February 1, 2015
TOKYO, JAPAN
Japanese boxing fans jokingly say, “If Hisashi Amagasa could knock down Guillermo Rigondeaux twice, Shingo Wake might be able to drop him three times to capture his belt.” It is because WBC#3/WBA#3 Wake, OPBF champ, is regarded as a better 122-pounder than Amagasa, a legitimate 126-pounder who had the OPBF feather belt prior to his ambitious and unexpected crack at The Jackal on New Year’s Eve. For Rigondeaux, his visits to the deck in the unlucky seventh round were just a nightmare or a careless mistake, but his stock apparently dropped here since the Cuban southpaw revealed his vulnerability. This isn’t a note on the Rigondeaux-Wake confrontation, but is on an announcement by Wake (17-4, 10 KOs), a tall fast Japanese southpaw, that he will defend his OPBF super-bantam belt against Filipino Jimmy Paipa (16-2-1, 6 KOs), at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, on this coming February 27. Wake, making his fifth defense of the regional belt, dethroned then world-rated unbeaten Yukinori Oguni via tenth round upset stoppage in March 2013, and has improved a lot since his coronation, having kept it four times?all within the distance. Some people might castigate Wake’s shaky performance against OPBF top contender and Korean titlist Jaesung Lee after the champ’s tenth-round TKO victory last July, but it proved that he could take a punch despite his once-questioned suspect chin. The challenger Paipa, unbeaten since 2010, is an up-and-coming Filipino prospect, who battled to a technical draw with Tsuyoshi Tameda in Tokyo last May. The most highly evaluated 122-pounder out of Japan, Wake may display a good showing to realize his anticipated shot against Rigondeaux.
(2-1-2015)