This past week has been a hectic one in Asian fight circles with a string of notable bouts including a number on TV from across Asia.
February 28th-
The action kicked off on Tuesday with a Boxingraise show from the Korakuen Hall, which featured two title fights and two intriguing under-card bouts.
The main event of the card was an “Interim” Japanese Flyweight title bout which saw former world title challenger Masayuki Kuroda (26-7-3, 15) take a 10 round decision win over Yuta Matsuo (12-3-1, 6) for the title. I’ll be honest and admit I had rather negative things to say about this bout in the build up to the contest but it massively exceeded those expectations and was genuinely one of the most exciting and action packed bouts of the week, anywhere on the planet. Kuroda just had that bit of extra class that took him to the victory, and a potential rematch with Takuya Kogawa, but the bout was a great back and forth with round 10 being up there with best rounds of the year so far.
In the co-feature on the show we saw Watanabe’s fast rising Hiroto Kyoguchi (6-0, 6) battle Filipino veteran Armando de la Cruz (25-15-3, 11) in 3 rounds to claim the OPBF Minimumweight title. Kyoguchi was stepping up in class here but no one really expected anything but a win from the incredible exciting “Kid Dynamite”. After the bout it was revealed that Kyoguchi will probably be defending his title in April with his team looking to move him towards a world title fight by the end of the year.
On the under-card we had a very technical bout between Reiya Abe (14-2, 7) and Joe Noynay (12-2-1, 4), with Abe taking a very competitive decision. Abe was the slowed man but in the end he just had that bit of extra skill and power to take the decision and keep his good form going. Abe has now scored 6 wins in a row, with victories against Ryo Hino, Hikaru Marugame, Tsuyoshi Tameda and Noynay all being really solid wins, and he is now looking to face Ryo Takenaka in an OPBF title bout.
The card also featured the debut of Kaiki Yuba (1-0, 1), the son of 5-weight Japanese national champion Tadashi Yuba. A nervous looking Yuba looked like he was feeling the pressure in the opening round but found his feet in round 2 and then 3 as he stopped Petchmahalert Eminent Air (0-5), who was stopped after suffering 4 knockdowns during the bout.
In Thailand on the same day Sadudee Tor Buamas (8-0, 6) made his first defense of the PABA 140lb title as he took a 12 round decision over Indonesian Yosmar Kefi (4-8, 4). The bout looked like a mismatch on paper, and Sadudee did take 10 rounds from the 12, but his failure to score a stoppage is a real negative give Kefi had been stopped 4 times prior to this bout.
March 1st-
On Wednesday we had action across Asia, with bouts in 3 different countries.
The most notable of the action came from Chonburi, in Thailand, where we saw WBA Minimumweight champion Knockout CP Freshmart (15-0, 7) retain his title with a 5th round KO against Japanese challenger Go Odaira (13-6-3, 1). Odaira, in his 3rd world title shot, had some limited success but never looked like being strong enough or good enough to compete with Knockout, who recorded his 2nd defense of the title.
On the under-card for this show were wins for, Noknoi Sitthiprasert (62-4, 28), Oleydong Sithsamerchai (64-1-1, 25) and Yodmongkol Vor Saengthep (45-3, 30). The three were put in with limited foes for stay busy wins with all 3 said to be targeting world title bouts later in the year.
In Misamis Oriental, Philippines, there were a number of notable fighters picking up wins.
One of those was unbeaten puncher Vince Paras (10-0, 9), who quickly blew away Michael Camelion (8-5-1, 6) inside a round. Sadly for Camelion this was a third straight loss, and his second opening round blow out, however Paras looks to be a serious puncher and someone worth making a mental note of.
The once hotly tipped Froilan Saludar (24-2-1, 15) bounced back from a September loss to Takuma Inoue as he blew out and dominated Roque Lauro (13-21-5, 3) in just 85 seconds. Also scoring a win here was former world title challenger Vic Saludar (14-2, 10), who took a decision win over Powell Balaba (8-22-1, 5).
In the South Korean capital of Seoul fans saw Ma Roo Jung (7-4-1, 2) score his biggest win and gained notable revenge over Ji Soo Jung (3-1, 1). The two men were battling in the final of a Korean Welterweight tournament and the win for Ma Roo has netted him a sizeable financial reward.
March 2nd-
A day later our attention turned to Tokyo where we had the second world title fight of the week, and a major Japanese show.
The main event of the card saw WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-0-2, 19) score his 12th defense of title as he defeated Mexican Carlos Carlson (22-2, 13) in 7 rounds. Yamanaka dropped Carlson a number of times on route to the win and also though he was wobbled once or twice the champion never looked in any real trouble. The biggest trouble was over-looking Carlson and that looked to be the case at times as he let the Mexican off the hook more than once.
In the chief supporting bout Japanese Super Featherweight champion Kenichi Ogawa (21-1, 16) escaped with his title, and a razor thin win, against mandatory champion Satoru Sugita (12-4-1, 7). These two men had fought last year, with Ogawa scoring a stoppage, but was very lucky this time around with Sugita picking up on the flaws that Ogawa is beginning to show. There is talk about Ogawa getting a world title fight later in the year but his his last few performances show that he is probably regressing and not developing as Teiken had hoped.
Also on the card was popular Filipino Brian Viloria (37-5-0-2, 22), who shook off some ring rust with an 8 round decision win against Ruben Montoya (14-5-1, 9). Viloria was forced to work hard, and it was clear he had been out of the ring for a while but his class was the difference in the end. Sadly this performance would suggest that his dreams of claiming another world title are going to be very hard to accomplish. Another supporting bout saw Ryosuke Iwasa (23-2, 14) force a stoppage against Glenn Medura (8-2-1, 5), in 3 rounds. Iwasa is now set to move towards an IBF Super Bantamweight title fight with old friend Yukinori Oguni later in the year.
March 4th-
Action was again spread out on Saturday, with the most notable bout coming from Bangkok, Thailand.
The main event of the card in Bangkok saw Mexican Juan Hernandez Navarrete (34-2, 25) claim the WBC Flyweight title with a 3rd round TKO win against the previously unbeaten Nawaphon Por Chokchai (36-1, 28). The Thai was stepping up in class, massively, and it showed as he was unable to keep up with, or impose himself on, the Mexican who dropped him in round 3 and later forced the referee to jump.
It was a good day for Mexicans in Thailand with the unbeaten Yudel Reyes (8-0) out boxing Pongsaklek Sithdabnij (11-4-1, 9) over 8 rounds. Reyes looked a genuine talent and although he needs to develop his power and physicality he really did look like a promising prospect.
The one notable member of the Nakornluang stable to pick up a win on this card was former world champion Suriyan Sor Rungvisai (49-7-1, 25), the older brother of Nawaphon, who easily stopped Tommy Seran (28-14, 16). Notably this bout came just days after Suriyan had tested positive for Amphetamines and Methamphetamine, leaving a lot of questions as to why he was even allowed to fight on this card.
Staying with world title action we also had a world title fight in Jalisco, Mexico with Naoko Shibata (16-4-1, 5) losing the IBF female Light Flyweight title to Alondra Garcia (17-3-1, 1), in a bout aired on RingTV. Shibata had originally beaten Garcia for the title back in 2013, in Japan, and run up a number of defenses before this loss to the much younger Mexican.
Back in Tokyo on Saturday we had a card on Japanese pay TV channel G+.
The main event of this card also saw a title change as Kazuhiro Nishitani (17-4-1, 9) recovered from a knockdown to defeat Shuhei Tsuchiya (22-5, 18) for the Japanese Lightweight title. Tsuchiya was making his first defense of the title and looked to have the power to hurt Nishitani but the body shots of the challenger proved to be the key as he scored an 8th round stoppage. Sadly for Tsuchiya it’s hard to see where goes from this loss, with this being his 4th stoppage loss in his last 13 bouts.
Staying with body shots it was also gut busters that helped Hiroki Okada (15-0, 11) over-come spirited Filipino Rodel Wenceslao (11-14-1, 4). The visitor came out swinging for Okada and seemed to hurt the former Japanese Light Welterweight champion several times. Sadly Wenceslao slowed and Okada managed to break him down with body shots in round 7. Okada is world ranked but his last few performances have hardly been convincing.
Former Japanese amateur standout Kazuki Saito (3-0, 3) also had a scare here as he was dropped in the opening round by Jimmy Borbon (5-5-3, 3), but recovered to stop Borbon in round 6 to secure his best win to date. Saito was a top amateur but there will now be question marks around his chin and how he handles pressure. In terms of his natural ability however he looks a real talent.
(Scott Graveson covers the Asian boxing scene for www.asianboxing.info)
