October 22, 2010
October 22, 2010
TOKYO, JAPAN
A deluxe show featuring five competitive bouts will take place in Tokyo, Japan, on this coming Sunday. WBC super-bantam champ Toshiaki Nishioka (36-4-3, 23 KOs) (left), a Japanese southpaw making his fifth defense, will risk his belt against official challenger Rendall Munroe (21-1, 9 KOs) (right), from Leicester, UK, over twelve rounds. WBA 105-pound titlist, unbeaten KO artist Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (26-0, 22 KOs), Nicaragua, will move up and face Mexican banger Francisco Rosas (21-7-2, 12 KOs) in a quest for the interim WBA 108-pound belt in their grudge fight.
Former WBA super-feather ruler Jorge Linares (29-1, 18 KOs), a Japan-based Venezuelan, will take on ex-champ Jesus Chavez (44-7, 30 KOs), a Mexican veteran, in his second comebacking bout. Unbeaten Japanese 140-pound titlist Yoshihiro Kamegai (16-0, 14 KOs), nicknamed “Maestrito”, will participate in his test match with ex-WBA lightweight boss Jose Alfaro (24-6-1NC, 21 KOs) over ten. Up-and-coming southpaw hard-puncher, WBA#8 Japanese bantam champ Shinsuke Yamanaka (12-0-2, 8 KOs) will square off against WBA#14 Jose Silveira (11-2, 4 KOs) at 119 pounds over ten.
This great card is presented by Hall-of-Famer Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions to entertain the audience at the Ryogoku Sumo Arena and TV watchers that will see the program titled “WOW FES” (Festival of WOWOW cable television, a Japanese version of HBO or Showtime).
Our fans pay great attentions to the sensational main event, as Munroe is highly regarded as the official challenger with his excellent credentials, while Nishioka, having finished all challengers in his four previous defenses, is also reported to be in tip-top shape. The muscular and fast-punching Munroe arrived in Tokyo on October 13 to stay eleven nights here prior to his first crack at the world belt. He is such a frank and friendly young man that our press people have been impressed by his sportsmanlike personality, as he is always cooperative to our press.
As this reporter showed him the latest issue of Boxing News where a good full-page coverage of an interview to Munroe was printed, he hasn’t seen it as he left the UK early and asked me for a copy. Yours truly delivered him the copy with pleasure. Since he is such a likable sportsman, it is said some 300 supporters will come and see his title bout from Leicester. Even if our world champ should defend his belt in England, such three hundred people would never go and cover our hero’s title bout abroad. Probably they may like to see Munroe’s coronation as well as an expensive but attractive city named Tokyo.
Funny enough is that Francisco Rosas appears much more confident than his conqueror Roman Gonzalez in their first encounter, where the Nicaraguan barely kept his WBA 105-pound throne via majority verdict in Mexico in February of the previous year. “I’ll knock him out to win the belt,” says the eloquent Mexican Rosas who has been back to his legitimate 108-pound category. Gonzalez, however, isn’t a big talker as usual, since he makes it a rule to display what he wishes to say inside the squared circle.
The WBC and WBA officials have been announced in the press conference held at the Tokyo Dome Hotel, as follows:
As for the Nishioka-Munroe WBC 122-pound title bout: referee Guadalupe Garcia (Mexico); judges James Jen-Kin (US), David Sutherland (US) and Alejandro Rochin (Mexico); supervisor Robert Lenhardt (US).
As for the Gonzalez-Rosas WBA interim 108-pound title go: referee Takeshi Shimakawa (Japan); judges Derek Milham (Australia), Robert Hoyle (US) and Silvestre Abainza (Philippines); supervisor Renzo Bagnariol (Nicaragua).
The impresario Honda says that some sixty boxing people, not including Munroe adherents, have arrived to accompany the foreign boxers and officiate the world title twinbills. Today’s press conference looked like a Casablanca full of foreigners from various countries. It might be a beginning of our beautiful friendship even though there may be furious competition on Sunday.
(10-22-10)