By Jake Donovan
Akira Yaegashi is set for the first defense of his World flyweight crown, as he faces Mexico’s Oscar Blanquet on August 12 in Tokyo, Japan. The bout serves as the first title opportunity for Blanquet, who touched down in Tokyo earlier this week.
The bout is paired up with a bantamweight title fight, between defending champ Shinsuke Yamanaka and Puerto Rico’s Jose Nieves. Also appearing on the show, former two division champ Hozumi Hasegawa attempts to remain afloat in pursuit of a third title reign.
Blanquet (32-5-1, 23KO) is a massive underdog for Monday’s title challenge, which serves as his second fight in Tokyo in the span of his last three contests. Sandwiched in between is a narrow points loss to Wilbert Uicab last December.
Yaegashi makes the first defense of the lineal crown he acquired in a thrilling points win over countryman Toshiyuki Igarashi this past April. The win netted the 30-year old a championship in his second weight class, having previously served as a strawweight titlist.
Never in a dull fight, Yaegashi began his strawweight title reign with a sensational 10th round knockout win of Thailand’s Pornsawan Porpramook in Oct’ 11. The fight became an instant YouTube classic, creating enough buzz to earn accolades as 2011 Fight of the Year.
His reign was short-lived – eight months in length but losing in his lone attempted title defense. There was no backlash to be found of the shortcoming, going tooth-and-nail with countryman Kazuto Ioka last June, dropping a heartbreaking majority decision in one of the best fights of 2012.
It also served as a watershed moment for the nation of Japan, marking the first time in the nation’s rich boxing history in which two Japanese fighters collided in a unification match.
Yaegashi immediately moved up in weight, having since won two straight including the aforementioned title-lifting effort over Igarashi.
Blanquet and his team – which includes promoter Sergio Cortes – are spending their last days enjoying the sites, before preparing for Thursday’s public workout to officially kick off fight week.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
