Earlier today we had the latest show from Ohashi Gym, with the showing having 4 really notable bouts, two of which were title bouts, and two were semi-finals for a Lightweight tournament.
The first of the semi-finals saw the hard hitting Yoji Saito (8-3-2, 8) [齊藤陽ニ] fail to fulfil his prediction, of stopping Chinese fighter Hanyun Wu (4-2-0-1, 1) in the second or third round. The prediction, made at the weigh in, came after Saito said an opening round KO would disappoint the fans. Despite failing to back up his words, he wasn’t far off, as he stopped the Chinese fighter at the end of round 4. The bout had been a really fun one, with Wu having success through the first 2 rounds, fighting fire with fire, but the body shots from Saito began to take their toll towards the end of round 2. The shots from Saito seemed to take the fight out of Wu who take out just before the bell at the end of round 4, being counted out at an official time of 3:07 of round 4.
Following his win Saito stated "Ever since the tournament was decided, I have been practicing only with southpaws (with Imanaga in mind). I'm sorry today's match was disappointing, but next time I'll win with a good feeling."
Luckily for Saito that training will come in handy, as Taiga Imanaga (6-0, 5) [今永虎雅] secured his own place in the final, stopping Filipino fighter Marvin Esquierdo (17-4-1, 11) in the second round. Imanaga looked strong, accurate and spiteful as he controlled the action and dropped his man twice to secure his final place with Saito. Following the win Imanaga explained "I was able to win exactly according to the strategy I had practiced. I just have to give my best in the final. I will definitely win by KO."
The first of two title bouts on the show was essentially a coming out party for Shunpei Kaneshiro (3-0, 2) [金城隼平], who showed why he is so highly regarded, as he dismantled Daichi Hirai (8-5, 1) [平井乃智] and claimed the Japanese Youth Bantamweight title. Early in the bout Kanehiro showed off his boxing skills, fighting at range, using his footwork and using sharp jabs to dictate the action, and neutralise Hirai's attempts to get close. In round 3 Kaneshiro dropped Hirai, with a right hook, before pressing the action more in round 4, as he began to break down Hirai. To his credit Hirai never stopped trying, but by round 7 he was being punished, as Hirai began to hunt a stoppage. With just seconds of the bout left, and after a series of nasty straight left hands, Hirai was down for the second time, and was stopped with just 4 seconds of the bout left.
We saw a second new champion being crowned in the main event of the show, as Riku Masuda (5-1, 5) [増田 陸] claimed the Japanese Bantamweight title, dethroning Fumiya Fuse (14-4, 3) [富施 郁哉] in the 4th round. The opening round saw the powerful and hard hitting Masuda applying pressure and Fuse looking to create space, and work at range whilst avoiding the bigger shots from Masuda. Sadly for Fuse he wasn’t able to avoid Masuda for the full round, and was rocked late on, but had worked well through much of the round. In rounds 2 and 3 Masuda pressed more, but struggled to get the distance he wanted, with Fuse’s faster hands and clean accurate counters catching the eye, especially in round 3 which saw Masuda suffer a cut over his right eye from a good straight left.
In round 4 Masuda really began looking for a right hook, throw several that just whizzed past Fuse, missing by inches as Fuse began to press the action, and was making the more powerful Masuda cover up. With just over 2 minutes of the round gone Masuda finally landed the right hook, landing clean as a whistle, sending Fuse down hard. Fuse got to his feet but was still clearly buzzed with the referee waving the bout off. After the bout "Fumiya had prepared a lot of countermeasures, so it was a difficult start. The punch that knocked him down in the end was one I had practiced. The fact that it came out in the match was the best thing I could do. I want to work hard so that I can compete on an even higher stage."
