Boxing Results From South Korea
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Inchon, South Korea (December 4th, 2022)– A seemingly insignificant six-bout card held at Paradise Plaza in Inchon, South Korea, on Saturday, December 3, 2022, on the same day as the Tyson Fury versus Dereck Chisora card in Tottenham, United Kingdom, turned into a South Korean double stinker robbery, when the two world ranked fighters both got robbed on their apparent way to wins into oddball Jones strange boxing outcomes.
During the first three preliminary bouts, three South Korean fighters were taken to the cleaners by visiting Japanese fighters. Undefeated 2-0 Japanese bantamweight Riko Masuda knocked out South Korea’s debuting Jeong Ho An in the first round of the opening bout. In the second bout, undefeated 2-0 Japanese bantamweight Kento Uchigamae then decked South Korea’s 6-3 Kyung Min Hwang twice in the first round for a first-round stoppage. In the third bout, undefeated 3-0 Japanese featherweight Junya Shimada then gave 4-1-1 Won Seop Shin an eight-round beating, who survived the distance. Scoring went 80-72, 7 9-93, and 78-74 for Shimada.
In the fourth bout, 9-5 South Korean welterweight southpaw Jin Su Kim of Ansan, South Korea, scored the lone South Korean win of the night, stopping up former Japanese Super Lightweight champion 20-3 Hiroki Okoda in the seventh round, after dropping him in rounds one and three. After successive knockout losses to Raymundo Beltran (KO by 9) and Javier Molina (KO by 1), Okada is not the same fighter. All 20 of Okoda’s wins have come to Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in his hometown.
In the co-main event, former world title holder Jhonny Gonzalez, age 41, 69-12-1 with 56 knockouts, Mexico City, Mexico, seven and a half years removed from his last world title bout as WBC World Featherweight champion, wound up on the short stick of a super featherweight 10 round majority decision to Takuya Watanabe, age 33, 39-11-1 with 22 knockouts, Tokyo, Japan. Watanabe, a loser of all three of the Japanese regional title bouts he was in, and who had never registered a win in a bout outside of Japan over a fighter with a winning record, somehow won with scores of 95-95, 96-94, and 97-93. James Bond smells a rat, and Watanabe would never have gotten the scorecards in the Continental Americas. Gonzalez fought his entire career in Mexico and the United States, save for one title win in Japan. Gonzalez took the trip to South Korea for the payday, and was not rewarded a ‘W’.
In the main event bout of card, former multi-division world champion John Riel Casimero, 31-4 with 21 knockouts, Ormoc City, Philippines, suffered from the second robbery of the event, a stinker of a No Contest which resulted from a phantom punch. After a competitive first round with Ryo Akaho, 39-2-2, 26 knockouts, in Yokohama, Japan, the bout went wild.
Akaho was warned for a low blow in an otherwise uneventful round one. Akaho, in his first fight in 44 contests outside of Japan, went into a wild slugfest. In the ensuing exchange of punches, Casimero touched a glove to the canvas, ruled a knockdown by referee Michiaki Someya. Upset at the possible insult of losing a 10-8 round to who he viewed as an inferior opponent, Casimero cut off the ring, and wailed away on Akaho on the ropes. During a wild exchange, Casimero missed with a right hook which grazed over the back of Akaho, but missed the head completely.
Instead, referee Michiaki Someya warned Casimero for throwing a rabbit punch. Akaho then followed the referee’s lead and grabbed the back of his head, complaining from the low blow, retreated into a corner, turned his back and then sat on the canvas. The ringside doctor swiftly ruled a No Contest. Even Bernard Hopkins could not have play acted this one so well. Casimero, like Gonzalez, took the South Korean bout for the promise of a decent payday. Again, the robbery could not have been more obvious. YouTube videos show the brief two-round affair. The Gonzalez versus Watanabe bout has yet to appear, probably because the robbery is too obvious. Casimero and Gonzalez have reached the point in their careers where title bouts and paydays have dried up post-Pandemic, and when the telephone rang, they took their respective offers. Dillian Whyte’s 12 round robbery of Jermaine Franklin on British soil is one issue. If South Korea was supposed to be neutral for the two main event money bouts on the card, if the experience is any example, Casimero, and Gonzalez, based on their latest encounter, will not be returning to South Korea to fight Japanese fighters again. Simply put, it was a South Korean double stinker.
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