Big card at Sumo Hall - Toshiaki Nishioka vs. Rendall Munroe RBR

In three weeks at the Kokugikan (cap. 13,000) in Tokyo will be a lower-weight diehard's dream night of boxing.

It's on a Sunday night, but with Tokyo thirteen hours ahead of the American east coast it will be late Saturday night (or, to be more precise, early Sunday morning) to us. IB's advice: take a late afternoon or evening nap and set your alarm. There isn't any meaningful boxing that Saturday night (10/23) - and nothing whatsoever on American TV. Unless you care about the UFC heavyweight championship match, there is no reason not to snooze and be fresh for the early bird special from the land of the rising sun.

WBC Bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka vs. #1 contender Rendall Munroe

Nishioka is 36-4-3 (21) but a much bigger puncher than his record indicates; Munroe is 21-1 (9) and is no bigger a puncher than his record indicates but is a workmanlike grind-out battler who's as prime and ready for this chance as he'll ever be.


Jorge Linares vs. Jesus Chavez, 10 rounds @ lightweight

The resurgent Linares - 29-1 (18.) - is coming off a surgical decision win over Rocky Juarez in which he looked every bit the "Golden Boy" he was hyped up to be prior to his upset KO loss to JC Salgado; Chavez - 44-7 (30) - is an absolute iron man at the tail end of his career who may deceptively seem an easy target coming off three losses but just recently gave David Diaz a life-and-death struggle and went on to hold his own and last the distance against a momentum-building Humberto Soto (who then won just as wide a decision over Diaz) - and the tough and experienced veteran will be the closest to a true lightweight that Linares has yet met in the ring.


Yoshihiro Kamegai vs. Jose Alfaro, 10 rounds @ light welterweight

Kamegai is 16-0 (14) and notorious as the object of a viral video; wherein a referee is accidentally KTFO by the young boxer while stepping into a clinch to force separation. :yep See video below. Kamegai's power and his own chin will be put to a real test when he meets Alfaro - 23-6 (20) - who most recently lost a decision to a much-better-than-expected welterweight version of the legendary Erik Morales. If Kamegai is indeed a legitimate knockout artist - elderly officials notwithstanding - he should be able to secure a stoppage over Alfaro as the smaller Tony DeMarco was able to. There is always danger with Alfaro, though - evidenced by his many knockout wins (a good number of them early) and his ability to stun the iron-chinned Morales a few times.
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Shinsuke Yamanaka vs. Jose Silveira, 10 rounds @ bantamweight

From B. Bulletin: "The undefeated 27-year old southpaw (12-0-2, 8KO) has been matched with WBA #14 rated Jose Silveira (11-2, 4KO). Yamanaka has built a decent record on the strength of his left hand and was last seen stopping Mikio Yasuda for the title in June. British boxing fans may remember Silveira as a former opponent of Martin Lindsay. The Mexican has won five in a row since being shutout by Lindsay in 2007."


WBA Light Flyweight champion Juan Carlos Reveco vs. WBA Strawweight champion Roman Gonzalez

"Chocolatito" Gonzalez has been dominant at minimumweight and is now looking to chase the bigger money by running with the bigger men. With only one tune-up at the weight (a 2nd round KO victory last month) he has been quickly maneuvered into a showdown with a titlist who is formidable but largely unknown outside his native Argentina. Reveco is fairly quick, disciplined, feint-happy, and has a stinging quality to his punches belied by his low rate of stoppage. Chocolatito is seen by many (including yours truly) as a future p4p star and his upward climb has been eagerly anticipated with baited breath. This could be a late-addition FOTN on what was already shaping up to be a very good night of lighter men's boxing!

 

To be safe, be up by 9am (I'm setting my alarm for 5am here on the US east coast).

Just to give you a rough idea, it's currently 8:30 on Sunday morning in Tokyo at the time of this post (11:30 Saturday night in London, and 7:30 in the evening here in Boston). :good

 

The Sky Sports 2 broadcast has begun.

They just showed both rounds of the Gonzalez fight on delay.

It was a total shellacking, and definitely erases the memory of being held to a MD in their last meeting (Francisco Rosas was brought in as a substitute for Juan Carlos Reveco).

 

Imagine Gonzalez-Segura? :scaredas: