Yamabe beats Sagawa, Soda beats Kato and Kimura and Yaegashi trade in exhibition!
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This past Sunday wasn’t a huge day of action in Japan, but there was several fights of note taking place.
Arguably the most meaningful of those was in Mie, as former Japanese Featherweight champion Ryo Sagawa (13-5, 8) [佐川遼] suffered a third loss in 4 bouts, as he came up short in a really good fight with Ren Yamabe (9-4, 7) [山辺蓮].
The bout was incredibly competitive throughout, with Sagawa’s more accomplished boxing skills going up against the energetic aggression and power of Yamabe. For much of the fight the action was very competitive, with great 2-way back and forth. That was until the final round when Yamabe looked to put a punctuation on the bout, and put his foot on the gas, securing the win, by majority decision in what was a really good fight, and was well worth tuning into on Travel TV.
After the win Yamabe stated "In the 7th round, I was heartbroken when I got hit on the body, but thanks to the efforts of my second, I was able to move forward in the 8th round. Sagawa was good at mixing and matching straights, but I made a breakthrough with a double left combination. I hadn't been able to beat a famous fighter until now, but I finally managed to win. I was able to achieve one of my goals,"
Despite only fighting this past weekend, Yamabe is already pencilled in for his next bout, which will take place on July 6th, when he wil facel Japanese based Korean Young Doo Choi (8-1, 6) on a Koki Kameda promoted card in Osaka.
The 31 year old Sagawa, who held the Japanese Featherweight title between 2019 and 2021 and recorded 2 defenses, has struggled since losing the belt to Hinata Maruta in February 2021 and the loss to Yamabe is the most telling defeat for him since losing to Retsu Kosaka back in 2017, in his second professional bout. After the bout he explained. "I was conscious of not going into a shootout, but I got caught up in it. He didn't show any signs of being affected by my body shots" and went on to add that the bout was put on on short notice.
Over in Saitama the most meaningful bout saw 36 year old Yasuomi Soda (8-1-1, 5) [左右田泰臣] bounce back from a loss in 2024, as he stopped veteran Hisashi Kato (12-14-2, 8) [加藤寿]. Soda dominated from the off, and looked relaxed as he landed solid shots on Kato, who really struggled with the angles, range and tempo of Soda. As the rounds went on Soda tried to turn things around, and was made to pay in round 4 when a left hook scored the bouts first knockdown. Kato tried to turn things around, but in round 7 he was tiring and was dropped for a second time. He got to his feet, but was unsteady as the referee finished the 10 count and waved the bout off.
After the bout Soda explained that he had gotten back to fighting his style, saying "Around the last time at Korakuen Hall, I started to focus too much on defeating my opponents, so I couldn't get the distance right and I started getting hit more often by my opponents' punches, so rather than leveling up, I've focused on getting back to that style." He then added "My opponent, Kato, was a southpaw for the first time, so it was difficult, but I was able to use the reasons for the difficulties I discussed with Chairman Kayama after the match to help me improve. I hope to establish my own boxing style and show a more improved level in my next match."
As for Kato he was really harsh on himself, admitting it was a bad performance and explaining that he doesn't know what his future holds now, saying "I'm honestly not sure. It doesn't matter about age, but I've been given so many chances and I've lost four in a row. I think it's time to think about what I'll do from now on, but the people who support me tell me, 'I'm not in any bad shape and I can still move, so I want you to do it,' so I still want to do it. I want to take my time to think about it with the people around me and make a decision."
Notably the Soda Vs Kato bout, whilst technically the main event in terms of professional boxing, was not the main attraction. Instead that was a 3 round spar between world champions as former WBO Flyweight champion Sho Kimura (19-3-4, 12) [木村翔] took part in his retirement ceremony and sparred with former 3 weight world champion Akira Yaegashi (28-7, 16) [八重樫 東]. Despite the nature of the spar being Kimura’s retirement ceremony, and the fact Yaegashi has been retired for years himself, the two men put on 6 minutes of none-stop action, without headgear, just unloading shots on each other much to the excitement of the fans.
Following the spar Kimura told those in attendance "I had been using him in sparring even before I became world champion, and I thought that if I could surpass him, I could become world champion. I'm glad I was able to fight Yaegashi at the end."
As part of the ceremony Kimura had his wrap cut from his hands in the ring, among those cutting the wraps was Chinese promoter Lui Gang, who made it clear that he wanted Kimura to get in the ring one final time, saying "The match I saw today was the best Kimura match I have ever seen. I would like to see him have another retirement match in China with Zou Shiming". Gang, who organised the original bout between Kimura and Shiming, knows how popular Kimura is over in China, and interestingly Kimura wasn’t against the idea, though did hint he was wanting a solid pay day from it. And then added "This will be the last time I get in the ring and fight."
As for what is next for Kimura, he went on to say "It's been a year since the gym opened, and the number of members has increased, making it a stable fitness gym. Next I'd like to open a different gym and one specifically for boxers, both professional and amateur. Maybe because I'm here, a lot of our members want to become professional. I want to respond to that. At first I wasn't even thinking about going professional, but as the number of members has increased, I think I have the financial means to do so."
Arguably the most meaningful of those was in Mie, as former Japanese Featherweight champion Ryo Sagawa (13-5, 8) [佐川遼] suffered a third loss in 4 bouts, as he came up short in a really good fight with Ren Yamabe (9-4, 7) [山辺蓮].
The bout was incredibly competitive throughout, with Sagawa’s more accomplished boxing skills going up against the energetic aggression and power of Yamabe. For much of the fight the action was very competitive, with great 2-way back and forth. That was until the final round when Yamabe looked to put a punctuation on the bout, and put his foot on the gas, securing the win, by majority decision in what was a really good fight, and was well worth tuning into on Travel TV.
After the win Yamabe stated "In the 7th round, I was heartbroken when I got hit on the body, but thanks to the efforts of my second, I was able to move forward in the 8th round. Sagawa was good at mixing and matching straights, but I made a breakthrough with a double left combination. I hadn't been able to beat a famous fighter until now, but I finally managed to win. I was able to achieve one of my goals,"
Despite only fighting this past weekend, Yamabe is already pencilled in for his next bout, which will take place on July 6th, when he wil facel Japanese based Korean Young Doo Choi (8-1, 6) on a Koki Kameda promoted card in Osaka.
The 31 year old Sagawa, who held the Japanese Featherweight title between 2019 and 2021 and recorded 2 defenses, has struggled since losing the belt to Hinata Maruta in February 2021 and the loss to Yamabe is the most telling defeat for him since losing to Retsu Kosaka back in 2017, in his second professional bout. After the bout he explained. "I was conscious of not going into a shootout, but I got caught up in it. He didn't show any signs of being affected by my body shots" and went on to add that the bout was put on on short notice.
Over in Saitama the most meaningful bout saw 36 year old Yasuomi Soda (8-1-1, 5) [左右田泰臣] bounce back from a loss in 2024, as he stopped veteran Hisashi Kato (12-14-2, 8) [加藤寿]. Soda dominated from the off, and looked relaxed as he landed solid shots on Kato, who really struggled with the angles, range and tempo of Soda. As the rounds went on Soda tried to turn things around, and was made to pay in round 4 when a left hook scored the bouts first knockdown. Kato tried to turn things around, but in round 7 he was tiring and was dropped for a second time. He got to his feet, but was unsteady as the referee finished the 10 count and waved the bout off.
After the bout Soda explained that he had gotten back to fighting his style, saying "Around the last time at Korakuen Hall, I started to focus too much on defeating my opponents, so I couldn't get the distance right and I started getting hit more often by my opponents' punches, so rather than leveling up, I've focused on getting back to that style." He then added "My opponent, Kato, was a southpaw for the first time, so it was difficult, but I was able to use the reasons for the difficulties I discussed with Chairman Kayama after the match to help me improve. I hope to establish my own boxing style and show a more improved level in my next match."
As for Kato he was really harsh on himself, admitting it was a bad performance and explaining that he doesn't know what his future holds now, saying "I'm honestly not sure. It doesn't matter about age, but I've been given so many chances and I've lost four in a row. I think it's time to think about what I'll do from now on, but the people who support me tell me, 'I'm not in any bad shape and I can still move, so I want you to do it,' so I still want to do it. I want to take my time to think about it with the people around me and make a decision."
Notably the Soda Vs Kato bout, whilst technically the main event in terms of professional boxing, was not the main attraction. Instead that was a 3 round spar between world champions as former WBO Flyweight champion Sho Kimura (19-3-4, 12) [木村翔] took part in his retirement ceremony and sparred with former 3 weight world champion Akira Yaegashi (28-7, 16) [八重樫 東]. Despite the nature of the spar being Kimura’s retirement ceremony, and the fact Yaegashi has been retired for years himself, the two men put on 6 minutes of none-stop action, without headgear, just unloading shots on each other much to the excitement of the fans.
Following the spar Kimura told those in attendance "I had been using him in sparring even before I became world champion, and I thought that if I could surpass him, I could become world champion. I'm glad I was able to fight Yaegashi at the end."
As part of the ceremony Kimura had his wrap cut from his hands in the ring, among those cutting the wraps was Chinese promoter Lui Gang, who made it clear that he wanted Kimura to get in the ring one final time, saying "The match I saw today was the best Kimura match I have ever seen. I would like to see him have another retirement match in China with Zou Shiming". Gang, who organised the original bout between Kimura and Shiming, knows how popular Kimura is over in China, and interestingly Kimura wasn’t against the idea, though did hint he was wanting a solid pay day from it. And then added "This will be the last time I get in the ring and fight."
As for what is next for Kimura, he went on to say "It's been a year since the gym opened, and the number of members has increased, making it a stable fitness gym. Next I'd like to open a different gym and one specifically for boxers, both professional and amateur. Maybe because I'm here, a lot of our members want to become professional. I want to respond to that. At first I wasn't even thinking about going professional, but as the number of members has increased, I think I have the financial means to do so."