Top 10 Japanese Fighters

Oguma clearly won the third fight , sweet.I've read some claims it was a bad call from Korean fans over the years , but thought it was a pretty clear 10-5 type win.

Park made his big effort in the rematch and just seemed like he didn't want to be there after the early rounds.Most likely his performance in it was one of the final things securing his position in the korean\asian boxing pantheon, as a talented fighter that just didn't often have it mentally.


It's hard to rank the japanese fighters, other than harada as number one.I'd go with Ebihara, Ohba, Watanabe, Gushiken and Oguma as the next tier.saijo, Shibata, Kobayashi, Shirai, Numata, Yaoita, wajima , Tanabe and a few others close behind.

Joichiro tatsuyoshi is actually one of the most well liked and famous.He was a great action fighter with some good tools, but eye problems more or less halved his abilities from early on.

 

Disappointing to hear, but can't say it's out of character for Park. He looked a man possessed in the rematch. If he kept the level he showed there and in the first Canto fight he could have gone down as a great fighter. Not the first or last guy to be beset by mental issues though...

 

Mantequilla,

Do you happen to know why Park was such a headcase? You seem to be quite familiar with the man, much moreso than myself and I am rather curious as to why he had all these inner demons.

As for the thread itsef I agree with Mante in that its not an easy task to get an accurate top ten list together, be it top ten Japanese fighter or a top ten list of anything really which is why I won`t post one of my own.

However Mantequilla`s list is a pretty accurate reflection of what my own top ten would look like at first glance if I would the effort to put one together. And S_S Oguma clearly won that 3rd encounter vs Park, watched that one about a month ago and it was a decisive win for Oguma.

 

Koichi Wajima was a quality fighter his style was so exciting.

 

My knowledge of park- outwith the opinions i formed from watchign his fights -mostly comes from a south Korean friend i had at university, who i've since lost contact with sadly.

he was a walking bible of asian boxing knowledge and knew all of the behind the scenes stuff on the more obscure fighters that most of us- who were unable to follow the asian scene first-hand- generally have no way of picking up.

As far as Park goes, the impression i got was he just seemed to be considered a playboy and waste of talent in general by the knowledgeable Korean fans.A guy who didn't like to train, nor had much love for the game.He was an amatuer star like Chung-il Choi and probably enjoyed a lot a of celebrity in south korea from an early stage which maybe went to his head.

Apparently he actually wanted to quit in the late rounds of his rematch with Canto, and had to be convinced to fight on between rounds by his corner.

 

Hozemi Hasegawa is making a nice little case for inclusion as time goes on. 8 defences of his bantamweight title is nothing to sneeze at.

Fighting Harada is the starting point.
Jiro Watanabe, Masao Ohba, Hiroyuki Ebihara, and Yoko Gushiken are also locks.

My bottom five currently would include Wajima, H. Kobayahsi, Numata, Shibata, and Oguma. But there are a bunch of fighters that could also warrant inclusion.

 

Thank you for that Mantequilla, very informative stuff. Since you bring up Choi`s name, he is one fighter I would like to know more about, especially the reason why he retired so young and after so few fights. He is one of the most dangerous right hand punchers I`ve ever seen in the lower weight classes, and he had some pretty good boxing skills as well due to his amateur pedigree, any inside info you can share with us on him?