Japanese boxing

HigginsJ

Big Ears wrote: »

To be honest, from watching him fight he certainly isn't deserving of those rankings, but it must be remembered that he's a Japanese title holder, who's just made 4 defences of his title. The Japanese belt is normally the strongest domestic belt in the World from Minimumweight up to Super-Featherweight.
The vacant title fight to replace Otake's place as Japanese champion is between Yukinori Oguni (who's a former Continental champion with good defences of that belt) and Yatsutaka Ishimoto (who's beaten Wilfredo Vasquez jnr and just fought an IBF eliminator vs Avalos). They're domestic scene is high, high level and it just so happens that Otake got his chance during a brief weak period, and took his chance winning close decisions over some average enough fighters.
But ordinarily I wouldn't have an issue with a fighter receiving high World rankings off of making 4 consecutive Japanese title defences in a low weight class.

That's good info to know tbh. I was not aware of the strength of the Japanese scene.

Big Ears

HigginsJ wrote: »

That's good info to know tbh. I was not aware of the strength of the Japanese scene.

Ya it's great tbh, and just a shame we don't get to hear/see more about it over here. It's a huge scene as well, way bigger than the UK's and only Mexico and the United States would have more active fighters. They've got almost nothing going on above Middleweight though.

One thing which has really helped this is the lack of baubles being fought for. The Japanese commission didn't even recognise the WBO & IBF at all until recently, nevermind any of the minor World titles. Fighters would only fight for the Japanese title, the OPBF (continental) title, and then when ready either the WBA or WBC World titles. Only on rare occasions would they even fight for anything else, and that was primarily outside Japan.

The only unfortunate thing about their scene is that there is also the PABA (another continental organisation for the same region + a little more) which the Thai's, Indonesians, Aussies & Kiwi's prefer as you get away with fighting much easier opposition, and thus those nations generally go after that belt. Filipino fighters fight for both very frequently. That's before you mention the Asia/Pacific or oriental baubles, which are also popular in those countries but not fought for in Japan. The Koreans generally go the OPBF route, but also like dabbling in WBO bauble nonsense, and finally the Chinese typically go the WBC/WBO bauble route. That just about covers the region, but the basic point is despite the Japanese commissions best intentions, things are still somewhat ruined by too many belts !

Frankie Lee

Big Ears wrote: »

. They've got almost nothing going on above Middleweight though.

Former WBA light middleweight interim world champion Nobuhiro Ishida is fighting at Heavyweight now which is incredible enough. Ne heavyweight he has fought hits harder than Golovkin I reckon.

Big Ears

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Former WBA light middleweight interim world champion Nobuhiro Ishida is fighting at Heavyweight now which is incredible enough. Ne heavyweight he has fought hits harder than Golovkin I reckon.

Ya he's doing alright tbf, lost a close one to Fujimoto recently, although Fujimoto is an extremely small Heavyweight himself tbf. Fujimoto shouldn't really be fighting above Cruiserweight, and Ishida shouldn't be going above Light-Heavy, but nevertheless.....

There's the fight. Perhaps a Japanese boxing thread should be called for to avoid anymore disruption of this one ?