Pearls of the Orient: The 20 greatest fighters to have come from the far East

You know, now that you mention it I had never given any thought to how a Borkorsor/Ohba matchup would have unfolded... but you may well be right. Ohba was the better and faster boxer, but Venice was by far the harder hitter of the two and was aggressive enough that he would have caught up to Masao at some point and forced him to stand and fight.

And in that kind of scenario I can see him getting nailed by Venice` left hook in an exchange and getting taken out as he did not have the most reliable set of whiskers. But I won`t sell Ohba short here as he was a beautiful boxer and if he fought a intelligent/cautious fight he could have decisioned the aggressive, hard-hitting Thailander. Would have been a very intriguing fight to say the least, although myself I would have favoured Ohba to win a decision.

 

Has anyone here noticed how big Chionoi looked compared to most of his opponents? He towered over McGowan and looked at least two weight divisions bigger than the Scotsman, and he also looked to be the bigger man against both Alacran Torres and Susumu Hanagata. In the Hanagata return he looked like a damn featherweight, the difference in size was quite noticeable between the two. It must have been murder for him to make the fly limit for as long as he did, I wonder how he pulled it off...

 

Incidentally, i would have picked Ohba to beat Canto.

That would be a very bad matchup for the tiny Mexican.Ohba's jab, height and reach would have been hard to get past.

 

Yeah, I agree...it would have been a bad style match-up, although I think the fight would have been close enough to warrant a rematch which Canto might have won (he was very good in rematches).

I think the following fighters could also warrant some consideration for a Top 20 ranking:

Ben Villaflor
Kuniaki Shibata
Yoshiaki Numata (sp?)
Joichiro Tastuyoshi

 

What is your opinion on McGowan?.If he had not been such a bad bleeder do you think he would have been a hard man to defeat head-to-head for other notable Flyweights?.

 

Mantequilla,

On boxing ability alone McGowan would have acquitted himself very well against any flyweight who ever lived in my honest opinion, and would have beaten quite a few on his best night. I have a lot of footage on him besides the Chionoi bouts, and I tell you he was some fighter and a pleasure to watch in action.

His one glaring weakness was his paper macher like skin around the eyes, had it not been for that he would hold two wins over the Thailander which would make his resume look quite impressive. I swear Chionoi looked to be completely out of his league against the Scotsman who was peppering him almost at will, it wasn`t even close.

When the fight was stopped Walter sunk to the canvas in tears as he knew he was well ahead and couldn`t believe his misfortune. Ironically, Chionoi did the same thing in his rematch against Susumu Hanagata as after the referee stopped the fight due to his right eye being closed shut he sunk to the canvas while holding on to the referee`s leg while bawling his eyes out.

Speaking of Hanagata, have you ever seen his rematch against Alacran Torres in Mexico? That was one heck of a fight! I always wondered though how the heck Susumu managed to get seven opportunitys to fight for the title during his career.... thats a lot of title shots! His management must have had some damn good connections is all I can say, but he was a tough nights work for anyone and was one game littler jap to say the least.

 

if Pac beats Marquez jhe should be number one.

 

No one's seen Chris John in action?

 

Nah, but top 3 behind Harada and Villa.

 

Paenkhay hath.

 

Thoughts?

 

, you and that haircut! Say, have you ever seen a pic of Yoko Gushiken? I`d say he gives Galaxy a run for his money in the hair department... when was the last time you saw a jap with an afro and fu-manchu? He gets my vote in that department.

 

Gushiken was a helluva fighter as well.he had great combos and close-range defense in most of his fights.

Poor competition keeps him from being on the same level as Harada, Ebihara or Ohba.

 

Indeed, Gushiken was the goods and a joy to watch in action. I agree with you about his competition, but nevertheless it wasn`t that bad overall and he pretty much dominated everyone he faced which has to count in his favour. Say, what are your thoughts on Shoji Oguma and Soo Hwan Hong Mantequilla?

I`ve always felt that Oguma was a very good fighter who just had the misfortune of coming along in such a deep era, and Hong while not the most talented of fighters was a very hard, tough guy with a devastating punch in his left, his fight against Hector Carrasquilla is one of my all-time favourites and what a comeback!

I am still amazed at how Yuh Kasahara managed to hear the final bell in their fight, I mean he got dropped six times I believe and yet fought back tooth and nail to the end... I tell you many of those japs weren`t the most talented bunch but they were always in great condition and would fight until the bitter end.