A few years ago Montiel effectively ended Hasegawa's long reign as Bantamweight champion when he landed a monstrous hook and then followed up with a series of punches on the champion against the ropes. Since then, the careers of both men have seemed to have gone downhill a bit. Montiel became perhaps the scariest victim of Donaire's freakish power and has since moved up in weight and struggled....losing to Victor Terrazas, having a split decision over 12 fight Arturo Reyes Santos, and then edging a close unanimous decision over Giovanni Caro (he of the 24-11-4 record). I admit, I haven't watched him fight since the Donaire KO, so I can't say if he's shot, faded, or just plain too small for 122. After suffering the KO loss to Montiel, Hasegawa bravely went up 2 weight classes to featherweight (some suspect he didn't want to step on Nishioki's turf in 122, Hasegawa seems to not want to fight his fellow countrymen or take their shine). His featherweight results were mixed. He immediately won a vacant title after a hard fight with Juan Carlos Burgos. Then in his first defense he was knocked out by Jhonny Gonzalez. Then he dominated the poor Felipe Carlos Felix. Then he appeared in a catchweight bout against common opponent Arturo Reyes Santos and won. Since Nishioki has now retired, Hasegawa is trying to go down to 122 now where Montiel resides. Given where there careers are right now, who wins this rematch battle of little champions past?
I rated Montiel very highly based on his performance against Hozumi (competitive in defeat in the first few rounds, huge offensive onslaught to close out the fourth round and stop him). They are at such interesting points in their career that I would be all for a rematch. My prediction would have to be a Montiel late stoppage, 7-12, but I wouldn't be utterly shocked if Hasegawa managed to control and limit the action en route to a very close decision.
50/50 fight. Montiel has been on the slide i think, but could well have that big psycological advantage after such a devastating vicotry. On the other hand, Hozumi seems to be back on track, and even before getting stopped, he was doing very good against Montiel. Would love to see them go at it again.
Yeh, I think Montiel is pretty small for 122, and perhaps it will at least be mentally comforting for him to fight a guy he's already KO'd (even if it was at 118 ). I don't know where Hasegawa is at mentally. I haven't been able to find the Santos fight and the Felix fight was a throwaway because....well, because Felix just wasn't very good. The Burgos win looks better and better (and could look very good after next week), but that was BEFORE Hasegawa was knocked out by Gonzalez. I'd love to see them go at it again as well. Interestingly, he was also doing very well against Gonzalez until he was KO'd then too. It seems his reflexes have slowed down, which would be problematic for his style of fighting.
