OSAKA, Japan – Ginjiro Shigeoka was taken out of the ring on a stretcher after collapsing at the conclusion of his IBF minimumweight title defeat by the champion Pedro Taduran at the Intex Osaka.
Shigeoka was fighting Taduran, 18-4-1 (13 KOs), for the second time, after winning his belt against the Japanese fighter in Otsu, Japan, in July 2024. Taduran dominated their first encounter, beating Shigeoka up for nine rounds before their first contest was stopped.
Shigeoka, 11-2 (9 KOs), collapsed in the ring after their first fight, and worryingly, although their rematch was much closer and he took far less punishment, he left on a stretcher – though he remained conscious.
The rematch was not the brutal beatdown their first fight represented. It started with both feeling each other out, and Shigeoka landing a clean left early into the
first. Taduran responded well in the second; he was slowly finding his range and landing his southpaw left hand on occasions. Shigeoka, also a southpaw, avoided much of what was coming at him, but Taduran increased his intensity in the third and started to overwhelm Shigeoka.
Taduran, 28, pinned Shigeoka to the ropes, holding on to him with his right while hammering away at him with his left. Taduran maintained that aggression in the fourth and had Shigeoka troubled. Taduran was just too big for Shigeoka; the home fighter struggled to keep him off and was forced to cover up as Taduran onloaded.
Shigeoka, 25, was struggling to get Taduran’s respect, and so elected to move instead of standing and trading with the bigger man. He had success with his jab, but Taduran again overwhelmed him with punches before the round came to a close. Shigeoka responded well in the sixth, moving well, and making Taduran fall short as he came in to land hard shots.
He continued his good work in the sixth, when flicking his jab in Taduran’s face before whipping in a hook. Those punches, however, just bounced off Taduran, and the Filipino had Shigeoka covering up again soon after in the seventh. Yet Taduran seemed to tire slightly, inviting Shigeoka back into the contest. He was able to find Taduran with accurate left hands, but he just couldn’t put a dent in the defending champion.
Taduran started to respond from the 10th. He again pinned down Shigeoka and unloaded hard lefts to his head and followed them up to the body. Shigeoka seemed to be struggling, but fought back well in the 11th, when landing a left hand of his own. As the 12th approached it appeared that Shigeoka needed the round to be in with a chance of taking the victory.
It was, however, Taduran who pushed the action and took it. The defending champion would not be denied and he threw everything he had at the helpless Shigeoka. Both nervously awaited the official decision, and Team Taduran seemed to fear the worst when they learnt it would be a split decision. It was, however, Taduran, the champion but away fighter, who was awarded the victory by scores of 118-110, 115-113 in his favour, with one judge scoring it 115-113 to Shigeoka, whose struggles after the final were ultimately far more significant.
Before then, the home crowd was treated to a rarity in Japanese boxing – a heavyweight dust-up. Mitsuro Tajima, Japan’s No. 1 of nine ranked heavyweights on BoxRec, was knocked out by Uganda’s Herbet Matovu inside five rounds.
Matovu, now 8-1 (7 KOs), was lacking in skills, and Tajima seemed to be able to land at will. As often as Tajima, now 12-2 (10 KOs), was able to find the target, he just couldn’t put a dent into Matovu. The Ugandan did not win a second of the first four rounds, but a right hand in the fifth turned the contest on its head. Tajima got complacent – he had little to deal with all fight – and walked onto a right hand. Tajima was visibly hurt, and Matovu threw everything at the home fighter in an attempt to put him down.
After several more heavy shots, Tajima was looking worse and worse. His left eye was shutting and his legs were betraying him. As the timekeeper was about to sound the end of the fifth, another right hand landed. The referee had seen enough and jumped in to save Tajima at the sound of the bell. Tajima was carried to his stool by his cornermen, and Matovu dropped to the floor in relief after an incredible comeback.
Matcha Nagawa picked up a split decision victory in an entertaining encounter with Hiroki Hanabusa. The pair were well-matched as Nagawa, now 18-2-2 (6 KOs), was flashy from the start while Hanabusa, 14-5-5, pressed the action. Hanabusa seemed to be having the better of the early exchanges, but against the run of play he was dropped in the third. A closer look revealed that no punches landed and Hanabusa had just lost his balance.
The knockdown seemed to spark something in Hanabusa, who targeted Nagawa’s body in the fourth. Nagawa looked like he was struggling with the pace in the fifth and started to take more punishment as the fight went on. Again, against the run of play, Hanabusa was down in the seventh after several hard shots had landed. Nagawa sensed an opportunity to end proceedings and threw everything at his opponent, although Hanabusa stood firm.
Nagawa finished the contest strong and caused severe damage to the left eye of Hanabusa, but the ringside doctor allowed him to finish the fight. Both men eagerly awaited the official decision after a grueling eight rounds, and Nagawa was thankful to be awarded the victory – albeit by split decision.
Lightweight Daigoro Marumoto picked up his second knockout in as many fights against Sukrit Nakpreecha. It was expected that Nakpreecha, 6-3 (4 KOs), would test the inexperienced Marumoto, but Nakpreecha looked like a rabbit in the headlights after first feeling Marumoto’s power.
It wasn’t long before he hit the canvas – midway through the first, a left hand to the body saw Nakpreecha take a knee – and it wasn’t the only time he would be downed in Round 1. As the session came to a close, Marumoto snuck a left uppercut through the high guard of Nakpreecha and dropped his opponent again.
The end came midway through the second. Marumoto landed a right hand, followed by a left, followed by a right again, which sent Nakpreecha flat on his back. Nakpreecha returned to his feet but was deemed in no position to continue.
Before then, Ryo Mandokoro dispatched Vencent Lacar inside five rounds. The pair wasted no time and traded heavy leather from the opening bell. The hard-hitting junior bantamweight Mandokoro, now 6-0 (4 KOs), really started to put some mustard on his shots in the second, and Lacar retaliated by fighting fire with fire in the third.
Lacar, now 9-1 (4 KOs), hurt Mandokoro with a right hand early in the fourth but found himself retreating after taking two hard body shots late in the round. It was not long before Lacar was hurt again, this time by an uppercut, and after several more shots landed from Mandokoro without reply, the referee called a halt to the action.
Shuri Oka opened the night with a third-round stoppage of Raymond Poon KaiChing. Oka, now 5-0-1 (3 KOs), pressed the action from the opening bell and KaiChing, now 10-4-1 (6 KOs), seemed to be struggling with his power. The action was waved off midway through the third after another rough round for KaiChing.
Tom Ivers is an amateur boxer who has a masters degree in sports journalism. He had his first bout in 2013, joined BoxingScene in 2024 and is now a key part of the UK and social media teams.