Japan’s Shigeoka Brothers Fight for Titles This Weekend

Published

2 years ago

April 10, 2023

Japan’s Shigeoka Brothers Fight for Titles This Weekend

For the experienced Sweet Scientist, the early manifestation of a Japanese prospect among the world-class is hardly a matter for remark anymore. Naoya Inoue has battered his way to the very top of the pound-for-pound list in just twenty fights after being matched for the Japanese 108lb title in his fourth fight. Kenshiro Teraji currently sits upon the 108lb throne after being matched for his first “world” strap in just his tenth fight.

So, for her next trick, on the same day, on the same card, this coming weekend in Tokyo, Japan will match two brothers for straps although their records currently stand at just 8-0 and 6-0.

The Shigeoka brothers may sound like a writer’s dream, but there are difficulties. Born two years apart in Kumamoto, the two, naturally enough, look rather alike – but they also box in the same weight division (105lbs), are both southpaws, and have the same knockout ratio (66.67%). Telling their story is more a matter of separating them then joining them so that is what I will do, starting with the younger of the two brothers, Ginjiro, who has been matched to face Rene Mark Cuarto of The Philippines for the interim IBF belt.

Ginjiro Shigeoka vs Rene Mark Cuarto

Ginjiro (8-0, 6 KOs) is twenty-three years old, two years younger than his older brother Yudai, and, at five-foot nothing, the shorter of the two. Ginjiro is also the more accomplished of the two Shigeokas, having found himself ranked at the bottom end of the 105lb top ten in the first months of 2021after dispatching Rey Loreto in five brutal rounds. Ginjiro was something of a bouncer at this time, boxing with the false economy of the amateur, affordable in the world of the unpaid ranks where fights are short and less brutal. Ginjiro was a success there – indeed, the only loss on his amateur ledger came against Yudai, against whom he threw in the towel before the first bell after being drawn against him in a national tournament. Loreto was boxing his fortieth professional contest and had lost just one of his last ten, that coming to the current divisional number one Thammanoon Niyomtrong (aka Knockout CP Freshmart), but despite Ginjiro’s posturing, the more experienced man still struggled with Ginjiro’s blinding southpaw jab and the left he often tossed in behind.

“Tossed” is the right word. Ginjiro is perhaps too relaxed in the ring, but the variety is already there on the jab, up and down, fast or hard, blinding in support of other punches or a scoring shot on its own; the left hand goes straight, but he also comes squarer to throw it, just as he did for a first-round knockdown against Loreto who made the mistake of stepping inside and being rattled to the canvas in short order. Hurt twice in the third by straights, Ginjiro’s propensity for over-aggression and retreating with speed rather than technique was briefly uncovered, but he won every other round. When he stopped Loreto in the fifth he became the first man to do it since 2011 – and he has improved since then.

We got a glimpse of these improvements most recently in January when Ginjiro matched IBF world title-holder Daniel Valladares, the excellent Mexican minimumweight. They split the opening two rounds but the southpaw-orthodox headclash seemed inevitable, Valladares looping in overhand rights while Ginjiro drove forwards with his southpaw straight. Sure enough, two accidental headbutts in the third brought the bout to a premature ending and a No Contest verdict. Ginjiro’s first tilt at a belt ended in disappointment.

This is how Rene Mark Cuarto (21-3-2) has entered the picture. With Valladares in injury-bound limbo, the ABC in question has just happily replaced him with Cuarto, a man Valladares defeated last July. That match, a split decision victory for Valladares in Mexico, was a chaotic affair filled with chaotic refereeing and even more chaotic fighting, Cuarto steaming in two-handed and being countered by left hands. In the end the decision was probably just but Cuarto had no luck, scoring a knockdown which was incorrectly ruled a slip and bizarrely having a point deducted for suffering repeatedly loose tape on his glove.

He is made for Ginjiro in two senses of the word. First, the inexperienced Japanese will not have to unlock Cuarto. He is not going to hide, move, or box, he is going to attack and will do so with wide, big punches; he will give up chances and Ginjiro will take them. The other sense in which Cuarto is made for Ginjiro though is that he is made to test him. Ginjiro is no defensive mastermind, and this is matter of style, of choice, before it is a matter of technical capability. Ginjiro will choose a firefight against Cuarto, who has been beaten, but never stopped. The winner will find out much about himself in this contest, and so will we.

Much is at stake. I rank Cuarto one spot higher at number eight so the loser will exit the top ten, and the winner will rematch Valladares in one of the few 105lbs contests that can deliver a healthy purse bid. That winner will be Ginjiro but he must be able to hold Cuarto’s punches, and as is always the case when a top prospect is moved into the top ten for the first time, we will know when we know. This match, though, is the headliner and it should be a savage and exciting contest.

Yudai Shigeoka vs Wilfredo Mendez

Yes, Ginjiro-Cuartes is the main attraction but that is not by design. Yudai (6-0, 4 knockouts), for the first time in a long time, was supposed to step out from his younger brother’s diminutive shadow in a match against the brilliant Panya Pradabsri, who has been ruled out of a rare journey from his native Thailand to defend his number two ranking on Japanese soil. Strep throat, for which he has apparently been hospitalised, is the culprit.

So Yudai must satisfy himself with a chief supporting act once more against late substitution Wilfredo Mendez (18-2) out of Puerto Rico. In fairness to Yudai and his team, this is likely as excellent a late replacement as they could have uncovered. Mendez cannot punch but comes with real pedigree and ranked among the four or five best 105lb boxers in the world up until his 2021 elimination at the hands of Japanese deluxe gatekeeper Masataka Taniguchi, in what was a major upset.

Since, Mendez has put himself back together boxing wide decision victories against overmatched opposition on undercards in Santo Domingo. Here, he has honed an odd southpaw style, perched over a front leg in a deep stance, almost square, elusive with his upper body, fighting aggressively on the inside while awaiting chances on the outside. Patient and experienced at title-level, he is a far cry from the merciless Panya, but he is exactly the type of late substitute that brings promoters out in a cold sweat – adaptable, something of a spoiler and not a man who will travel to Tokyo to lose.

To understand the level of risk that is being encountered here, we need to take a quick look back at Yudai’s 2021 match with Tsubasa Koura. Koura was a risky fight in and of itself, matching Yudai in just his fourth fight against a fighter who had essentially been him a few years prior. Japan’s Rookie of the Year in 2015, Koura had been found out against Lito Dante, who stopped him in 2019 in a real upset. Career stalled, Koura fought Yudai like what he was – a man who had seen his dreams dashed and was handed one more chance at redemption. The majority decision win that went Yudai’s way was fair, but he was literally one point away from the draw and he needed a very strong finish to get there after being out-muscled and out-hustled in the first half of the fight.

Now, another man who has had his dreams dashed and been handed one more chance at redemption is headed for town and it may require another strong finish to stop him.

Yudai has a heavier jab than his brother and is more measured when he throws it. At 5’3” he is the taller and rangier of the two and also the stronger, I think, certainly he is bodily the more aggressive, more given to grappling and wrestling and trying to dominate when he grapples and wrestles, although this did not serve him well against Koura. Indeed, prior to the Koura fight I saw Yudai as the greater potential success story. I thought of him as more measured both offensively and defensively, already given to more arbitrary movement of the head and body, he seemed the more technically systematic of the pair. Although his trials and tribulations have been far less dramatic, I was reminded of my feelings regarding Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko before Wladimir started posting knockout losses in that the more correct, technically layered Wladimir seemed the more likely to achieve great things until he wasn’t – but then, of course, he did. Yudai may also yet prove to be the more storied of the two Shigeokas but he could use something definitive this weekend in a WBC interim title fight that has tricky written all over it. I suspect he will triumph, however, the question being whether he can achieve the stoppage. Given that Mendez is most likely to achieve his greatest success stalling on the inside, this will be a challenge. He will require adjustments to get there and will have to make a decision about whether or not to try to contest range, but he has the offensive capability to score the stoppage.

“As long as we both win,” has been the Shigeoka party line, spoken most recently by Yudai. “If not, it’s worth nothing.”

“The two of us can take over the world at the same time,” Ginjiro recently told nikkansports. “I’m happy that the two of us can start together and achieve our dreams at the same time.”

As likeable as they are skilled, the Shigeoka brothers are about to receive the most thorough examination of their fledgling careers.

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Thomas Hauser’s Literary Notes: Johnny Greaves Tells a Sad Tale

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2025

Thomas Hauser

Johnny Greaves was a professional loser. He had one hundred professional fights between 2007 and 2013, lost 96 of them, scored one knockout, and was stopped short of the distance twelve times. There was no subtlety in how his role was explained to him: “Look, Johnny; professional boxing works two ways. You’re either a ticket-seller and make money for the promoter, in which case you get to win fights. If you don’t sell tickets but can look after yourself a bit, you become an opponent and you fight to lose.”

By losing, he could make upwards of one thousand pounds for a night‘s work.

Greaves grew up with an alcoholic father who beat his children and wife. Johnny learned how to survive the beatings, which is what his career as a fighter would become. He was a scared, angry, often violent child who was expelled from school and found solace in alcohol and drugs.

The fighters Greaves lost to in the pros ran the gamut from inept local favorites to future champions Liam Walsh, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby, Gavin Rees, and Jack Catterall. Alcohol and drugs remained constants in his life. He fought after drinking, smoking weed, and snorting cocaine on the night before – and sometimes on the day of – a fight. On multiple occasions, he came close to committing suicide. His goal in boxing ultimately became to have one hundred professional fights.

On rare occasions, two professional losers – “journeymen,” they’re called in The UK – are matched against each other. That was how Greaves got three of the four wins on his ledger. On September 29, 2013, he fought the one hundredth and final fight of his career against Dan Carr in London’s famed York Hall. Carr had a 2-42-2 ring record and would finish his career with three wins in ninety outings. Greaves-Carr was a fight that Johnny could win. He emerged triumphant on a four-round decision.

The Johnny Greaves Story, told by Greaves with the help of Adam Darke (Pitch Publishing) tells the whole sordid tale. Some of Greaves’s thoughts follow:

* “We all knew why we were there, and it wasn’t to win. The home fighters were the guys who had sold all the tickets and were deemed to have some talent. We were the scum. We knew our role. Give some young prospect a bit of a workout, keep out of the way of any big shots, lose on points but take home a wedge of cash, and fight again next week.”

* “If you fought too hard and won, then you wouldn’t get booked for any more shows. If you swung for the trees and got cut or knocked out, then you couldn’t fight for another 28 days. So what were you supposed to do? The answer was to LOOK like you were trying to win but be clever in the process. Slip and move, feint, throw little shots that were rangefinders, hold on, waste time. There was an art to this game, and I was quickly learning what a cynical business it was.”

* “The unknown for the journeyman was always how good your opponent might be. He could be a future world champion. Or he might be some hyped-up nightclub bouncer with a big following who was making lots of money for the promoter.”

* “No matter how well I fought, I wasn’t going to be getting any decisions. These fights weren’t scored fairly. The referees and judges understood who the paymasters were and they played the game. What was the point of having a go and being the best version of you if nobody was going to recognize or reward it?”

* “When I first stepped into the professional arena, I believed I was tough. believed that nobody could stop me. But fight by fight, those ideas were being challenged and broken down. Once you know that you can be hurt, dropped and knocked out, you’re never quite the same fighter.”

* “I had started off with a dream, an idea of what boxing was and what it would do for me. It was going to be a place where I could prove my toughness. A place that I could escape to and be someone else for a while. For a while, boxing was that place. But it wore me down to the point that I stopped caring. I’d grown sick and tired of it all. I wished that I could feel pride at what I’d achieved. But most of the time, I just felt like a loser.”

* “The fights were getting much more difficult, the damage to my body and my psyche taking longer and longer to repair after each defeat. I was putting myself in more and more danger with each passing fight. I was getting hurt more often and stopped more regularly. Even with the 28-day [suspensions], I didn’t have time to heal. I was staggering from one fight to the next and picking up more injuries along the way.”

* “I was losing my toughness and resilience. When that’s all you’ve ever had, it’s a hard thing to accept. Drink and drugs had always been present in my life. But now they became a regular part of my pre-fight preparation. It helped to shut out the fear and quieted the thoughts and worries that I shouldn’t be doing this anymore.”

* “My body was broken. My hands were constantly sore with blisters and cuts. I had early arthritis in my hip and my teeth were a mess. I looked an absolute state and inside I felt worse. But I couldn’t stop fighting yet. Not before the 100.”

* “I had abused myself time after time and stood in front of better men, taking a beating when I could have been sensible and covered up. At the start, I was rarely dropped or stopped. Now it was becoming a regular part of the game. Most of the guys I was facing were a lot better than me. This was mainly about survival.”

* “Was my brain f***ed from taking too many punches? I knew it was, to be honest. I could feel my speech changing and memory going. I was mentally unwell and shouldn’t have been fighting but the promoters didn’t care. Johnny Greaves was still a good booking. Maybe an even better one now that he might get knocked out.”

* “Nobody gave a f*** about me and whether I lived or died. I didn’t care about that much either. But the thought of being humiliated, knocked out in front of all those people; that was worse than the thought of dying. The idea of being exposed for what I was – a nobody.”

* “I was a miserable bastard in real life. A depressive downbeat mouthy little f***er. Everything I’ve done has been to mask the feeling that I’m worthless. That I have no value. The drinks and the drugs just helped me to forget that for a while. I still frighten myself a lot. My thoughts scare me. Do I really want to be here for the next thirty or forty years? I don’t know. If suicide wasn’t so impactful on people around you, I would have taken that leap. I don’t enjoy life and never have.”

So . . . Any questions?

****

Steve Albert was Showtime’s blow-by-blow commentator for two decades. But his reach extended far beyond boxing.

Albert’s sojourn through professional sports began in high school when he was a ball boy for the New York Knicks. Over the years, he was behind the microphone for more than a dozen teams in eleven leagues including four NBA franchises.

Putting the length of that trajectory in perspective . . . As a ballboy, Steve handed bottles of water and towels to a Knicks back-up forward named Phil Jackson. Later, they worked together as commentators for the New Jersey Nets. Then Steve provided the soundtrack for some of Jackson’s triumphs when he won eleven NBA championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

It’s also a matter of record that Steve’s oldest brother, Marv, was arguably the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history. And brother Al enjoyed a successful career behind the microphone after playing professional hockey.

Now Steve has written a memoir titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Broadcast Booth. Those who know him know that Steve doesn’t like to say bad things about people. And he doesn’t here. Nor does he delve into the inner workings of sports media or the sports dream machine. The book is largely a collection of lighthearted personal recollections, although there are times when the gravity of boxing forces reflection.

“Fighters were unlike any other professional athletes I had ever encountered,” Albert writes. “Many were products of incomprehensible backgrounds, fiercely tough neighborhoods, ghettos and, in some cases, jungles. Some got into the sport because they were bullied as children. For others, boxing was a means of survival. In many cases, it was an escape from a way of life that most people couldn’t even fathom.”

At one point, Steve recounts a ringside ritual that he followed when he was behind the microphone for Showtime Boxing: “I would precisely line up my trio of beverages – coffee, water, soda – on the far edge of the table closest to the ring apron. Perhaps the best advice I ever received from Ferdie [broadcast partner Ferdie Pacheco] was early on in my blow-by-blow career – ‘Always cover your coffee at ringside with an index card unless you like your coffee with cream, sugar, and blood.’”

Writing about the prelude to the infamous Holyfield-Tyson “bite fight,” Albert recalls, “I remember thinking that Tyson was going to do something unusual that night. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that he was going to pull something exceedingly out of the ordinary. His grousing about Holyfield’s head butts in the first fight added to my concern. [But] nobody could have foreseen what actually happened. Had I opened that broadcast with, ‘Folks, tonight I predict that Mike Tyson will bite off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear,’ some fellas in white coats might have approached me and said, ‘Uh, Steve, could you come with us.'”

And then there’s my favorite line in the book: “I once asked a fighter if he was happily married,” Albert recounts. “He said, ‘Yes, but my wife’s not.'”

“All I ever wanted was to be a sportscaster,” Albert says in closing. “I didn’t always get it right, but I tried to do my job with honesty and integrity. For forty-five years, calling games was my life. I think it all worked out.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – will be published this month and is available for preorder at:

https://www.amazon.com/Most-Honest-Sport-Inside-Boxing/dp/1955836329

In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Argentina’s Fernando Martinez Wins His Rematch with Kazuto Ioka

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Argentina's-Fernando-Martinez-Wins-His-Rematch-with-Kazuto-Ioka

In an excellent fight climaxed by a furious 12^th round, Argentina’s Fernando Daniel Martinez came off the deck to win his rematch with Kazuto Ioka and retain his piece of the world 115-pound title. The match was staged at Ioka’s familiar stomping grounds, the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

In their first meeting on July 7 of last year in Tokyo, Martinez was returned the winner on scores of 117-111, 116-112, and a bizarre 120-108. The rematch was slated for late December, but Martinez took ill a few hours before the weigh-in and the bout was postponed.

The 33-year-old Martinez, who came in sporting a 17-0 (9) record, was a 7-2 favorite to win the sequel, but there were plenty of reasons to favor Ioka, 36, aside from his home field advantage. The first Japanese male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka was 3-0 in rematches and his long-time trainer Ismael Salas was on a nice roll. Salas was 2-0 last weekend in Times Square, having handled upset-maker Rolly Romero and Reito Tsutsumi who was making his pro debut.

But the fourth time was not a charm for Ioka (31-4-1) who seemingly pulled the fight out of the fire in round 10 when he pitched the Argentine to the canvas with a pair of left hooks, but then wasn’t able to capitalize on the momentum swing.

Martinez set a fast pace and had Ioka fighting off his back foot for much of the fight. Beginning in round seven, Martinez looked fatigued, but the Argentine was conserving his energy for the championship rounds. In the end, he won the bout on all three cards: 114-113, 116-112, 117-110.

Up next for Fernando Martinez may be a date with fellow unbeaten Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the lineal champion at 115. San Antonio’s Rodriguez is a huge favorite to keep his title when he defends against South Africa’s obscure Phumelela Cafu on July 19 in Frisco, Texas.

As for Ioka, had he won today’s rematch, that may have gotten him over the hump in so far as making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. True, winning titles in four weight classes is no great shakes when the bookends are only 10 pounds apart, but Ioka is still a worthy candidate.

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Emanuel Navarrete Survives a Bloody Battle with Charly Suarez in San Diego

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2025

David A. Avila

Emanuel-Navarrete-Survives-a-Bloody-Battle-with-Charly-Suarez-in-San-Diego

In a torrid battle Mexico’s Emanuel “Vaquero” Navarrete and his staccato attack staved off the herky-jerky non-stop assaults of Philippine’s Charly Suarez to win by technical decision and retain the WBO super feather world title on Saturday.

What do they feed these guys?

Navarrete (40-2-1, 32 KOs) and his elongated arms managed to connect enough to compensate against the surprising Suarez (18-1, 10 KOs) who wowed the crowd at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.

An accidental clash of heads opened a cut on the side of Navarrete’s left eye and forced a stoppage midway through the fight.

From the opening round Navarrete used his windmill style of attack with punches from different angles that caught Suarez multiple times early. It did not matter. Suarez fired back with impunity and was just as hungry to punch it out with the Mexican fighter.

It was savage.

Every time Navarrete connected solidly, he seemed to pause and check out the damage. Bad idea. Suarez would immediately counter with bombs of his own and surprise the champion with his resilience and tenacity.

Wherever they found Suarez they should look for more, because the Filipino fighter from Manila was ferocious and never out of his depth.

Around the sixth round the Mexican fighter seemed a little drained and puzzled at the tireless attacks coming from Suarez. During an exchange of blows a cut opened up on Navarrete and it was ruled an accidental clash of heads by the referee. Blood streamed down the side of Navarrete’s face and it was cleared by the ringside physician.

But at the opening of the eighth round, the fight was stopped and the ringside physician ruled the cut was too bad to continue. The California State Athletic Commission looked at tape of the round when the cut opened to decipher if it was an accidental butt or a punch that caused the cut. It was unclear so the referee’s call of accidental clash of heads stood as the final ruling.

Score cards from the judges saw Navarrete the winner by scores of 78-75, 77-76 twice. He retains the WBO title.

Interim IBF Lightweight Title

The sharp-shooting Raymond “Danger” Muratalla (23-0, 17 KOs) maneuvered past Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-2, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the interim IBF lightweight title after 12 rounds.

Both fighters were strategic in their approach with Muratalla switching from orthodox to southpaw at various times of the fight. Neither fighter was ever able to dominant any round.

Defense proved the difference between the two lightweights. Muratalla was able to slip more blows than Abdullaev and that proved the difference. The fighter from Fontana, California was able to pierce Abdullaev’s guard more often than not, especially with counter punches.

Abdullaev was never out of the fight. The Russian fighter was able to change tactics and counter the counters midway through the fight. It proved effective especially to the body. But it was not enough to offset Muratalla’s accuracy.

There were no knockdowns and after 12 rounds the judges scored it 118-110, 119-109 twice for Muratalla who now becomes the mandatory for the IBF lightweight title should Vasyl Lomachenko return to defend it.

Muratalla was brief.

“He was a tough fighter,” said Muratalla. “My defense is something I work on a lot.”

Perla Wins

Super flyweight Perla Bazaldua (2-0) eased past Mona Ward (0-2) with a polished display of fighting at length and inside.

Combination punching and defense allowed Bazaldua to punch in-between Ward’s attacks and force the St. Louis fighter to clinch repeatedly. But Ward hung in there despite taking a lot of blows. After four rounds the Los Angeles-based Bazaldua was scored the winner 40-36 on all three cards. Bazaldua signed a long term contract with Top Rank in March.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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