Yamanaka v Jamoye and Hasegawa v Martinez...

I think Jamoye services as an interesting point of comparison between Yamanaka and Santa Cruz; and it will be interesting to see if Shin is able to handle the Belgian in a fashion that's as conclusive as the manner in with LSC dispatched him.

Hasegawa vs Kiko is very compelling; I can easily envision scenarios in which both men leave one another lying in heaps on the canvas. Hozumi's more skilled, and that might be the deciding factor in a distance fight, though...But this isn't a fight that I feel comfortable predicting at all.

 

Two really good fights. Sadly for Yamanaka the US fans who pretend to follow the sport will think he's just fighting LSC cast offs having also beat Guevara recently.

 

Yamanaka is on a pretty killer 6 fight streak, starting with his capturing of the vacant WBC.

Esquival, Darchinyan, Tunacao, and Rojas all very legit. Great finishes in them too...

 

If I remember Hasegawa correctly, I don't see him beating Kiko at all.

 

If you are selectively remembering just his couple of brutal KO losses, then yeah, great job. He is capable of being caught and laid out, congrats for the astute observation. If you take his entire body of work into consideration, as well as Kiko's own, then with a well-informed and rational mind you would find yourself tentatively favoring Hasegawa while acknowledging Kiko has quite a large puncher's chance. (for instance, do you really not rate Hasegawa's performance versus Mini Burgos or in any of his successful bantamweight defenses over Martinez's effort in the Ndlovu or Munroe losses? If not... :-()

 

Some Japanese friends have said Hozumi is trading harder than ever. Seems he knows he needs to win and that a loss will be the end of the line.

Shinsuke just wants to make an impression and do better than Santa Cruz did against Jamoye. Expect a quicker than usual start from the man with the left of god