THE JAPANESE JINX:  The careers of Jose Navarro and Paulie Ayala intertwine in Tokyo

By Matteo Alderson

2000 Olympian Jose Navarro lost a split decision the other night in Tokyo to Japanese WBC Junior-Bantamweight champion Katsushige Kawashima.  Oddly two of the judges scored it closely in favor of the defending champion by scores of 115-114 and 115-113 while the third judge, Canadian William Boodhoo had a lopsided card of 120-109 in favor of the Californian native, Jose Navarro.  Close calls given to the hometown fighter are a regular and inherit part of the sport, but this case is kind of different since there was such a large discrepancy in the judges’ final scorecards. 

After reading numerous accounts of the bout it’s obvious that there wasn’t any foul play, but that the judges witnessed a fight of conflicting styles, and that two of them happened to prefer and reward the aggressiveness of defending champion Katsushige Kawashima.  It’s apparent that the fight was difficult to score since Ring Magazine correspondent and Asian boxing specialist Joe Koizumi had the fight a draw.  Fans of Jose Navarro shouldn’t be too upset because it’s not as if there are a lot of marquee match-ups in the division and the controversy involving the decision will probably influence the WBC to order an immediate rematch.  Lou DiBella, who has Navarro under contract along with Golden Boy Promotions, is already publicly lobbying the WBC for a rematch. 

The circumstances involving the fight remind me of what happened to Paulie Ayala early in his career.  Paulie also went over to Tokyo as a young contender and lost a decision to a Japanese champion under somewhat controversial circumstances.  Actually there are quite a few similarities between the two fights.  Paulie Ayala and Jose Navarro were both undefeated challengers fighting for the WBC title against a Japanese champion in Tokyo. 

They are also both Mexican American and both of them lack the punch to knock out foes at the world-class level.  Jose entered the bout with a record of 21-0 (9KOs) and in August of 1998 Ayala was 25-0 (11 KOs) when he went to Tokyo to fight Champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi.  The Japanese champion dominated early and won the first two rounds on all the score cards, but Paulie started to rally and unanimously won the 5th and 6th rounds, but fate intervened and an accidental clash of heads forced the end of the bout.  The scorecards were read and Ayala lost the decision even though he was coming on strong and probably would have dominated the rest of the bout.  The loss really didn’t hurt Ayala’s career.  Less than a year later he fought and beat Johnny Tapia for the WBA Bantamweight title.  The bad luck that Paulie experienced in Japan came back to him in the form of positive karma and later on in his career Ayala ended up getting the decisions in a number of fights that should have gone the other way. 

Who knows maybe Jose’s experience with bad-luck in Japan might turn out to be his springboard to success just like it was for Paulie Ayala.

Notes:

Paulie Ayala’s decision wins in his second fight with Johnny Tapia, the first Clarence Bones Adams match, and the fight with Hugo Dianzo all could have easily gone the other way. 

Paulie retired after consecutive losses to Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him come back to fight Wayne McCullough at 122 pounds if the Irishman can beat Oscar Larios in the February title fight.

Condolences to the family of Jack Newfield, the boxing fraternity has lost one of its esteemed intellectuals.