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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 Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong to hard hitting Japanese fighter Satoshi Shimizu.
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-In 2012 Chinese Minimumweight Xiong Zhao Zhong won the WBC Minimumweight title, becoming the first Chinese man to win a world title. Since then he has been followed by several other fighters, including former WBO Flyweight champion Zou Shiming. 2-Despite Zou Shiming not managing to be the break through star that many though he would be for Chinese professional boxing, he was one of the first Chinese fighters to be a star on the amateur ranks, and he really was an amateur star. In fact Shiming was a 2-time Olympic champion and a 3-time World Amateur Champion. Another 3-time World Amateur Champion was Azeri Super Heavyweight Mahammadrasul Majidov. 3-Hard hitting Mahammadrasul Majidov turned professional in 2019, following an excellent amateur career, with his first professional bout coming on September 13th 2019, when he stopped Ed Fountain at Madison Square Garden. Earlier that same day Ryo Sagawa won the Japanese Featherweight title, with a decision win over Reiya Abe in Tokyo. 4-Earlier this year Ryo Sagawa lost the Japanese Featherweight title, in his third defense, when he was stopped in 7 rounds by the highly touted Hinata Maruta. This was a mandatory defense by Sagawa of the title, albeit one that was delayed by almost a year due to the Covid19 pandemic and was supposed to take place in the first half of 2020. 5-The highly skilled Hinata Maruta fights out of the Morioka Gym in Hyogo, a gym that was originally set up by former fighter Eiji Morioka. Sadly however Mr Morioka passed away in 2004 before he got the chance to see Maruta having his success and winning the Japanese title. 6-Before setting up the Morioka Gym Eiji Morioka had a notable career as a fighter. His professional career was a short one, going 6-4 (3) but he was a very good amateur and at the 1968 Olympic games he won a bronze medal at, Bantamweight. Another Japanese fighter who won a Bronze Olympic medal in the Bantamweight division was Satoshi Shimizu, who achieved his feat at the 2012 London Olympics.
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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 title challenger Angky Angkotta to former Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong.
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 long career Indonesian fighter Angky Angkotta fought a relative who's who, including a notable WBO Super Flyweight title bout in 2010 against Jorge Arce. Sadly for Angkotta he is better known for his losses, rather than his wins, however there are some notable victories on his record, including a very notable 2004 win over the then unbeaten Donnie Nietes. The win is regarded as hugely controversial one, with Angkotta missing weight by 6lbs and still only managing a split decision, at home, but it is still a win on his record, and his biggest win by far. 2-Despite the loss to Angkotta the talented Donnie Nietes would bounce back and go on to record one of the most amazing careers of any Filipino fighter. He would have world title reigns at Minimumweight, Light Flyweight, Flyweight and Super Flyweight, and would record wins over a genuine who's who, of who, from the lower weight classes. He would also, rather notably, have success outside of his homeland. Among his many international jaunts was a win over Manuel Vargas in Mexico in September 2009. On that very same card was a bout featuring exciting American Brandon Rios. 3-At his best Brandon Rios was a thrill a minute fighter, with rather limited technical skills but an incredible work rate, toughness and will to win. During his career he would have a number of amazing bouts, including his first 2 with Mike Alvarado, a brilliant fight Urbano Antillon and a criminally under-rated one with Miguel Acosta. Notably however he only won one world title, the WBA "regular" Lightweight title, which he won in 2011. That title was, several years earlier, held by Yusuke Kobori. 4-Fight fans outside of Japan are unlikely to recall much off Yusuke Kobori's career, but a good chunk of his career he was the Japanese Super Featherweight champion and even unified that title with the OPBF title before taking the WBA "regular" Lightweight title late in his career. His world title win saw him stopping Nicaraguan Jose Alfaro in a tremendous 3 round fight and came just 8 months after he gave Takashi Miura his first professional loss. 5-On July 15th 2017 we saw Takashi Miura step into the ring for the final time as a professional fighter, losing a 12 round decision to WBC Super Featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt. On that very same day WBA Minimumweight champion Knockout CP Freshmart retained his title with a unanimous decision win over Filipino slugger Rey Loreto. 6-Sadly since winning the WBA Minimumweight title Knockout CP Freshmart has had an awfully underwhelming reign with very few impressive performances or notable wins over major names. One of the few notable fighters he has beaten during his career was former Chinese world champion Xiong Zhao Zhong, who he beat in China in 2018, in what would be Zhong's final professional bout.  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. Today's Did You Know is a little different to usual as it looks at a rather peculiar bout that took place in 2009 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo. That wasn't the originally set venue for the contest, and the bout only took place there due to some issues with the original venue. Which wasn't even in the same country as where the bout took place!
The bout in question is the WBC Flyweight title bout between defending champion Daisuke Naito and Chinese challenger Xiong Zhao Zhong. It was a rather odd event overall, but also a very notable one. -The bout with was rather strange in a number of ways. Originally it had been planned for Shanghai, but had to be cancelled on short notice, reportedly 2 days notice, due to issues with the organisers in China. It was then re-arranged for the Differ Ariake in Japan as a peculiar 1-bout event, with no under-card, and all the tickets were sold at the venue on the day of the event. -When Xiong scored a knockdown of Naito in round 6 it was only the second time Naito had been dropped, having previously been down in his opening round KO loss to Pongsaklek Wonjongkam in their first bout. -Both men were deducted points for headclashes. In fact there was 3 points deducted in total, with 2 coming from Xiong, in rounds 4 and 5, and one from Naito, in round 10. -This was Xiong's international debut. He would go on to fight on the road a further 4 times, losing twice more in Japan, as well as in Monaco. But he did score a huge win in Dubai. -The bout was aired on TBS in Japan, who tried to sell Xiong as a "Little Tyson" in the build up video. This was different to how they sold Naito, with English test popping on the screen stating "He is a romantic". -Sankyo were involved in putting the bout on. Sankyo are also responsible for putting on a number of recent Kazuto Ioka bouts, including his bout with Donnie Neites, in Macao, and his most recent bouts, against Jeyvier Cintron. -This was the first time someone from the People's Republic of China had fought for a world title.* -Naito was said to have been embarrassed by how close this bout was and his performance. He went on to apologise to the fans for the bout. *Prior to this bout Rocky Lin, a fighter from the "Republic of China", or Taiwan, had twice fought for a world a world title. With our recent facts articles all focusing on single fighters we've decided to do one with a twice this weekend as we look at Asian fighters who won a world title but failed to win their professional debuts! We were surprised to find so many of these, but there was actually quite a few, in fact there was more than 25 world champions from Asia who either lost on debut, or drew on debut. Many of these aren't big names, but on the whole they all deserve a lot more attention than they get
1-Whilst we found lots of champions who have debuted in 6 rounders and even a few who debuted in bouts scheduled for 8, such as Naoya Inoue very recently. It is rare, so rare in fact that we could only find two world champions from Asia who debuted in an 8 rounder and lost, before winning a world title. The first of those was Frank Cedeno, the British Filipino fighter who beat Charlie Magri in Wembley for the WBC Flyweight title in 1983, we'll get on to the second later in this article! 2-Korea's second ever world champion Soo Hwan Hong, who is also the first Korean to win titles in more than 1 weight class, draw on his debut to the debuting Sang Il Kim. Coincidentally his career also ended on a draw, as he fought to a stalemate with fellow former world champion Dong Kyun Yum, in what was Hong's 51st bout. That was also Yum's final bout. Incidentally Sang Il Kim's record is 0-1-1. 3-Former WBA Super Flyweight champion Hyung Chul Lee lost 3 of his first 4 bouts, including his debut. Strangely his career ended going full circle and he would also lose his final 2 bouts, both against Alimi Goitia, with only 1 loss in the middle of his career. He would end up with a career record of 19-6 (15) 4-China's first ever male world champion, Xiong Zhao Zhong, fought to a draw on debut. Aged 23 at the time Zhong fought to a 4 round draw with Lingfeng Yu. Yu ended his career 0-6-1, and his only non-loss was the bout to Zhong! 5-Another world champion who fought to a draw on debut was Kwanthai Sithmorseng, who fought to a draw with Nakhon Muensa in June 2005. Kwanthai last fought in June 2019, and despite a draw on his debut he had now gone 56 straight fights without another draw, going 49-7 since that debut draw. 6-Our research suggests that Sho Kimura is the only Asian world champion to have been knocked out on debut! Even more surprising is the fact that Kimura has since built a reputation on being an incredibly tough competitor with a great gas tank. Not the type of fighter you'd think was blown away in 75 seconds on debut! 7-Filipino fighter Manny Melchor retired with a record of 38-35-6 (6), following a loss on his debut. This record makes the former IBF Minimumweight champion one of the very few world champions with a sub 50% winning record. 8-Staying with Manny Melchor, he won just 1 of his first 9 bouts! Starting his career 1-6-2. Things actually took a long time to get better for the Filipino who was 8-8-2 (2) after 18 bouts and didn't have more wins than losses until his 27th bout, when he beat Angelo Escobar to advance his record to 13-12-2 (4) 9-Incidentally the man that Melchor beat for the IBF Minimumweight title, Fahlan Sakkreerin Snr also lost on his debut, losing an 8 round decision, to Chana Porpaoin, who was fighting for just the second time. What makes this bout rather remarkable is that BOTH men would go on to win world titles! Porpaoin would would be a 2-time WBA Minimumweight champion whilst Sahlan would be an IBF Minimumweight champion. Yes, Fahlan was the second of the fighters to lose in an 8 rounder on debut, though of course the more notable fact here was who he lost to! 10-Korean fighter Sung Jun Kim strangely began his career 0-1-1, with his debut being a loss and then his second being a draw, both to the same opponent, In Soo Lim. As with some of the other opponents mentioned these were Lim's only bouts Kim also had a loss and a draw, later in his career, to Hong Soo Yang, and ended his career in 1982 with a loss, book ending his career with losses.  We've yet to see the giant of China really make its mark on professional boxing in the way that some had anticipated, but there has been a few notable fighters from the country, and it does look like we're set to see rise in competition from the country over the coming years. So let's look at where we stand today with Chinese boxing. We'll start by looking at Can Xu (15-2, 2), the biggest hope of the country now, and the next Chinese fighter set to fight for a world title. The 24 year old Featherweight will be getting a WBA "regular" world title fight on January 26th. Xu has genuinely impressed at times, and is a better fighter than many would expect. Wins over the likes of Neomar Cermeno, Jelbirt Gomera, Hurricane Futa, Spicy Matsushita and Corey McConnell show he's, at worst, Oriental level. Sadly though he does seem to be getting a world title fight a little bit too early in his career. He's an exciting, high output guy with a good pressure style, but his lack of power is an issue, and will certainly be a problem with bouts at world level. Notably he's one of about 60 Chinese Featherweights, with the next best, arguably, being Yiran Li (4-0, 3), a 22 year old who has shown early promise, but needs real work to develop to being close to Oriental level. Of course whilst Xu is looking to become a world champion China does still have Xiong Zhao Zhong (27-8-1, 14) as an active fighter, or at least he was active last year, losing to Knockout CP Freshmart in a WBA title fight, and has been linked to another fight later this year. The 36 year old is the first ever Chinese man to win a world title and should be regarded as the aging veteran of the Chinese scene. Whether he fights again or not is unclear but he will continue to be involved in the sport following various investments and developments in the wider Chinese scene. To many he will be one of the figure heads of the next wave if Chinese boxing, and will be regarded as a key figure.  From the little guy to the big guys, the country has a couple of notable Heavyweight punchers who seem to get attention internationally. The more notable of the two is Zhilei Zhang (20-0, 16), who has shown a willingness to travel for fights, was a stellar amateur and has been linked to a potential future bout with Anthony Joshua. "Big Bang" is a 35 year could southpaw with surprising speed and movement, a solid straight left hand and nice combinations for such a big guy. There are however fears of his durability, and he turns 36 this coming May, so time is not on his side. The other Chinese Heavyweight of some note is 37 year old Zhang Junlong (20-0, 20), though his career appears to be meandering towards an anti-climatic end with nothing other than a pretty looking record. Staying with the heavier weights China has a notable fighter at both Crusierweight and Light Heavyweight. The Cruiseweight of note is Peng Qu (14-2-1, 10), the current OPBF "Silver" Cruiserweight champion. Qu was fighting at Light Heavyweight until recently, and has since scored 2 opening round wins at 200lbs, including a freak 62 win over Joey Vegas who injured his knee. At Light Heavyweight they have the very talented, though somewhat chinny, Meng Fanlong (14-0, 9). The unbeaten Fanlong is a 30 year old who appears to be on the verge of something big after stopping Frank Buglioni last November in Monaco. Fanlong does have a serious question mark over his chin, having twice been dropped by Zura Mekereshvili, but is a sharp punching, smart boxer-mover and has the potential to fight for a world title this year. There's an interesting Chinese trio at 168lbs, who aren't likely to fight at world level but are all very interesting names on the regional scene, and could one day face off to decide who the best Chinese Super Middleweight is. The fighters in question are Ainiwaer Yilixiati (14-1, 11), Wuzhati Nuerlang (11-2, 9) and Ahatelike Muerzhabieke (8-1-1, 5). All are pretty young, aged between 20 and 25, all are in China and all are going to be looking for things like the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific titles, which could make for a very interesting dynamic.All 3 are aggressive, exciting and well worth following, even if they aren't going to be fighting against the divisional elite. The exciting, but flawed, Baishanbo Nasiyiwula (15-2-1, 6) has shown a willingness to fight at either Welterweight or Light Welterweight. There's no one else of note at Welterweight but there is the promising Lei Wang (2-0, 1) competing at 140lbs, and could be either a rival for Baishanbo down the line, or could China a 2-pronged attack in the division. Wang was a top amateur and a WSB participant who made his debut last year, and looked really good on debut, but did struggle against Ricky Sismundo on his second outing and there will need to be time given for his professional development before stepping in too deep.  One of the most interesting divisions in China is the Lightweight division, where there are a number of different unbeaten and promising fighters all coming through at the same time. One of the most interesting is Xiangxiang Sun (15-0, 10), who is unbeaten and has notable wins over Nelson Tinampay, Roldan Aldea and Roy Mukhlis among others. There is also Yongqiang Yang (11-0, 8), who has a huge 2018 with wins against Takuya Watanabe and Harmonito Dela Torre, and hard hitting prospect Xiang Li (4-0, 3), who kicked off the year with a good win over Arvin Yurong. As well as the unbeaten fighters there is also Wang Zhimin (11-3, 3), a 33 year old fighter who is teak tough and although unlikely to fight for a world title, he is good gatekeeper to the stars and a solid test for any emerging prospect.
A forgotten man in the Chinese boxing world is Qiu Xiao Jun (23-4, 11), a former world title challenger. Jun is a talented and exciting, yet flawed, fighter who could well climb the rankings again and find himself fighting for titles once more. However having lost twice to Nehomar Cermeno, and having fallen out with his old promoter it does feel like Jun's career is in limbo at the moment, and his last fight was in Thailand, whilst the one before that saw him failing to make weight. At Super Bantamweight, the division that Jun first made his name out, we have the unbeaten Zhong Liu (13-0, 5) making his mark. The 27 year old Southpaw is a former WBO Greater China Super Bantamweight champions and has scored wins over experienced Indonesian foes in recent fights, picking up a regional title last time out. Hopefully 2019 will see him stepping up. The lower weights have not only the aforementioned Zhong but also several other notable fighters. At Flyweight there is Wulan Tuolehazi (9-3-1, 4), who scored a huge 2018 win over Jayr Raquinel, and is unbeaten in 8 bouts. Also at Flyweight is Wenfeng Ge (11-1, 6), who was recently stopped by Giemel Magramo but proved his toughness in that loss and could certainly rebuild following his defeat, though is never likely to be a threat at world level. Whilst Magramo is unlikely to fight for world titles it's hard to imagine Jing Xiang (16-4-2, 3) not getting to that level, following some excellent recent performances against former world champions Merlito Sabillo and Kompayak Porpramook. There is also Lu Bin (1-1, 1), though his future is very unclear following his 2018 loss to Carlos Canizales. The Chinese boxing might not be setting things on fire right now, but there is clearly a wave of fighters making a name for themselves, and it's not going to be long until the country does provide us a constant stream of contenders, challengers, prospects and, eventually, champions. One thing those involved in Chinese will need to do however, is sort out their internal politics and work together to push Chinese boxing forward, rather than to hold it back. (Images courtesy of Max Power Boxing)  Although August was exciting there a lack of big name action. That changes however in September when we get a host of world level bouts with other rising contenders in action across a number of weights. September 5th- Masanobu Nakazawa Vs Masayoshi Kotake (Japanese) The month kicks off with title action in Japan as the once beaten Masanobu Nakazawa (17-1-1, 7) battles Masayoshi Kotake (9-9-2, 5) in a bout for the Japanese interim Light Welterweight title. This bout has come about due to an injury to Hiroki Okada and we're expecting a good one here. On paper it's easy to side with Nakazawa though he's taking a huge step up in class to face the much more proven Kotake in what really looks likely to be a very competitive match up. September 6th- Tomoki Kameda Vs Jamie McDonnell II (WBA) One of the best bouts this year saw Japan's Tomoki Kameda (31-1, 19) suffer his first loss in a brilliantly competitive 12 round bout with Englishman Jamie McDonnell (26-2-1, 12). Now the men will do it again with McDonnell hoping to prove his win wasn't a fluke and Kameda looking to avenge his sole defeat. Up for grabs isn't just personal gratification but also the WBA Bantamweight title and the claim of being the #2 fighter in the division.  September 12th- Jonathan Taconing Vs Jomar Fajardo (OPBF) Some bouts are guaranteed to give excitement and action. Any bout that features Jonathan Taconing (21-2-1, 18) is likely to be worth a watch. Taconing will be defending his OPBF Light Flyweight title against compatriot, and fellow slugger, Jomar Fajardo (14-8-2, 7) in a bout that could be the sleeper bout of the month. Stylistically this one promises to be really exciting, though we do suspect that Taconing will be too big, too strong and too powerful for the gutsy Fajardo. September 16th- Shohei Omori Vs Hirofumi Mukai (Japan) Fast rising Japanese Bantamweight Shohei Omori (14-0, 9) impressed us all when he won the Japanese Bantamweight title earlier this year. He makes his first defense of that title as he takes on former 2-time world title challenger Hirofumi Mukai (11-3-2, 1) in what looks like a solid, though unspectacular, defense for the man dubbed “Demon of Left”. Whilst the bout isn't a great one it does see Omori up against his most accomplished southpaw opponent Kota Tokunaga Vs Yuhei Suzuki (Japan) On the same card as Omori's Bantamweight title fight his stablemate Kota Tokunaga (15-2, 10) will make the first defense of the Japanese Lightweight title. In the opposite corner is heavy handed challenger Yuhei Suzuki (16-4, 12). This one promises to be explosive with both guys able to through heavy leather, though neither has shown a real ability to cope with being tagged hard meaning that this could be over at any moment.  September 17th- Shin Ono Vs Kenichi Horikawa (Japan) Former world title challenger Shin Ono (18-6-2, 2) looks to claim his first domestic title as he faced veteran pro Kenichi Horikawa (29-13-1, 6). For Horikawa this will be a 4th Japanese title fight and although he's come up short in first 3 shots he'll be determined to make the most of this one. With both fighters being in their 30's this could be a case of now or never, especially with the fast rising Ken Shiro waiting in the wings for the winner. September 18th- Xiong Zhao Zhong Vs Crison Omayao (OPBF) China's only man to claim a world title, Xiong Zhao Zhong (25-6-1, 14) will look for one of his most notable wins as he takes on Filipino fighter Crison Omayao (17-9-3, 5) in a bout for the OPBF Minimumweight title. On paper this looks like a mismatch but Omayao has got a spotty record due to facing some of the most talented little men on the planet, including Naoya Inoue and Kosei Tanaka. This really should be the Chinese highlight of the month. September 22nd- Shinsuke Yamanaka Vs Anselmo Moreno (WBC) The Asian wide highlight of the month, and one of the world wide bouts of the month, will see WBC Bantamweight kingpin Shinsuke Yamanaka (23-0-2, 17) defending his belt against former WBA “super” champion Anselmo Moreno (35-3-1, 12). For some this bout is to decide the facto #1 Bantamweight on the planet, for others how it's just a bout to savior and features one of the most talented pure boxers in the sport battle against one of the sports most natural punchers. This really is something very special. September 27th- Less than a week after the Yamanaka/Moreno bout we get another of the month's highlights as we get a real huge bumper show in Osaka. Kazuto Ioka Vs Roberto Domingo Sosa (WBA) The main event will see Kazuto Ioka (17-1, 10) defending his WBA Flyweight title against Roberto Domingo Sosa (26-2-1, 14). This will be Ioka's first defense of the title, that he won against Juan Carlos Reveco earlier this year, and if he comes through this, as is expected, he will be facing Reveco in a bout penciled in for December 31st. A lot riding on this one for the 26 year Japanese youngster. Katsunari Takayama Vs Ryuji Hara (IBF) Another world title bout on the same card will see IBF Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama (29-7-0-1, 11) defending his title Ryuji Hara (19-1, 11) in what looks to be a genuinely mouth watering match up. For Takayama this will be the second defence of his title whilst Hara fights in his first world title fight, having previously been the Japanese and OPBF champion. Sho Ishida Vs Hayato Kimura (Japan) On the same card the Ioka bout will be three other title bouts. One of those will see Japanese Super Flyweight champion Sho Ishida (19-0, 10) defending his belt against Hayato Kimura (23-7, 15). This doesn't look great on paper but it's a good test for Ishida who will be hoping to move on to world level in his upcoming bouts. Alstough a big favour there are some questions marks about the champions stamina which will hopefully be tested again here. Kei Takenaka Vs Krikanok Islandmuaythai (OPBF-Female) A lower title fight on this card will see Kei Takenaka (9-0, 3) defending her OPBF female Light Flyweight title against Thai visitor Krikanok Islandmuaythai (4-4-1, 2). This is a weaker bout than the other two major fights on this card but it's expected to be one of Takenaka's final bouts before stepping up to world level.  September 29th-
Eun Hye Lee Vs Ploynapa Sakrungrueng (WBC-Female) The final world title bout comes towards the end of the month as South Korean fighter Eun Hye Lee (7-0, 2) battle Thai visitor Ploynapa Sakrungrueng (12-5-1, 1) in a bout for the WBO female Light Flyweight title. This bout has been rescheduled twice following various issues and is finally looking like it's all sorted, finally. September 30th- Yukinori Oguni Vs Taiki Minamoto The final notable action of the month takes place at the end of the month where Japanese fans get a couple of national title fights. The most interesting of those will see Japanese Super Bantamweight champion Yukinori Oguni (14-1-1, 4) defending his belt against the heavy handed Taiki Minamoto (10-4, 9). This will be Oguni's second defense and if he comes through he'll be expected to face a rematch against Yasutaka Ishimoto. Suyon Takayama Vs Ryoji Tanaka The other title fight at the end of the month will see Suyon Takayama (22-1, 7) defending the Japanese Welterweight title against Ryoji Tanaka (8-4-1, 2). This is a weak looking match up, if we're being honest, but the significance of the bout is worth noting and if Takayama keeps defending his title we may, one day, see him take part in a more interesting match up than his recent ones. (All Images courtesy of boxmob.jp  Earlier today we saw Chinese fighter Zou Shiming (6-1, 1) come up short against Thailand's talented but frustrating Amnat Ruenroeng (15-0, 5). If you listened to some members of the boxing press that was the death knell for Chinese boxing. According to them Shiming was the be all and end all of Chinese boxing. For the country to have a boxing scene Shiming needed to be a success.
Strangely however the under-card on the same show seemed to suggest that whilst Shiming was the jewel in the crown of Bob Arum's “Chinese Dynasty” he wasn't the be all and end all of the Macau scene. Never mind the Chinese boxing scene. Firstly let me just give a mention to what is happening on the Chinese mainland courtesy of Zovi boxing. If you listened to much of the boxing media you may never have heard of Zovi boxing but the outfit has been “Chinese boxing” before Chinese boxing. They have guided Xiong Zhao Zhong to a world title, the only one won by a Chinese male, and they have guided the career of several other Chinese fighters including the very promising Qiu Xiao Jun. Although a small company in the grand scheme of things they are the ones who are putting in the investment to create a Chinese boxing scene and they are the ones pulling the WBC into China. Zovi have been around since 2003 though have really grown in recent years with the development of fighters like Zhong, Jun and the Xaing Jiang. If you've not heard of of Jun or Jiang then you'll probably not think you're missing out on anything however both are world ranked. Jiang is WBO #15 at Flyweight, albeit with the WBO calling him “Xiang Jiny”, whilst Jun is the WBC #3 at Super Bantamweight. The odds are both will end up fighting for world titles in the coming years and both are young enough come again and again. Going back to Top Rank, it's fair to say they wanted Shiming to become a world champion. They knew that if Shiming became a champion then they would have the key to making Chinese boxing massive. Shiming however failed to capture the imagination of those in the West. Fans watching the shows with Shiming were repeatedly critical of the double Olympic champion. Strangely those same fans were often positive about other fighters on the card that managed to steal the attention and fanfare. One of those fighters was Super Flyweight action man Rex Tso (16-0, 9). Tso is an infectious fighter with a huge smile, great natural charisma, a happy go lucky attitude and a style that is made for TV. He has recently inked a deal with Top Rank for 2 years and although he's limited there are shades of Arturo Gatti about. He can box, we've seen him box against Ratchasak Kokietgym, but for whatever reason he gets dragged into a war and makes for some of the most fan friendly bouts we've seen in the Super Flyweight division. The Super Flyweight division is a tough one but Tso can put bums on seats and when a fighter can do that they will get opportunities. Another of the fighters was Ik Yang (19-0-0-1, 14) who is now ranked #2 by the IBF at 140lbs. Yang is a 29 year old boxer-puncher who was described as being a “Chinese Adrien Broner” by British journalist Steve Bunce. We'd say that was a harsh description of Yang but see where Bunce is coming from with Yang's combination of ability and clowning though the guy is pure box office. He punches like a mule, he clowns and taunts and he puts on eye catching performances. He is defensively lapse but has a solid chin and is happy to take one to land one and has been on the radar of some fans for the last 3 years or so, since he beat Elly Ray in fact. Yang is the type of guy who will appeal to US TV viewers, he will appeal to Chinese fans, he will attract European fans and more tellingly he is fighting in an attractive division. In fact he's fighting in one of the most popular divisions in the West. Add his appeal to Bob Arum's promotional backing and we have a star in the making. Better yet he speaks broken English giving him a “Gennady Golokvin-like” charm. A third Chinese fighter who has caught the attention on the Bob Arum shows is Macau's very own Kuok Kun Ng (7-0, 3). Ng is the most limited of the 3 but also the least experienced and the man who has had the weakest of teams in his corner. Although he's the biggest “work in progress” he's also a local Macau fighter, exciting and good looking with a notable local fan base. We're not going to say he's mega popular but he does have a loyal fan base and, as shown in his latest bout, he's developing a really exciting aggressive streak. Ng is unlikely to be moved towards a world ranking any time soon. He's simply too inexperienced and too flawed. He is however a popular local draw who will bring in a crowd and be given time to develop his skills without too much pressure on his shoulders. As long as he can link up with a notable corner team he could, slowly, develop into a contender. Whilst the loss for Shiming was a big hit to Top Rank's attempt to take over the Chinese boxing market it wasn't the end of the concept. In fact in many ways it was the first set back since they started doing them and with the working relationships to Teiken and ALA I suspect Top Rank will continue to build in the area. The one major issue is that the cards may need to be more “name heavy” promotions. This could mean that fighters like Nonito Donaire, Brian Viloria, or Manny Pacquiao need to be involved. It could however work to the advantage of boxing fan who may get the chance to see someone like Takashi Miura in Macau to try and tempt over Japanese gamblers. Lets be honest, who'd complain at seeing Miura given a huge profile HBO opportunity in Macau? Personally I suspect we'll see HBO back in Macau in a few months time with Shiming in a against a world ranked foe as he rebuilds, Tso continuing his pursuit of the WBA Super Flyweight title, though not getting his much talked about title bout, and Yang possibly getting a high profile bout. Maybe I'm wrong but I really hope that's not the end of the Macau shows because they have given us some great, great fights and helped get some Western attention to the Flyweight division, something that we've been very happy about. (Image courtesy of Chris Farinas/Top Rank) |
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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