JBC, Japanese, OPBF, WBO-AP Thread (Click and Read at Least Once!)

Hopefully. I want to get as low as I can while being more effective. If I could fight at 122 somehow, that's my goal.

 

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Yasuda has no notable wins officially on his resume, however, he did lose a very close majority decision to Shuma Nakazato (13-2-3 8 KO), who pulled off a massive upset when he stopped Shu Utsuki (12-1 10 KO) back in April for the Japanese light title.

Most of the appeal comes from Apichet Petchmanee, who has been absolutely dominating the Thai lightweight scene. Of course, the Thai light scene is very, very limited and his only somewhat notable opponent is Phumiritdet Chonlathondamrongkun (15-1 13 KO) who is perhaps more known for his lengthy name than his IBF Asia and more recently IBF Pan-Pacific title victories. As he'll be taking on his first serious foreign opponent, and with the legitimate Asian championship on the line no less, it's a big matchup in the Thai boxing community.

 

I have a very good cross vs people my own size and even much larger, but otherwise my power is pretty mediocre. When I fight much shorter guys, though, regardless of their weight, I've noticed that my jab has a large effect and can actually hurt them quite a bit. It's also much, much easier to land. Unfortunately I don't think I could be a successful pro in a higher weight division as I don't have the ring IQ, but my hope is that I develop enough to become a good super bantam.

 

Yesterday, Katsuya Yasuda defeated Apichet Petchmanee by UD (115-113, 116-112, 118-109) to win the WBO Asia-Pacific Light title. Yasuda's record becomes 11-1 (7 KO) while Petchmanee falls to 15-1 (5 KO)

Unfortunately, I could not catch the fight, however, according to journalistic reports from Japan:

The fight was roughly even for the first three rounds with Petchmanee taking a bit of lead in each. In the fourth round, Petchmanee managed to drop Yasuda. Bizarrely, it seems only judge 3 turned in a scorecard that would be possible with a knockdown. (With how long it took them to turn up the cards on Holmes-Toussaint yesterday, perhaps the pre-filled rumors have some truth to them?)

Yasuda was noted to cry in the ring after the fight, and announced that he wanted to get a rematch with the current Japanese champion, Shuma Nakuzoto, who defeated him by majority decision in an eight round fight back in February 2022. At the time, Yasuda was an undefeated prospect while Nakuzoto was a bonafide domestic journeyman. Since that fight, Nakuzoto has gone on to win the Japanese title while Yasuda just picked up the WBO Asia-Pacific title. The unification makes a lot of sense, especially as both of these guys, especially Nakuzoto, are unlikely to land too many big fights in their careers.

 

Mitsuro Tajima (5-0 5 KO) who has won all of his fights by first round knockout has announced that he will be fighting five times in the next five months. His next opponent, Luis Jose Marin Garcia (10-4 7 KO), who he will face in an 8 round fight on June 10th is a small step up from his previous opposition. Although Marin has no notable wins of course, he does have some KO power, having KOd multiple opponents with winning records, and a decent chin, having gone the distance in three out of four of his losses. Marin will be the first non-Asian opponent of Tajima's career, the first to have had a somewhat notable opponent (Marin previously went the distance with somewhat well-regarded German prospect Granit Shala, who is currently 13-0) and most likely will be the first to go past the first with Tajima.

Tajima has stated that he is doing this to sort of ape Mike Tyson's 27 fights in 18 months before his first world title fight and to get the sanctioning bodies to take a look at ranking him.

Unfortunately, Tajima is very, very likely to be disappointed with his career, as he himself admitted that only a few months ago he was unable to do anything besides block the blows of Jeamie Tshikeva (5-0 3 KO), a British prospect perhaps best known for winning the southern area title as an amateur. Tajima does claim that the sparring has improved his ability immensely, and public sparring suggests that Tajima is at least even with Tshikeva now, but even taking the footage at face value (which most wise men would probably recommend against), Tshikeva will likely not go too much further than the English title, if that, in his professional career.