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If you ask us which Japanese fighter above 112lbs has the most upside we'd happily suggest that it's Bantamweight/Super Bantamweight hopeful Shohei Omori who really looks like a nailed on future world champion with his combination of speed, skills, patience and power. It's those traits that Omori showed when he scored his break out win over former world title contender Cristian Esquivel earlier this year and they were again on show when he defeated domestic rival Bunta Mitaka in a very confident and impressive result for the unbeaten and fast rising star. It's not often we can say this but straight from the opening jab he threw he looked a little bit special and almost as if he knew he was too good for Mitaka who attempted to out box the world ranked Omori but was eventually stopped when Omori decided to go through the gears. We'd suggest fans don't sleep on Omori who we really do see as a future world champion and, given the tools he has, he could well win titles in 2 or 3 divisions. (Video courtesy of nov K)
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One of the various promising Japanese fighters starting to make a name for themselves this year is former amateur stand out Kenshiro Teraji, fighting under the name Ken Shiro. The Japanese youngster is another the long line of Japanese fighters carving out a promising career in the lower weights and the confidence his team have in him is astounding with his debut coming against Heri Amol earlier this year. Ken Shiro's second professional bout came against Thai southpaw Phuwanai Wor Surapol and the Japanese fighter really did as he pleased. He quickly got his jab going, found the range and timing and twice dropped the Thai in what was a very 1-sided contest but one that allowed Ken Shiro some time in the ring with a southpaw, something that is useful for such a young fighter like Ken Shiro. (Video courtesy of BMBBOXING) Thailand's Wanheng Menayothin may be on the verge of a world title fight but many of his better wins are against opponents just below the OPBF/PABA level such Indonesia's Heri Amol. In this bout we see Menayothin applying his constant pressure and sharp punching against an opponent who knows how to fight but doesn't show the desire that he had earlier in his career. Interestingly Menayothin actually did a lesser job on Amol than Japan's Ken Shiro who really looked a class act on debut when he boxed the socks off Amol. Styles make fights, of course, but it's due performances like this than some will question whether Menayothin really can take it up to the next level like he'll be hoping to against Oswaldo Novoa. Thailand's Wanheng Menayothin is a tough fighter to really "gauge" in terms of talent despite having won all 35 of his professional fights so far. Whilst we're not sure how good he really is there are some solid wins on his record, including this one against Japanese domestic contender Yuma Iwahashi, who would later come close to claiming the Japanese Minimumweight title against Go Odaira. What this fight showed was what Wanheng was about in the the ring. What he brought to a fight. That's a lot of intense pressure, sharp punching and although he appears to lack power he has good stamina and work rate to back up his pressure. The bout doesn't tell us about how well he really takes a shot or how he reacts when he's got a strong and powerful guy up against him but it certainly shows that he has plenty of skill, skill that could see him one day becoming a world champion. Some fighters are great fun to watch and no matter how limited they are we will always want to watch them just because they have the style to be a lot of fun. One of those men is Nihito Arakawa, a tough Japanese Lightweight who comes to fight despite lacking world class boxing ability, another is his compatriot Yoshihiro Kamegai who is tough, heavy handed and usually involved in fun fights. Of course however it takes two to tango and sometimes a fun to watch fighter is in a less than thrilling bout due to the style of his opponent. That certainly seemed to be the case when Kamegai, a limited but exciting brawler, took on Johan Perez, a talented boxer-mover. We won't ruin the bout too much for those who haven't see this one, but it certainly was one of the least exciting Kamegai fights and a long, long way removed from his action war with Robert Guerrero in 2014. If you've not seen that one you've missed out! When a fighter strings together a lot of stoppages to begin their career you can jump to conclusions. Sometimes they run off KO's against weak opponents, because the opponents are weak. Sometimes however the power is legit and what they hit they hurt, whether it's the "scoring" area or not they just have thunder fists. Recently we saw Dmitry Kudryashov given a bit of a test against the experienced and tough Giulian Ilie. We won't ruin the bout but this was expected to be a good test of Kudryashov's power given that Ilie had only suffered 1 previous defeat inside the distance, and that came to one of the division's biggest punchers and likely future world champion. One of the most controversial and debated all-Asian bouts from the 1980's was the WBA Bantamweight title fight between the teak tough Khaokor Galaxy and Filipino fighter Luisito Espinosa. We won't ruin the result though following the bout there was reports of gambling irregularities, a fix and of neurological issues, the one thing we will say is that the ending was very peculiar lending credibility to all sorts of weird theories. Whatever the truth to the ending we may never fully know but this bout is one that really does needing watching by every boxing fan. (Video courtesy of Jerome Naldoza) Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungvisai isn't a puncher but he does have the skills, experience and shot selection to hurt fighters and on the rare occasions where he does want to close the show he can do just that. That was clearly the case in 2013 when he took on the then unbeaten Daryl Basadre of the Philippines. The bout looked interesting on paper but was a mismatch in the ring with Basadre simply not being ready for a fighter as talented and experienced as Suriyan. This resulted in Suriyan picking up a stoppage with a vicious body shot that cut short Basadre's unbeaten record without too many problems. Since this fight Basadre has strung together 4 wins whilst Suriyan has marched towards a WBC Bantamweight world title bout with Shinsuke Yamanaka. When we talk about Thai greats we need to mention the fantastic Saensak Muangsurin who gave a real re-writing to the term "tough match making". Muangsurin fought just 20 times as a professional but was involved in 12 world title bouts, including winning world titles in his 3rd and 7th professional contests. Sadly a long career in Muay Thai and a tough career in boxing saw Muangsurin age incredibly quickly in the ring and aged just 29 he looked like a totally spent fighter as he took on a young and emerging Tommy Hearns. Hearns would later go on to a HOF career whilst Muangsurin's career faded out with just 1 win in 3 bouts before retiring in the early 1980's. It was disappointing to see Muangsurin like this, but on the other hand we suspect he got a decent pay day despite being clearly shot and we suspect suffering from some kind of serious injury. (Video courtesy of HearnsFanBritish) If there is one packed division in Japan it's the amazing Super Featherweight division which is possibly the strongest domestic division on the planet. The country boasts 2 of the reigning world champions, Takashi Miura and Takashi Uchiyama, it also boasts the exceptional Daiki Kaneko, the talented Masayuki Ito and the hard hitting Masao Nakamura. Recently we saw two other top Japanese Super Featherweights trading leather as Japanese champion Rikki Naito battled with Shingo Eto in what was a very good bout between two similarly skilled though stylistically different fighters. We won't ruin the bout though we hope you enjoy it as much as we did (Video courtesy of Mom Love) |
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April 2024
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