By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda (to come soon)
Filipino sharpshooter Joe Noynay (18-2-1, 7 KOs), 129.75, impressively kept his WBO Asia Pacific 130-pound belt as he battered previously unbeaten 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Satoshi Shimizu (8-1, 8 KOs), 129.75, from the outset, dropped him twice in the first round, kept whipping the damaged Japanese and finally halted him at 2:18 of the sixth round in a scheduled twelve rounder on Friday in Osaka, Japan.
It took place beneath the WBA middleweight title bout of Rob Brant and Ryota Murata at the Edion Arena Osaka, where people gloomily witnessed an unexpected massacre. It had been regarded as Shimizu’s step en route to his world title crack in the near future, but Noynay was such a great nuisance that he completely destroyed his dream. The fatal sixth saw Shimizu, probably due to his deteriorated eyesight, abruptly quit by himself to be declared a TKO loser. It was a shocking scene.
I wonder who Shimizu fought to get his 8 wins with 8 knockouts. He showed me nothing at all to indicate that he’s an up and coming prospect. He had no head or upper body movement and was a sucker for an overhand left. He was getting hit by that punch repeatedly and never did anything to counter it. He also pushed his punches and led with a weak and ineffective jab. He frequently backed straight up and was often hit when he did so. I knew he was in for a beating when he got staggered by a jab in the first round. He subsequently suffered two knockdowns in the round.
I really hate seeing that earmuff defense where the fighter backs up to the ropes and holds both hands in front of his face. The next step from that is a KO loss. Shimizu looked weak and defenseless most of the time. He attacked aggressively in one of the rounds, but Noynay quickly put a stop to that in the next round. He was badly beaten in most of the rounds before he got hit one two many times on his badly swollen right eye and abruptly quit.
Shimizu didn’t show the amateur pedigree that was frequently mentioned before the fight. The fighter to watch is Noynay. He was extremely sharp and impressive in this fight. He also looked like the stronger fighter and hit much harder than Shimizu. I look forward to seeing him fight again.