I do like him. I just think that fight has **** written on it. I might be wrong, but the balance shouldn't be there, one guy moving up, one guy essentially conservative.
Japanese punchers went 3-0 today on the WBC triple-header in Tokyo. Akira Yaegashi hammered out a gory UD over Toshiyuki Igarashi, flooring him repeatedly but also getting his own face torn up. Takashi Miura ended the brief reign of Mexican journeyman turned Cinderella man Gamaliel Diaz (and got revenge for Takahiro Aoh) with a 9th round knockout following several knockdowns. Shinsuke Yamanaka withstood & repelled the best efforts of Malcolm Tunacao, stopping the game but utterly depleted Filipino with a brutal combination in the final minute while up on the cards (known due to WBC open scoring) and with nasty cuts all over the challenger's face which themselves could have warranted discontinuation.
Uh, the ones that are over? We just had two big triple-headers in a row on back-to-back days. It might be all quiet on the Eastern front for a while...
:good ...and Yaegashi as it turns out was maybe a bit more deserving of the chance (being that, really, if we're honest...he did enough against Ioka to become champ down at straw) than you credited him as? :hey Come to reflect on it, actually, Estrada did the same thing. Striking parallels in their sagas. He and Yaegashi both found vindication within days of each other by gathering flyweight titles after having impressed in losing efforts (although in Yaegashi's case it oughtn't have been one) against the respective baddest dude in a lower division.
I don't know what else to say to you about that IB. I think the #1 contender should have got the shot. That is all. I think that about every division, without exception. Always. When a reigning champion from another division steps up, I can feel that, when a guy who just lost steps up and usurps the #1 contender...the #2 contender...the #3 contender and so on, i'm never going to feel good about that. And that could be Marquez-Vasquez III in the pipe, I don't give a ****. So no, he wasn't "more deserving" to me because he won. But I like this kid as the TBR champ. Hopefully he'll take on Mthalane or Estrada now. I'd also love to see Sosa-Marquez.
I know the stringent TBRB-minded part of you concerned with the red tape finds distasteful the notion of guys coming off losses (for Estrada directly, and for Yaegashi basically in his last meaningful outing if you exclude his January tune-up) and/or entering a brand new division without first making inroads there and instantly getting ranked or allowed to contend...but way down in there somewhere a part of you must recognize that rewarding meritorious service on the battlefield isn't a bad thing, and that Estrada & Yaegashi starting their co-reign less then 48 hours apart counts as the sort of uplifting boxing lore that makes of & keeps us fans of the sport.
I love it, it's not deep down, hidden or obscured, it's cool. But it should have been the #1 contender. When the champion meets the #1 contender, that's the best thing that can happen in boxing, inarguably, forever and ever amen. It's the most beautiful thing there is, more beautiful than a great fight, (and champ v #1 contender WILL kick up more great fights than any other single pairings) because it leads to clarity; it leads to a situation where you can point to a guy and say, "look, the best." I understand that this pint of view is going to be usurped by money and politics over and again, but that doesn't mean I need to be happy about it - and nor should anyone else be in my view. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy or recognize merits in these matchups.
