Earlier this week Swiss website
https://www.blick.ch/ reported that Swiss hopeful
Angelo Pena (9-0, 6), a Spanish born fighter based in Berne with Dominican heritage, was set to fight for the WBO Inter-Continental Super Featherweight title. By it’s self that’s not a story of interest to us, but what did pique our interest is the fact Pena’s opponent would be Japan’s
Hiroki Hanabusa (13-2-5, 5) [英洸貴], in what is a very peculiar pick, and give Hanabusa his European debut.
The unbeaten Pena, who won the IBO Continental title 2 fights back, is a really promising fighter dubbed “The One”, he is seens by some as Switzerland’s big hope, and and after a few years of finding his footing in the professional ranks, has started to step up in class, scoring a notable win over Sofiane Takoucht for the aforementioned IBO Continental title. A lot of his opponents so far have either been limited, or coming to the end of their career, as Takoucht was, but in just 9 fights he has started to climb towards, if not into, the world rankings at 130lbs, a division that in fairness isn’t too hot right now. If he can add the WBO Inter-Continental title to his collection he will find himself moving to within touching distance of a WBO world title fight, and will know this is a huge opportunity for his career.
As for Hanabusa, he has a very interesting looking record, with 5 draws in 20 bouts, but is much better than those numbers suggest. The 25 year old from Ishikawa debuted in 2017 and went unbeaten in his first 11, going 8-0-3, before running into the brilliant Toshiki Shimomachi, who was simply too good and stopped him in 5 rounds. In his very next fight he was beaten by Katsuya Fukui, but has since gone 5-0-2 with notable domestic wins over Kyonosuke Kameda and Kai Watanabe, showing his potential. Sadly though coming into this bout, it needs to be noted that Hanabusa is only a Super Bantamweight-come Featherweight, rather than a fully fledged Super Featherweight like Pena.
The bout, set for September 14th, will be the biggest fight involving a Swiss fighter in Berne since 1997, and the winner will certainly find themselves in the top 15 of the WBO.
The
Blick Article can be read here.
