THE WAR ZONE II: Revisiting Classics, Revisited (V.8 - McWilliams Arroyo Acevedo vs. Takashi Okada)

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The gold standard of 4-rounders. Quite possibly the GOAT of matches scheduled for that length...and ironically this came in a year that was chockablock with serious candidates for that honor. Contemporary runners-up included:

• René Luna vs. Ramsey Luna (with which I have often found myself mixing up this one; because how often do you get TWO epic 4-round showdowns between unbeaten prospects, just a few months apart?? Case in point: I had mistakenly remembered Arroyo vs. Okada being each man's pro debut - not so. This was true of the R. Lunas, however...) on the Ji Hoon Kim vs. Ammeth Díaz undercard on ESPN2 FNF.
• Michael Ruiz Jr. vs. Juan Tepoz (a 2-0 prospect given a scare by a determined underdog, getting off the canvas to squeak out the W) on the Andre Ward vs. Allan Green undercard.
• Jesús Gurrola vs. Humberto Tapia (very nearly another upset!) on a twilight-days JLC undercard.

Insanely, all sixteen rounds of explosive action listed above, including Arroyo vs. Okada, took place in the span of less than a month in May-June of 2010!

While they both have long & storied nationalistic feuds with Mexico, there has been far less of a fraught head to head rivalry between Japan and Puerto Rico (at least in boxing; the World Baseball Classic is another matter...) despite occupying much of the same real estate on the scales (in terms of talent distribution across the weight classes). I'm struggling to even remember off the cuff what the last installment of it may have been at the championship level; Cotto vs. Kamegai springs to mind, although I'll allow that others may have quietly slipped by since.

This one, then, at least ranks up there with the best, if not as the very best, of both categories (4-rounders and nihonjin vs. boricua fights) in the near decade to have elapsed hereafter. It was, in any event, hands-down the best piece of matchmaking Top Rank managed to assemble for this particular card, stealing the show - headlined by Iván Calderón Marrero vs. Jesús Antonio Iribe Simental in El Niño de Hierro's sixth WBO light flyweight title defense - on Fox Sports Net and generating word of mouth buzz for the rest of 2010.

Okada made it clear from the get-go that he was here to disrupt Arroyo's plans to use him for a stepping-stone. With surprising quickness, transitioning from offense to defense seamlessly and landing in multiples on Arroyo's body while slipping most of his counters on the way out with head movement, he also figuratively turned heads and caused the crowd at MSG to lock in their attention on a preliminary bout more readily than was customary.

Arroyo was ready and willing to make adjustments, making his way toward evening things up (incorporating a nice left hook into his repertoire; hooking off the jab, and using it to set up a right hand) when he was dropped late in the second - which had previously been a very strong comeback effort on his part - by a perfect thumping right cross (thrown past a diversion jab to his mouth, as he was reeling in his own jab) landing behind & just under his left ear, causing his equilibrium to shatter like a porcelain dish, barely able to regain his balance as the clock wound down and ultimately preserved him. Now in a 20-17 points hole, the heavy favorite was under the gun with the sands rapidly trickling into the bottom chamber of the hourglass, if you'll be so indulgent as to permit me mixing my metaphors in triplicate.

In round three, McWilliams continued to build upon the foundation he was beginning to lay in the second before he got caught. A cut over his eye threw yet more adversity in his path, but he remained laser-focused on task and dogged in his work ethic. Okada didn't reinvent the wheel in the second half of the contest, and his efficacy markedly dropped off a bit after the strong opening six minutes - but he met Arroyo's rallies without backing down and kept it competitive despite clearly losing the pair on the back-end.

The knockdown really made the difference. Without it, this would have been Okada's second consecutive draw, and promoter Ivan Rivera mightn't have needed to wait another four years to maneuver Arroyo toward a world title if his L column was still vacant.

Okada, interestingly, would have an even bigger upset in his future - doling out future IBF & WBA super bantamweight champion Daniel Román's first loss the following year. A week after that, he would dominate Giovanni Segura in what the promoters of the Mexican southpaw had intended to be a public showcase for El Guerrero Azteca. He so impressed the former WBO & WBA light flyweight champion that he became a longtime sparring partner (and close friend, hanging out as recently as last month per a FaceBook post). All of this beastly form came on borrowed time, however - in 2007, directly following his domestically anticipated professional debut (having claimed the All-Japan championship at flyweight in the amateurs), Okada had been diagnosed with a subdural hemorrhage which, given the laws in his country, precluded him from ever being licensed by the JBC again! He took nearly three years off before his sophomore outing, a mild upset draw with Filipino-American prospect Bruno Escalante. Time would catch up with the gutsy party-spoiler, however, and he would never parlay his successes in the ring (in either sparring, with not just Segura but other titlists in the weight range including Rodel Mayol, or in 'official' matches) into fame or riches. After snatching the zeroes (or at least blemishing the records, if we include Escalante) of Arroyo, Román, and then Óscar "El Chapito" Vásquez Reyes in a roughshod march lasting just over two years, he would fizzle out and disappear completely. He was knocked out in two rounds by Uriel Gaona of Mexico (entering with a record of 1-4) in 2013, and neither Okada nor Gaona has fought since. Super weird. In his case, Okada may have been advised by doctors that he was already pushing his luck. Whatever the reason, he decided to stay in the game but refocused himself as now a trainer...a low-profile but widely respected one (by other Japanese boxers, who refer to him as "Okada-San" even in the casual atmosphere of social media), it seems. He currently coaches OBPF featherweight champion Satoshi Shimizu.

As for McWilliams, he would establish himself as something of a world class fixture in the light fly to fly range, subsequently only ever losing to ultra-elites (the likes of Chocolatito, Ruenroeng, and Ioka), almost precisely mirroring his brother McJoe's path in the super fly to bantam range. It really makes you wonder if Arroyo - who received all the hype & help due being a bright amateur star for Puerto Rico (and, bonus, part of a handsome & marketable brother tandem!) - could reach a level of nearly world championship status, what could his surprise conqueror Okada have done but for the brain injury, layoffs, and lack of support or competent management abroad?