Shinsuke Yamanaka vs. Ryosuke Iwasa - undiscovered gem!

FOTY candidate on 3/05/11, 1st defense of Yamanaka's Japanese bantamweight title.

Both came in as undefeated southpaws with snowballing credibility on the domestic scene, with the older Yamanaka bordering on greener pastures after annihilating Mexican globetrotter Jose Silveira on the big Sumo Hall card headlined by Nishioka-Munroe a few months back. The challenger is listed at the same height and with only 2" more in reach, but seems in actuality to enjoy a greater advantage in both categories. Yamanaka in red; Iwasa in gold:

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Credit to Erik from Boxrec for turning me on to this. It would have completely gone under my radar otherwise.

Great fight, but the unusually rowdy Japanese crowd made a pretty big deal out of just about every left cross landed even remotely cleanly by either...probably heightening the drama a little out of proportion. I'm still not sure it's over Rios-Acosta or Gonzalez-Vargas, but up there. Very, very tight race so far and (at the risk of sounding greedy) hopefully just a harbinger of things to come in 2011. :happy

 

Now that a few people have watched...

Who did you all have up on your cards heading into the 10th?

Personally, I don't think it was even that close in terms of 10-point-must scoring despite having been fiercely competitive throughout. Iwasa landed well in each round with some of the more eye-catching shots (those left crosses snapping the champ's head back pretty regularly) but overall it seemed Yamanaka did the better work in most rounds, with the greater movement, sharper blows and overall arsenal. When he got roped into a 1-2 contest with the longer and taller Iwasa he tended not to look as good, but he usually rebounded from these lapses in judgment (or moments of succumbing to bravado) by taking the extra step and digging into his deeper toolkit...employing body punches, right hooks on the pivot, and lead left uppercuts to good effect.

From about the 5th/6th on, Iwasa would still find a home for his 1-2 and still create a big stir among the spectators and commentators whenever his left hand budged Yamanaka's head...but he took a beating for the majority of each of those rounds.

I'd say it was already in the neighborhood of 7-2 or 6-3 before the fateful last round. Yamanaka really didn't need the KO, IMO - which makes it all the more impressive that he went for it.

I'd very much like to know how the Japanese judges had it, as well.

 

I've been pretty glued to the board for the past month and figured any mention of this would have caught my attention. Other than a very select few in-the-know posters name-dropping it in "FOTY so far?" threads, there didn't seem to be a peep about it - much less video. It seemed obscure enough to not bother with a keyword search. Sorry kosaros. Shame these Philistines didn't take notice the first time.

This board really sucks sometimes. :!: Pearls before swine.

 

Just the last few rounds. There's a clip in this thread, along with my call of the action:
http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=297553