Midorikawa, Mori and Kira pick up wins, Yamaguchi books title fight!
Earlier today fight fans in Japan had the latest show from Shisei Promotions, with the event taking place at Korakuen Hall and featuring 4 noteworthy bouts.
The first of the 4 bouts of note featured former kickboxing champion Tsukuru Midorikawa (1-0) [緑川創], who began his career with a clear 6 round decision win over Chinese fighter Dacong Wang (8-4-1, 1). Wang, who has only won 1 of his previous 3, didn’t turn up just to make up the numbers, and looked like he had plenty of ambition early on with some good counters and some good straight shots. As the fight went on however we began to see the class of Midorikawa show, especially in the final rounds, as he put the bout beyond doubt. Aged Midorikawa doesn’t have time to waste, and this 6 rounder will serve him well, though we do wonder whether he left too late to turn his hand to boxing. Despite that he took the win here with scores fo 60-54, 59-55 and 58-54 against a fighter who came to score the upset.
The second bout of note saw former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Musashi Mori (15-1-1, 7) [森武蔵] end a lengthy break from the ring, as he defeated Peng Huang (10-10-3, 5) [黄朋]. Peng came to rough up Mori, and showed a few rough house tricks early on, but Mori settled to his boxing, showed his composure and kept finding a home for his straight left hand. Huang tried to step on Mori’s feet, further using some dark arts, but really struggled with landing anything of note, other than his head which left Mori cut in round 6 and resulted in Peng being deducted a point in round 7, with Mori suffering a second cut above the right eye. The referee seemed to allow Peng to get away with a lot of naughtiness with his head, leading to some outrage from the crowd, and a worsening injury, before finally stopping the bout due to the cuts and taking us to the scorecards, at an official time of 58 seconds into round 8. Given the clean, accurate shots of Mori it was clear who was taking home the win, with all 3 cards reading 79-72 in favour of the Japanese fighter. It’s fair to say after this Peng may struggle to get jobs in Japan given his repeated use of the head.
In the chief support bout the highly touted Daiya Kira (2-0, 2) [吉良大弥] made light work of Venezuelan fighter Orlando Pino (15-3, 9), in what was a mere cameo for the promising Japanese youngster. Kira pressed early on, landing a left hand to the body after just over a minute. Pino seemed to be hurt by it but stayed on his feet for a second or saw, before a delayed reaction sent him down where he remained for the 10 count. Sadly for Kira we really don’t know how good he is from his first 2 wins, neither of which have gone into round 2, but it’s clear he passes the eye test and from what we’ve seen he can be moved very quickly to a regional or national title fight.
The main event managed to deliver something much more compelling than the other 3 notable bouts, as Jinya Yamaguchi (5-0-1, 2) [山口仁也] and Kantaro Juri (7-0-2, 2) [重里侃太朗] battled to a draw in a Japanese Super Flyweight eliminator. From the off the two men looked to try and establish their jabs, though with it being an all-southpaw affair both seemed to take a while to really warm into it. When they did it was tit for tat, with Juri being the more pure boxer and Yamaguchi being the more aggressive, though the opening round. As the fight went on the tempo picked up, especially in a very fun round 2 which had some great exchanges. Round by round it seemed as soon as one would get a foot hold, the other would find their next burst of success. This was evident in round 4 when Yamaguchi seemed to be rocked before digging back the following round and dragged Juri into his fight, and again in rounds 6 and 7, where Juri had success only to have Yamaguchi take the play away the following round. With both knowing it was hard to call, they both dug deep and went to war in the final round, giving the fans a very special finish to the fight. In the end there really was little to split the men, with each man getting a card of 77-75 their way, and a 76-76 leading to a split decision draw. Despite the draw Yamaguchi will challenge for the Japanese title in the new year during the Champion Carnival.
The first of the 4 bouts of note featured former kickboxing champion Tsukuru Midorikawa (1-0) [緑川創], who began his career with a clear 6 round decision win over Chinese fighter Dacong Wang (8-4-1, 1). Wang, who has only won 1 of his previous 3, didn’t turn up just to make up the numbers, and looked like he had plenty of ambition early on with some good counters and some good straight shots. As the fight went on however we began to see the class of Midorikawa show, especially in the final rounds, as he put the bout beyond doubt. Aged Midorikawa doesn’t have time to waste, and this 6 rounder will serve him well, though we do wonder whether he left too late to turn his hand to boxing. Despite that he took the win here with scores fo 60-54, 59-55 and 58-54 against a fighter who came to score the upset.
The second bout of note saw former OPBF Super Featherweight champion Musashi Mori (15-1-1, 7) [森武蔵] end a lengthy break from the ring, as he defeated Peng Huang (10-10-3, 5) [黄朋]. Peng came to rough up Mori, and showed a few rough house tricks early on, but Mori settled to his boxing, showed his composure and kept finding a home for his straight left hand. Huang tried to step on Mori’s feet, further using some dark arts, but really struggled with landing anything of note, other than his head which left Mori cut in round 6 and resulted in Peng being deducted a point in round 7, with Mori suffering a second cut above the right eye. The referee seemed to allow Peng to get away with a lot of naughtiness with his head, leading to some outrage from the crowd, and a worsening injury, before finally stopping the bout due to the cuts and taking us to the scorecards, at an official time of 58 seconds into round 8. Given the clean, accurate shots of Mori it was clear who was taking home the win, with all 3 cards reading 79-72 in favour of the Japanese fighter. It’s fair to say after this Peng may struggle to get jobs in Japan given his repeated use of the head.
In the chief support bout the highly touted Daiya Kira (2-0, 2) [吉良大弥] made light work of Venezuelan fighter Orlando Pino (15-3, 9), in what was a mere cameo for the promising Japanese youngster. Kira pressed early on, landing a left hand to the body after just over a minute. Pino seemed to be hurt by it but stayed on his feet for a second or saw, before a delayed reaction sent him down where he remained for the 10 count. Sadly for Kira we really don’t know how good he is from his first 2 wins, neither of which have gone into round 2, but it’s clear he passes the eye test and from what we’ve seen he can be moved very quickly to a regional or national title fight.
The main event managed to deliver something much more compelling than the other 3 notable bouts, as Jinya Yamaguchi (5-0-1, 2) [山口仁也] and Kantaro Juri (7-0-2, 2) [重里侃太朗] battled to a draw in a Japanese Super Flyweight eliminator. From the off the two men looked to try and establish their jabs, though with it being an all-southpaw affair both seemed to take a while to really warm into it. When they did it was tit for tat, with Juri being the more pure boxer and Yamaguchi being the more aggressive, though the opening round. As the fight went on the tempo picked up, especially in a very fun round 2 which had some great exchanges. Round by round it seemed as soon as one would get a foot hold, the other would find their next burst of success. This was evident in round 4 when Yamaguchi seemed to be rocked before digging back the following round and dragged Juri into his fight, and again in rounds 6 and 7, where Juri had success only to have Yamaguchi take the play away the following round. With both knowing it was hard to call, they both dug deep and went to war in the final round, giving the fans a very special finish to the fight. In the end there really was little to split the men, with each man getting a card of 77-75 their way, and a 76-76 leading to a split decision draw. Despite the draw Yamaguchi will challenge for the Japanese title in the new year during the Champion Carnival.