July 14th 2009-World Memorial Hall, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Katsunari Takayama (23-3, 9) Vs Roman Gonzalez (23-0, 20)

In 2009 former WBC Minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama [高山 勝成]​ challenged WBA champion Roman Gonzalez, who was looking to make his second defense and his first in Japan where he won the title just 10 months earlier.

Back in 2009 few would have suggest that Roman Gonzalez was one of the best fighters on the planet, in all honesty few really knew much about him. He had, admittedly, destroyed Yutaka Niida in 2008 but that was about it for his notable wins at the time. Of course now we all know what "Chocolatito" is capable of and he has become arguably the most impressive fighter on the planet with all the tools a fighter could want. He's dedicated, hard working, skilled, tough, speedy, a natural combination puncher, powerful and just a sensational fighter.

Whilst many will consider the victory over Niida as Gonzalez's break out victory a good case could be made for what he did some 10 months later when he returned to Japan and battered the fantastic Katsunari Takayama, who actually retired for over a year following the bout.

This fight, which was fought on July 14th 2009, was really amazing and showed off not only all the great facets to Gonzalez's game, his aggression, work rate, skills and power but all a lot of what we love about Takayama. Despite taking a hammering the Japanese fighter refused to be stopped even though he looked out on his feet numerous times.

At the end of the day there was only 1 winner, Gonzalez by a wide margin, but both men impressed us and have continued to do so in careers that have really given us more excitement than we'd typically expect of such small fighters. Amazingly at just 27 Gonzalez still has so much to give whilst Takayama himself he risen to top of the Minimumweight division and will be looking to unify the IBF and WBO world titles later this year. It's fair to say both men have had amazing careers and have been in their share of amazing fights.

(Video courtesy of Boxeoprodesa and is in Japanese, there is another version of the same fight that we hope to have up in the future, which we believe is in Spanish.)