Over the last few years we have seen Japanese gym Watanabe almost crumble with all of their most established fighters either retiring or suffering notable defeats. The gym, which boasted 3 world champions this time last year, has sadly been hit by loss after loss after their president, Hitoshi Watanabe, became the leading figure at the JPBA.
Today they narrowly escaped another notable loss as WBA Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (25-2-2, 11) [田口 良一] just retained his title with a split decision draw against little known Venezuelan Carlos Canizales (16-0-1, 13). Taguchi had entered the bout as the clear betting favourite, in fact it seemed that almost everyone had viewed the bout as a foregone conclusion despite Canizales warning that Taguchi had picked the wrong opponent. Canizales looked to prove that from the off as he attacked the champion from the opening round and established that he wasn't there to make up the numbers and was a real threat as he kept pressing forward and quickly backed up Taguchi. Taguchi tried to turn things around but couldn't halt the march of Canizales in the early stages and every time Taguchi had any success Canizales swarmed him, preventing taguchi from every really getting any momentum. The good start from the challenger couldn't be kept up, especially at the rate he was firing off shots, and in the middle rounds he began to slow, letting Taguchi have more success and claw his way back into the bout with some notable body shots. In round 8 Taguchi finally had a break through, with the crowd cheering him loudly and driving him on to turn things around, with the champion building on his success in round 9 with his jab landing on the face of the challenger. In round 10 it seemed like Taguchi was finally starting to break down the challenger but he was unable to drop, or seriously hurt, Canizales who saw out the final two rounds with clinching and other spoiling tactics, likely feeling that his work early in the fight had been enough for him to take home the win. At the final bell the scores were announced at 116-112, 112-116 and 114-114 giving us a split draw that both men will feel frustrated about, especially the challenger who seemed to cruise through some of the latter rounds rather than go for the finish
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Earlier today Japanese fans got a rare all Japanese world title bout for the WBA Light Flyweight title. The bout resulted in defending champion Ryoichi Taguchi (25-2-1, 11) [田口良一] recording the 4th defense of his belt as he took a wide, but fun to watch, decision over former WBA Minimumweight champion Ryo Miyazaki (24-2-3, 15) [宮崎 亮]. The bout, the main event of the Watanabe promoted show in Tokyo, had been highly anticipated inside of Japan The fight started cautiously with both men looking to establish their jab, that was of course a style better suited to the much taller Taguchi who quickly found a right for his jab and looked to follow with straights. Miyazaki, to his credit, got through with some jabs of his own and used his guard well. The fight quickly began to warm up and in round both managed to find success with their power hand, but it was clear that Taguchi's shots had more sting on them and that he was in control of the action. Taguchi's control over the bout tightened in rounds 3 and 4 and although Miyazaki was finding success he always seemed to be a step behind the champion who was starting to force the issue more frequently. There were some good counters from Miyazaki but they never seemed to really trouble the champion who usually had the last word in an exchange. In round 5 the crowd picked up, chanting the names of the men, whilst the pace raised slightly. The two men continued to fight at mid range, taking their turns to try and open up the other's guard and unload more telling shots. The pace increased again in round 6 as they began to close the gap and lets shots go up close, with Taguchi's right uppercut being particularly effective and causing Miyazaki to come off second best. The success of round 6 saw Taguchi continue to push the action as Miyazaki began to look like a man needing time to think of a back up plan. Whilst Miyazaki was thinking Taguchi was working landing the straight right and left hooks on the challenger. Miyazaki tried to turned things around in round 8 and had his moments but couldn't avoid the uppercuts coming back as he unleashed his own shots in an action packed round. Miyazaki tried to again cut the distance in the following round but took some spiteful body shots and got tagged hard around the right eye as Taguchi resumed control of the fight. Going in to the later rounds it was clear that Miyazaki had a lot of rounds to make up whilst Taguchi could cruise to his 4th defense. Despite being able to cruise Taguchi stayed sharp and continued to try and control the pace, and landed plenty of solid hooks. In credit to Miyazaki however he wasn't willing to just give up and landed a nasty right hand hand at the end of round 10. Unfortunately for the challenger the shot came too late to allow him to build on it and in round 11 it seemed his right eye was bothering him. Despite being well behind and in discomfort from his eye Miyazaki gave his all in round 12, knowing it was now or never. It was however a case of needing a KO that he was never to going to get against someone as tough and resilient as Taguchi. At the end of 12 rounds everyone knew Taguchi had retained and the scorecards agreed with scores of 116-112,117-111 and 119-109 in favour of the defending champion. Taguchi will likely return at the end of the year in the next defense of his title, and he's stated he wants to face a top fighter next. Although Miyazaki was a mandatory he had, in fairness, done very little to deserve the mandatory position. As a result we could see Taguchi in an interesting bout before the year is over. Sadly though Watanabe may look to protect him given that he's their only current world champion. For Miyazaki the result probably shows that he's not a world class Light Flyweight, however bouts with more stylistically well matched fighters, for example Akira Yaegashi, would certainly make for a competitive bout than this one, with Taguchi seemingly too big and too good for the Ioka man. In the first of 3 world title bouts today Japanese fans at the Ota City Gymnasium saw WBA Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (24-2-1, 11) [田口良一] retain his title, and record his third defense, with an 11th round win against Venezuelan veteran Juan Jose Landaeta (27-9-1, 21), who was stopped for the first time in his career.
Early in the bout things seemed relatively competitive, with Taguchi's speed giving him the edge, but Landaeta was certainly not being dominated during the early exchanges, in fact he was often holding his own occasionally getting the better off the action. As the bout progressed however Landaeta began to show his age, and those 37 years seemed to have aged more than he had expected. In fact as early as round 5 he was beginning to slow down notably and leave more openings for Taguchi, who started to turn up the heat. In round 8 it seemed Landaeta was beginning to break down with the body shots from Taguchi taking a real effect on the challenger, who was dropped the following round from a right hand to the body. Follow up body shots almost finished off Landaeta who was beginning to look very much like a spent fighter. Knowing that Landaeta was fading Taguchi set off for round 10 with the intention of stopping the Venezuelan, who was dropped again, though the bell came to his saviour here. Had the round been just 30 seconds longer the odds are the that Landaeta wouldn't have seen out the round, following a third knockdown of the fight. With Landaeta just surviving round 10 it seemed to a big question of whether Landaeta still had 6 minutes left in his body. Taguchi again set off seeking a stoppage and dropped Landaeta early in the round, before scoring another knockdown later in round 11 to really put the bout to bed in terms of the scorecards. Amazingly however Landaeta managed to see out the 10-7 round. Despite having seen out round 11 Landaeta wasn't fit to come out for round 12 and his team pulled him from the contest, giving him his first stoppage defeat in a career that goes back to 1999. We're now expecting to see him retire from the sport. As for Taguchi the world is his oyster and there are a lot of very interesting match up that could be made later this year, including a potential show down with fast rising youngster Ken Shiro or a bout with current IBF champion Akira Yaegashi, both of which would be very good fights. It's fair to say that 2015 has been a very good one for the Watanabe gym. They started the year with 3 champions and have ended the year with 3 champions, as well as the 2015 Eddie Townsend Award winner and have seen their fighters go 5-0 in world title fights. One of their final world title fights of the year saw WBA Light Flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi (23-2-1, 10) dig deep to force 9th round retirement of Colombian challenger Luis de la Rosa (24-6-1, 14). The challenger got off to the perfect start, forcing the pace and tempo of the fight. Not only was de la Rosa forcing the action but he was getting better of it and making Taguchi look very uncomfortable with what was an all out bombardment from the challenger. It was the type of effort we weren't expecting from de la Rosa and it seemed like Taguchi hadn't expected it either. After the slow start by the champion he began to slowly work his way into the contest and by the middle rounds he was beginning to get back into the fight by fighting fire with fire. It made for some great action though it was a risky strategy that saw Taguchi depend more on his toughness than his boxing ability. By round 7 de la Rosa was beginning to slow notably but continued to try and force the champion to fight the wrong fight. That however was the start of the end for de la Rosa who unable to land with the ease that he had earlier and now it was Taguchi letting the shots go and landing as and when he wished. That saw Taguchi dominate round 8 and take round 9 as de la Rosa began to break down. The challenger seemed to know that he was on the way out and in round 9 stayed in his corner, retiring from the bout. At the time of the stoppage de la Rosa was leading on two of the cards, with scores of 87-84 and 86-85, whilst Taguchi was remarkably 87-84 on the other card, the fight however was turning quickly against de la Rosa who likely knew his best chance had gone. For Taguchi the intention for 2016 seems to be a unification bout with either IBF champion Akira Yaegashi or WBC champion Yu Kimura. Both of those bouts are makable and both would be very interesting and very different types of bouts. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) At the end of last year we saw Ryoichi Taguchi (22-2-1, 9) claim the WBA Light Flyweight title with an excellent win against Alberto Rossel. Today he made the first defense of that title as he took on Thai veteran Kwanthai Sithmoreseng (49-4-1, 26), and recorded an 8th round TKO win in what was a thoroughly dominant display by Taguchi. From the first round the tactics of the challenger were clear. Kwanthai was coming in to apply a lot of pressure and neutralise the height and reach of Taguchi. Those tactics however weren't done in the best way and in the opening round Taguchi used his jab and movement to tag the challenger on the move and land some solid shots when Kwanthai did get close. It was much the same in the second round though the round was punctuated with Taguchi dropping the Thai with a hard right hand. As the bout went on the champion became more and more confident in holding his feet. That was bad new for the challenger who had his only game plan used against him with Taguchi alternating between boxing and fighting, picking his spots to go go to war. In round 5 Taguchi scored his second knockdown of the fight with Kwanthai being dropped very late in the round from a clean 1-2. Unfortunately the bell came before Taguchi was able to close the show. The champion smelled blood going into round 6 and went for the kill early though saw Kwanthai survive the storm until being dropped in the final seconds of the round. Kwanthai was drown for the 4th time at the end of round 7 as Taguchi landed a hard right, though again the bell saved the Thai who was falling a long way down on the cards. It was to Kwanthai's credit that he was continuing to fight but he was looking done and a more compassionate corner may have stopped him between rounds 7 and 8. Taguchi started fast for round 8 and went searching the stoppage with some huge right hands, a left to the body then unsettled Kwanthai who was dropped seconds later. This time the knockdown had come early in the round and it was clear that if Kwanthai was to continue he'd be down again. Instead the referee waved the bout off with Kwanthai having beaten the count but looked thoroughly out of his depth. For Kwanthai this is almost certainly the end of his career at world level. As for Taguchi the future looks really exciting and promising with possible bouts against Randy Petalcorin or Ryo Miyazaki both being mentioned. Either of those bouts would be mouth watering contests and make up for some of the recent mismatches all 3 have been involved in recent times. (Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp) For Chinese boxing to really take off it needs a hero that's not just a big name, like Zou Shiming, but also successful. Today we found out that Ma Yi Ming (12-6, 7) was certainly not going to be that hero as he was obliterated inside a round by exciting Filipino Randy Petalcorin (23-1-1, 18), who made the first defense of his WBA interim Light Flyweight title. For many this was a mismatch when it was signed, for others it was merely a disappointment. In the ring however it proved to be both. From the opening bell it was clear that the two men were on different levels. Ming tried to march forward behind a high guard but the razor like Petalcorin split the guard and found a home for his lighting quick strikes. Ming had no immediate response, almost amazed that his guard was being breached as easily as it was. Within a minute the challenger was down. Ming showed his grittiness to get back up but it did him little good with Petalcorin continuing to abuse him until the referee gave another count against the Chinese fighter. From then on Ming finally realised he had to fight back. He did so flailing his arms widely in the hope of landing something, anything. Sadly for him his wild shots just gave even bigger openings to Petalcorin who hurt him against and forced referee Raul Caiz Jr to call an end to the very 1-sided contest. Whilst Ming was truly awful Petalcorin looked really impressive. He was sharp from the off, showed amazing speed and every punch looked crisp. It was as good a showcase performance that he could have hoped for and now deserves to be followed up by a genuinely meaningful bout. Although the Light Flyweight division isn't the most stacked it does have some interesting contender type fighters floating around, such as Yu Kimura, Ryo Miyazaki, Rey Loreto, Jonathan Taconing, Paipharaob Kokietgym and even Palangpol CP Freshmart. If we could see Petalcorin in with a fighter of that level next time out then we'll find out how good he really is. If he fights someone at this level again however questions do need to be asked about what his team are doing and whether they lack the belief in him to really over-come fellow world class fighters. Although there are a number of interesting contender types out there for Petalcorin we would most like to see him face WBA "regular" champion Ryoichi Taguchi in would would be a really good bout later this year. We may however need to wait for that one with Taguchi likely to defend his title against Ryo Miyazaki in the Autumn. When twi men enter a ring with a combined record of 31-0 (24) you don't tend to expect the fight to go the distance though some how Kazuto Ioka's (14-0, 9) bout with Nicaraguan challenger Felix Alvarado (now 18-1, 15) did just that, even though for much of the fight it seemed impossible that it would last 12. Ioka, defending his WBA Light Flyweight title for the 3rd time this year knew he was facing one of his toughest tests of his career though few would have expected it to be as tough as it was, in fact it was probably his second toughest career bout behind his 2012 bout with countryman Akira Yaegashi. Alvarado, a much vaunted puncher, set the tone of the bout from the off applying constant pressure and looking to hammer away on Ioka with uppercuts, hooks, crosses and almost everything in his arsenal. Ioka, who at first tried to box, met the pressure quickly by standing his ground and slipping shots in the pocket firing back his own accurate counters. As a result of Ioka standing his ground the styles of the two men gelled almost instantly and gave us toe-to-toe action round after round after round which early on made things look extremely competitive. The competitiveness of the early rounds could well have seen the judges with cards 36-40 either way. Unfortunately for Alvarado he was unable to keep up the same level of competitiveness as the bout went on. His shots became pushed, wider, and slower allowing Ioka to pick his counter opportunities more easily and in fact as we entered round 6 and 7 Ioka was beginning to take total control and take advantage of Alvarado's technical limitation and lack of experience. It was never looking easy for the unbeaten Japanese fighter but it was clear he was beginning to run away with the action. Ioka's control of the bout wasn't just helped by the limitations of his challenger but also by the physical damage he had inflicted on Alvarado whose left eye had been swollen from round 3 and twice saw the doctor inspect it, at the start of round 3 and round 10. This swelling seemed to be the closest either man came to being stopped as they each took bombs from the other with out ever being too hurt. By the end of round 11 it was clear that Alvarado was going to need to land something extra special though it was clear that was never going to happen. Ioka was fresh, in total control and seemed happy to fight "Alvarado's fight" as if to say "there is noway you can beat me" and at the end of the day he was right, Alvarado had nothing to worry him down the stretch. Despite being in control however Ioka was happy to trade shots with Alvarado and effectively put on a show for the fans by continuing to fight the challenger rather than get on his bike and cruise. Although a number of rounds, especially early, had been competitive it was clear well before the judges announced the decision that Ioka had retained his title. Alvarado had shown off his toughness though his faults had seen him picked apart some what by a much more complete fighter who may well be looking to really shine in 2014. Yes this was Ioka's 3rd defense of the year though it was the only one where he really needed to impress, it was the only one where he faced a man who believed they had what it took and it was the only one where Ioka answered serious questions about himself. From a fan's perspective we're hoping Ioka gets in with someone like Adrian Hernandez, the WBC champion, or former IBF Minimumweight champion Nkosinathi Joyi in bouts that would be enjoyable. We'd have loved him in with Akira Yaegashi again but the fact Ioka was well inside the Light Flyweight weight limit would suggest that bout isn't going to happen in the next 12 months. Going on this performance an all-Japanese bout with Naoya Inoue would be too early for Inoue though it's a bout that is likely to be spoken about a lot over the coming months. Unbeaten Japanese fighter Kazuto Ioka (13-0, 9) may have a record that looks like that of an emerging prospects but the 2-weight world champion is probably on the verge of some pound-for-pound lists. The classy 24 year old showed why he is so highly rated earlier today as he defended his WBA Light Flyweight title for the second time and hardly seemed to break a sweat in a dominant and one-sided victory over experienced Thai Kwanthai Sithmorseng (43-2-1, 22). The worst round for the champion was the opening round, a round in which he appeared to focus on establishing his jab rather than letting loose with too much in terms of power shots. Unfortunately for Kwanthai he looked to be out of his depth even with Ioka not showing too much of his arsenal. In the second round Ioka started to show what he had and began to follow up the jab with more forceful shots. It appeared obvious that Ioka wasn't wanting this bout to go the distance and round after round he seemed to just press a bit more for the stoppage. It wasn't ruthless but it was thoroughly controlling by the youngster who never looked in any trouble at all. Although Kwanthai saw out round 3 without many problems he did seem hurt for the first time in the fourth round as the Japanese champion turned the screw again. He moved a class again in round 5 as Kwanthai was forced to show his bravery though it was beginning to look futile with Ioka in control of the tempo, the range and pretty much everything. The bout was being fought pretty much as Ioka wished. Ioka's controlled domination continued through round 6 before he stepped on the gas and forced Kwanthai down in the seventh. Although Kwanthai looked like he could have beaten the count even he appeared to know he was a beaten man and got up reluctantly just after the referee got to the 10 count. With Ioka's stablemate, Ryo Miyazaki, suggesting he was moving up to Light Flyweight following for his narrow victory over Jesus Silvestre, it seems likely that Ioka may also move up and launch an assault on the Flyweight division. Speculation is rife that Ioka could return on December 31st to face either Roman Gonzalez, Akira Yaegashi, for a second bout between the two, or Juan Carlos Reveco. Incidentally Reveco seems to have suddenly become a wanted man with both Gonzalez and Ioka now looking like they want him as a dance partner. Courtesy of boxrec.com Unbeaten rising star Kazuto Ioka (12-0, 8) may not have put on much of a show for the fans watching at the Bodymaker Colosseum, but he did further enhance his reputation with his first WBA Light Flyweight title defense. Ioka, who won the title late last year by stopping Jose Alfredo Rodriguez in 6 rounds started slowly against Thai challenger Wisanu Kokietgym (43-9-2, 13). Tt was really hard to think of any major highlights from the opening 2 rounds which were dominated mainly by Ioka's jab. It wasn't until round 3 that anything of ay real note was landed by either man with Ioka opening up for the first time though the pace suddenly vanished the following round as Ioka continued to fight conservatively and was certainly looking overly cautios. It may have been that Kokietgym's southpaw style was giving Ioka problems (though it's unlikely considering how many southpaw's he's faced) but it seemed more as if Ioka wanted some rounds under his belt. The pace picked up once again in round 5 as Ioka started to cut the ring off and impose himself on his challenger though hr rarely landed much, again being conservative despite being clearly in control of the bout. It wasn't until round 6 that Kokietgym ever really put Ioka under too much pressure. Sure he had been landing punches through out the bout but not enough of note to really trouble the champion, at the end of round 6 however he appeared to be coming back in to things. With the challenger growing in confidence it certainly seemed that round 7 was his best round as he seemed to be more active and more accurate than many of the previous rounds. It was as close to claiming a round. In round 8 Ioka bounced back from his worst round of the fight and really revved things up a gear again. Although he landed numerous shots he never seemed to actually hurt the challenger but was once again installing himself as the boss of the bout. As the boss Ioka looked fantastic and he seemed unwilling to give his position away in round 9, a round that saw the champion starting much quicker than he had done in many other rounds. With the added activity it seemed only a matter of time before Kokietgym was going to be stopped, either by the referee or from a clean blow. Thankfully for fans of highlight videos it came as a result of a wonderful 3 punch combination by Ioka who started with a right to the body, then a left jab then another right to the midsection which sent the Thai down for the count. With a prospective bout between Ioka and former Teiken fighter Roman Gonzalez later this year this didn't really serve as much of a warm up, though it did give Ioka a chance to get some rounds under his belt. At the moment it'd be hard to bet against Gonzalez who is a wrecking machine at Light Flyweight. Though if a bout with Gonzalez cannot be made Ioka certainly has other bouts out there that could be made easily enough. |
World Title Results
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