ZongLi He vs. Diarh Wigan Gabutan & Li Yiran vs. Joe Booc Tejones RBR

it's weird that you are talking for him, stick to driving taxis.

 

I wasn't talking about how good or bad they are. But let's be real.. they only do well in weight divisions where there is very low numbers of boxers and were there is weight divisions every 4lbs. Weight divisions such as Minimumweight/strawweight/light flyweight - most of europe and the world doesn't even have any fighters in those weight classes! and in places like Russia they have top amateurs in the lower weight classes but they never turn pro. Above say featherweight Japan have many boxers in all weight classes - for example from lightweight to middleweight they have lots of boxers but they all fail, above the small weight classes they are very poor where the whole world has boxers (you get the odd exception like Murata).

He can do what he wants and I won't pull him it for it again, but I personally find it very odd his constant mentioning of Japanese fighters when they have no relevance to the thread and that he watches all levels of Japanese boxing, he must have a hell of a lot of free time on his hands. Anybody who looks through his posts or reads this forum would definitely assume he was Japanese.

 

Off the top of my head, this is a list of Japanese fighters above featherweight who have won world titles.

Junior Lightweight: Hiroshi Kobayashi, Yoshiaki Numata, Takanoria Hatekayama, Kuniaki Shibata (x2)

Lightweight: Hatekeyama, Guts Ishimatsu (holds a victory over Ken Buchanan, FFS)

Junior Welterweight: Paul Fujii, Akinobu Hirikana

Junior Middleweight: Koichi Wajima (x3), a couple more whose names currently escape me.

Middleweight: Shinji Takehara, Murata

There are some more that I'm missing, but even still, that's a pretty decent crop of "average sized" champions, especially coming from a country that often places greater value in other forms of martial combat.

 

I saw a post that I thought was idiotic. I’m not allowed to reply to that?

Also taxis? Please explain

 

I've been watching boxing for 15 years, and in that time from lightweight up to heavyweight there's been just one world champion- Murata ( I think) The guys you are listing are from way back.

Japan currently have this number of active fighters per division

Lightweight - 134
Light Welterweight 70
Welterweight - 76
Light Middleweight - 43
Middleweight - 30

They have way more boxers in those weight classes than any other country apart from USA, Mexico and the UK yet they very rarely have any world champions from in those weight classes.

Guys like Kamegai, Watanabe, Ishida, Obara, etc are the best they have in those divisions and they are just not good enough. It's clear as daylight they underachieve massively in all the weight classes above the tiny weight classes!

They only do well in divisions where there is no Russians, no Ukrainians, no Cubans, very few Americans, very few Brits, etc.

I'm really not into excuses in boxing,I think they are stupid, because guess what boxing is not the most popular sport in any country!

I think I'm right in saying Japan are overrated by some in boxing.
Just look at this statistic for example - there is over 2000 welterweights in the world yet there is just 200 minimumweight boxers in the world. Japan are not a force when theres numbers.

 

You said that Japan has never had world champions above featherweight. I simply pointed out that this was inaccurate, and that Japanese fighters have won titles at higher weight divisions at points when more boxers were fighting in each weight division.

Also, there are many more countries that have more boxers fighting in higher weight divisions than Japan does, currently. Argentina alone is one nation and there are many, many more.

Either way, Japan does well in lower weight divisions, up to an often including featherweight. There are quite of few posters here who like to watch those divisions because in general the fights provide better action and skill. Other posters don't...and that's their right.

I happen to fall into the former group...and any attempts from the latter group to dissuade me from my enjoyment are likely to fall on deaf ears. I'll likely be too focused on watching some really good fights to be bothered to listen to what they have to say.

Ta.

 

Quite the opposite, idiot.
He didn't refute any of my claims , apart from saying many countries had more boxers in those weight divisions yet just names one!- probably cause that is the only one! The point remains they are one of the top 4 countries that have the most boxers in those weight divisons, yet they very rarely have any world champions in those weight divisions.

Everything I said was the truth, CLEARLY! Sorry it upsets you.

4/5 world titles in a weight division that only has 200 boxers is making a mockery of the sport, and every 4lbs another 4/5 world titles.

Japan just aren't that great boxing nation when there's the numbers game.. that's a fact. They aren't nothing in the amateurs either were the whole world competes. I didn't intend to mock them, they have some top fighters in those loser weight classes , but I'm a realist.

 

Too bad.

If you ignore the lowest divisions and concentrate simply upon flyweight, you still have a reasonable pool of talent from that division up (just a little under 800 fighters). If you allow for the fact that there's considerable mobility between the various classes and include the two hundred minimumweights and 500 junior flyweights, you have a pool of about 1500 fighters. That's a pretty decent sized pool of talent to watch.

Japan has good representation in that pool, so props to them. So does Mexico, Philippines, and a number of other countries.

(Guess you hate those countries, too....)

Either way, I think the lower weights are worth watching. You don't. We'll leave it at that.