Two world title fights went down in Osaka, Japan today. 22 year old two division titlist Kosei Tanaka successfully defended his WBO light flyweight title over Thailand’s Palangpol CP Freshmart in a slightly more difficult than expected outing while Ryosuke Iwasa scored an upset stoppage win over Yukinori Oguni to poach his IBF super bantamweight strap.
Kosei Tanaka (10-0, 6 KOs) looked much more human than he had in his last few fights. Palangpol CP Freshmart (14-2, 8 KOs, given name Rangsan Chayanram) was not supposed to be a significant challenge, or at least he certainly did not appear to be one on paper. Yet, for once Tanaka did not have a dramatic speed advantage as Freshmart was surprisingly quick. He used this unexpected show of athleticism to catch a reckless Tanaka in the first, sending the unbeaten young prodigy stumbling to the canvas.
It took until the fourth round for Kosei to really clearly take over the fight, but even then his Thai challenger would find a moment or two each round to get in something clean of his own. Despite his length advantage, the young world titleholder struggled to find a consistent distance in which he could attack and stay safe.
At the end of the eighth round, not too long after Freshmart had landed a few great shots of his own, Tanaka pushed the gas down and ripped at his would be usurper ferociously along the ropes. This was the first time Tanaka seemed to really bother Freshmart. A minute or so into the ninth, a huge shot dropped him hard. He rose, but instead of running or clinching, Freshmart chose a rock’em, sock’em robots approach that eventually caused the referee to intervene. It might have been a hair early as he was throwing and landing back, but he was also leaving himself so open that the stoppage was at least somewhat justified in protecting him from being put out cold.
As much as Tanaka may have slightly disappointed in the main event, he is really still just a 22 year old, ten fight prospect prospect and college kid despite his amazing two weight class pedigree.
Yukinori Oguni (19-2-1, 7 KOs) does not have those justifications for his performance. Just last New Year’s Eve, Oguni met a major power puncher in Jonathan Guzman, shockingly using his footwork to successfully outbox him in a major upset to lift his belt. Here Oguni was in against Ryosuke Iwasa (24-2, 16 KOs), another power puncher but also a clear lesser athlete than Guzman.
Theoretically Oguni could have employed the same circular approach to even more success against a more limited athlete, but for whatever reason he decided instead to come forward and walk into big left hands all night instead. Tactically this approach was a predictable disaster. Iwasa can punch with big straight lefts, so punch he did.
Oguni found himself down on the canvas in the very first round. In the second he went down super hard from again the same shot, so hard in fact that I briefly thought he was finished. He wasn’t, however, and he managed to get through the round despite getting knocked down for a third time later in the frame. Despite the beating, however, Oguni was extremely game. At the end of the fourth round, for example, he went on an extremely spirited attack that showed a ton of heart.
Towards the end of the sixth round Oguni was brought to the ringside doctor. His face was extremely red and his mouth was open, but it was unclear what exactly caused the physician to stop the fight as I do not speak a word of Japanese. There were certainly worse moments for Oguni than that of the stoppage. A jaw injury maybe? This remains unclear for me. He was not going to win this fight, however, so it doesn’t feel like it matters too much. Ryosuke Iwasa is now a world titlist.
