Earlier today fight fans at Korakuen Hall had an easy to over-look, yet very interesting card, from Kaneko Boxing, under their long running Golden Child Boxing, series of shows.
The main event was the shows real selling point as Japanese Minimumweight champion Yuni Takada (15-8-3, 6) [高田勇仁] took on Kaneko’s very own Yuri Kanaya (5-3, 1) [金谷勇利]. The bout, which served as Takada;s 4th defense of the title, was a hotly contested bout, In which Takada started well, using a nice variety of attacks, and using good body shots to take a close, but early lead. After 5 rounds the champion was up 48-47, on one card, and 49-46 on the other other two. Takada seemed to do enough to take round 6, but Kanaya then began a very good fight back in the later rounds, forcing Takada to go punch for punch in the final stages. After 10 rounds the judges had the bout 96-94, twice, and 97-93 for Takada who got a great work out here against a very live challenger, and now seems to be actively chasing a bout with WBO Asia Pacific champion Goki Kobayashi (8-1, 5) [小林豪己], saying he'll give up the Japanese title to face Kobayashi, with the winner of that bout likely looking at a world title fight in 2025.
In the chief support bout Shinobu Charlie Hosokawa (13-7-1, 11) [細川チャーリー忍] ended a 3 year break from the ring to take a decision win over Mikio Sakai (5-3-1) [酒井幹生], in what was a messy fight marred by clinching and styles that simply didn’t click. The first few rounds were a mess, before Hosokawa managed to have success in round 4 with Saka later being deducted a point for holding. Through out much of the bout Hosokawa simply did more in a fight that will not be well remembered.
In a more fun supporting bout Kenshi Noda (5-3, 3) [野田賢史] scored decision win over Hyogo Kimura (9-5-1, 3) [木村彪吾], in a very hotly contested and fun bout. Noda pressed the action, whilst Kimura looked to use his legs more and the styles gel fantastically for a fun fight, that got better as the rounds went on, with the final round being particularly fun as Kimura stood his ground more, and fought fire with fire. Notably this was Noda’s second win since transferring to the Kaneko Gym, and he has rebuilt well following a 3-3 start to his professional career.
One other supporting bout worthy of attention was the excellent win for Ryosuke Koyama (2-0, 2) [小山涼介], who stepped up in a big way, and stopped Ryota Ishida (12-5, 7) [石田凌太] in the 7th round. The 23 year old Koyama, who debuted in March with a blow out against Kyota Shinya in 57 seconds was forced to work hard against a naturally bigger man, who applied the pressure and looked to take the fight to Koyama. Despite the pressure Koyama used great footwork to neutralise Ishida, countered well, before landing a brutal right hand in round 7, dropping Ishida hard. The bout was immediately waved off, before Ishida was removed from the ring on a stretcher.
