He's thus far 1-1 in his big steps up in class beyond domestic opposition and low-rent Thai imports, his only defeat by majority decision at the hands of current WBO flyweight champ Sho Kimura in 2016 and his most recent victory a third round knockout of Ekavit Songnui (aka Kwanthai Sithmorseng, former WBA straw champ) in December to capture the WBO Asia Pacific 112lb title. Coming up on April Fools Day he's making his first defense against the guy Songnui originally defeated to become champ eight years ago: Vicha Phulaikaw aka Pigmy Kokietgym. Apparently when he fought Kimura he was attempting to juggle his pro boxing career with graduate studies at Osaka City University and holding down a full-time job at some company. He since has decided to make the sport his only paying gig and dedicate all his non-academic time now to sharpening up in the gym. How good is he, though? I haven't seen either of his big fights. All that an online search for video scrounges up is a bunch of his early-days kayos from 2015. Information on him can be dicey to come by (especially for a non-native Japanese reader), since he shares the birth name (first & last) of a famous retired sumo wrestler, Tokitsuumi. He is from Six Islands Gym and has been rated top 15 at flyweight in Japan for a couple of years; that's all I can discern. @Boxing Prospect @takahiro-onaga, anybody shed any light?
Any relation of 90's lightweight Japanese & OPBF champ and 4x world title challenger Hiroyuki Sakamoto? They're from different provinces (Masahiro from Osaka while Hiroyuki was born in Fukuoka then based in Tokyo for his pro career) but the ages sync up for him to be a son or nephew. Masahiro was born when Hiroyuki was 20 years old, just eleven months before his pro debut.
Anybody know how Sakamoto got on this morning versus Pigmy? @Boxing Prospect @Chuck Norris @PinoyProdigy ...?
Very sketchy translation via Google, but if my read on this is accurate, Sakamoto missed the weight and had some trouble attempting to make it (but did, apparently? Going into the fight drained...) and might've been dropped in the 1st? ...but had secured control with left jabs & body shots by the 5th, and knocked Pygmy out 90 seconds into the 6th to retain his belt. https://www.daily.co.jp/ring/2018/04/01/0011124548.shtml
