Nihito "The Japanese Rocky" Arakawa

He just picked up a UD10 over Yuya Sugizaki this morning @ Korakuen Hall in his native Tokyo, snapping a two loss skid and repeating a pattern stretching to summer of 2013. After his consecutive hard-fought losses to Figueroa Jr. & Linares in the US, he returned home to course-correct with a UD over Akihiro Kondo. Unfortunately, he then dropped his next couple to countrymen Yo****aka Kato and Rikki Naito.

Sugizaki, Naito, Kato and Kondo are very solid domestic foes, so despite being 2-4 in his last six (and 3-5 in his last eight, dating to a TD loss to Daniel Estrada three years ago) he is still keeping himself afloat in terms of credibility. Hopefully if he can string together at least a 2nd W in a row he will earn the right to end his Tokyo homestand and travel again to our soil, where he could inject some life into the lightweight division and give plenty of top lightweights a good, high-octane test...and US TV fans a treat.

 

Here's a little primer of his activities since returning home, for any new American fans he gained in his Showtime appearances who may not follow the international scene and thus lost track of him...

Arakawa vs. Kondo II:
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Arakawa vs. Kato III:
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I've yet to come across footage of Arakawa vs. Rikki Naito, but there is some of Naito's other bouts floating around. The kid is the goods. Losing to him is hardly a loss of face.

I'm waiting to pounce like a hawk on footage of this morning's bout with Sugizaki. If any comes to light I'll post it here forthwith. :good

 

From AsianBoxing.info -

"On Monday Japanese fans saw the 2015 Strongest Korakuen show which featured 4 Japanese eliminator bouts. One of those came at Lightweight and saw a popular warrior in action as he looked to move towards regaining the national title that he held in 2010-2011.

That warrior was Nihito Arakawa (26-6-1, 16) who managed to out point recent Japanese title challenger Yuya Sugizaki (20-11-1, 6), who had himself been stopped by current champion Kota Tokunaga just a few months ago.

Coming in to this bout it seemed like Arakawa was fighting for his career. He had lost 5 of his last 7, including his previous 2. Hie performance however showed little worry as he got in the ring and really did the business.

The fight started moderately well for Sugizaki earlier on and for the first 4 rounds things were moderately competitive, with Arakawa just getting the better of it. From round 5 however it was all one way traffic with Arakawa being too good and too smart for Sugizaki who slowed to the point where he was often a sitting duck for Arakawa's offensive work.

Come the final bell there was no doubting the winner with the former champion claiming a unanimous decision win with scores of 79-72, 78-75 and an oddly close 78-76.

The win for Arakawa should net him a shot in early 2016 at the Japanese Lightweight title and has already earned him ¥100,000 as he won the skills award at the "Strongest Korakuen" show and earned a sizable bonus payment."

...so I guess that answers questions as to his immediate plans. Tokunaga has a defense scheduled next month against Kazuhiro Nishitani. He should coast through it, but will be relieved of his belt shortly thereafter if Arakawa gets a crack at him...and will probably give Nihito his first knockout victory in over two years (and first meaningful one in over three).

 

The fact that he reportedly looked good today, and performed so much better in the Kondo rematch than when they first met in 2010, suggests that not only wasn't he ruined by his wars in the US, he might actually be improving a bit now. :think It seems counter-intuitive with him being a smaller fighter in his early thirties, and with so many recent defeats, but he's keeping a hard schedule and has acquitted himself well.

 

Arakawa vs. Redkach would be a bloodbath.

 

I shot a message to AB on Twitter. If anyone can track it down..

 

Closest you'll get for now:

http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=417777

 

arty

...and Pimp C just passed McGrain in the last month.

 

:shock: