Japanese fighter Hidenori Otake (22-2-3, 9) was a relative unknown outside of his homeland until late last year when he got a very unexpected shot at the WBA Super Bantamweight champion Scott Quigg. Officially, or at least according to Quigg’s promoter Eddie Hearn, Otake was a late replacement for the more talented Shingo Wake who had had to turn the fight down due to an injury to his leg*.
Whilst Otake went in to the bout as a huge under-dog he left with some genuine credit following a brave and gutsy effort against Quigg. Whilst Quigg never looked in any trouble at all Otake did put forth a real attempt and never took a backwards step as he tried to grind down the much more talented Englishman. The Japanese fighter took a real beating though tried until the final bell to over-come the defending champion.
Following that bout on November 22nd 2014 Otake has been out of the ring and has, with out a doubt, grown rusty whilst seeing the division move around him. The former Japanese champion has seen his former belt fall into the hands of Yukinori Oguni whilst the likes of Yasutaka Ishimoto and Gakuya Furuhashi have both shown they can compete with the best domestically. Otake has also been clearly over-taken by Wake, who is now set to fight in an IBF world title eliminator to get a shot at Carl Frampton.
Despite having been out of the ring since November there was no real thought that Otake would be retiring. Instead it was an issue of “when” he would return, and not “if”.
We now know that Otake will return to action later this week in an “easy comeback fight” on a Kaneko promoted “Golden Child Boxing” show at the Korakuen Hall.
Sadly for Otake he’s gone from fighting Scott Quigg in a world title bout to facing Thai journeyman Phissanuthep Chaiyonggym (4-12-1, 3). The Thai has mixed in decent company, having faced the likes of Kenji Oba, Carlos Cuadras and Juan Miguel Elorde, though has gone 0-10 outside of Thailand, and 0-6 in Japan.
I’m not going to pretend that this is a great return to action for Otake, it really isn’t, though hopefully a quick win over the visitor will see Otake back in the ring without another long break. It’s clear he’s not good enough to win a world title but domestically there are a number of interesting fights that could be made. For example a bout with fellow veteran Masaaki Serie, a contest with fast rising prospect Hikaru Marugame, a fight with Gakuya Furuhashi, which he was supposed to have before suffering a rib injury last year, a bout with Yasutaka Ishimoto or a bout with the very highly touted Sho Nakazawa. If we get one of those in the fall then this bout really will be easily forgotten.
Whilst Otake is the main event for the show, which is based around his return to the ring, the card will feature a further 7 bouts. Including a very good looking Flyweight bout between Takahiro Fujii and Ryuto Oho as well as a well matched Super Bantamweight bout between Yutaka Kamioka and Naoya Okamoto.
*Note-Wake claimed he had never had an offer put to him and had posted training pictures just days after his apparent “injury”
Takahiro Onaga covers the Asian boxing scene for www.asianboxing.info
