The B-Side and Boxing.
B-Side shit.
B-Side.
And the B-Side.
You got a B-Side.
The B-Side.
B-Side.
That B-Side thing.
This is the B-Sides Boxing Podcast.
Hey, if you're here, thanks for listening.
This is the Boxing B-Sides Podcast.
It's going to be structured a little bit differently than usual.
Right now we're just going, we're doing a little bit of catch-up shit.
It's been a little hectic over here.
So this is all Japan.
The three cars that happened that one weekend in October.
So we'll cover those three.
And that's pretty much it for this one.
But we'll be back with more.
Got to do a bit more of these catch-up ones before we get ourselves back into a regular rhythm.
So here we go.
Man, this Kiaguchi fight was a hell of a fight.
Yeah, they're just like spamming power punches.
It's wild.
It's the, I think Japan-Philippians is a rivalry similar to Mexico-Puerto Rico.
Yeah, for sure.
They just go nuts.
I wanted to see this fight so bad and it just impossible to do both.
Man, I can see why Kiaguchi is struggling as he moves up in weight.
He's tiny, tiny.
He started off out.
Like his amateur career was under 105.
But I'm like even in pictures, like usually if it's just a person in a picture, you can't
tell how tall they are.
But you can tell on his Instagram just how small he is.
Like he's got a French Bulldog and either it's the biggest French Bulldog ever or Kiaguchi
is like tiny.
Not a big person.
That's probably the case.
I'll add the cherry blossoms and stuff.
I'm just like those trees don't get very tall.
Do you want to roll?
San's intro, I could just like fucking do one on the fly with the next one.
With this.
Sure.
Okay, cool.
I did just want to rag on you a little bit for having to re-record the podcast.
Yeah.
I'm like somebody forgot to hit save.
Yeah, and closed the recording session without finalizing the recording.
It's great.
Go me.
I'm really good at this.
Very professional.
And oh man, the All Japan Special.
I have my fedora on.
I got mine ready.
I have an actual fedora, an expensive wool fedora that I bought at a very nice hat shop.
Okay, let's get to the thing.
Some stuff just to give a quick plug for the bros over at Ultimate Fucking Casual.
This weekend on the 8th, this Friday, 1 FC 169 is happening.
It's going to be headlined by Anatoly Malikin.
God, why was that so fucking hard?
He's the heavyweight MMA champ.
He's fighting this big African dude who's not a very good wrestler, but like monstrous
power.
So should be interesting.
Anatoly is a fucking maniac.
He's a 3D division champion, went from middle up to light heavy, and now he's a heavyweight
champ.
It's pretty nuts.
That's wild across any combat sport.
Well maybe not so much boxing.
It seems easier to get into heavyweight from a lower weight class in MMA.
Yes.
Are the heavies not as heavy?
I don't know how to phrase that.
They cap at 265.
Oh, so it's not an open weight class.
Nope.
Ah, that's the difference.
There's the same like Titanic sized people that are phenomena is happening in MMA as well,
but there's also a lot of tubby dudes that need, they just need the weight to be able
to be competitive.
Right.
No, for MMA stuff, some of the listeners might find it useful.
I think I sent it to you.
One Championship has fights on that YouNext broadcaster here in Japan.
I think if you have a VPN, you can make just a free account and watch them night of.
Yes.
Fire up the VPN, head over to YouNext.
Making an account is not difficult.
Just look up an area code that's in Japan.
Just have it handy.
It really doesn't matter where it's from.
Yeah.
I saw that at least the Japanese card for one championship is going to be on there.
And it's also on Amazon Prime.
If you're a subscriber, you already have it here.
And also on the ninth Saturday, UFC Fight Night card.
It's not very good, but whatever.
If you're into MMA, so much so that you're going to skip the boots and bam card, then
there you go.
You could go watch that fucking dumpster fire.
I forgot that was this weekend.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's do our all Japan fucking fun.
First one in Yokohama.
This was on Sunday, October 13th.
So it's put on by Treasure Boxing.
I don't really have much other than the top two.
Yeah.
So in the co-main we had Hiroto Kyoguchi.
This was flyweight.
So he started at 105 and then moved up to 108.
Had good success in those two divisions.
Now he's up to 112.
He gets the win back from Vince Paras.
They had a fight earlier this year in Korea that he lost.
Yeah.
So Gucci is one of the ones that was on my list of people I wanted to see fight.
And he's had two fights since I moved here.
One in Korea and this one that was the same night as the Tsutsumi fight in Tokyo.
So I just, I haven't been able to go see him.
Makes me so sad.
And this was a victory one too.
It's a yeah.
And close to where I live.
Like Yokohama is only about two hours by train.
As opposed to Tokyo.
How far is that?
Hour and a half.
Okay.
You actually go through Tokyo.
Chiba is on the other side of Tokyo Bay.
So I basically have to take the train around the water.
That's I guess the majority decision.
I'm watching it right now.
We're in round eight of 10 so far and it's been, I expect that the first fight was like
this as well.
It's been a bit of a clobber fest, the Japan Philippines rivalry in full effect.
Yeah.
Small dude standing in the middle of the ring just throwing punches.
Yep.
Awesome.
Which is why I wanted to see him.
It looks like Paras here in round eight starting to work behind a jab a little bit but it's
a little bit too late for that I think.
All right.
In the main event of this card fucking John Shithead Casimiro missed his weight.
How much was it?
Two, three pounds?
It was significant for sure.
I can't remember.
It's been a while but yeah.
Blue weight.
Not like oh he missed it by a half a pound.
Right.
He didn't even try.
So he misses 122 somehow, some way.
He's still going to get the, he's still going to get to fight in a way.
Oh this is even worse.
So Boxwreck just has Casimiro failed to weigh in.
Oh.
So he blew weight the night before and never showed up for the re-weigh.
Well that's fun.
And was still allowed to compete.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah well he's fucking Casimiro.
I do not understand why people like this man.
He bombs out Salo Sanchez in the first round.
It was not pretty.
Like Salo was in over his head and I think he figured that out pretty quickly.
Now actually you've already heard the story because we recorded this once but I made a
friend at the Tokyo boxing event and we watched the last round and the decision before the
fight started in Tokyo.
Oh yeah I did hear that before didn't I?
Alright there you go.
Casimiro gets the win.
Fucking they're keeping in front of the Japan audience.
He's one I'm surprised they keep letting him fight in Japan.
If he's blowing weight like this I am surprised the Japanese boxing commission.
I guess Casimiro is blowing weight against non-Japanese boxers so they don't care.
That's exactly what I was about to say.
This isn't a Japanese fighter so he can dishonor himself as much as he wants.
Kind of bullshit.
Selective enforcement.
I love that shit.
Moving on.
The take-in card.
This is the first of two.
This one was in Tokyo.
Can I start with since I attended this one my story about getting in.
This one was at Ariaka arena.
My first time going to Ariaka arena you actually have to take a bus because it's in basically
reclaimed land.
They built fake land into Tokyo Bay and that's this new area where this arena is.
So I don't think there's any trains that go that way.
I got there really early because the buses are super confusing.
I was standing in line just killing time watching some of that other card over somebody's shoulder
and being a creep in line.
These people come around and start handing out tickets with numbers on them and they
give me one.
I understand none of it.
But I did kind of get the idea that you had to show it at the gate and I was like okay
cool I have a ticket but I guess this is you know something extra.
I showed it at the gate and they just kind of looked at me like I was stupid and gave
me a program.
I went and found my seat.
That's where I met my new friend.
Somebody actually spoke English a little.
Actually not a little.
He speaks English quite well and we chatted and stuff and I asked him what this number
was for and he says free t-shirts.
They were just handing out I think 2000 free t-shirts or not 2000 sorry 200 free t-shirts.
That's really cool.
Yeah so I get in line and they even still had a large because Japanese sizes are tiny
and the larges go pretty quick at the boxing events.
But yeah free t-shirt for the doubleheader night.
Just got the basically the poster that was on Amazon Prime on the front of the t-shirt.
I thought that was pretty cool.
That is cool.
I would I wish that American events did that.
I always show up for the untelevised fights and everything because if I pay you know not
that it's super expensive here but if I pay $300 I'm gonna get as much out of it as I
can.
Yeah I like to be there for first fights too like when we went to the Bud Madrimov card.
So that was something that we were like we were talking about when do we want to get
there all things considered of when the doors open and stuff.
I was like well I don't know about you guys but I plan to be there for the very first
bell.
Yeah well and I like to find my seat and figure out where the closest bathroom is and where
the beard stand is and all that good stuff.
But this fight or these two fights they actually had the beer girls in the stands like the
baseball games here.
They have cute girls in cute bright outfits that carry kegs on their back and pour you
draft beer in the stands.
Yeah I saw I don't remember where it was but I did see this thing of it was a day in the
life of one of these beer girls at a Japanese event and how they have to like prepare themselves
to have like a mini keg on their backs.
It's not that mini like it's not like it's big.
It's not a full keg but it's big.
And they're not necessarily big women either.
So starting the card the majority draw Ryuga Sato versus Asato Sato.
That's fucking wonderful.
Get keep doing that with that name.
What was the deal here?
It's a four round bantam weights Ryuga comes in 1 and 0.
Asato is 1 1 and 1.
So pretty inexperienced.
Was Ryuga the guy they're pushing?
Yeah I think so.
This was just a kind of amateurish Japan fight.
They just stood in the center and swung.
There wasn't a whole lot to take away from this fight other than it was good action for
the 200 people that had gotten there in time for it.
Moving up Seigo Yuri Akui split decision over Tanan-shai Charyunpak.
Twelve round fly weights.
This is one of the M150 guys.
I honestly don't remember a whole bunch about this one.
It was really competitive.
Like I remember thinking the split decision was fair.
I think this was probably just an all actiony one as well.
This is the only televised one that wasn't a world title this night.
So moving up Kenshiro Toraji gets the WBC flyweight title.
Dr. Stoppage at the end of 11.
Christopher Rosales that was just a wonderful fight.
It wouldn't be unreasonable.
This was fun.
Yeah they could do it again and it would be fine.
It was that good.
The stoppage it was unfortunate that they at the end of 11 going into the 12th like
come on man.
Give the guy his three minutes.
But yeah and he wasn't going to win it anyways though.
But he's still fighting.
Toraji busted this guy's nose early on.
Well not that early but early ish.
But he was struggling and he just kept hammering on his broken nose.
It was I rewatched the highlights and on TV it was pretty apparent that his nose was just
a mess.
Yeah understandable that it could be stopped but still in an instance like this this is
one of like the few times where I would go against the doctor's suggestions or insistence
like come on dude.
It's three more minutes.
He's not going to win but give him a shot.
Yeah yeah I wasn't mad at the stoppage.
Like I don't think it was home cooking or anything.
But I was also surprised.
Like Rosales was was fighting well.
I was surprised the doctor stopped it.
RIP Rosales.
Hopefully we see you again though.
All right moving up.
So Kichi Iwata in the third over Jairo Noriega the Spaniard for the WBO light flyweight title.
I have this one listed as Shadow Realm in three.
Goodness gracious.
Oh my god for these like light flyweights this is a hundred percent like knockout of
the decade I think.
This is crazy.
What I liked most about this one not just that it was you know in the lower weight classes
getting a knockout like this is pretty rare but Hiro.
I'm so early.
Yes especially because it was so early and Hiro was doing pretty well.
I'm surprised that he that it happened.
If a stoppage was going to happen it would have I would have expected it to be later
but I'm not sure how.
Like they came into this Iwata's 13 and 1 and Noriega's 14 and 0.
So it's not like there's a real big experience disparity.
So holy shit that's just fantastic.
Noriega got fucking Pacquiao'd.
It was it was crazy.
I think in the lost session you had mentioned that like the crowd was really really quiet
as they waited.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Noriega didn't get up right away.
He didn't move right away.
So there was the initial like big cheer and then everybody was silent while the doctors
came in and stuff.
But he did walk out on his own.
So to a standing ovation and then Iwata got his standing ovation as well.
But the Japanese crowd is very respectful when people are hurt which is nice.
I quite enjoy that.
There's no no reason to be cheering if somebody's not getting up.
I did feel a little bad for Noriega.
I like him.
I like when people from those not so boxing countries are doing well.
But man Iwata just shut him off.
It was crazy.
It's unfortunate but I think I will get he should get another call up to a big fight.
I think he demonstrated he can hang.
He does have the skill.
But yeah.
Well and this should hopefully get some people turned on to Iwata.
If anybody is talking shit about lower weight classes and no knockouts for the next year
that's the knockout to show them.
In the main event Takuma Inoue loses his bantamweight title the WBA version against Seiya Tsutsumi
Punch Burger has arrived.
What was the celebration like in the Tsutsumi section?
Oh my god.
So the whole fight was just like the loudest Japanese crowd I've ever seen.
This was a Sunday night before a long weekend.
So nobody had to work on Monday.
And I was shocked at how much of the crowd was Tsutsumi.
I was in that section because I bought from his fan club.
So I expected my whole section obviously.
But it really felt like probably 75% of the crowd was there for Seiya.
It was crazy.
Every time there was like a cheer started for Takuma it was instantly drowned out by
Seiya fans.
And it wasn't just my section cheering for him.
It really felt like there was one section of Inoue fans and that was it.
And Tsutsumi had...
I was in the front of the first raised seats.
But on the floor underneath me was a whole group of guys that had went out and bought
red leather jackets.
Tsutsumi wears a red leather jacket a lot of the time in his Instagram pictures when
he's out eating food and stuff.
And those guys looked...
They really looked like a sort of anime...
I don't want to say gang, but you know in anime how there's like the groups of guys.
Yeah.
And those guys were down in front of me and they were loud as hell for Japanese fans.
And in between every round there was like three of them would stand up and just start
yelling at the crowd to get a Seiya cheer going.
And they were loud as hell.
And I rewatched the broadcast last night because I knew we were doing this.
And you could see them in the background standing this like waving their arms and getting everybody
cheering in time and stuff.
They did that in between every round.
It was great.
Yeah.
And I'm sure anybody listening has probably seen at least one episode of Hajime no Ippo.
Yeah.
So they do that stuff in the anime and I was like, holy shit, they do that for real.
I didn't know that was a real thing.
They do have a ticket sales website, but I have never figured out how you actually just
go to that website and buy a ticket.
I have always entered the website through a fan site.
Now the only one that really uses Japanese Ticketmaster that I've bought is Nakatani.
But if you go to the Tsutsumi website, it goes to this, I forget what it's called, but
it's boxingtickets.jp I think anyways.
And it's just boxers.
Each boxer has their own page and that's where you order your ticket.
And the smaller guys like Tsutsumi who's less famous literally just email transfer the money
like a bank transfer.
They're very shady.
And yeah.
And then they just mail you a ticket.
Like they personally, well, I'm sure he doesn't pack the envelopes, but like his team personally
just writes your address on an envelope and puts a ticket in it.
It's crazy.
So when you do that, every boxer has their own section.
And sometimes you even get like really cheerleader like guys like at anime that wear the headband
and stand up at the bottom and like, okay guys, this is the cheer we're doing.
Because there's kind of six or seven set cheers and you just insert name here and they'll
stand at the front in between rounds and stuff and just lead the cheer.
It's crazy.
Man, I really want to go to a fight in Tokyo, especially now.
It's really fun.
It's probably very different.
I've never been to a boxing match in America, but the nice thing is everybody seems to be
paying attention or they're at least not distracting you.
Like there's no crowd fights or random people yelling about something else.
All right.
So to the actual fight.
Okay.
So Tatsumi, holy shit, what a gas tank.
He was going forward, throwing like so many punches every round, all 12 rounds.
And it seemed like it was going to be a win for him anyway, even if we didn't, if there
wasn't that kind of weird slip or trip ruled a knockdown.
I don't know.
It felt like he had it pretty safe.
I rewatched it last night.
It wasn't a slip or a trip.
It would have been a knockdown, but the ropes held Takuma up.
He rewatching it, he really did slam into the ropes and the ref stepped in and ruled
it a knockdown right away.
So you got it right.
I think he did.
I thought it at the fight, looking at the Jumbotron, Tsutsumi looked so fucking nervous
in his walk in and like the national anthem and everything.
He looked like he was going to throw up.
And the first two rounds, he was nervous.
He wasn't throwing as many punches and he was doing stupid stuff.
But around, I'd say round four, he finally got comfortable.
And that's when he really started just out throwing and outworking Takuma and landing
to the body.
There were so many body punches that led to head punches because he wasn't throwing just
one punch.
He was throwing like 12 punches and something's going to fucking land.
On the bodywork, Tsutsumi's bodywork was what paid off very much later.
In a way, in the beginning was it along with the nerves, Inoue was moving around using
his agility a lot better.
Seemed like Tsutsumi was having trouble keeping up, but that shit taxes.
And Inoue slowed down enough and got just he got worked all the way to the end.
Yeah.
Not that Takuma didn't land anything.
Oh, no, he had.
He did well.
Yeah.
Tsutsumi's got a fuck of a chin, I think.
He was not reacting to some bombs landing upstairs.
And I forget what round it was, but that cut to his eye was actually pretty bad.
He ignored it and his cut man's good, but they even had the doctor check it.
I had forgotten that the doctor checked his eye there.
I did too.
Like I looked him up.
It was late.
Yeah.
I think round 11, they're like, and they just let it go.
But I had to and Tsutsumi's Instagram has been fucking exactly what I thought it was
going to be.
It's him eating ridiculously huge, fancy burgers and steaks and sushi and whatnot.
And just so many new vintage clothes.
So he gets the win.
And now we're looking at him being in, let me pull up the old box rack here.
So bansomweight.
Of the top six, five are Japanese.
Junto Nakatani's at first.
Seiya Tsutsumi is at second.
There's I don't know.
I would like to see Tsutsumi fight Take, Yoshiki Take just because he did Daigo Higa dirty
and I don't like it, even though it's not his fault.
But I want to see him pay for it.
Yeah, that would be a good matchup.
Of the people with belts right now, I think Tsutsumi probably is considered the weakest
link.
That is a mistake.
I think so.
But other than Nakatani, anybody who thinks he's the like the odd man out and that's who
you snipe your belt from.
That is a fucking mistake.
On board, all in fucking punch burgers from here on out every day.
And once he starts camp, it's all a meeting.
It's punch burgers every day.
Yeah.
Like I don't know much about Nishida.
I think we talked about this before, too.
We did.
I don't know who he is either.
Is he the one fighting in Osaka later?
Yes.
So there is for the IBF belt.
Yeah, I think I have decided I am going to make a weekend trip out of this fight.
I wanted to go see a fight in Osaka.
I've been having trouble finding any amount of video on this guy, but I haven't gotten
anybody to help me search in Japanese yet.
But he fights in Osaka on the 15th of December.
And I think I'm just gonna.
It'll be like three hundred dollars in train tickets, which is going to be much more than
the actual fight ticket.
And I think it'll be fun to see the difference in the crowds because everybody says Osaka
is a lot louder and rowdier than Tokyo.
I will say this first night, the crowd was really fun.
The second night where people had to work the next day.
All Tokyo businessmen.
Blame.
And they are boring as fuck.
Is there much of what about Inoue here?
Because he has he's still I think he's still really live, very much still in the top portion
of the division.
I think there's good fights that he can take.
Daigo Higa would be a nice one.
Daigo Higa needs to come back.
Inoue needs to come back.
I don't think the Japanese are too fussed about making inter promotion rivalries.
Or should he take somebody from outside of Japan?
I don't know.
What do you think?
Yeah, I don't know.
I always liked Takuma.
A bunch of people say he only got the big fights because he's, you know, Naoya's little
brother.
I think Takuma is a good boxer on his own.
Yeah, he is.
Like he's not as good as his brother, but nobody is.
So I don't think this is the end of his career by any means.
And I think he's still up there with the in the mix for a belt.
Like I don't think this should block his chances at all.
I did see some people on Discord where, you know, Oh, Inoue finally got fraud checked,
blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, you guys just don't know shit about the small weight classes.
Yeah, you just don't know who Inoue is.
That's really all it is.
Yeah.
Or Tsutsumi.
They're like, oh, yeah, he got beat by some fucking nobody.
Go watch your heavyweights throw ten punches around.
This is ridiculous.
Because you've never heard of them.
Doesn't make them nobodies or frauds or whatever.
Yeah, I do think little Inoue will get another fight in Japan against a Japanese guy, probably.
Although they might bring in some high fighter as a get back.
They do that to the Thai guys a lot here.
Oh, I'm sure they're not too fussed about getting some, I guess, a decentish payday.
Fair enough.
I mean, Kanichi Ogawa, I see he knocked out that guy real fast last time.
He's back in camp.
I think he's got something cooking.
I'm hoping it's not another Thai fight.
I hope it's like something important.
I was thinking that even with this loss, this is where the name, the family name is going
to keep him in the at the top for maybe longer than he would deserve if he were to start
stringing together losses.
He would still be able to get some name value.
But right now, just yeah, Discord fuckers, you haven't heard of them.
I don't think that's what's happening.
No, not right now.
Definitely not.
You haven't heard of them, but he's been putting in the work just because you didn't see it.
Doesn't mean it didn't happen.
I do feel bad for him because if his brother wasn't his brother, he might not.
Well, he wouldn't be as famous, but he also wouldn't get like even the commentators kind
of shit on him a bit.
Oh, maybe his big brother can teach him how to do this.
And I'm like, guys, leave him alone.
He is a world champion boxer.
Man, the English broadcast where I saw it was Christina Poncher and Nico Ali Walsh,
I will be laying into a bit later.
But they were just man, they were going so hard for Takuma.
I suppose I understand why.
But it's like you're completely ignoring everything that Tsutsumi is doing just because
of the you recognize one guy's name and that's it.
Yeah.
Call the fucking fight, man.
Poncher, not nearly as bad.
She's really good about just calling the action.
But Nico as the analyst, like you're not even good at that either.
I rewatched the broadcast in Japanese, so I didn't understand a whole bunch of what
they're saying.
Like I'm still very slowly learning Japanese.
But there was a big shift because it started out with the champion, the champion, the champion,
because they always say it in English.
And then I think it was about round five.
It was like, oh, challenger, challenger, challenger.
So the Japanese broadcast definitely had a big shift from the champion is doing this,
the champion is doing that to holy shit, the challenger is challenging to the challenger
is winning.
Excellent.
OK, anything more for this one before you get to the 14th?
I don't think so.
Cool.
So the second fight card in Tokyo, part of the doubleheader doubleheader and last one
we'll be talking about for today.
Starting off at the bottom, Excel James Jr. majority draw with Ayato Kobayashi.
You had asked me the first time to guess where this man might be from Excel, where he may
be from.
I guess I told you he is Japanese.
Yes.
I had a guess.
I thought he was Filipino just with a name like that.
I assume his dad got to name him and just Excel is a nice idea of a name.
But it sounds like you're going to be an accountant.
It's such a weird name.
It really is.
But he gets to draw.
What can we take away from this?
They're both young and new.
I thought it was actually pretty funny that the untelevised card on both nights was a
majority draw.
Yeah, the card opener.
Yeah, I just thought it was a weird coincidence.
I don't think there's a whole bunch to take away from this.
Kind of same thing.
Excel Jr. was trying to be more boxery and Kobayashi was just coming straight ahead and
throwing a million punches and it's only four rounds.
So, yeah, that's one of those things that it feels a bit amateurish where you just kind
of spam for four rounds because you don't have a lot of time to make a case.
Yeah, like, unless you're clearly dominating, most of the four round ones can be a draw,
I think.
I do like that they don't pair up the young guys with like journeymen as much in Japan.
You hardly ever see a 1-0 fighter and, you know, a 20 and 36 or something.
That's good.
Yeah, they match them up with each other.
Yeah, I think that's why the Japanese guys tend to have losses more than the Western
guys early in their career.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I don't know.
That's the way it should be done, I would say.
We should be taking some notes.
Yeah, I really hate the padded resumes.
It kind of drives me nuts.
Yeah, there was a Golden Boy card not too long ago that had Alexis Rocha, he was doing
the analysis and as they were talking about him, they were saying he had 40-something
fights.
What the fuck is this, dude?
Like, I've seen maybe five of yours.
Who the hell were those other people?
And the Thai fighters are the worst for that, like, he's 70 and 2 or something and you're
like, yeah, but is he or was he like fighting fucking drunk cab drivers?
Yeah, it gets kind of ridiculous.
All right, let's move up here.
Tenshin Nozokawa moves down from Super Bantamweight down to 118.
He is still undefeated, gets the UD over Jerwin Asilo.
This is the one where I had it noted that Niko is a horrible analysis fucking talking
head, the worst.
The guy cannot give credit where credit is due.
Acting like Tenshin is just some random ass kid off the street that went into a boxing
gym one day.
Now this is his fifth fight.
I don't think you realize this dude was is a kickboxing like martial arts fucking phenom.
He's already his fans are fucking rabid.
I know I talked about this before, but tension is the main character of an anime and he acts
like he knows he's the main character of an anime like that overconfident dickhead in
an anime, but he can back it up.
That's tension.
I cannot stand his personality.
I mean, he's he's a good boxer, but his personality and just his fans like it's a bunch of people
his age.
So what is he like 20?
23 ish?
Yeah, he's and 26 if holy shit.
Oh, okay.
Well, his fans don't seem that old, but his fans are like late teens, early 20s.
If they can get away with dyeing their hair the bright yellow, they do, but being as it's
Tokyo and a bunch of them are now, you know, fledgling Tokyo businessmen.
Yeah, they're the workforce.
You're not allowed to dye your hair in Japan in a lot of companies.
It has to be your natural hair color.
These fledgling Tokyo businessmen do the spray dye.
Yeah, like the hair.
Spirit at school.
Yeah.
And then they'll spray it bright yellow just for the fights and he sells so much merch.
Tension is such a phenom that he has pop up stores, but like I haven't even seen Naoya
get a pop up store, but tension gets them.
Wow.
That's a good way to for me to know what like what levels are we at here of fame?
I do think Naoya is more famous and like more respected and stuff, but I think Tension's
fans are more rapid, if that makes sense.
So Tension, just to get a little bit on the fight itself, Nico, it's not his, it's not
Tension's fault that you suck.
It's not his fault.
The guy was a kickboxing phenom and it fucking shows.
This kid knows how to fight.
He was like, Nico was shitting on like, oh, his footwork is a little weird.
And then he's like dancing circles around a silo.
What the hell is the matter with you?
Are we watching the same thing?
I don't think so.
It's a little different than boxing and he's probably doing shit that they told Nico not
to do because he's not good enough to pull it off.
Probably.
That's not how I feel anyway, because just because your grandfather was, is a legend,
legend of the game doesn't mean that you're supposed to be good or something.
Yeah.
But I don't know, man, Tension, he's, his move to Bansom, I think they want to get him
into the mix with the other like big names in Japan because he's a mega star already.
That's just my thinking of why they moved him.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Save the Naoya fight for later.
It wouldn't surprise me.
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if he can make this weight that they match him up with a
belt holder maybe in two fights.
They're going to move Tension fast.
Yeah, of course.
That was always the plan.
I don't know who they would pick right now, though.
I don't think Tsutsumi would be a good match up for Tension.
Nishida, I don't know enough about Nishida to say just he has nine fights.
So that would be my shout.
I think Tension and Takai would be a good fight.
Yes, Takai was the one I was thinking next.
I honestly I don't know who would win that one.
Moving up.
No contest in the first.
Anthony Oluskwaga, he holds the WBO Flyweight Championship.
He fought Jonathan Gonzalez.
Yeah, Gonzalez was looking for a way out.
Yeah, actually, this got overturned to a win.
Yeah, TKO, which I don't think is fair.
I don't like that decision.
I do think Gonzalez could have continued and I think if he was told he had to, he would
have.
But if you call it a no contest, you got to leave it a no contest.
Yeah, if it's going to be a stoppage of any kind, it should have been ruled that way in
the beginning.
But no contest, that's the point.
If it stopped in the first four, kind of how it's supposed to happen.
Honestly, I'm not sure why they changed it, but it really did look like Gonzalez could
have continued.
It was a cut in a bad spot, but they ruled it a head clash or something, I think.
And so he took the out.
He knew he was going to lose and he took the out when he saw it, is my opinion.
Hopefully they do it again.
I mean, and Gonzalez.
Yeah, I was excited to see Oluskwaga.
I don't know how you say his name.
I was disappointed in this.
I wanted to see him fight.
Looking at the title list here, Kentaro Taraji is at the top of the list.
Does Akui have a belt?
Yes.
The WBA.
That's right.
I don't see it here on Box Rack because they're petty little fuckers.
That's so stupid.
It's really dumb, but whatever.
Yeah, I've actually started going to ESPN so that the WBA is listed.
Yeah, I need to find a new source of truth here.
Moving up Pumelile, Kaffu.
Split decision over Kose Tanaka.
Super, super close fight.
114, 113 times two for Kaffu and then 114, 113 for Tanaka.
That's a holy shit.
What a fight.
I think the knockdown was the deciding factor, if nothing else.
That was wild.
Yeah.
I really felt like Tanaka did just enough.
It's not a robbery and I can't be mad at the judges.
Everybody had really close scorecards, but I was sad for Tanaka, man.
We were thinking, because right now the two other champions are Fernando Martinez and
Jesse Rodriguez.
Bam.
Fernando has the rematch with Iyoka coming up and Bam is fighting this weekend.
We always thought, I always thought anyway, that Kaze Tanoa was like, why did I say Kaze
Tanoa?
Kose Tanaka was like the odd man out because those two are fucking tremendous.
They'll put a beating on somebody and Tanaka, he's been a little shaky recently.
He showed a lot of grit here.
I hope they do a rematch because Kosei Raids won.
That wasn't like Kafu destroyed him.
No, it was really close.
This is also the first time I have seen Tanaka's t-shirts.
I am getting quite the boxing t-shirt collection, actually, but he's got nice t-shirts.
I might have to buy from him next time.
Alright, headlining Junto Nakatani, TKO 6 vs. Tasana Salapat.
That's one of five or six names that he has.
It has a CP Freshmark tag for his gym sponsor or whatever.
WBC 118 title.
Nakatani, still untouchable.
Yeah, so the last fight was that first round, like not fight.
The Australobian one?
Yeah, I finally got to see Nakatani fight live for real.
It was great.
His crowd was not nearly as fun.
It was just a bunch of businessmen with their dates that were not interested in the fights
at all.
Lame.
But so lame.
But Nakatani's gonna Nakatani.
Like that was textbook.
I'm gonna just knock bitches out and take my belts home.
Thank you very much.
And Junto's got such a good smile.
I know this is not the place to fangirl over it, but he's so fucking adorable with that
big ass grin.
And they had his face up on the big screen and you just you have to be happy for him
because he looks so happy.
I like seeing Japanese fighters emote more like that.
It's always nice because they always seem so stoic.
Yeah, but when they do the announcements, they always really when they win, they show
their emotions when they lose.
Not so much.
But yeah, I don't know if anybody can touch Nakatani.
Like I really think he is untouchable right now.
Nakatani is just tall and his basics are great like every Japanese fighter, but he's being
trained by how we looked this up last time.
Mexican guy.
Yeah, he is Mexican, right?
I believe so.
In the somewhere in these trains in the US.
California, I think.
Yeah, Rudy Hernandez.
I think it's really showing in the defense.
Yeah, because that's always my problem with Japanese fighters.
Their defense tends to be shit.
Yeah, we just watched it in the Kyoguchi fight a few moments ago.
It was just bombs away like Kyoguchi was having some head movement, but not as much as you
would like, especially for a guy that's throwing a ton of punches at you.
Yeah, and it seems to...
So that friend I made, he actually was an amateur boxer.
He never went professional.
He's the same age as Takuma and Seiya.
That's why he spent a bunch of money to come to Tokyo and watch the fight.
He never fought them.
He's bigger, but he fought in the same tournaments as them and knew them.
And we were discussing Japanese style and he's like, yeah, I...
Boxing style.
He's like, yeah, the Japanese fighters are really told to make it exciting.
Wow.
Like, coaches give old school speeches of like, you're not just here to win, you're
here to entertain people.
And he's like, they never really teach us a whole bunch of slick defense because that's
not the point of boxing.
The point of boxing is to go out and entertain the crowd and show your heart and your...
I'm like, man, that's bad.
Yeah.
I get it.
Some American boxing has gotten too far the other way.
But teach your guys to move their fucking head a little bit.
But also, I mean, that's one person's opinion and maybe he just had a shitty coach.
Who knows?
Yeah.
I think that the way that the...
People also misunderstand the Mexican style a lot.
The old adage or not adage, but in Discord the adage, like the flat footed Mexican.
That's no, man.
I don't know if you think...
I don't know.
I think you understand what you're looking at because the defense is more in the pocket
and it's not so much avoiding punches as it is deflecting them.
It looks like something's landing, but it really isn't.
Yeah.
And I do think the Japanese boxers do a little more of that.
They're blocking as opposed to rolling.
Blocks and parries.
Yeah.
But when you throw a punch, they don't get their head offline ever.
Something that's...I like the shift of the Mexican boxing culture.
It's not Julio Cesar Chavez anymore, where it's what I just described, like the in the
pocket brawling type that has a lot more nuance than people realize.
But more the way Nacho Berestain used to train guys, the way that Rudy's training Nakatani.
During the wake, like Canelo, Marquez, Juan Francisco Estrada.
These guys are a lot more technically sound.
And Nakatani is displaying that a lot with his counterpunching.
When you have a really aggressive fucking 76 and 1, now 2 fighter coming at you, just
let him throw what he wants and find a spot because you're better, you're sharper, you're
stronger.
Let him throw himself out.
Yeah.
And Nakatani has gotten really good at fitting those punches in between shots.
Yeah.
This is like perfect example.
Like I really expected better from Astralabio than I did from Salapat.
I thought Salapat would be a KO1 and Astralabio would be maybe 6, 7.
Probably who's 76 and like 1 is going to be tough though.
I was saying this in Discord.
I'm like, Nakatani is going to win.
For sure.
And Nakatani is probably going to get a knockout.
Like I was calling a knockout, but I was like, it's not going to be in the first two rounds.
Like this guy's getting the shit kicked out of him in Thailand.
He can take a hit.
Like.
Yeah.
I'm not, I am more than certain that it's not just 76 and 1 in boxing.
That he's also doing Muay Thai or whatever the fuck is paying.
That's what I'm doing.
Yeah.
And Nakatani punches hard, but he does not punch harder than a T-kick.
Nobody does.
But yeah, no, I have no idea who beats Nakatani.
I don't think anybody at this weight class even comes close right now.
Nakatani is looking so good.
I would like to see Bam come up and fight Nakatani.
That's what I want to see.
I know everybody's talking about Bam versus Inoue, but.
Nah, not yet.
Bam versus Nakatani I think would be a hell of a fight.
Bam versus Punch Burger would be really fun.
Yeah, it really would.
I'm sure Punch Burger probably loses that, but I'm also sure it would be fight of the
year contender.
Yeah, I don't know what you do with Nakatani.
I mean, I think Nakatani could move up in weight.
He's definitely got the frame to move up in weight.
Tall enough for sure.
But he also seems to make Bantam weight super easy.
Like he never looks drained.
I don't know how the hell he made 115.
That's wild.
He makes it look easy.
I've never once seen Nakatani and went, oh, that was a bad weight cut.
Yeah.
Well, I think that's all we have.
So that's going to be the end of it.
Do we need to?
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Parting words?
Me and you are shit at parting words.
Ah, yeah, I know.
Just what I've been doing recently has all been about voting and stuff.
So with that- That didn't work.
Yeah, apparently not.
Lace up those boots and get ready to work.
That's really all I have.
It's a little bit of a hopeful, hopeful push.
I have something slightly more fun.
So nobody in the world probably cares, except Canada.
But it's the CFL Playoffs, the Canadian Football League.
And my home province team, the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, have made the Western Final
against our Uber rivals, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
So I need everybody to cheer for the Ryderz this weekend.
Honestly, the Rough Riders is the only name that I know from CFL.
Yeah, it's because at one point there was two teams.
Yeah, exactly.
And it made it to the Simpsons.
Yes.
So I have a funeral shroud.
Well, we'll see how much of that estate planning goes into the final.
But yeah, that's it for the JP special.
We're going to try to get back on track here.
So we'll see you when we see you.