Welcome to Under the Radar Fight Results, the weekly column in which we cover all the notable fights not otherwise discussed in separate articles. New Year’s Weekend is traditionally a quiet fight week internationally, but Japan and a couple other Asian countries are traditionally exceptions. This week we have a former title challenger and a few prominent prospects.
On The Radar Results
A Monster among us, Naoya Inoue smashes in three
Unification! Taguchi decisions Melindo in Japan
Under the Radar Fight Results
Sunday, December 31st
Shingo Wake (23-5-2, 15 KOs) TKO3 Adundet Saithonggym (0-3), super bantamweights – Japan
In July of 2016, Shingo Wake lost a one sided beat down to then rising Dominican prospect Jonathan Guzman for a vacant world title. He rebounded in 2017 with three wins, including this one on New Year’s Eve. I pulled his Thai opponent’s record from boxrec.com as always, but I will note that they always struggled with the real records of more obscure boxers from Thailand. It may not be accurate at 0-3. If it is, Saithonggym likely has had some success in Muay Thai fighting then. Either way, this was a mismatch and it showed. Wake remains a logical domestic opponent for Ryosuke Iwasa and his IBF belt in 2018 if their handlers decide to go in that direction.
Saturday, December 30th
Satoshi Shimizu (5-0, 5 KOs) TKO7 Eduardo Mancito (15-8-2, 9 KOs), featherweights – Japan
Japanese 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Satoshi Shimizu defended his OPBF featherweight strap here for the first time in only his fifth professional fight. The OPBF belts are basically the Asian-Australian equivalent of the European titles, so this is an impressive accomplishment. Already 31, Shimizu’s team says they want to get him a world title shot in 2018. While it is increasingly business as usual for Japanese promoters to get their guys world titles very early in their career, they also do this basically exclusively at the lowest three weight classes in the sport. Up at featherweight, I suspect they will find it very difficult to get Shimizu a world title fight given that the belts are held by Leo Santa Cruz/Abner Mares, Gary Russell Jr, Lee Selby, and Oscar Valdez. Shimizu is a talented fighter to watch either way though.
Takuma Inoue (10-0, 2 KOs) UD10 Kentaro Masuda (27-6, 15 KOs), bantamweights & Koki Inoue (10-0, 9 KOs) KO4 Dong Hee Kim (8-2-2, 3 KOs), junior welterweights – Japan
The lesser known members of the Inoue family were also in action on Naoya Inoue’s undercard. Takuma, 22, is Naoya’s young brother while Koki, 25, is their cousin. Both are trained by Shingo Inoue, father to Naoya and Takuma. Of the two, Takuma is the more hyped prospect, but I do not view either as definite blue chip kind of guys. Takuma does look smooth and athletic in there and is starting to step up nicely, but he just doesn’t have any real pop on his shots. That matters at world level. As for Koki, he is a junior welterweight. I noted last week with Hiroki Okada that it is difficult to evaluate bigger Japanese fighters due to their not being a pool of known domestic talent for them to meet and that holds true here. He looks strong, at least, but he is also being matched more softly than Takuma and certainly much more softly than Naoya was. There is likely a reason for that.
Ali Akhmedov (11-0, 8 KOs) TKO2 Ismat Eynullayev (12-3, 8 KOs), light heavyweights – Kazakhstan
Ali Akhmedov is a serious light heavyweight prospect to keep on your radar. He didn’t get to fight in the most prominent amateur tournaments because he was stuck behind Adilbek Niyazymbetov, the Kazakh bridesmaid who won silver at the world championships and Olympics in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016. Reportedly Akhmedov clearly beat Niyazymbetov in the qualifiers for Rio, however, and was robbed. As a young pro, Akhmedov looks like a good one. Unfortunately, this was an end of year record building mismatch back home though. While Eynullayev’s record looks reasonable for a 10-0 fighter to go up against, the devil is in the details. He has fought his career entirely at 152 lbs and here was yanked way up to light heavyweight. Eynullayev quit after being hurt to the body in the second round.
Jamshidbek Najmiddinov (16-1, 10 KOs) UD10 Hero Tito (23-13-2, 8 KOs), junior welterweights – Kazakhstan
Back in September, Jamshidbek Najmiddinov was a completely unknown but unbeaten prospect welcoming Viktor Postol back to the sport. Though he lost, Najmiddinov got a raw deal that night by not have at least one if not two knockdowns counted for him in a relatively close fight. Had all things been scored fairly, he may have had an argument to get the nod. Probably not, but it would have been quite close. Given that Viktor Postol has long been considered one of the top junior welterweights in the world, this makes Najmiddinov a prospect worth keeping an eye on going forward. This was his second fight back at home in Kazakhstan against low level competition since the Postol loss.
