Earlier today we had one of the strangest ever editions of Dynamic Glove. The long running series, held in conjunction with TV channel G+, was originally scheduled to feature 5 bouts, but due to injuries and Covid19 those 5 bout ended up reduced to just 2 contests, with the planned main event and planned chief support bout being cancelled in the weeks leading up to the show.
Due to the TV commitments, and the late notice cancellation of the main event, the promoter, Teiken, went on to hold the show, but refunded the cost of tickets to all the fans as an apology.
Despite only two bouts taking place the event was a notable one as both fights had genuine significance.
The first of the two contests was an East Japan Rookie of the Year contest between Eigoro Akai (0-1) [赤井英五郎] and Yasunori Okamura (1-0, 1) [岡村弥徳]. By it's self this was notable due to the Rookie of the Year aspect, but it was even more notable as it featured Akai, the son of the very popular Hidekazu Akai, who was a massive fan favourite back in the 1980's, before later becoming a successful actor following an in ring injury.
Sadly for Eigoro he was unable to take home a victory, and was instead stopped after just 84 seconds as Okamura's power was too much. Eigoro was rocked and hurt before being saved by the referee.
The second bout was a Japanese Welterweight title eliminator, as a rematch between Yuki Nagano (19-3, 15) [永野祐樹] and Yuki Beppu (21-3-1, 20) [別府優樹]. These two had fought back in 2018, when Nagano took a decision win over Beppu. Following their first bout both men had achieved their biggest success, with Nagano winning the Japanese national title and Beppu winning the WBO Asia Pacific title, but both had also suffered stoppage losses since their 2018 clash, and both had certainly taken a lot of punishment in recent contests. Coming in it seemed less of a case of who was the better fighter, but who had more left in the tank.
The first round started slowly, with both men looking to feel the other out in the opening round, and in round 2 Beppu seemed to find his groove before Nagano, with Beppu using his legs well to control the tempo and distance. Sadly for Beppu his success didn't last long, and in round 3 a straight left hand dropped him, really late in the round. Beppu came out for round 4 looking to get momentum back on his side, but he struggled to break through the guard of Nagano. In round 5 a right hook from Nagano saw him dropping Beppu for the second time. Beppu beat the count but was under intense pressure immediately, and was down again just moments later, and then down again, for a 4th time in the fight. That was it, with the referee finally stoppign the action and saving Beppu.
With the win Nagano has earned himself a Japanese title fight for next year, whilst Beppu, who has taken a lot of punishment in his last 3 fights, maybe needs to consider retiring from the sport on grounds of his physical well being.
