Upset in Japan! Koji Sato TKO'ed by Makoto Fuchigami

Former world title challenger and current Pacific middleweight champ Koji Sato - long viewed as Japan's top dog at 160 - was upset this morning in Tokyo by the actual Japanese middleweight champion, Makoto Fuchigama.

From Twitter:

"Never thought [I'd say] this, but I just witnessed a bad ass 160lb fight in Japan. Makoto Fuchigami, dropped 2x, stops Koji Sato 9R 1:26.

Fuchigami tasted Sato's power and survived to make a dramatic comeback. Like gym mate Nihito Arakawa, Fuchigami never gave up.

Not much technique involved as the tandem looked like heavies just slinging away. In the end, Sato couldn't keep up & succumbed on the ropes."

Sato's only previous loss came via TKO as well, at the hands of Felix Sturm in the German-born ethnic Bosnian's 6th WBA title defense almost three years ago. Since then Sato has kept a fairly soft domestic schedule.

In that same span of time, Fuchigama turned his career around by finally capturing the elusive 73kg crown of his native land after working his way up to a third attempt in four years. Making it sweeter is that he won it via TKO from Tesuya Suzuki - the same man who had last denied it to him in his second try in a tight split decision loss. Suzuki is also a common opponent with Sato, who thwarted his Pacific title grab via close decision in the year between the first meeting and rematch with Fuchigama.

 

Interesting...

The co-feature of the card was supposed to be American ex-pat Charlie Bellamy (or "Charlie Ota" as he's known in Japan, where he's spent his entire pro career) making a sixth and seventh defense respectively of his Japanese & Pacific 154lb titles. His opponent pulled out, so in a bizarre last-minute decision they had him still glove up and appear in a three-round exhibition/public sparring session with none other than Nobuhiro Ishida. :blood

 

I'm actually not sure what I'd be more keen to see video of...the Fuchigama-Sato TKO, or the Ota-Ishida exhibition. :think




...ideally, both.

 

Charlie Ota and Makoto Fuchigama are actually training buddies who frequently spar and appear on the same cards.

Charlie has also served as the chief sparring partner in camp at Big Bear for Canelo Alvarez.

The guy's gym experience absolutely dwarfs his pro resume at this point.

Fuchigama, Ishida and Canelo (in that order, obviously) are each bigger challenges - even in sparring - than probably any of his opponents to date. That opposition has included two unnecessary rematches. Well, OK - close decisions but Ota proved himself doubtless the better man with stoppages in both rematches. :yep Bottom line, the New Yorker is somewhat stagnating over in that other metropolis.

 

...and I'll bet you've seen Fuchigama like a dozen times to make that assessment, right? :roll: Another expert opinion..

 

Yes it can be considered an upset, you jerks. I never said it was a BIG one. It isn't Tyson-Douglas.

It's still an upset, regardless of Soto being trash. It was still a once-beaten guy vs. a several-times-beaten guy. The #1 ranked Japanese middleweight vs. the #2. The Pacific middleweight champ vs. the lesser Japanese middleweight champ. Someone who's vied for a world title vs. someone who may or may not ever do so. Someone who was known to the international boxing community (or more like infamous) for the loss to Sturm, where outside of a few Badlefthook contributors and real Asian boxing junkies I'm guessing nobody on ESB or any other boxing site knew before today who the hell Fuchigama was.

Everybody STFU about questioning whether it was an upset. :twisted:

On paper it very much was. If you want to talk about how in reality Sato isn't that good and maybe never deserved to be rated Japan's #1 middleweight for so long, and speculate that he was only able to do so by avoiding guys like Fuchigama and Ishida (when the tall freak wasn't campaigning at light middleweight) - fine. This was a goddamn upset, though. If there was any betting action on it, Sato was almost certainly the favorite at the Japanese sportsbooks.

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Correction:

As of a few hours ago, that's former. (was current heading into today).