The Japanese superstar brings his talents back stateside.
Ryota Murata (14-1, 11 KOs) is arguably the biggest star in the sport of boxing. That might sound like an insane thing to say given that I also wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t know who he is at all, but just take this in. For his rematch of his downright robbery of a loss against Hassan N’Dam late last year, Murata pulled in more than 30 million Japanese television viewers. That would have made his fight the fifth highest watched broadcast of the year if it happened in America, placing it only behind NFL playoff games and the Oscars. That’s impressive, but it is actually underselling how big of a draw Murata is in Japan significantly. America has roughly three times the population of Murata’s proud home country. If we scale for population, percentage wise more than double the population in Japan watched him fight than watched the Super Bowl here in the United States. This is unparalleled stuff.
Of course, this draw is basically isolated to Japan so it is hard to actually argue that he is a bigger name than the two consensus top stars in Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez. Murata is worth bringing up still though. He and his team are trying to further his international appeal with this card in Las Vegas too. It won’t be his America debut, but it’ll be Ryota’s big moment to headline in the biggest fight city in the world. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist will be favored against Rob Brant (23-1, 16 KOs) in the main event. Murata is a strong, durable pressure fighter who uses a base level of technique to go with his physical strength to mask an overall lack of athleticism. Most importantly, this means he makes for good fights. The Japanese superstar prefers to come forward behind a shielding jab to get on the inside and work. I do believe American audiences will appreciate him if co-promoter Top Rank can get them to tune in.
That style also means Ryota gets hit, however. Can Rob Brant take advantage of that? There was a time in which I would have confidently said yes. At very beginning of 2016, Brant delivered a sensational knockout performance on ShoBox to announce his contention to the world. He followed this up with a few similarly dynamic performances on CBS Sports Network. While this wasn’t against top competition, the Minnesota native smashed his opponents in the spectacular way that we’d want an elite fighter to perform in against lower level competition. The fights were flashy executions.
Unfortunately, in Brant’s one big step up, the skills didn’t translate. They didn’t even come close. It was a bit of a surprise to me when he elected to move up to super middleweight to compete the first season of the World Boxing Super Series. When he was matched with Juergen Braehmer in the first round, however, I had full confidence in him. It had been some time since the legally troubled German had been all that impressive. Yet, Brant could do nothing with him. He was soundly outboxed in every facet of the game by a near 40 year old.
It was a terrible performance and a bit of a reality check, but I will point out a couple things. The first is size. Rob Brant moved up from middleweight to join the tournament. Conversely, Juergen Braehmer moved down from light heavyweight to qualify. I thought this would weight drain him something fierce at his advanced age, but the German was quite fresh in the ring. A middleweight versus a light heavyweight is not a recipe for success for the smaller man. Second, the style matchup for that fight doesn’t really apply here. Juergen outboxed Saturday night’s main even participant. He stuck and moved. It was traditional sweet science stuff. Ryota Murata will do that in spurts, but it isn’t who he is. I don’t see him maintaining it over the length of a fight. The former Olympic champion will be in the pocket throwing before too long.
All in all, I really like this main event. We’re going to learn a lot about someone here. Maybe Rob Brant gets dominated again at his natural weight in a new way and we can just write him off for good. I kind of think that is going to happen. Ryota Murata is just so physically strong that it is hard for me to picture most middleweights besting him at his own game and I do think Brant will be forced into it. At the same time, I’m basing these expectations on a fight in which it can be reasonably viewed that the Minnesota based fighter competed abroad at a serious size disadvantage. Before that, I thought he was a real prospect. I’m interested in this one precisely because I am going to at least leave with a better understanding of who Rob Brant is or isn’t in this sport. Furthermore, it’ll likely be a good fight. If Ryota Murata wins, and I suspect he will, it’ll be great to watch his star grow even just a little bit stateside too.
Two minor but important notes: One, the WBA belt that the Japanese fighter holds is not a world title. Ignore all belt chatter in this one; his is fraudulent thanks to the sanctioning body’s insistence on having multiple titles at each weight. Canelo Alvarez is the actual WBA middleweight titleholder. They only get one. Two, that belt is hugely important here anyway. Gennady Golovkin is reportedly eyeing Murata should the Japanese fighter win as expected. While I am sure GGG will appreciate the massive money the fight will do in Japan, that’s the cherry on top. What he’s after is that non-world title. Why? The WBA sometimes orders their stupid belts unified briefly. With Canelo having the highest one, Gennady likely views Murata’s version as a possible avenue to a third fight with the Mexican superstar.
In the co-main event, Russian junior welterweight prospect Maxim Dadashev (11-0, 10 KOs) takes a big step up to meet former top fighter Antonio DeMarco (33-6-1, 24 KOs). That’s the official narrative, anyway. This is sneaky smart matchmaking by Top Rank in truth. The 32 year old hasn’t been active and has struggled to get wins against top competition for years now. He’s coming off a shock first round knockout upset win over then surging PBC prospect Eddie Ramirez, but first round finishes are inherently fluky and Ramirez has been proven to be a cut below anyway since. Dadashev was able to rough up and stop former fringe contender Darleys Perez last time out and I suspect he’ll be able to do the same even more quickly to DeMarco. Top Rank will then be able to sell it as a big win too if all goes according to plan.
The main card starts at 10:30 PM Eastern on ESPN+. The preliminary portion begins three hours earlier and is worth checking out too. It’s a pretty loaded crew there, actually. Esquiva Falcao is in action, the man Ryota Murata won gold against in the Olympics. That was a controversial fight too and long term a pro rematch will be an easy sell. The prelims will be headlined by popular Irish prospect Michael Conlan and not Falcao, however, as he is the draw of the future Top Rank is trying to push. 2016 gold medalist Fazliddin Gaibnazarov is in action too, as is Conlan’s amateur rival and bronze medalist Vladimir Nikitin. There’s a lot here to enjoy so I’ll be streaming early.
