Dramatic fights are why we all watch boxing, and that's exactly what fans who tuned into NTV today got as we were treat to an intriguing WBC Bantamweight title fight between Shinsuke Yamanaka (25-0-2, 17) [山中 慎介] and Venezuelan challenger Liborio Solis (23-4-1, 10). Solis, fighting in Japan for the third time, had talked the big talk before the fight. He had spoken about Yamanaka having a glass jaw and about how he was going to stop the champion, who was seeking his 10th defense of the title. The talk of Solis wasn't backed up in the opening round as the visitor showed a lot of respect for Yamanaka and threw very little. The best punches of the round were both left hands from the champion and in all honesty the round wasn't a great opener. The pace however did pick up and in the opening stages of round Solis was down, although it looked like a slip-come-push the referee ruled it a legitimate knockdown. It secured Yamanaka a 10-8 round but seemed to fire up solis who let rip with some solid right hands and got into Yamanaka's face. Although the “knockdown” in round 2 was a messy one there no doubting either of the knockdowns in round 3, with them both being scored by Solis who found a home for his powerful right hand. The first knockdown was a hard one with Yamanaka put onto the seat of his pants and when he recovered Solis smelled blood, forcing the second knockdown soon afterwards. It was a nightmare round for Yamanaka and one that gave credence to Solis's “glass jaw” comments. It has also secured the challenger a 10-7 round and evened up the cards. Sadly for the challenger he was was unable to replicate his success in round 4 with a recovered Yamanaka showing respect to his rival and not choosing to slug it out. Instead Yamanaka boxed and move, finding opportunities to let his shots go and get out of range before the counters came back at him. It was a much needed comeback round and one that left him 37-36 up on all 3 of the cards, which were announced after the round. Yamanaka's tactic of using speed and movement continued to be success in round 5 with Solis often throwing shots at the air from outside of range, whilst Yamanaka was connecting with consistent left hands. It wasn't until round 6 that Solis could mount any series assault, but even that was blunted by Yamanaka who countered well and did enough, especially late in the round, to claim it. Although Yamanaka had waited late to win round 6 he started round 7 with bad intentions and cracked the challenger in the mid-section with a number of very solid left hands. It seemed to lead to the challenger slowing down with his dangerous right hands looking much less potent than they had in round 3. He was still looking to land them, but they were far less frequent than they had been earlier in the bout. Solis, know he was slipping further behind, came out for round 8 swinging and he quickly looked to land bombs. They were however misfired and rarely came close to the champion who landed the best punch of the round then thwarted many of Solis' attacks by clinching. It seemed as if the fight was starting to wane on a bit, with both men showing a lot of respect to the other and neither really letting combinations go. Sadly for Solis inactivity wasn't an option and the open scoring had him 77-72 behind after 8 rounds. The 9th saw another dubious call in favour of Yamanaka who was adjudged to have dropped Solis, though it hardly seemed a knockdown and another messy bundling over of the Venezuelan. The knockdown seem to get in cruise control somewhat and the round was a poor one with a lot of holding. It seemed the champion knew the bout was safe on the cards and he didn't need to take any risks, especially given the scare in round 3. Despite the relatively dull 9th round Yamanaka did come out firing in round 10 and the pace suddenly warmed up with both landing solid bombs on each other. It was the best round for a while with Solis landing several hard right hands whilst Yamanaka's left hand was, as ever, consistently landing. The round seemed to set the stage for a couple of great championship rounds, though the reality was that those final two rounds intrigued more than excited, with the most memorable moment of round 11 being when the two men almost spilled through the ropes. In round 12 it seemed that Yamanaka was looking for a finish, and opened up a very nasty cut on Solis's nose, but the challenger didn't seem to care about the cut and the two finished the round slugging it out. Solis knew he'd need a knockout, in fact he knew that after round 9, and his failure to get it essentially sealed his fate. After the final bell the fighters embraced though both knew who the winner was, with the cards all reading 117-107 to Yamanaka. There is now talk about Yamanaka unifying with IBF champion Lee Haskins, though we suspect he'll actually return to the ring in Summer for a rematch with either Suriyan Sor Rungvisai or Anselmo Moreno, in what will be a mandatory title defense for the hard hitting southpaw. Whilst looking back the third round was a major scare for the champion the fact he had had to dig deep early on and recovered in the way he did was impressive and he deserves full credit for that. For Solis his effort, especially early, was commendable but in the end he did look like a man relying on landing a big right hand, with out setting it up properly. Had the challenger shown more nous there is a good chance this would have been much close than the cards suggest. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp)
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When an orthodox fighter faces a southpaw we do often get headclashes, though not fights have them as regularly as the WBO Bantamweight title fight that we had earlier today between defending champion Pungluang Sor Singyu (52-3, 35) and Filipino challenger Jetro Pabustan (26-3-6, 7). The two men seemed to fight like their were magnets in each other's heads and clashes became a recurrent theme. In the opening round there were several headclashes, they weren't major ones but they foretold the story that was to come through the following rounds. Unfortunately they were a by product of both men wanting to fight on the inside and both looking to land big shots whilst there. Although both were wanting to fight a similar fight the actual style suited the stronger and more powerful Pungluang, who was getting the better of the action. Pabustan seemed the better outside fighter but all too often gave away his reach to fight up close. The inside action continued through the fight with round 2 seeing more headclashes, this time they did result in damage with Pabustan being cut from a clash and being bullied when the fight was being fought up close. The cut was inspected in the early stages of round 3 but the doctor ruled that the challenger was fine to continue. Although ruled fine Pabustan did seem to be uncomfortable and did begin to hold and make the action more desperate as Pungluang found a home for some massive right hands as Pabustan stood in the pocket too long. Pabustan's discomfort was made even worse in round 4 as Pungluang turned up the heat and gave him a bit of a pounding with shots that landing with a sickening thud. Pabustan was beginning to look tired and defeated whilst Pungluang was looking like a man enjoying himself as he seemed to begin breaking down his over-matched challenger. Amazingly Pabustan had his best round of the fight in round 5, as he mixed up the distance more, used his speed and reach and seemed to make a solid claim to win the round. He did put a lot of effort in to the round but seemed like a worth while tactic given that he needed some momentum after a very painful round 4. The headclashes returned in style at the beginning of round 6 and saw Pungluang actually back up in agony. The headclash gave the two a few seconds before the action resumed and a seemingly angry Pungluang went after Pabustan with a renewed tenacity landing a number of hurtful right hands as he looked to punish the Filipino. The round was a clear Pungluang round and saw the Thai's smile return. Sadly the headclashes simply seemed to never end and early in round 7 the doctor too Pabustan to the doctor again, this time to look at a cut around the side of his head. The doctor against allowed the fight to go on, but that did little to help Pabustan who was again on the end of some nasty right hands from the Thai who had got the venue rocking with the crowd well behind him. It seemed as if Pungluang was really breaking up the Filipino and on his way to a stoppage, however a headclash on the bell left Pabustan looking a bloodied mess. Between rounds 7 and 8 the doctor took another look at Pabustan and called a halt, taking the bout to the scorecards which all favoured the champion by a score of 70-63. For Pabustan a technical decision shouldn't be anything new, it's his 12th overall and his 4th in the last 7 bouts. His wild style leads to headclashes and has marred up more than just a couple of fights. For Pungluang this win sets up a mandatory title bout with another Filipino challenger, Marlon Tapales. That bout will take place later this and should be a much cleaner bout than this one, however, like Pabustan, Tapales is a southpaw. (Image courtesy of thairec.com) Earlier today in Monaco fans had a real treat with a Golden Gloves promoted card in Monte Carlo. One of the headline bouts of the card featured Kazakhstan's Zhanat Zhakiyanov (26-1, 18), who took on Venezuela's talented Yonfrez Parejo (17-2-1, 8), who was looking to defend the WBA interim Bantamweight title. Sadly for Parejo he was unable to over-come "ZZ" in what was a very competitive and well matched bout.
The fight started very well for the defending champion who used his movement and jab early on to establish his style of fight. It was the start that was expected of the champion and one that really saw him fight to his strengths and make Zhakiyanov look like the limited fighter that we'd seen numerous times before. The champion's early work had established him the lead during the early rounds however in round Zhakiyanov began to up the pressure cause Parejo some trouble. Those troubles continued into rounds 5 and 6 as the challenger began to find his range and get to a slowing Parejo. It was earlier than expected for Zhakiyanov to get success, but it did show that he had the style to really trouble Parejo. With Zhakiyanov coming back into the fight it was an interesting middle section of the fight as each guy had their successes in what was a competitive section of the fight. It seemed that Parejo had just done enough, with his movement and range control, to take a good portion of the middle rounds but they were close and sharing them between the two fighters was certainly not out of the question. In the later rounds it seemed that Zhakiyanov was the one pushing the action, trying to over-turn the slight disadvantage he had faced in the middle rounds. It seemed he did just enough but the fight could easily have been scored any which way with the sheer number of competitive rounds. The judges seemed to agree that it was close, though did split the two men with two of the judges favouring the challenger, with scores of 113-115 and 113-116 to Zahkiyanov whilst the dissenting judge had it 116-112 to Parejo, all reasonable scores for what was a close bout, though one that we thought Parejo perhaps deserved. When a fighter fights at home they do tend to get the rub of the green. It's a world wide issue and one that has seen some countries given a harder time than others. We've seen countries like Germany, Thailand, Britain and Argentina in particular come under heavy criticism for home fighters getting the decision in very close bouts. Today it was the turn of Japan as local star Shinsuke Yamanaka (24-0-2, 17) got the rub of the green against Anselmo Moreno (35-4-1, 12) in a WBC Bantamweight title defense for Yamanaka.
Early on the bout was a battle of high level boxing with both men trying to establish their jabs. The better shots were from the challenger who seemed to land at a notably higher rate though it was during these early stages that Yamanaka was landing the heavier shots. For 4 rounds the two men were essentially cancelling each other out with high level boxing and trading of jabs. The WBC rules, that were in effect, had the bout edge to Yamanaka after 4 rounds with the champion leading by a score of 39-37 on two of the cards whilst the third had the bout even. At this point it was relatively difficult to argue either way with the bout being incredibly close up to that point, though perhaps having 10-10 rounds would have reflected things a little bit more accurately than the typical 10-9 rounds. The open scoring seemed to spur on Moreno who came on strong in round 5 as the bout picked up pace. It was another highly competitive round but one that seemed to be in Moreno's favour with the slipper Panamanian managing to avoid the bigger shots from Yamanaka whilst landing his left hand. The round saw both men change their tactic with Yamanaka getting on the move whilst Moreno became more aggressive. The success in round 5 was built on by Moreno who seemed to clearly with round 6 with the same tactic of pushing Yamanaka back and forcing the action in what was another good round for the challenger. The challengers success was halted in round 7 as Yamanaka began to actually land his much vaunted left hand. It was another round that could have gone either way, with Moreno landing plenty of shots himself, but it seemed like Yamanaka could have made enough of a case to get, especially at home. Despite the respite of some success in round 7 Yamanaka really struggled in round 8 and showed some clear frustration, at one point pushing Moreno down. It was clear that whilst a lot of the action was close it was Moreno who was in the ascendency and was managing to get into the head of the local fighter. The scorecards after 8 rounds were again read out and this time they had changed notably with Moreno leading on one cards, 77-75, and level on the other two, with a score of 76-76. Moreno's success continued in round 9, his most dominant round of the fight. The challenger rocked Yamanaka and seemed to be looking for the finish before he got caught by a left hand and started to show more respect to the still dangerous champion. Despite Yamanaka earning Moreno's respect it was a very clear round for the challenger, who seemed to have gone into the lead on all 3 cards. Yamanaka, knowing he was down, went out for round 10 with the intention of getting a KO and he was very left hand happy, almost “spamming” the punch. It was a successful tactic for the champion who seemed to hurt Moreno for the first time in the fight. The challenger, realising the danger that was still in front of him, was happy to hold and see out the storm. The same storm however came again in round 11 as Yamanaka continued to hunt the KO, and almost got dropped himself during a wild exchange that saw his knees buckle but his hands and ass stay off the canvas, had a knockdown been scored that would likely have swung a 10-9 Yamanaka round to a 10-8 Moreno round and made the bout Moreno's almost by default. With Yamanaka having seemingly got his nose in the lead on two of the scorecards it was all to play for in round 12. The round was a tricky one with both men looking tired though it seemed that Yamanaka, who had put a lot into the previous 6 minutes, was the more tired and it seemed that Moreno just managed to take the round, which was mired in clinches. Looking at the open scoring from round 8 it seemed that the cards were likely to be declared a majority draw with with 114-114, 114-114 and 116-112. The judges however saw something different and seemingly gave Yamanaka the all important 12th round to give him a split decision with scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 113-115, all from American judges. The decision was met with some anger online and Chemito also seemed to feel disgusted with the result. Given the result we wouldn't be shocked to hear talk of a rematch, possibly in 2016, though we could see Moreno declining the fight if it was to be held in Japan again. For Moreno this is a second set back, and one that will hurt just as bad as his previous loss, a controversial technical decision to Juan Carlos Payano. For Yamanaka it was a headache and easily the toughest bout of his career. The next step for both will be interesting and could either see a rematch, to “right the wrong”, it could see both men go their own way, with a move to Super Bantamweight for Yamanaka being one that seems to make sense even if it's not been spoken about too much recently. Boxing often sees “controversy” with the scoring of fights thought it must be said that sometimes a judge can have an off night. This past Sunday we dare say that the judges got it right as Englishman Jamie McDonnell (27-2-1, 12) did the double over Tomoki Kameda (31-2, 19) and retained his WBA Bantamweight crown.
The two men, who fought in a thriller earlier this year, were expected to be in another thriller here. Tomoki was favoured by the bookies and the view in many quarters was that he would have learned from his first loss. The hope was that linking up with esteemed trainer Ismael Salas would help Tomoki correct the issues that cost him in his previous bout. The opening round was close. In fact to split them was almost impossible as both jabbed and moved well in a high paced and highly skilled opening round. To score it either way would have been acceptable, as would a 10-10 round, it really was one of those rounds where the two men fought as near mirror images of each other. The second round saw Kameda really kick things off and for 2 minutes of the round he looked brilliant putting McDonnell under pressure and landing most notable shots, including a very solid left hook. Having “sealed” the round after just 2 minutes Tomoki seemed to ease off the gas late in the round round and backed up, cruising the final 40 seconds or so. Sadly the backing up, which was final in that particular situation, became the story of the fight. In round 3 it was McDonnell setting the pace and tempo of the fight as he came forward with a determined and intelligent march. Not only was McDonnell coming forward but he was doing it behind a busy jab that seemed to prevent Kameda from getting into a rhythm. Kameda did have have some success with his counters but his shots were often falling short whilst Mcdonnell out worked him and seemingly bullied him around the ring. It was the start of McDonnell's domination of the bout. McDonnell built on his success from round 3 and by the middle rounds it seemed that the fight had had it's identity sorted with McDonnell instilling his will on to the fight at the expense of Tomoki who was forced to fight on the back foot, where he wasn't particularly strong. By round 8 it seemed like Tomoki would need to make a drastic change in tactics if he was to claim the victory here. He had managed to make rounds 5, 6 and 7 close, by landing the better shots, but he didn't seem to do quite enough to over-come McDonnell's work rate. In round 9 we finally saw Tomoki actually shining with some solid right hands that landed clean on McDonnell's head. They didn't ever hurt the Englishman but they were the sort of shots that he was going to need to build his confidence and have any chance of defeating Mcdonnell. Sadly for Tomoki his success from round 9 wasn't built on like it needed to be and in round 10 McDonnell got back to being in charge with Tomoki moving too much and throwing far too little in a round that had looked like many of the earlier rounds. The same could also be said of round 11 where it seemed clear that Tomoki would need a KO but refused to go for it. If Mcdonnell hadn't done enough in the first 11 rounds he essentially sealed the deal in round 12 with a knockdown of Tomoki, albeit a slip-come-knockdown, that secured a 10-8 round. Tomoki did fight hard in the dying stages of the round but it was clear that it was far too little to over-come the knockdown, or much of the previous 10 rounds. At the final bell the judges all favoured McDonnel with cards ranging from 115-112 to 117-111. They were varied but all seemed to be in the “acceptable range” given the competitiveness of rounds 1, 5,6 and 7. Despite the close rounds we couldn't see any way to give it to Tomoki with the best he could have expected expect being a 114-113 defeat. For Tomoki this is a second successive defeat and it's likely he'll need to seriously rethink his career. He looked small in comparison to McDonnell and may well need to consider a move down to Super Flyweight if he can lose 3lbs. If not he'll likely find himself as a either a perennial contender or, if his confidence is shot, a stepping stone for the emerging generation of Bantamweights, including the really exciting Shohei Omori. McDonnell has hinted in the past of a move to Super Bantamweight and we expect he'll add the 4lbs and move up. That will leave the title vacant and we wouldn't be surprised to see a number of interesting fighters, including Omori and Ryo Matsumoto, all be linked to that title in early 2016. Whilst the fight wasn't as good as the first one the big issue we have was the commentary on CBS which seemed to sway people into believing Kameda did better than he really did. We began this by saying the judges can have off days, we dare say the commentator had a bad today. We have a lot of respect and time for the commentator in question so we will put it down to a bad day at the office and would hope that everyone who has scored this in favour of Kameda will rewatch it with the sound off. In boxing there are some great rivalries. One of the best in Asia is the Japan Vs Thailand rivalry which has provided numerous great fights over the years, including the recent Daigo Higa Vs Kongfah CP Freshmart fight for a WBC Youth title. Despite the rivalry being a great one it has seen Thailand use home advantage to great effect, and that was seen again today as Pungluang Sor Singyu (51-3, 35) scored a surprise stoppage of Ryo Akaho (26-2-2, 18) and left Japanese still looking for their first world title victory in the land of smiles. Prior to the bout the Thais played games, as they often do. The two men were in the ring for more than 20 minutes for the first punch was thrown. Whilst they were in the ring introductions were given to every one, from the judges and referees to the sponsors. Those introductions were then followed by national anthems as the Thai's stalled, and tried to break the concentration of the visitor before a punch was even thrown. It wasn't unexpected but it did look like it worked with Akaho looking frustrated as the camera zoomed in on him waiting for the fight to start. As soon as the fight started it was clear that the build up had frustrated Akaho who began by throwing some ridiculous shots. Pungluang wasn't looking great himself but seemed to know that if he kept getting into Akaho's head this was going to be easy. As part of getting to Akaho the Thai held, hit behind the head and bent the rules, without breaking them. He took a warning from referee Robert Byrd inside the opening stanza but it was clear that Akaho wasn't enjoy it as he complained several times to the referee. Other than the dirty action the opening round was close, intense and it looked like both were going to go for an early finish. In round 2 Pungluang seemed to jump start the round, immediately taking the fight to the visitor who was caught in his own corner. Akaho escapes the situation and manages to have some success of his own before being turned in a neutral corner by Pungluang. The movement of Pungluang, and the frustration of Akaho, saw the Japanese fighter sending himself into the turnbuckle head first. Instantly Pungluang smelled blood and unload with Akaho unable to respond, or defend himself. The assault was vicious and quickly sent Akaho down, where he remain until the bout was stopped. Whilst Pungluang did appear to land a shot to the back of Akaho's head, it did look like an innocuous blow with the other shots in the sequence being the ones that ended the bout. Those were landed whilst Akaho seemed to be trying to grab the ropes to steady himself, and as a result he left himself open to some clean bombs which landed hard. For Akaho this is a second disappointment at the world level after a previous loss, at Super Flyweight, to Yota Sato. Amazingly the loss has seen Japanese fighters fall to 0-3 in Bantamweight title bouts outside of Japan this year, with losses also coming for Tomoki Kameda and Ryosuke Iwasa. As for Pungluang it's a career defining victory and sees him becoming a 2-time world champion. The interesting question now is what Pungluang does in his first defense as he will now become a marked man for fighters like Ryo Matsumoto, Zhanat Zhakiyanov and Shohei Omori, all of whom may have the backing to get the Thai outside of his homeland. Japanese fighters have, amazingly, never won a world title in Europe. That run sadly continued earlier today as Ryosuke Iwasa (19-2, 12) came up short against Englishman Lee Haskins (32-3, 14) who scored a remarkable stoppage of the Japanese fighter and claimed the IBF interim Bantamweight title.
From the opening round it seemed like Iwasa's game plan was based around coming on strong as Haskins slowed. Sadly for Iwasa he never got to see that plan come to fruition. Haskins started amazingly well and looked sharp from the off with his right hooks, counters and elusive movement. It seemed that whilst Iwasa was the bigger and naturally stronger man Haskins was the quicker and sharper man. From opening bell it was Haskins who was making the most of his advantages and he took the first 2 rounds with no doubt at all. It was in round 3 that the fight took it's first turn with Iwasa manage to make the action close, especially in the later part of the round as Haskins looked to be feeling the pace and effect of his own movement. The slowing down of Haskins showed again in round 4 as Iwasa clearly took the round and seemed to find the range of his heavy left hands. It seemed that the bout was turning and that Iwasa was set to come on strong. Haskins managed to regroup his composure in round 5, though it was a messy and a close round plagued by clinches. It seemed that Haskins was certainly feeling the pace whilst Iwasa looked relaxed, despite being well down on the cards. Round 6 started well for Iwasa who landed a big right hand and had blood coming from Haskins's nose. It seemed again that Iwasa was set to come until he walked into a monstrous counter shot from Haskins. It will probably go down as the best shot Haskins will throw. The shot was amazing and rocked Iwasa who went down hard seconds later. The Japanese fighter, amazingly, got up to his feet at the count of 7 but a follow up attack forced the referee to step in and stop the contest. For Iwasa it's back to Japan and back to rebuilding, with a probably move to Super Bantamweight in the near future. As for Haskins he'll now have to await the next step of Randy Caballero. A bout between Haskins and Caballero is likely to happen when Caballero returns from his injury. Oh how things can change in the space of just 18 months. In November 2013 all 3 Kameda brothers were world champions. Koki, Daiki and Tomoki. They were in the Guinness book of world records for their amazing achievement together. Since then however things have fallen apart and the trio now hold no titles, and the future for them doesn't look anywhere near as good as it once did.
The latest hit to the Kameda's came this past Saturday night when Tomoki Kameda (31-1, 19), the youngest of the Kameda brothers, suffered his first professional loss and failed to claim the WBA Bantamweight title, being narrowly out pointed by Englishman Jamie McDonnell (26-2-1, 12) in a genuinely enthralling contest. The fight started really well for Tomoki who seemed to claim the first round and, in round 3, scored a flash knockdown to secure a 10-8 round. At that point it seemed like the fight was Tomoki's to lose and that the Japanese fighter was set to become a 2-time world champion. Rather than Tomoki losing it McDonnell made the adjustments needed and began to really let his hands go, finding a new gear and using his jab excellently to neutralise Tomoki's naturally quicker hand at range. On the inside both men were unleashing great flurries and the action was fantastic with a real see-saw feel to it though it did seem like McDonnell was getting the best of it more often than not. By round 6 Tomoki's early lead had been eroded and it was clear that there wasn't going to be a lot in it if things continued to be as well fought as it was. Unfortunately for Tomoki he failed to really find another gear and instead he was being forced to fight McDonnell's fight more and more with McDonnell dictating the pace of the fight, as seen notably in round 7. Tomoki fought back hard and seemed to clearly claim round 8 as he moved up a gear, securing one of the few clear rounds of the fight. Unfortunately for Tomoki it was his final “clear” round and an attempt to steal round 9 was too close to call, despite seemingly wobbling McDonnell late in the round. It seemed like it was all to play for in the final 3 rounds and unfortunately for Tomoki it seemed like McDonnell was the hungry man taking the fight to the Japanese fighter and, in round 12, completely dominating a very lazy Tomoki. It seemed that Tomoki fought the final round as if he had it in the bag, though in reality it was too close to call. Stupidly for Tomoki the fact he gave the round away cost him with McDonnell taking the decision with scores of 114-113 on all 3 cards. It was one of the rare times that the judges all got the bout spot on, and it was the type of bout that showed just how good boxing can be, less than a week after the disappointing "Fight of the Century". Tomoki's "strategy" for round 12 was one of the stupidest things we've seen a fighter do as a challenger, it didn't quite match Daiki Kameda's mental break down against Daisuke Naito but it was similarly foolish especially considering how close this bout had been. Sadly Tomoki showed a real lack of character at the end suggesting he had won all 12 rounds though it did show the lack of class that we are familiar with when it comes to the Kameda's. For Tomoki it does leave him on the outside looking in when it comes to a big fight. He's still seemingly very popular with the Mexican fans but it's going to be a mystery what his next step is, especially considering he's locked out of a number of mouth watering bouts due to his ban from Japan. Strangely however we may have moved a step close to a really promising bout, with McDonnell now being an attractive opponent for WBC champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, in what would be a bout between the two stand out fighters in the division. A bout between Tomoki and Yamanaka seemed really unlikely but McDonnell and Yamanaka is certainly a possibility, and a mouth watering one at that. For fans who missed this one, you really should hunt it down, it was enthralling and the type of bout that every fight fan wishes to see. For those who saw it, we won't be saying anything new by suggesting that it was something a little bit special. Over the last 12 months or so we've seen the Bantamweight division heat up and go from a division that few cared about to a division that is really looking like one of the strongest in the sport. Although deep it does have one stand out fighter, a fighter who perhaps belongs on the verges of the mythical pound-for-pound lists. That standout fighter is WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (23-0-2, 17) who recorded the 7th defence of his title earlier today and showed off his much vaunted and thoroughly destructive power once again.
Today he was facing off against the unbeaten Diego Ricardo Santillan (23-1, 15), a man who had come to Japan with a confident attitude though also some arrogance. Although he was unbeaten he had never faced a foe even nearing the world level and worst of all he had seemingly not done his research n the champion, not even knowing that Yamanaka's left hand was dubbed "God's Left" due to it's power. Instead Santillan had said that the only "hand of God" was that of soccer player Diego Maradonna, referring to a controversial goal of Maradonna's against England in a world cup back in the 1980's. Although Yamanka's southpaw straight left hand is his danger punch he actually showed some restraint today as he made the most of his often under utilised jab, pecking away at Santillan with the lead hand from the opening round. To his credit Santillan tried to fight back but it seemed obvious from the first 3 minutes that these two were in completely different leagues in terms of skills and power. Although the jabs were the key to a lot of Yamanaka's success it was still the left hand that was the danger punch of the champion and having felt it's power early on the challenger seemed to think it wise to not fight fire with fire. Unfortunately for Santillan he lacked the ability to come forward and push the action with any type of efficiency, instead he was left chasing or forced to eat one of Yamanaka's incredibly accurate shots that rarely seemed to miss. Those shots really began to take their toll in round 5 as Santillan began to bust up the challenger's face. With blood coming from Santillan and Yamanaka looking completely in charge it was little wonder that Yamanaka's corner seemed happier to wipe his foes's blood from their man gloves than offer much in terms of advice. It was clear however that Yamanaka merely had to continue doing what he was doing. And that's what he did. In round 6 the continued success of Yamanaka with his 1-2's, his sharp jab and his counter straight, were all it took to further control the fight with a monster left hand putting the challenger down onto the seat of his pants. Were it not for the toughness and game Latino spirit that would likely have been the end of the fight. Instead Santillan did all he could to see out the round, which included a very deliberate spitting out of the gum shield. The stalling tactics did little for the challenger who managed to make it to round 7 but failed to survive it. Instead he was left on his backside after a thunderbolt left caught him bang on the chin, sending him to the canvas in eye catching fashion. That was it, the fight was over and Yamanaka's "God Left" was again responsible for the demis of another challenger. After the fight the champion stated he wanted to fight in a bigger bout next time around. Whilst we all hope he faces a notable name it does seem like he'll be forced to wait whilst others play games around him. We know that a bout with Tomoki Kameda is attractive for fans but politics makes that unlikely, the IBF champion is currently injured, and a bout with Juan Carlos Payano is unlikely with Payano rumoured to be fighting with Ryo Matsumoto. There are still some attractive options out there but unification would likely have been what Yamanaka would have been wanting for his next bout. Tomoki secures his third defense though must be left wondering what the judges were watching...11/2/2014 Earlier this year many Western fans got their first chance to see Tomoki Kameda (31-0, 19), the youngest of the trio of Kameda brothers, as he stopped Thailand's Pungluang Sor Singyu in the US. That was despite the fact Kameda had actually fought much of his career in Mexico where he scored several notable wins, including a decision over Stephane Jamoye. This weekend he returned to the US to seek his third defense of the WBO Bantamweight title. In the opposite corner to Kameda was experienced Mexican Alejandro Hernandez (28-11-2, 15), the mandatory challenger for Kameda and the WBO interim champion.
Sadly the impressive performance of Kameda against Pungluang wasn't replicated here, despite the fact he easily out pointed and dominated Hernandez who often looked like a man happier to survive than to take a risk in an attempt to win the fight. In the opening round Kameda struck first and used his speed, both with his feet and hands, to back up Hernandez in what was a relatively easy round for the champion who was facing a man who looked timid and unsure of himself. Kameda's success from the opening round grew and grew through the first half as the champion proved he fight Hernandez's fight and win it as he began forcing Hernandez back at will, landing flurries and getting out of distance before Hernandez tried to retaliate. It seemed that the challenger was either in survival mode or biding his time in the hope that Kameda would wear himself out. It wasn't until round 6 that Hernandez even seemed to look like he was interested in trying to win a round and despite trying to win it he was clearly out landed and out worked by the classy Kameda who looked like he was in cruise control racking up the rounds whilst taking little damage damage in return. Hernandez tried again in round 7 as we had one of the bouts few debatable rounds. This was perhaps the first swing round though was followed one of Kameda's rounds as the Japanese boxer got on his toes and just boxed the socks off Hernandez who appeared frustrated in the later part of the round. Strangely Kameda's domination came to an end in round 9 as Hernandez finally put his foot on the gas and won a round as he cut Kameda and worked away on the Japanese fighter who quickly looked bothered by the damage that was beginning to form around his left eye. It wasn't threatening the end of the fight but it was swelling shut and marking up notably from the success of the challenger who seemed to smell blood through the round. Hernandez's short lived fight back came to an end the following round with Kameda winning rounds 10 and 11 in a similar fashion to the way he won the earlier rounds, simply out working a lazy looking Hernandez who let the momentum instantly slip away. Hernandez claimed his second clear round in round 12 as he seemed to hurt Kameda and went on the offensive through the round. It left us wondering where this mentality had been in the earlier rounds when he had been happy to back off behind his guard rather than unload and come forward. It showed that Hernandez can fight but for large swathes of this bout he just chose not to in a very disappointing effort. After 12 rounds it seemed we had a clear winner. Tomoki had won the bout in the first 7 or 8 rounds on our card. Strangely, though predictably now, the judges had things scored a bit differently to us as they turned in scores cards that gave us a split decision with all three cards reading 115-113, two to Kameda and one to Hernandez, to give the Japanese fighter a split decision win. We're unsure what the judges were watching but it wasn't the fight in the ring we're afraid, that wasn't competitive, even if Tomoki didn't impress as he did against Punluang earlier this year. From what we understand Tomoki will now be fighting against Britain's Jamie McDonnell in WBO/WBA unification bout in 2015, we'll hope for Kameda's sake that these judges aren't involved there. |
World Title Results
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