Longtime reigning WBC bantamweight titleholder and consensus top bantamweight Shinsuke Yamanaka returns Tuesday in Japan to defend his WBC bantamweight title against undefeated Mexican Luis Nery. For many, Yamanaka is on the back end of the pound for pound top ten. Here he will be going for a Japanese record tying thirteenth title defense.
From October of 1978 to March of 1981, Yoko Gushiken reigned as the WBA light flyweight titleholder. During this run, he defended his title thirteen times. This remains the record for a Japanese belt holder to this day. After Tuesday, however, Gushiken may have some company as Shinsuke Yamanaka (27-0-2, 19 KOs) goes for his thirteenth bantamweight title defense of his own against Luis Nery (23-0, 17 KOs).
Drawing even with Gushiken might be easier said than done though. 22 year old Luis Nery is a talented, aggressive young fighter. Though he can look a little sloppy at times, he comes forward with high intensity and carries real power behind his shots. By far Nery’s biggest win came last year when he overwhelmed former interim titleholder David Sanchez, forcing him to retire after four grueling rounds. He is 3-0 since then as well.
At 34 years old, Yamanaka is verging on being a notably old bantamweight. Fighters just don’t age well at the lower weights. Against a 22 year old, this is a very big factor to consider in this matchup. Yet, asking Nery to travel not only outside of Mexico for the first time, but all the way to Japan to face a living legend of the sport is a huge deal too. Maybe these will cancel each other out as contributing factors, or maybe one will prove the difference in the end.
The one factor that almost always comes into play is Shinsuke Yamanaka’s left hand from his southpaw stance. The only fighter to ever really neutralize it was the very talented Panamanian Anselmo Moreno in their first fight, a decision Yamanaka probably should not have gotten, but Shinsuke landed it all night in their rematch en route to a seventh round TKO win. It is one of the single most dominant punches in the sport and is the source of Yamanaka’s sometimes used nickname, “God’s left.”
The Japanese titleholder bases his entire game around it. He isn’t really a special athlete or technician compared to the others in the top fifteen or so pound for pound slots in the sport, but he has that shot and knows how to use it. Often he likes to sit back and wait to run his opponent into it and he should have ample opportunity to do this against an aggressive, Mexican brawler like Nery. Stylistically, it is a good matchup.
Or is it? Yamanaka, as mentioned, is 34. He has also been down in two of his last three fights. Clearly he is more vulnerable than ever. Is he vulnerable enough for a young Mexican jaguar to come snatch away everything he has worked for? Or will Yamanaka have another vintage performance in him on his way to further cementing his status as one of the greatest Japanese fighters of all time? This is really a bright matchup coming out of a truly dull week in the sport.
Incidentally, the record for the bantamweight division as a whole is held by Texan Orlando Canizales who held the IBF bantamweight title for sixteen defenses from July 1988 until he vacated it to move up in October of 1994. A win here would put Yamanaka three defenses away from tying that record.
There are no notable undercard fights that impact the sport beyond the Japanese domestic scene. The fight will be broadcast on Azteca in Mexico if you live somewhere where that is available, otherwise Youtube afterward will be your friend.
