Daigo Higa vs. Jakkrawut Majoogoen II

Why not rekindle this rivalry? It has been 3½ years since their competitive battle for the WBC Youth flyweight title, in which Higa withstood an early onslaught to knock Majoogoen out in the 7th round.

Since then, Higa climbed the mountaintop and tied Japan's all-time consecutive professional KO record (going 15-0 with fifteen stoppages from his debut) but didn't manage to set a new one, as Cristofer Rosales popped his cherry and snatched up his erstwhile green & gold world championship belt in the bargain (when Higa missed weight, in what should have been his third WBC flyweight title defense). Majoogoen has gone 11-0 (5) in this same time-frame, albeit not against the same quality of competition but not against rubbish either. Three of his opponents have been upset-minded, better-than-what-their-record-suggests Filipino journeymen™ and Ryoji Fukunaga is also one tough cookie baked in the character-building irori hearth of the Japanese domestic scene.

Both are now effectively campaigning at super flyweight. Majoogoen holds the OBPF silver title at the weight, and made his 3rd defense of it this morning, nudging himself perhaps into the WBC top 15. Higa is currently ranked #6 by the WBA despite not having yet re-debuted in the division (his last contest scheduled above the 112lb limit was two years ago).

Here is their flyweight match from 2015:

This content is protected

Granted, some may feel a repeat outcome is a foregone conclusion as I. Higa is still a powerhouse and II. Majoogoen is still a strong-starting front-runner who becomes totally unglued after four or five hard rounds (as evidenced by his battle with u-m, b-t-w-t-r-s Filipino journeyman™ Salatiel Amit this morning, in which Amit rallied to dominate the second half and would've probably gotten a draw on my card but for a bogus knockdown ruling in Majoogoen's favor...) but there are some mitigating factors as well that could narrow the gap that was established between them:

1. Higa is coming off that pistol-whipping at the hands of Rosales (granted, a towel-toss viewed by some as slightly premature, but there was nary a peep of complaint from Daigo himself) which both shattered his aura of invincibility and was, down the stretch, quite a prolonged thrashing he took.
2. Majoogoen looks physically stronger now at super fly, and has quite a bit more experience in going the distance and regulating his reserves of energy (four of his unanimous decision victories since he fought Higa coming in ten-rounders)

Higa vs. Majoogoen I didn't quite make the FOTY shortlist in 2015, but it was probably top 15 in a productive year. I think a rematch at 115lb could easily and by far outdo it.

 

Not scheduled, just a suggestion...

 

...yes, exactly... Does nobody read opening posts of threads anymore????