Toshiaki Nishioka Makes It To His Turn To Shine
By Cliff Rold
There is no shame in losing to the better man. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck not to be him. It is a truth that can be found in almost any fight but there are those pairings, those rivalries, which make the sting last a little longer. Sometimes, it’s the sting of coming out on the short end of a rivalry even while picking up a win along the way. Other times, it’s the lasting hurt of coming within a whisper of the brass ring and seeing it slip, seeing it torn, from grasp.
Few fighters absorb the whisper and manage to hang around long enough to make a lasting mark after their obstacle is removed.
Middleweight Rodrigo Valdez won a belt before he gave the great Carlos Monzon hell in the last two fights of Monzon’s career. He couldn’t capture Monzon’s world title, couldn’t prove to be the real champion. One fight after the Monzon rematch, he claimed the vacant title only to lose it in his first defense. He was never to regain the crown and, despite a memorable career in its own regard, he remains a Monzon opponent first.
Carl “Bobo” Olson had a hell of a career. What might it have been without Sugar Ray Robinson? Robinson bested Olson before winning the Middleweight crown from Jake LaMotta and after regaining it from Randy Turpin. Opportunity didn’t seem to be on its way but, when Robinson retired between 1952 and 1955, it came knocking. Then Robinson did too, unretiring and knocking out Olson for the title and again in a fourth and final affair.
No one, at least here, is comparing Japan’s Toshiaki Nishioka (36-4-3, 23 KO) to a Bobo Olson or Rodrigo Valdez in the ring. However, he shares with them that one rival.
That one aggravating, just can’t get by ‘em pain in the…
…ask Nishioka now and he might say it’s behind him. What else could he say? The current WBC 122 lb. Jr. Featherweight titlist will never get back the four fights that looked like they would define him. That they may not says a lot about the suddenly resurgent warrior.
Before the surge, there was Veraphol Sahaprom.
One of the finest Thai fighters of the last twenty years, Sahaprom was a two time Bantamweight titlist who, in his second reign, made a strong run at Orlando Canizales’s sixteen consecutive title defense mark. Sahaprom fell two short of tying, at 14, and got the most trouble along the way from Nishioka. Nishioka held the home field advantage in all four affairs, twice losing by decision, twice holding Sahaprom to a draw.
Nishioka appeared destined to be Sahaprom’s ‘opponent,’ his only other defeats coming professional infancy. A funny thing happened after the rivalry died. Sahaprom? He got older, eventually giving in to father time and the fast fists of Hozumi Hasegawa.
Nishioka? He took the lessons he learned in the ring with one of the best Bantamweights of recent memory and found a late peak.
Undefeated since the last Sahaprom fight in 2004, a now 34-year old Nishioka has won 13 fights in a row and, while some of them have come against lesser fare, the last few have not. In September 2008, he finally won a major belt and quickly added a final round knockout of veteran Genaro Garcia in his first defense in January 2009. Four months later, he caught the attention of fight fans outside Asia with a shocking third round knockout of Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez. Two more title defense knockouts have followed.
So has an upset outside Nishioka’s control. Just weeks ago, the presumed leader in class, Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, was narrowly upset by Ryol Li Lee. It wasn’t the sort of win that could push Lee to the top of the stack.
It was the sort of upset that could elevate Nishioka to the top slot. How long he can stay there, how much work he can put in to be more than just Sahaprom’s defining antagonist, will be decided fight by fight. This weekend, he faces what could be the toughest fight of his reign so far.
Rendall Munroe (21-1, 9 KO) is something Nishioka’s last two defense foes have not been. Munroe is a consensus top ten contender in class. His lone loss came in his eleventh fight and over twelve full rounds. Since, he’s won eleven straight with solid wins over former title challenger Simone Maludrottu and two wins over otherwise undefeated Kiko Martinez. If Munroe wins the belt this weekend, and he just might, so be it.
If he does not, Nishioka will have five defenses under his belt and who knows how much farther he can go. With patience, professionalism, and a little luck, Nishioka has found a way to begin carving his own place. He’ll never get to be the better man, in the ring, against Sahaprom. He’s finding plenty of other men to be better than instead.
Weekly Ledger
But wait, there’s more…
Tarver Gets Heavy: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=31880
Klitschko Post Fight: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=31937
Picks of the Week: https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=31966
Cliff’s Notes… The whole of the Nishioka-Munroe card Sunday in Japan looks pretty solid. Keep an eye on Strawweight titlist Roman Gonzalez. He’s making his move to 108 lbs. and could soon be a mandatory for World Champion Giovanni Segura. Gonzalez-Segura is so potentially violent that signing the contract in blood might be appropriate…David Haye sure is running his mouth again. It used to be entertaining. That was when he wasn’t dodging Klitschko’s and dogging them for their opponent choices while gearing up for Audley Harrison…Jean Pascal is threatening to retire Bernard Hopkins. The funny thing is that Pascal could lose and that may end up true. In other words, only Hopkins will decide when he goes out no matter the result in December…Still haven’t pushed that Hall of Fame ballot across the finish line. When it goes, readers will know who got the check mark (and who didn’t).
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com