Earlier today at the Capio in Tsukuba we had the latest show from Yamamguchi Tsuchiura Promotions. The card wasn't a huge one but did feature several fighters of note on it, including a former Japanese title challenger, one of the best young prospects in the sport and a very entertaining, though much more limited fighter.
The first bout of note on thus show saw
Ryu Horikawa (3-0-1, 1) [堀川 龍] take a unanimous decision win over
Daiki Kameyama (7-5-1, 2) [亀山 大輝], in a competitive and solid test for the 20 year old Horikawa. The bout started with Kameyama coming forward and being aggressive, but it wasn't long until Horikawa began to control the distance, and land quick shots at range. Kameyama began to struggle with the movement and clean, effective, punching of Horikawa, who countered well when he needed to. Although always game Kameyama failed to turn things around in the later stages, with Horikawa taking the decision with scores of 59-56, 58-57 and 58-56.
Horikawa and Kameyama showing some good boxing skills we then got a bout featuring the limited but always entertaining
Yuta Ashina (5-2) [足名 優太], who took a close decision over
Yuya Nemoto (6-9-3, 1) [根本 裕也]. Unlike most Ashina bouts this one didn't really shine like his usual contests. Ashina, who reached the All Japan
Rookie of the Year final last year, showed uncharacteristic calmness in the first round, and continually struggled to get going. What we saw was Nemoto using his experience to control portions of the action, despite being cut from a headclash early on, and what action we got was mostly slow paced, at mid range. A bit of a stinker, sadly, after a string of great bouts for Ashina. Despite the disappointing action Ashina took the win via majority decision with scores of 59-55, 58-56 and 57-57.
The main event saw the tough and rugged
Tatsuya Takahashi (32-9-6, 21) [高橋 竜也] take a decision win over
Hibiki Jogo (10-3, 5) [城後 響], with Takahashi moving one step close to another title fight. The bout saw Jogo look to use his speed advantage over the taller, longer Takahashi, but the clumsiness of both men saw heads come together, leaving Takahashi with a damaged eye. In round 2 Takahashi began to find his groove, using his 1-2's well at range and then began to work more on the inside in rounds 3 and 4. With the bout slipping away from him Jogo changed tactics and in round 5 he began to find the range for his straight shots and he started a fight back, the fight back was a relative short one though with Takahashi taking control back in round 7 before the two men went to an inside war in the final round.
After 8 rounds the scorecards came in, 78-74, 77-75 and 77-76 all in favour of Takahashi.
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