Remarkable Rounds - Knockdowns traded in thrilling opener!

Whilst we absolutely love sharing and talking about fights we also appreciate that it's sometimes hard to get the time to sit down and enjoy a long, drawn out in ring story unfurl. With that in mind we've decided to start another new series, yes, yet another one... where we take a look at just a single round from a fight, in a series we're dubbing "Remarkable Rounds". These are some of the rounds that we feel are must watch rounds, with incredible action, intense exchanges are brilliant drama.
 
With only a maximum of 3 minutes of action these are pretty much a bite sized version of our Closet Classic series, and there will be some over-lap there, but we feel the idea is perfect for that little window of time where you want to remember why you love boxing. The reason you follow the sport, and the little moments that make us all appreciate we really do follow a brilliant sport.
 
Kengo Fukuda (7-1, 6) vs Tomio Shibata (1-2, 1)
As you've all probably come to expect of us we kick this off with an obscure round, but a brilliant one from 1987. The match up saw the hard hitting but flawed Kengo Fukuda take on novice Tomio Shibata.
 
From the opening seconds we saw Shibata coming forward and Fukuda boxing on the back foot. Although regarded as the under-dog Shibata was there to win and really was forcing the fight, looking to land booming hooks. His high risk strategy came at a cost and after just over a minute he started eating big shots and was dropped. That could have dissuaded him, but instead it seemed to solidify his intentions and less than 30 seconds later he put Fukuda down.
 
With both men going down within the space 30 seconds we then ended up with final minute or so being a tear up with Shibata feeling like he could take his man out until he was rocked late in the round and Shibata began to look for a finish. Real credit to both men for giving us a thrilling opening round here!
 
Later in his career Fukuda would become more well known with several Japanese Featherweight title bouts, his first bout with Seiji Asakawa becoming a memorable war in it's self. As for Shibata this was pretty much it for his career and he would never fight in another noteworthy bout.
 
Please enjoy the first in this series of "Remarkable Rounds"! ​