Japan’s Shigeoka Brothers Fight for Titles This Weekend

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.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE