Earlier today
Hideyuki Ohashi took to social media to announce the full line up for the next "Phoenix Battle" card, which will take place on November 28th at Korakuen Hall.
The main event of the card will see WBO Asia Pacific Featherweight champion
Musashi Mori (11-0, 6) [森 武蔵] defending his regional title against hard hitting challenger
Tsuyoshi Tameda (21-5-2, 19) [溜田剛士]. This will be Mori's third defense of the title, that he won in 2018 and will be his first contest since December 2018, when he beat Takuya Mizuno. The talented youngster is tipped for big things, and had been expected to end the year on the verge of a world title fight, but 2020 hasn't exactly gone to plan. As for Tameda the bout will see him looking to bounce back from a TKO loss to Jae Woo Lee, with that defeat occurring at the Hajime No Ippo 30th Anniversary tournament last November.
The main event will see Mori enter as a clear favourite, though Tameda certainly has the power to make life difficult for the champion.
The chief support bout will be the previously reported 8 round clash between former 2-time world title challenger
Masayuki Kuroda (30-8-3, 16) [黒田雅之] and unbeaten prospect
Ayato Hiromoto (2-0, 1) [廣本彩刀]. This will be Kuroda's first bout in well over a year, following his defeat to Moruti Mthalane, whilst Hiromoto will be taking a massive step up in class, in what should amount to a genuine test of the talented youngster. It's worth noting that Kuroda has recently changed full time jobs and will be entertaing this bout with a new found hunger, but will also be moving up in weight for the contest. As for Hiromoto he has the natural size advantage, but obviously doesn't have anything like the experience of Kuroda.
In an 8 round Welterweight bout
Rikuto Adachi (14-2, 11) [安達陸仁] will clash with
Hisashi Kato (9-9-2, 5) [加藤寿]. This will be Adachi's first bout since transferring to the Ohashi Gym in the summer and will see him looking to build on back to back wins over Change Hamashima and Masafumi Ando. The 35 year old Kato doesn't have the greatest of record but isn't a push over and his last 3 losses have all come to very solid domestic level fighters. He actually took a 3 and a half year break from the ring after his last loss, in December 2015, and has scored two wins since returning to the ring in May 2019.
One final 8 rounder announced for the card will see
Seiryu Toshikawa (12-5, 7) [利川聖隆] take on
Takahiko Kobayashi (9-3, 7) [小林孝彦], in a bout at 140lbs. On paper this is the least interesting bout on the show, but does promise fireworks and should be a really interesting domestic bout, with both men hungry to make an impression.
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