By Joe Koizumi
Photo by Naoki Fukuda
We yesterday watched all the three Japanese contestants victorious in the world title tripleheader in Tokyo, Japan. It’s time to count and confirm our world titleholders so far. Let’s get it on.
Undisputed 122 Naoya Inoue 26-0, 23 KOs
WBA 118 Takuma Inoue 19-1, 5 KOs
WBO 118 Junto Nakatani 27-0, 20 KOs
WBA 115 Kazuto Ioka 31-2-1, 16 KOs
WBO 115 Kosei Tanaka 20-1, 11 KOs
WBA 112 Seigo Yuri Akui 19-2-1, 11 KOs
WBC, WBA 108 Kenshiro Teraji 23-1, 14 KOs
WBC 105 Yudai Shigeoka 8-0, 5 KOs
IBF 105 Ginjiro Shigeoka 10-0, 8 KOs
There are nine world champs. This reporter remembers the day of more than ten world titleholders here, and if we call that good old days the golden age of boxing in Japan, the current state of only nine titlists is still developing to expect a brighter future. We should be humble and should not be overconfident over the current situation since we may see hungry challengers all over the world. We should cultivate more and more young aspirants for fame and fortune with more efforts since boxing is technically changing day after day. The golden age of boxing in Japan is yet to come.
The good old days were when we had one world champion per weight class, and not a lot of alphabet champions.
Is OK it doesn’t matter how many organizations we got as long they fight the best VS best
If we had just 1 organization like before it would be worst it would be too many fighters in the line waiting for a belt
The problem is the m9ney
They don’t fight unless they get lot of m9ney or they just fight f9r m9ney
Material Fighters
Sponsors
Promoters
TV
Etc etc etc they ruin boxing
Is OK it doesn’t matter how many organizations we got as long they fight the best VS best
If we had just 1 organization like before it would be worst it would be too many fighters in the line waiting for a belt
The problem is the m9ney
They don’t fight unless they get lot of m9ney or they just fight f9r m9ney
Material Fighters
Sponsors
Promoters
TV
Etc etc etc they ruin boxing
For example
Canelo must fight Benavides
Shakur VS zepeda
Ryan VS Haney
Betterbiev VS bivol
Etc etc etc BEST VS BEST right away and not waiting years for watch the great fights
Like canelo VS benav8des
Canelo should be stripped off by all the organizations WBC WBA IBF WBO
“… too many fighters in the line waiting for a belt.”
Fighting for a belt is fine, but not everyone is suitable to fight for a world belt.
I remember Tony Sibson, who was ranked top five, saying after being whipped by Marvin Hagler:
“I never realized there was such a gap to the top.”
In my opinion, a world title fight should be something special, a world champion someone out of the ordinary. As is the matter of course in every other sport.
The best will never fight the best on a consistent basis while there are 5-6 champions per division, it’s that simple.
Yea they can
And not a weight class for every three pounds.
Lot of people don’t know it but we have a great rivalry with Japan
Mexico has the most championship fights won in Asia specially in Japan
Since 1960’s great Mexican boxers have travel to beat the hard Asians
Some Mexicans unexpectedly win the championship over there
And of course they have kicked us out as well beating low and high class Mexican fighters
Most people don’t know about this rivalry for two things:
1 this rivalry it’s been in the small class divisions normally from 105 to 118 lbs
2 Asians and Mexicans have been very humble and respectful
Like they don’t push each other like Ryan Garcia and Davin Haney , they just face up shake hands and fight like a roosters in the ring
Another peculiar part of this rivalry is that Mexicans travel more to Asian than Asian traveling to Mexico
I think is due to marketing
Japan have been ready to held a big fights that’s why Mexico is the country with more championship fights won all over the world
Nobody have won more championship fights as a visitors like Mexico , we have won in japan Korea Thailand Panama Puerto Rico Argentina Brazil Germany France USA etc etc etc because we are not so ready to held big fights in Mexico
Anyway talking about Mexico vs Japan they normally don’t come to fight in Mexico but it does not matter it’s been a great rivalry and they have had very powerful fighters like today with the super solid fighter inoya Inoue and many more like nakatani etc etc etc
It’s not like they having a good time they always have been great in boxing in small divisions
And Mexicans are very welcome and accepted by Asian crowd , they like tough fights
Anyway….congratulations to Japan who they are doing great and have amazing fighters right now
I just wish we Mexicans and Asian be genetically bigger to be more accepted by boxing fans
Because in boxing the bigger the better
Big fighters have more reputation
most oriental fighters do well but all 126lbs and down to 105lbs once they go 130lbs and up its just here or there and they get beat very quickly and forgotten
Organizations have added all these
divisions in the lower weight classes partly to take advantage of all the boxing activity in Japan. More champions equal more sanctioning fees for these paper titles.
Clearly, Japan is setting up a nice system of developing smaller weight fighters, but I want to see more of their fighters scrap in the USA and in Mexico because I want to see how well they perform outside their comfort zone (Japan).
Win, lose or draw, Mexican fighters have no problems fighting outside of Mexico. For now, Mexico has better smaller weight fighters than Japan. PERO, Mexico’s boxing system better keep their eyes wide open because Japan is tightening up their boxing system – GREAT FOR THE BOXING WORLD TO SEE.
Everyone has a belt now a days! Even berlanga yesterday had some bullshit belt in his shoulder! I mean what the ufffck! Who and when did berlanga beat to earn that bullisdht belt he gad! Sooner we’ll see jake paul with a belt too! What the uffck is wrong with the sport of boxing and them bullisht peopke who manage the organizations!!!!!!!!!! 4 belts its all there should be per division!
Yea it’s just a symbolic belt we know what are the 4 belts what really has a meaning in boxing
Step up belts have been around for over half a century. USBA, NABF, EURO, BRITTISH etc… It’s just now that the corrupt organizations have inserted their name plus a favorite element from that table to make it look more appealing….AND, collect an additional fee. Soon, we will have a Kellogg’s champ.
Japan probably has the best domestic scene in the world. Consistently has well-matched fights and the top fighters all fight each other.
If you look at the betting odds for a Japanese card compared to any other country in the world, Japan always has the closest odds.
It’s like the UK domestic scene used to be before it turned into mainly having prospects thrash eastern Euro journeyman.
Japan is turning out champ after champ. Their pride and dedication to the sport is admirable. I’m glad that the world is able to enjoy their bouts on a regular basis because our current technological availabilities. Years ago we had to wait for the tapes to become available before watching the fights 2 weeks afterwards. Lol!!!
I remember back in the 80’s that Korean and Thai boxers seemed to have more success than Japanese. Now Korea boxing from a distant past, with hardly anyone in the top ten of any organization. thailand now has only one world champ, and the lowest weight class, and he has not fought in more than a year.