山中 慎介 - Left of God closing in on Fierce Eagle's historic record.

Earlier today Shinsuke Yamanaka made his twelfth consecutive world title defense, repelling Mexican contender and World Boxing Council sixth-ranked bantamweight in the world Carlos "Memin" Carlson by knockout in 7 rounds. This was Carlson's first defeat since his pro debut in 2011, breaking a mostly domestic streak of 22 victories. This puts the powerful southpaw champion just one defense away from tying countryman Yoko Gushiken, who set the high benchmark of a baker's dozen over 36½ years ago.

Last year the sole other dog in the race nipping at Yamanaka's heels was eliminated from consideration, when Takashi Uchiyama fell to Jezreel Corrales in a shock upset (by KO, despite Corrales having a generally low career percentage of stoppages) in his own twelfth world title defense. Many attributed the loss to Uchiyama's age. He was 36 when he lost to Corrales, though he returned after his thirty-seventh birthday and fought Corrales in a closer rematch which ended in a split decision loss.

Yamanaka is now 34, so the granules in the upper chamber of his own hourglass may be growing few. On the bright side, he still appears to be in top form and would seem to be on a level comfortably above most of the field at 118lbs head to head. The only prominent threat would be from a handful of super flyweights conceivably poised to move up a division if they can not agree on terms for lucrative meetings with each other at 115lbs. Juan Francisco Estrada, Naoya Inoue, and Román Alberto González are each younger than Yamanaka, in the midst of their primes, and collectively are found on most pound for pound lists, generally occupying spaces higher than (in the case of González) or roughly lateral to Yamanaka himself. (Ring Magazine has Yamanaka ninth and Inoue tenth on their current list)

The most dangerous peer campaigning at bantamweight could be Takuma Inoue, younger brother of Naoya budding into the same phenom mold, but he recently injured his right hand (the biggest weapon he could use to dethrone Yamanaka, since the champ has shown an increasing susceptibility to straight rights) while preparing to challenge Marlon Tapales for the WBO version of the bantamweight championship - a severe fracture requiring surgery. This leaves the coast pretty much clear for Yamanaka to select any WBC top ranked contender for his thirteenth defense and be more or less guaranteed at least a tie of Gushiken - if not a record-setting go-ahead in his fourteenth in late 2017 or early 2018, perhaps at one of Japan's annual star-studded New Years' Eve bashes.

 

How salty do you think Uchiyama will be when Yamanaka surpasses Gushiken?

 

I don't think another Carlson necessarily has to deligitimize his accomplishment. Anybody ranked in the WBC top 15 is still technically a valid contender on paper, and his résumé & reign for the most part have not been what you'd call 'padded'. If he wants to go it a little 'easy' in a victory lap, I say fair play to him.

 

To be fair unless a super fly makes the jump for him anybody currently at bantam could be deemed an easy defense. He's sort of in the same boat as Golovkin.

 

I never rated Tomoki as high as God's Left..