Masaru Sueyoshi to defend Japanese title against Kosuke Saka!
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Earlier today we were informed that Japanese Super Featherweight champion Masaru Sueyoshi (19-1-1, 11) [末吉 大] would be returning to the ring on September 2nd to defend the belt against former Japanese Featherweight champion Kosuke Saka (18-5, 15) [坂晃典].
For the once beaten champion the bout will be his 5th defense, and will see him trying to reestablish himself after razor thin bouts with Hironori Mishiro and Ken Osato. He's been the champion since October 2017, but hasn't really looked like he has found a new gear since winning the title, and in many ways has sort of stagnated at the top of the domestic tree. Despite that stagnation it's hard to deny that he is a very talented fighter, and does have a rather awkward style. Interestingly, his only loss came early in his career to Masayuki Ito, and a rematch between the two would certainly be very interesting.
Whilst the champion has faltered he's been unbeaten since his loss to Ito, way back in 2012, and has gone 16-0-1 since then, proving himself to be a very hard man to beat.
Saka, who also suffered his first loss to Masayuki Ito in 2012, has had some mixed success. He went on a great run following a 2014 loss to Hiroshige Osawa, scoring wins against the likes of Ryuto Kyoguchi, Burning Ishii, Takafumi Nakajima and Shota Hayashi, with the win over Hayashi netting Saka the Japanese Featherweight title. Sadly though Saka's reign was a short one, and he was knocked out in bizarre fashion by Takenori Ohashi in his first defense, mishearing the clacker as the bell and taken clean out. A couple of bounce back wins, including one over Masanori Rikiishi, saw Saka begin to climb back up to where he was but an April loss to Joe Noynay, for the WBO Asia Pacific Super Featherweight title.
On paper this will be Sueyoshi's first defense against a puncher, with Saka having very heavy hands, but the champion will still be strongly favoured, given his natural size advantage and his counter punching ability.
At the moment no other bouts for this card, which will be held at Korakuen Hall, have been announced.
For the once beaten champion the bout will be his 5th defense, and will see him trying to reestablish himself after razor thin bouts with Hironori Mishiro and Ken Osato. He's been the champion since October 2017, but hasn't really looked like he has found a new gear since winning the title, and in many ways has sort of stagnated at the top of the domestic tree. Despite that stagnation it's hard to deny that he is a very talented fighter, and does have a rather awkward style. Interestingly, his only loss came early in his career to Masayuki Ito, and a rematch between the two would certainly be very interesting.
Whilst the champion has faltered he's been unbeaten since his loss to Ito, way back in 2012, and has gone 16-0-1 since then, proving himself to be a very hard man to beat.
Saka, who also suffered his first loss to Masayuki Ito in 2012, has had some mixed success. He went on a great run following a 2014 loss to Hiroshige Osawa, scoring wins against the likes of Ryuto Kyoguchi, Burning Ishii, Takafumi Nakajima and Shota Hayashi, with the win over Hayashi netting Saka the Japanese Featherweight title. Sadly though Saka's reign was a short one, and he was knocked out in bizarre fashion by Takenori Ohashi in his first defense, mishearing the clacker as the bell and taken clean out. A couple of bounce back wins, including one over Masanori Rikiishi, saw Saka begin to climb back up to where he was but an April loss to Joe Noynay, for the WBO Asia Pacific Super Featherweight title.
On paper this will be Sueyoshi's first defense against a puncher, with Saka having very heavy hands, but the champion will still be strongly favoured, given his natural size advantage and his counter punching ability.
At the moment no other bouts for this card, which will be held at Korakuen Hall, have been announced.