The Japanese Boxing Thread - Inoue wins; Olympic gold medallist Murata in action!

Fast-tracked prospect Naoya Inoue's 2nd professional fight will be televised live in Japan, on possibly January 5th. No opponent has been announced yet, but it should be a ranked opponent based on the 19-year old's debut (a win against Filipino champ Crison Omayao).

The card is scheduled to be headlined by the returning Akira Yaegashi.

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Here is footage of his fight vs. Omayao (worth watching).

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEzNMEizPRQ[/ame]


This kid is getting a lot of press in Japan.

 

Hasegawa to campaign at super bantamweight

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After mixed results at featherweight, Hozumi Hasegawa has decided to move down to super bantamweight in search of becoming a three-weight 'world' champion. The 31-year old Hasegawa (30-4, 13KOs), who rose to prominence for his five year streak as WBC bantamweight champion from 2005 to 2010, will have his first fight in this new weight class on December 22 in Kobe, Japan. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds and an opponent is to be announced in the near future.

 

http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/diaz-dethrones-ao-in-japan-146931

Diaz dethrones Ao in Japan

By Joe Koizumi

Mexican veteran Gamaliel Diaz (37-9-2, 17 KOs), 130, captured the WBC super-featherweight belt as he scored with long rights to bloody defending champ Takahiro Ao (23-3-1. 10 KOs), 130, with better precision to win a close but unanimous decision (114-112 twice and 115-111) over twelve gory rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. (More to come)

There's the end of the Uchiyama-Ao unification plans that were set for next year :-(

Other results:

At bantamweight, Ryosuke Iwasa (13-1, 9KOs) scored a unanimous decision over two-time former 'world' title challenger David De La Mora (24-3, 17KOs). All three judges had it 100-90 for the 22-year old standout.

Takashi Miura (24-2-2, 18KOs), who almost dethroned Takashi Uchiyama last year in a gutsy title challenge, showed his punching prowess once more, stopping former OPBF and Japanese champion Ryuji Migaki (17-4, 13KOs) in the first of a scheduled ten rounds. 28-year old Miura, who was formerly the Japanese super featherweight champion, is now campaigning at lightweight.

 

Full report of the above:

http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/diaz-dethrones-ao-reportgallery-146947

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By the way, some people might remember me mentioning Yuta Saito (5-3-1, 4KOs) before after he scored this KO:

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Well, he has reached the finals of the East Japan Rookie of the year tournament. He will be boxing Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi (5-3-1, 3KOs) at super flyweight on November 4th. If he wins that, then he'll be facing off against the West champion later this year for the full Rookie title :good







...The above was just an excuse to post the gif...

 

I haven't seen his fight against Tobe. It's not on any video sites that I've checked and I haven't managed to get a copy yet. That was a good win for Akaho, despite Tobe's inexperience - I know many fancied Tobe for that one, but I had a feeling Akaho would prevail (was still virtually 50-50 in my mind beforehand, however).

I've only seen the one video of Akaho on YouTube, so I can't really form a strong opinion on him (I'll have to look through my collection to see if I have any other footage of him). I haven't watched Sato's last fight yet either, but he looked fantastic in the first four rounds against Suriyan - if he can maintain that form over the distance, then he'll be (very) hard to beat.

By the way, the Miyazaki fight is on a separate card :good

 

Probably the lack of substantial interest for the most part (lower weights, as well...), the language barrier and the time the fights are on.

It would be interesting, however, if they got in contact with Teiken to see how much the cards would cost to screen (I doubt it would be much). Hell, they have Maloney on BN now; he can help them with discussions after the Nishioka-Munroe fight :yep

 

Shinsuke Yamanaka (17-0-2, 12KOs) scored an impressive stoppage victory, halting former WBC super flyweight champion Tomas Rojas (39-14-1, 26KOs) in the 7th round of their contest. With the victory, Yamanaka, 30, successfully defended his WBC bantamweight title for the second time.

In the supporting bout to the main event, lineal flyweight champion Toshiyuki Igarashi (18-1-1, 10KOs) scraped by with a majority decision over the unheralded Nestor Daniel Narvaes (19-1-2, 9KOs). Two judges scored the bout 114-112 to Igarashi, whilst the third judge had it level at 113-113.

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Good to see Yamanaka scoring the stoppage, although I did predict he would. This run of wins for Yamanaka will make it all the sweeter when the man in my avy scores his revenge over him in the near future! :yep