i thought this had been done more recently but a search showed not since 2015 Who would you rate as the top 10 Asian boxers? Also interested in anyone who wants to take a stab at top 5-10 from each Asian country (Korea, Japan etc.)
I dunno many Asian boxers so I'll take a poorly educated stab (I'm excluding Russian boxers, thinking Oriental) 1. Manny Pacquiao 2. Pancho Villa 3. Fighting Harada 4. Jung Koo Chang 5. Khaosai Galaxy 6. Flash Elorde (Here's where I'm running out) 7. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam 8. Ji-won Kim 9. Duk Koo Kim (my dad had a soft spot for him for some reason) 10. Park Chong-pal
Most of the right names have been mentioned. Pacquiao is a clear number one, for me. Harada probably next cab off the rank. And my bronze medal would go to either Villa or Donaire. That said, a couple of outstanding candidates have been missed... Masao Ohba. He was the Salvador Sanchez of the Flyweights, not only because, like Sanchez, he was sadly dead at the age of just twenty-three. But because he similarly was still world champion when he did pass, and because just as Sanchez might have gone on to become the greatest 126 pounder of them all, Ohba likewise had the potential to make it very high up the list of all of history's 112 lb men had tragedy not struck. Ohba was a very technical all-rounder, and in his final few fights was starting to add heavier punching and inside-schedule wins to his arsenal. If you haven't seen it, check out his 1973 defence of his title against the always-entertaining Chartchai Chionoi. A brilliant fight which showed everything which would have made Ohba great. Sadly, it was his last fight - he was killed three weeks later. But he would have gone on to be one of the great little men of his time, I'm sure of that. The other name which nobody seems to have mentioned yet is Myung Woo-Yuh . Looked unbeatable for a long time at Light-Flyweight, and it's a real shame Ricardo Lopez didn't venture up to 108 lb until guys like Myung were out of the picture. Myung reigned for an age, lost his title and unbeaten record...But then quickly avenged it before retiring. He was generally WAY too good for the people he was was defending against and there were question marks over his opposition, but guys such as Gamez, De Jesus and Blanco all went on to win world titles after losing to him. Could definitely threaten the lower end of a top ten here.
Are we only counting Pacific Rim countries? Because GGG is Asian, since he's from east of the Ural Mountains. Kostya Tszyu (from east of the Urals, and his mom is Korean and dad is Mongolian, so his Asian Credentials are solid) 1.) Manny 2.) Fighting Harada 3.) Khaosai Galaxy 4.) Flash Elorde 5.) Jung Coo Chang 6.) Pancho Villa 7.) Jiro Wantanabe 8.) Chris John 9.) Gerry Penalosa 10.) Hazumi Hasagawa (sp?) Other strong contenders: Pongseklek Wongjonkam, Veerapol Sahaprom, Daisuke Naito, Inoue (someday soon), In-Jo Choo, Masamori Takuyama, Dodie Boy Penalosa. Also: Naseem Hamed & Amir Khan are outside contenders since Yemen and Pakistan are in Asia. Arthur Abraham & Vic Darchinyan (Armenia), Sultan Ibragimov (Dagestan)
I am not defining the criteria of what constitutes Asian, nor do I want to debate the dividing lines. I think we can let each individual poster determine if a fighter is Asian (within logical reason lol), and set their list from there. But guys like GGG or Tszyu wouldn’t sniff my top 10 so it is irrelevant in my case lol
Khaosai Galaxy over rated (although I like his style). Should not be in top 5. Jung Koo Chang is top 5, especially ability wise. So Is Jiro Watanabe. For me, Fighting Harada is clearly No. 1, with Pacquiao second. Harada two wins over Jofre are better than any on pacs resume. Plus he has other ATGs.
Also Hiroyuki Ebihara deserves a mention. Massively under rated. Yoshio Shirai as well. First Japanese world champ. Samart Payakroon deserves mention, would put him over 'Death Mask' Veeraphol Sahaprom. Cefernio Garcia is also very underrated. Sot Chitalada is definitely in the list. Ben villaflor deserves mention. Chartchai Chionoi deserves mention. Has amazing bouts as well with Ohba. Sung Kil Moon could definitely be on this list. Yoko Gushiken honorable mention. Not top 10 though.