As a kid I have always watched them face off against Philippine boxers and always came away impressed win or lose. I wonder if there's going to be a time when these guys actually fight out of Japan? They would certainly be big if they got international attention. Think of Hideo Nomo when he first started in the MLB. I certainly would not mind a bit of international flavour with our boxing. Venezuela, Mexico, PR, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Thailand and so many more countries... The world needs more of these guys out there instead of making them waste away in their home turfs.
Im telling you all, Japan is very underrated in terms of producing real fighting champions and contenders, but over in Japan boxing is its own world over there and they dont give a **** about the opinion of the rest of the world too in regards of the sport. Its a shame they have alot of great fighters that are more than deserving to be showcased here in the states than most here that are.
The problem with Japanese fighters is that they generally sign TV contract with one of the big Japanese public television networks (usually NHK) that is long and controls when and where they can fight. Koki Kameda, for instance, probably won't be fighting on US TV except on tape delay anytime soon because he has a huge deal with NHK. Thus, while the Japanese fighters will sometimes travel to Australia or Philippines or Indonesia or even Thailand, they almost never travel to the US because it would just be in too bad of a timeslot to show on Japanese TV.
No. K1 is tops, Sumo probably second, Pride is probably third. However, the top Japanese fighters are wildly popular, or at least well-watched.
Japan has 5 World champions , all either WBA/WBC as the IBF and WBO are not recognized over there . Another reason you may not have seen them is that their best fighters are from minimumweight up to Bantamweight and the lower weight classes are not givien much attention from the American media/boxing media . Question for anyone in the know , is there any chance Naito and Sakata will meet in a unification match ? , Naito has a fight scheduled against Daiki Kameda on boxrec but the title will stay in Japan no matter what so is there any chance of the WBA and WBC titles being unified or will they be happy to continue with their individual defenses ?
I wouldn't be surprised to see Naito and Sakata match up eventually. But Daiki Kameda vs. Naito? Best I can tell, that's still in negotiations because Naito would need to pay Pong (who has a rematch clause) step-aside money. Naito will pound Daiki into submission, but Daiki would still win. Big bro Koki's first title fight was one of the most blatant examples of the judges being bought out in the history of Japanese sports (and it's fairly prevalent there). NHK has a TON of money invested in the Kameda brothers, and I can't imagine Naito would hold onto the belt unless he KTFOs Kameda. Then Pong would have a mandatory against Kameda, which would be interesting...
As a kid I admired Masao Ohba, Fighting Harada, Koichi Wajima, Yoshiaki Numata, Hiroshi Kobayashi, and an early world champion, Yoshio Shirai, who was also a medical doctor and author. They were gentlemen champions.
japanese fighters are tough as nails. most of them walk through stiff ounches to the face like nothing.
Been some great Japanese boxers. They have always had a pretty deep pool of fighting talent, in a lot of sports.
