after reading last issue of ring magazine which had an article in it on current japanese boxing scene, some thing intrigued me. while most of the fighters are in the much lighter weight classes, one of the fighters is being managed and trained by a former pan pacific asian light heavy champion. so, my question is this. who was the largest asian to win a title? and are there any asian heavies out there?
Yes there are : http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/634096 and http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/692149 and http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/594388 . There were a lot of talks here on the forum about the chinese heavyweights, because there were some fishy weird stuff around them. Like fighting in a private club or smth like this , which fight was in China and wasn't shown on the TV at all. About Fujimoto ... well he is not the best guy, but he has a cool style and a lot of experience in the martial arts in general. Other than those 3 guys , I can't rate someone else right now.
Would have to be an east asian country to produce a HW. Most SEAsian countries just don’t produce guys that big. Thailand for example struggles to provide an elite boxer above welterweight. But has produced many below that weight.
i know. that is why i started the thread. there are the occasional men who may come up with some recessive dna that may make them larger than the average asian male. i remember many years ago watching on friday night fights on espn a bout between the mexican heavy champion and some ranked contender. he was blown out in something like three or four rounds.
Sure. That was a typo by the way I meant it would have to be an East Asian country. Japan, Korea & China have all produced bonafida HW K1 & MMA fighters where as Thailand a country with more professional fighters than any other have only ever produced two HWs Changpuek & Kaoklai. Both were really at best LHWs...who would compete against true HWs and still win. I think it’s possible with time in Japan, Korea or China. Some very good K1 champs from China. I know this is MT but it was a legendary KO against an top tier natural HW opponent. This content is protected
Kazakhstan is central Asia and Uzbekistan, so you guys like Chagaev, Jirov and Shumenov. If we're talking about South Eastern Asia Kyotaro, Zhang and Junlong are probably your best bets for now. Also had Ishida making a little mark on the Japanese domestic scene at Heavyweight and Kotatsu Takehara. Okello Peter was based in Japan for year (well still is I believe). At the moment it'll be worth following Ivan Dychko, again from Central Asia.
thanks! loved watching jirov. one of the best body punchers i ever saw! was more interested in far east asia. the artcle intrigued me because of the mention of a light heavy japanese fighter. i know far east asians are generally smaller from first hand experience. when i was in the navy my ship was in korea, thailand, phillipines, singapore and hong kong. even if i was separated from my ship mates on the street, just had to look and there they were. the average american was usually almost head taller.
Not read the article but I can't think of a genuinely notable Japanese fighter at 175. Yuzo Kiyota challenged for a world title at 168. Masaaki Kurishima (8-0, 5) is making a bit of noise in Thailand but at 33 he's not really worth making a note of. Shintaro Matsumoto was the OPBF champion at 168 (think his last fight was at 175) but he's poor (beat Kiyota for the OPBF title in their 3rd or 4th bout)
Ryota Murata, from Japan. Current WBA middle weight world champion. 14-1. Might fight GGG one day. He's good, not very good or great.
Oleg Maskaev, Vitali Klitschko, Wlad Klitschko, Ruslan Chagaev,etc all Asian Heavyweights. Nicolay Valuev though Russian is part Tartar and for known for having many Asian Characteristics and traits actually. https://ringside24.com/media/albums/2016/10/Ruslan-Chagaev8.jpg
When the Chinese government launched its elite athletic programme for 10 year old boys, suddenly a generation of 6 foot 4 plus athletes in NBA and boxing was born. Your average Chinese man is 5 foot 6. I wonder why that is.