 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 champions Ruslan Chagaev and Ben Villaflor. 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-Uzbek Heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev made his name in the amateur and as a top Heavyweight of his era, albeit a relatively weak era. Although his professional career started in an odd manner, in what are regarded as exhibitions in some circles, he turned professional properly in 2001. In September that year he was on a card in Tashkent, in what was either his professional debut, or his third professional bout. The bout was his only one in the country, and came on a show that also featured Korean fighter Hyuk Jin Kwon. 2-Korean fighter Hyuk Jin Kwon was blasted out in a round on that Uzbek card, in a bout for the WBO Asia Pacific Light Middleweight title. Prior to that loss he had fought much lower down the weights, and had managed to take Japanese puncher Hiroyuki Sakamoto the 10 round distance in 2000.  3-Whilst Hiroyuki Sakamoto failed to win a world title he was a very notable fighter in Japan, and a popular power puncher. His career, and life in general, was full of bad luck, though he has turned things around amazingly and now helps provide assistance to children in care. Sakamoto was born on December 30th 1970, the same day that Takatsune Shimizu won the Japanese Welterweight title.
4-Although an obscure fighter Takatsune Shimizu held the Japanese Welterweight title for almost 2 years and challenged for the OPBF title. In 1973 he made his US debut, and was stopped in 3 rounds by Zovek Barajas in Los Angeles. 5-Mexican fighter Zovek Barajas, also known as Hipólito Barajas Ayala, not only beat Shimizu in 1973 but also beat Filipino Ernesto Villaflor, actually doing so in the bout before he faced Shimizu. Rather impressively Barajas actually went 8-1 (7) during a busy year. 6-What few may know is that Ernesto Villaflor was the brother of the excellent Ben Villaflor. Sadly few details are known about Ernesto's career, and it seems that things like his birthday and complete record are a mystery, but Ben was a 2-time WBA Super Featherweight champion and one of the most over-looked and under-rated Filipino fighters in history.
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 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 Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym to Kazuto Ioka. 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-Talented Thai former world champion Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym is a really interesting fighter who is perhaps best known in the west for failing a medical prior to facing Guillermo Rigondeaux. Despite that issue he had a great career that included wins against the likes of Ricardo Cordoba, Leo Gamez, Somsak Sithchatchawal, Bernard Dunne, Satoshi Hosono and Shoji Kimura. His debut came on a card that also featured Sornpichai Kratingdaenggym. 2-The talented Sornpichai Kratingdaenggym was another Thai world champion, though was a former world champion by the time he shared a card with Poonsawat. He had originally held the WBA Flyweight title, from 1999 to 2000. He lost the belt in 2000 to the controversial Eric Morel whilst seeking his second defense of the title.  3-Eric Morel is certainly a controversial figure, but we're not going to get into our views of Morel's out of the ring activities as we're here to speak about boxing. In regards to boxing one of Morel's most controversial wins was his robbery of Filipino fighter Gerry Penalosa in 2010, which was a terrible decision.
4-Sadly for Gerry Penalosa his loss to Eric Morel wasn't the only dodgy decision he suffered, in a career that was plagued with questionable judging and officiating. Despite the poor judging Penalosa actually had a brilliant career, scoring more than 50 wins in a career that ran from 1989 to 2010. One of his standout wins was his 2007 KO win over the big punching Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez for the WBO Bantamweight title. 5-Hard hitting Mexican Johnny Gonzalez has fought a number of Asian fighters, not just Penalosa. These include Toshiaki Nishioka, Hozumi Hasegawa, Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, Akihiko Katagiri, Kazuki Hashimoto, Hurricane Futa, Hirotsugu Yamamoto and Jessie Cris Rosales. Of those the most notable was his 2011 win over Hozumi Hasegawa at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, in April 2011. 6-The World Memorial Hall hasn't been used too often as a venue for professional boxing, but it has hosted a number of big bouts and big fighters and big fighters. One of those fights was the February 2011 bout between Kazuto Ioka and Oleydong Sithsamerchai, which saw Ioka claim the WBC Minimumweight title with a 5th round win over the previously unbeaten Thai, announcing himself on the world stage!  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 Takashi Miura to former world title challenger Fel Clemente.
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-Former WBC Super Featherweight champion Takashi Miura was one of the most exciting fighters of his era, with a host of thrilling bouts under his belt. Interestingly he wasn't the only fighter with the name "Takashi Miura", in fact for several years of his career he was one of two Japanese Super Featherweights who share the same name. Yes there was another Takashi Miura. 2-The "other" Takashi Miura made his debut on March 1st 2003, on a show in Osaka. That same show also featured Nobuhiro Ishida, who stopped Moechrody in 5 rounds. 3-During his long and successful career Nobuhiro Ishida did a number of things. Of course he's best known for his win over James Kirkland but he scored other noteworthy wins and on a number of titles during his 40 fight career. The first of those titles was the OPBF Light Middleweight title, which he won in 2001. 4-The OPBF Light Middleweight title has been held by some great fighters over the years. These include former world champions Tadashi Mihara, Daniel Geale In Chul Baek. 5-The monstrously hard hitting In Chul Baek had a lengthy reign with the OPBF Light Middleweight title but is best known, especially internationally, for winning the WBA Super Middleweight title. That's something he did in 1989, when he stopped Fulgencio Obelmejias, before defending the title twice. On May 9th 1980 Baek made his debut, fighting on a card that also featured Seung Hoon Lee, Sung Jun Kim, Pil Koo Lee and Erning Grafe. 6-Erning Grafe was a Filipino journeyman who fought in the 1970's and early 1980's. His career wasn't a long one, but he did fight some fairly notable opponent, including world title challenger Sa Wang Kim, Chung Il Choi and the always under-rated Fel Clemente. Although not too well known Clemtne was a perpetual banana skin of a fighter and went the istance with the likes of Salvador Sanchez and Ruben Castillo, and was controversially DQ'd against Danny Lopez in a WBA Featherweight title fight.  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 fighters from opposite ends of the scales, going from former Light Welterweight champion Tsuyoshi Hamada to former multi-time Thai world champion Chartchai Chionoi. 1-Hard hitting Japanese slugger Tsuyoshi Hamada was a huge punching force of nature through much of the 1980's. Although not too well remembered in the west he was a real star in Japan and has continued to be involved in boxing as one of the major players at Teiken. Hamada held the WBC Light Welterweight title for just under a year, winning it in July 1986 and losing it the following July, at the Kokugikan. 2-The Kokugikan played host to an interesting card in February 2001 headlined by an amazing bout between Takanori Hatakeyama and Rick Yoshimura. Also on that February card was Mexican American Urbano Antillon, fighting in his second professional bout.  3-Although not a major name Urbano Antillon is an interesting fighter who fought between 2000 and 2013, with his most notable bouts being his losses to Miguel Acosta, Humberto Soto and Brandon Rios.
4-Despite being a limited fighter Brandon Rios was also a tough and fun fighter to watch, and his first two bouts with Mike Alvarado were fantastic wars. Their third was significantly worse. Interestingly after those first two Alvarado bouts Rios found himself in the ring with Filipino great Manny Pacquiao. 5-The legendary Manny Pacquiao has long been the face of Filipino boxing and has been a multi-weight champion and a generational talent. Pacquiao's first world title was the WBC Flyweight title, which he won back in 1998 when he stopped Chatchai Sasakul in 8 rounds. 6-Chatchai Sasakul wasn't the only Thai to lose the WBC Flyweight title in 8 rounds. Way back in 1969 Chartchai Chionoi also lost the WBC Flyweight title in 8 rounds, when he was stopped by Mexican rival Efren Torres. Thankfully for Chionoi he get the last laugh, beating Torres for the title 13 months later to reclaim the belt!  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 Mongolian world champion Lakva Sim with 2-time Japanese world champion Jiro Watanabe. 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-Mongolian fighter Lakva Sim is the only world champion to come from the Land of the Eternal Blue Sky. First won a world title in June 1996 when he stopped popular Japanese fighter Takanori Hatakeyama to claim the WBA Super Featherweight title. 2-Another fight won won their first world title in June 1996 was Vitali Klitschko, who won the WBO Heavyweight title a day before Sim won his belt. Klitschko would claim his title by stopping Herbie Hide in the second round before having a notable career in the ring and then becoming a notable politician. Although a successful fighter many regard him as the lesser of the two boxing Klitschko brothers.  3-The Klitschko's are certainly not the other pair of boxing brothers to leave an impact on the sport. Some other notable boxing brothers are the Kameda brothers, with all 3 Kameda's winning world titles during their careers. The Kameda brothers were, of course, Koki, Daiki and Tomoki and were a hugely controversial trio, with their father Shiro Kameda also being a decisive figure in the sport.
4-The Kameda brothers might have been the most successful trio of brothers in Japanese boxing but they were certainly not unbeatable. The first loss any of the trio suffered came in October 2007, when Daisuke Naito defeated Daiki Kameda in a foul filled bout at the Ariake Colosseum. 5-In the first recorded show at the Ariake Colosseum fans saw Katsuya Onizuka defended the WBA Super Flyweight title, with a decision win against Armando Castro to record his second successful defense. 6-Katsuya Onizuka's reign as the WBA Super Flyweight champion saw him making 5 defenses of the belt. Notably he was only the second Japanese fighter to hold the title. The first was Jiro Watanabe! Watanabe didn't just beat Onizuka in terms of being the first but also in number of defenses, with the controversial Watanabe recording 6 defenses of the belt.  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 the legendary Manny Pacquiao to Katsunari Takayama 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-Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has had one of the greatest careers of any fighter. He has had success in terms of world titles, and success in terms of beating top names. During his long career, which has seen him holding world titles in 4 different decades, as well as minor titles. One of those minor titles was the WBC International Super Bantamweight title. 2-Another fighter to have held the WBC International Super Bantamweight title was Joe Hiyas, an unheralded Filipino fighter who fought from 1980 to 1995. Although not star Hiyas fought a very impressive 94 times, going 51-28-15 (10) during his career. Interestingly he had a nickname that is popular with many other fighters, "Sugar".  3-Another fighter with the "Sugar" nickname was former WBA Super Bantamweight champion Akifumi Shimoda. Shimoda held the WBA title at 122lbs for just over 5 months, holding it from late January 2011 to early July, when he was knocked out by Rico Ramos. Shimoda's final bout came on December 31st 2016 at the Memorial Center in Gifu.
4-Another fighter who was in action December 31st 2016 at the Memorial Center in Gifu was Kosei Tanaka, who became a 2-weight world champion when he stopped Moises Fuentes in 5 rounds to claim the WBO Light Flyweight title. The win was a big one for Tanaka, who had struggled a year earlier when he had to dig deep to over-come Vic Saludar to retain the WBO Minimumweight title. 5-Kosei Tanaka has had his career guided by former world champion Kiyoshi Hatanaka, who was a successful fighter back in the last 1980's and early 1990's, winning the WBC Super Bantamweight title and the Japanese Super Flyweight title. 6-As well as his title victories Kiyoshi Hatanaka also won Rookie of the Year at Super Flyweight. Another Rookie of the Year winner was the hugely exciting Katsunari Takayama, who won Rookie of the year years after Hatanaka.  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 champions Saman Sorjaturong and Khaosai Galaxy! 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 Saman Sorjaturong will never be forgotten by hardcore fight fans thanks to his sensational bout with Humberto Gonzalez in 1995, a bout that was named the Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. That was one of only two bouts featuring a Thai to be named Fight of the Year by Ring, with the other being Somsak Sithchatchawal's war with Mahyar Monshipour. That leaves us with Saman and Somsak being the only Thai's involved in Ring's Fights of the Year. 2-Whilst Somsak Sithchatchawal is best known for his sensational war with Monshipour that wasn't his only bout of note. He also fought the likes of Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, Ratanachai Sor Vorapin and Celestino Caballero.  3-Panama's Celestino Caballero might not be an Asian fighter but he did mix with Asian fighters several times during his successful in ring career, including Daud Yordan and Satoshi Hosono. That Hosono fight actually occurred in Japan on December 31st 2011 at the Bunka Gym in Kanagawa on a card that also featured the then debuting Ryo Matsumoto.
4-Whilst Ryo Matsumoto is yet to reach the heights expected of him the Ohashi fighter is only 26 years old and still has time on his side to become a world champion in the future. Interestingly Ryo is one of 3 "Matsumoto's" at the Ohashi gym along with fellow fighter Keisuke Matsumoto and former fighter, nor a current trainer, Koji Matsumoto*. 5-During the 1990's Koji Matsumoto was a 3-time world title challenger. The talented former Japanese fighter may never have won a world title but was a talented, entertaining and skilled fighter who managed to win domestic and regional honours during his often over-looked career. In his debut Matsumoto shared a card with Shunichi Nakajima, who retained the Japanese Flyweight title in the show's main event. 6-Shunichi Nakajima was another of the Japanese fighters who managed success on the domestic scene but failed when it came to world level. He not only lost twice to future world champion Katsuya Onizuka but he also lost in his sole world title fight, being stopped in 8 rounds by Khaosai Galaxy in June 1990, in what was Galaxy's 14th defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title. *Just to add Koji is Keisuke's father, neither is actually related to Ryo.  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 Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong to 2-time Thai world champion Chana Porpaoin. 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-Chinese fighter Xiong Zhao Zhong is best known for being the first Chinese fighter to win a world title, winning the WBC Minimumweight 2012. That win was a history defining one for Chinese boxing, even if his reign was a rather disappointing one. Prior to that title win his most notable bout was actually a loss in Japan to Daisuke Naito, for the WBC Flyweight title. 2-It's fair to say that Daisuke Naito had a really interesting career with a number of notable bouts, including the one with Zhong as well as bouts against Koki and Daiki Kameda. Whilst his rivalry with the Kameda family is certainly memorable so to is his 4 fight rivalry with Pongsaklek Wonjongkam.  3-Thai legend Pongsaklek Wonjongkam won his rivalry with Daisuke Naito, 2-1-1, and famously blew out Naito in their first bout. He also had a very over-looked Flyweight title reign, with defenses against a number of top fighters and future world champions, including Naito, Gilberto Keb Baas, Tomonobu Shimizu and Luis Alberto Lazarte. Despite losing it to Naito he would reclaim it by beating Koki Kameda, on a card that also featured Oleydong Sithsamerchai, who retained the WBC Minimumweight title with a win over Yasutaka Kuroki.
4-Oleydong Sithsamerchai made 6 defenses of the WBC Minimumweight title during his reign that ran from November 2007 to February 2011. His reign ended when he was stopped in 5 rounds by Kazuto Ioka, who was fighting in just 7th professional bout. 5-Kazuto Ioka isn't the only fighter to win a world title in his 7th bout, another man who achieved that feat was Korean great Sung Kil Moon, who achieved the feat when he took a technical decision win over Khaokor Galaxy to claim the WBA Bantamweight title in 1988. 6-Sung Kil Moon might have won his first world title in his 7th bout but his reign didn't last long and he lost the belt in his third defense, when he travelled to Thailand and faced Khaokor Galaxy in a rematch. On the same show as Moon's title loss was a then rising young Thai, Chana Porpaoin, who would later become a 2-time WBA Minimumweight champion.  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 champions Young Kyun Park and Takanori Hatakeyama. 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-Dubbed the "Bulldoxer" Young Kyun Park was one of the real exciting Korean fighters from the early 1990's and a very solid WBA Featherweight champion. Sadly he's not as well remembered as he should have been, and whilst he burned very brightly at one point his prime was very short, with a world title reign that lasted less than 3 years. When he reign ended it came to Eloy Rojas. 2-Eloy Rojas' WBA Featherweight title win over Park came in 1993, and what is often forgotten about the Venezuelan is that he was a Teiken managed fighter at one point. In fact he is one of several Teiken managed Venezuelan fighters to win a world title, along with Edwin Valero and Jorge Linares.  3-Jorge Linares may not have been the toughest boxer out there but there is no doubting his skills, and he is widely regarded as one of the most naturally boxers on the planet. His blinding hand speed and skills are through the roof and he is one of the most exciting fighters to watch. What often goes over-looked is that Linares' brother, Carlos Linares, as also a notable fighter, albeit significantly less successful than Jorge.
4-Whilst Carlos Linares is a bit of a forgotten name as a boxer, though is now distinguishing himself as a trainer at the Teiken gym, he was a really exciting fighter to watch. He lacked the well developed skills and boxing brain of his brother but made up for that with nasty power, scoring 8KO's in his 9 professional wins. His final bout came in 2007 when he lost to Tadashi Yuba, in a Japanese Middleweight title bout. 5-As a fan outside of Japan who Tadashi Yuba was and they will likely look confused. In Japan however he was a 5-weight national champion who fought close to 60 bouts. More than half of his career bouts took place at Korakuen Hall in a career that spanned form 1996 to 2014! In 1999 he fought Rick Yoshimura, with the two men fighting to a draw in a really under-rated bout for the Japanese Lightweight title. 6-Rick Yoshimura's only other draw, along with the Yuba one, came 4 fights later when he challenged WBA Lightweight champion Takanori Hatakeyama, in a barn burning thriller of a world title bout. For those who haven't seen that bout it's well worth a watch!  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 the legendary Gabriel "Flash" Elorde to Akira Yaegashi! 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-During his lengthy and successful career Flash Elorde was stopped just 4 times in 118 bouts. The first of those stoppage losses came in his 10th professional bout, by a fighter who was known as "Kid Independence" on October 16th 1951. 2-Whilst Kid Independence is certainly not a fighter we expect many to know anything about, other than now being in shock that such an unknown stopped the iconic Elorde, he did fight a handful of others of note. They include Kyo Noguchi, who beat him in 1960, in one of Independence's final career bouts.  3-In the 1960's Kyo Noguchi was a fairly notably fighter in the Asian scene. He wasn't just a Japanese Flyweight champion but also had title shots at both the OPBF and the World Flyweight titles. His father was Susumu "Lion" Noguchi, himself a pre-war Japanese champion at Welterweight, pre-dating the JBC by several decades. This makes them the first father-son Japanese national champions.
4-Whilst the Noguchi's are regarded as the first father-son Japanese champions, they aren't the only ones. Another example of this is the Teraji's, Hisashi and Kenshiro, and the Naito's, Cassius and Rikki. 5-As an amateur Rikki Naito fought scored a number of notable wins on the domestic scene. Among those was a win over Koki Inoue. 6-Of course Koki Inoue, who is the current Japanese Light Welterweight champion, comes from a fighting family himself. His cousins are Naoya Inoue and Takuma Inoue, and his trainer is his uncle Shingo Inoue. It's not his family we're connecting to but an Ohashi Gym stable mate, in the form of Akira Yaegashi! |
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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