Earlier today we had the latest show at Korakuen Hall, with the card featuring several notable bouts.
One of those notable bouts saw Ryusuke Sunagawa (3-0, 2) [砂川隆祐] claim the biggest win of his young career, as he out-pointed the dangerous Narumi Yukawa (8-2, 7) [湯川成美] over 8 rounds. Sunagawa, who had only fought 7 rounds as a professional prior to this bout, relied on his strong amateur back ground to out box and out move he powerful Yukawa. The movement of Sunagawa was used to set up combinations in the opening round, and although Yukawa cut the distance in round 2 it wasn't long until Sunagawa was back in control, where he remained for much of the fight. After 8 rounds all 2 judges had this 78-74 for Sunagawa, who has really put his name in the mix for a domestic title fight after this win.
Another fighter who scored a career best win in just his third bout was 23 year old southpaw Sho Nogami (3-0, 2) [野上翔], who out-pointed fellow southpaw Kosuke Tomioka (7-4, 6) [富岡浩介] to claim the Japanese Youth Flyweight title. Nogami had notable success in round 2, but couldn't build on it, as the two men had a messy third round. Nogami seemed to be the better boxer through out, and looked to be landing well before being caught by Tomioka's much vaunted power, and the unbeaten novice was dropped in round 6. Nogami, likely feeling the knockdown could be the difference maker, tried to return the favour in round 7, hurting Tomioka, who had to hold on to survive. The survival skills of Tomioka showed and in round 8 he seemed to have his legs back under-him, but it wasn't enough to take the win. After 8 rounds the scored for this were 76-75 and 77-74 to Nogami, and a score of 76-74 to Tomioka.
In the main event of the card the tough and rugged Takeshi Inoue (20-2-3, 12) [井上岳志] retained the OPBF and WBO Asia Pacific Light Middleweight titles, with a majority decision draw against Australian challenger Ryan Wade (22-11-1, 8). This was really even through out, and whilst Inoue was slightly more consistent, he could never do enough to distance himself from Wade who landed good jabs and good straight left hands. The bout was even on all 3 cards after 4 rounds, when the open scoring was announced. In the middle rounds Inoue did enough to get his nose in front, on two of the cards, with scores of 77-75 as he seemed to hurt Ryan with a good right in round 7 and picked up his tempo in round 8. Ryan, knowing he was behind, picked up his own tempo in round 9, as he landed a brilliant left uppercut, but the two men would continue to go tit for tat in what was a really hotly contested final 4 rounds. Sadly for Inoue the narrow lead he had going into the final rounds wasn't enough, with final scores being 115-113 Inoue and 114-114, twice, to result in the draw.
After the fight it felt like Inoue should have done more, and his lack of variation was a problem that let him down. Ryan, although no world beater, finished this well, and showed that he's a very capable operator at this level, much better than his record suggests.
