Just over a week ago Ohashi held a press conference where is was confirmed that undisputed Super Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25) [井上尚弥] would face unbeaten Australian Sam Goodman (19-0, 8) on a December 24th card that also features WBO Bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei (10-0, 8) [武居由樹].
At the time it was revealed that Takei’s bout didn’t have a set opponent and that discussions were underway with foreign fighters to take on the former kick boxer turned boxing world champion. Today, it was announced that Takei's finally had an opponent, with unbeaten Thai Yuttapong Tongdee (15-0, 9) being named as Takei's second challenger, following Daigo Higa (21-3-1, 19) [比嘉 大吾] earlier this year.
The announcement wasn’t met with much international fanfare but is certainly not an awful match up. The talented and unbeaten Thai has been a professional since 2020, has professional wins against Pigmy Kokietgym and Inthanon Sithchamuang and, more notably, was a stand out amateur with a notable 2017 win over Cuban sensation Robeisy Ramirez.
Despite being an unbeaten professional and a solid former amateur there are some issues with Yuttapong’s selection as an opponent for a world title fight, Firstly his best wins, as a professional, are against faded former world title challengers who are a decade past their best and fighting well above their best weight class. Pigmy, at his best, was a 105lb fighter who was well past his best when he lost in 8 rounds to Hekkie Budler in 2014, and Inthanon was a Super Flyweight who's crowning achievement was going 12 rounds with WBA champion Kohei Kono back in 2016.
Yuttapong was also not world ranked when the original press conference took place, with the latest WBO rankings at the time being dated September 15th. The October rankings, which weren’t posted under after the press conference but are now dated October 15th, have Yuttapong at #10, following a shake up in the aftermath of Saul Sanchez losing to Johnriel Casimero on October 13th. It's easy to see why the WBO have removed Sanchez, but not so easy to understand what Yuttapong did to earn a ranking.
Regardless of any complaints of the WBO, it’s fair to suggest Takei’s team were seeking a less punishing opponent than his last two, with both Daigo Higa and Jason Moloney giving him extremely tough bouts this year, especially with potential unification bouts in 2025.
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