a win against Kyotaro. Like both Zhile and Kyotaro there has been criticism of Zhang's competition but with wins over the likes of Jason Gavern, George Arias, Saul Farah and Victor Emilio Ramirez he does actually have a number of wins that are pretty solid. He would also enter as the #9 ranked WBO Asia Pacific contender, though is conspicuously absent from the OPBF's rankings. Although western fans may anticipated a Zhilei Vs Zhang bout it does seem like a Zhang Vs Kyotaro bout does have more interest in China, with Kyotaro having been mentioned by the “Dragon King” as someone he wants to fight. There is however no clear reason why the two haven't fought, and sadly we suspect the bout will continue to be one of those “what if” contests, despite how much sense it makes.  3-Junior Fa (15-0, 8) Outside of the two Chinese fighters we have a number of fighters from Oceania who would almost certainly love to share the ring with Kyotaro, one of which is 28 year old Kiwi Junior Fa , who is currently ranked #12 by the WBO in their world rankings, #1 in the WBO Asia Pacific rankings and #15 with the OPBF. The unbeaten Far hasn't looked untouchable as a professional, with a few close bouts, but would make for a very suitable opponent for Kyotaro, who has also not looked lawless. Fa is a former amateur standout, and he holds a very notable amateur win over Joseph Parker, but has yet to set the professional scene on fire. A win over Kyotaro would boost his WBO rankings, set up a potential rematch as a professional with Parker and see him claim the biggest win of his career. So there is real reason for Fa to take the bout. For Kyotaro it would see him defeat a top contender for one of his titles and legitimise his regional champion claim. Sadly hopes of this bout are a bit strained. Of Fa's last 6 bouts 3 have been in the US and it's almost certain that the long term plan isn't for him to stay in the regional scene for long. Added to that is his recent struggles and it could be that his unbeaten record, and as a result some of the allure of a Kyotaro showdown, could end sooner rather than later.  4-Lucas Browne (25-1-0-1, 22) Just days after Kyotaro's bout with Suthat fans will be able to see Lucas Browne take on Julius Long in Australia. Given how both Kyotaro and Browne and in need of a win to get give their career a kick start a match up between the two seems ideal, even if we will need to wait until December to get it. And by that time we should see Browne pick up a comeback win following his brutal 6th round KO loss to Dillian Whyte in March Browne, 39, is a a heavy handed and popular slugger who can't afford any more set backs if he's to land another big fight, and a win over the world ranked Kyotaro would fast track him to a big fight. For Kyotaro it'd be a chance to claim a big win over a fighter who has name value in Europe, specifically the UK, and put himself in the mix for potential UK fights against some of the Heavyweight that Britain has to offer, and the pay days that come with those fights. Although not the most attractive match up on paper, given Browne's age and recent KO loss, it's a fight that has a lot of reward for Kyotaro if he wins. Of course that reward comes with a high risk and if he gets caught by a Browne howitzer there is a chance his career will be in tatters. A brilliant high risk high reward bout and one that would certainly be interesting, even if it'd wouldn't be action packed.  5-Joseph Parker (24-2, 18)
Talking about high risk and high reward we come to former WBO world champion Joseph Parker, who had been linked to a fight with Kyotaro for a while before winning the WBO world title in later 2016. So the bout has history behind it and given the fact Parker has lost his last 2 bouts there is also a case of perhaps getting him at the perfect time, with the Kiwi having low confidence and needing a win to re-enter the mix following a loss to Dillian Whyte in July. For Parker, who is only ranked by the WBC, a win would put him straight into the WBO title mix and potentially help him set up rematches with Whyte or Anthony Joshua, who defeated Parker to take the WBO title form him. For Kyotaro the bout could reward him with a huge win over a former world champion, a WBC ranking and a chance to shut up his critics, who suggested he was scared of a then unbeaten Parker. Sadly this bout has been organised and fallen through a few times with various reasons given for the bout falling through. It would be a shame if we don't see it at some point, given the two are the most notable Heavyweight's in the region, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Parker ignore Kyotaro now, given that he's been facing much bigger fish. It's a shame that Kyotaro, who once promised so much as a professional boxer, has spent the last few years facing such limited competition given the quality of regional rivals out there. We hope, sooner rather than later, that the Japanese fighter does take on a notable foe from the Asia Pacific region, but given current form we suspect he'll continue to take the path of least resistance whilst hoping for an undeserved pay day against a world champion. (Images courtesy of Boxmob. Sina, Loop Tonga, Hatton Boxing and stuff.co.nz) |
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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