Earlier today the East Japan Boxing Association announced the winners of their monthly awards for the month of February.
The MVP for the month is the newly crowned Japanese Lightweight champion Shu Utsuki (10-0, 8) [宇津木秀], following his impressive 9th round TKO win over Masahiro Suzuki back on February 8th. The win saw Utsuki net his first professional title, and it seems clear that, given his power and technical ability, he has the tools to go a long, long way in the sport, though of course is still a work in progress and it's going to be exciting to see what he does to build on the win over Suzuki.
The Fighting Spirit Award was also won by a newly crowned Japanese national champion, as Kyosuke Sawada (15-2-2, 6) [澤田京介] added the award to the Japanese Bantamweight title, which he won back on February 5th with a technical decision win over Kenshin Oshima. This was the second show at the title for Sawada, who had previously been denied by a technical draw. Whilst his win wasn't pretty, it was a meaningful one for the talented fighter, who started his career with back to back losses, but has rebuilt in very impressive fashion to claim the Japanese title.
The Newcomer Award was won by Shinba Yamaguchi (2-0-1, 2) [山口臣馬], who earned the award for his February 5th win over Ren Kobayashi, which saw him stopping Kobayashi in 6 rounds, and need to battle through some real problems from Kobayashi.
