How do you think he would do against some of the top level lightweights? Is he better than Masayoshi Nakatani?
If the guys over at Asian Boxing are to be believed (they are), he is the best LW in Japan. But only time will tell.
I really dig what I've seen of him, although that's not very much. He's got a hell of a nasty short straight right which he launches like a pull counter. Although I really don't like how much he gets hit clean, although he's shown a good chin up till now..
Even considering he is a big LW, he would get outclassed easily by the top tier guys. His defense is suspect, he is on the slow-side for a lightweight, and is opposition until now was not that good. Still fun to watch though.
being the best lightweight in japan is hardly an achievement worth noting is it lol. Ive been a hardcore boxing fan for a very long time and I can't off the top of my head think of a single lightweight world champion theres ever been from japan. Japan excel in divisions like minimumweight where most countries dont even have any boxers, the numbers of boxers are very low and the talent pool is shallow. Thats just facts. Lightweight is too globally strong and high in numbers for Japan to compete at the top.
Takanori Hatakeyama says hi Edit: He was in a lot of classic fights. I recommend his fight with Sakamoto. That's probably his most entertaining one.
Ok cool, but 22 years since their last lightweight world champ! jeez. And Japan have absolutely loads of lightweights ( 101 currently) so theres no excuses. They simply suck at lightweight.
I'd prefer if you actually talked about the fighters being discussed (Yoshino and Nakatani) instead of just saying their country sucks at lightweight. I think that would be more valuable.
Yeah, they're pretty weak at lightweight. On the more optimistic side, Nakatani had a good fight vs Lopez , and Hiraoka at super light is very legitimate. Also, occasionally these countries just produce an athlete way higher caliber than the others (like Philippines and Pacquiao or Indonesia and Chris John), so you never know what you will get from any guy. Also, Japan had Ogawa and Ito as champs at superfeather recently, so they've been able to get champs as high as 130 even in the modern era.
