Kazuto Ioka wins title in 7th fight at the age of 21

Is this kid the real deal? I would love to see a great Japanese boxer and same trainer as Gamboa kid must have skills. There are a few good Japanese boxers out there. Hozumi Hasegawa is really good. Even though he lost by vicious TKO against Montiel, he was winning the rounds before that. Definitely a top10-20 P4P contender. He will bounce back and the fight against Jhonny Gonzalez will show how much of a future he has at featherweight. The other two Japanese main eventers on the Hasegawa-Gonzalez card are fun to watch, too. Toshiaki Nishioka might just be the best super bantamweight (granted, a very weak division at the moment) right now, and he impressively beat Rendall Munroe recently by winning almost all rounds on the scorecards. Takahiro Ao is coming off a very good win against talented Vitali Tajbert, even knocked him down in that fight. He also has Takashi Uchiyama in his division, another Japanese champion. And then of course you have the massively hyped Kameda-brothers, loathed by many in Japan, but without a doubt very talented. I rate Daiki the weakest of the three (although I haven't seen enough of the youngest, Tomoki to rate him, but heard a lot of good things), and he made it to a championship, too, even though he is far from the best in his division. His best win is a decision over Kaovichit. I like Koki, even though he lost to Pong. Nobuo Nashiro has been headlining a few cards as well, but he is coming off recent losses against Cazares and Tomas Rojas. He is the one Ioka just took the "fastest Japanese world champion" title from. Nashiro became WBA champ in his 8th fight compared to Ioka's 7th.

who's the *****

Yes, he said himself that he wants to finish him quickly (in the first 7 rounds), probably for conditioning reasons... Nonetheless a very impressive win for Ioka! Full fight on Youtube, by the way, in 2 parts: Yeah, I had read that comment about him wanting to finish it within seven. But you're right, it's an impressive win. Good luck to Ioka, he hasn't been sheltered early in his career, that's for sure. Sithsamerchai really is a pretty good fighter, a good counter puncher which is a bit of a rarity among Thais. He does have his flaws and problems though. Thanks for the links. :boxing:

Is this kid the real deal? I would love to see a great Japanese boxer and same trainer as Gamboa kid must have skills.

I'm not surprised that Ioka won, only surprised that it happened so quickly. Sithsamerchai is a pretty good fighter, but in recent fights he's faded down the stretch. I thought if Ioka was going to win, it'd be due to a late surge in the fight. Supposedly Sithsamerchai had trouble making weight in previous fights...... Yes, he said himself that he wants to finish him quickly (in the first 7 rounds), probably for conditioning reasons... Nonetheless a very impressive win for Ioka! Full fight on Youtube, by the way, in 2 parts:

I'm not surprised that Ioka won, only surprised that it happened so quickly. Sithsamerchai is a pretty good fighter, but in recent fights he's faded down the stretch. I thought if Ioka was going to win, it'd be due to a late surge in the fight. Supposedly Sithsamerchai had trouble making weight in previous fights...... I've only seen the fifth round, but I'm a bit surprised at how composed he was. I've seen some of his previous fights and while he showed, he often got a little cocky; he go dropped for a flash KD against Amol because of showboating.

5th round on youtube:

Pics from the fight: http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8791/03798466.jpg http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8980/03798474.jpg http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5444/03798473.jpg Yuriorkis Gamboa was attending the fight again, as the two share a trainer, Ismael Salas from Cuba.

dayum! thanks for the info