Dynamic Glove 598: Nagahama vs. Toyoshima

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Nagahama vs. Toyoshima
Ryota Toyoshima, DEC
Wierd???? 2 guy, exactly same records, both on win streaks, yet 100% picks for 1 guy! WHY????

Nagahama vs. Toyoshima
Riku Nagahama, DEC
Riku Nagahama has beaten better opponents. He'll be able to use that experience to out-box the up and coming KO artist.

@Stephen Can you please explain to me how Masaya Tamayo, Kudaro Kaneko, Shohei Kanemoto are any better opposition than Masa Ando, Woo Min Won and Moon Hyun Hun????
Not trying to be a ****. Just genuinely curious. As for me this is a 50 /50 fight between 2 guys with exactly the same records, experience, level of competition and skills. 

@Mikey1903

I came to that conclusion based solely on the records of their recent opponents. In his last fight, Nagahama beat Kudura Kaneko who was previously unbeaten at 11-0 (very good seeing that in Japan they don't **** about with their matchmaking) and Toyoshima beat Masafumi Ando who was 6-8-2 (Bum!) but to be fair he had also beaten Woo Min Won as you pointed out who was 10-1. The other thing I took into consideration is that Nagahama has been the distance in a 12 round fight while this is Toyoshima's first 12 rounder so I'd expect Nagahama to be more dominant in the championship rounds. 

Going back to the recent opponents, Nagahama has also beaten Fumisuke Kimura who was 9-4-1 which is somewhat respectable. Toyoshima had beaten Moon Hyun Hun as you mentioned who was 18-6-3 which is no doubt a better record but he was 35 at the time of the fight and had lost his last 2 fights leading up to the Toyoshima fight so even though Moon Hyun Hun has a better record, it appears that he's past his prime. My best guess is that if Fumisuke Kimura and Moon Hyun Hun were to fight then Kimura would just edge a decision but that's just my best guess.

As for Masaya Tamayama, he was 12-1 going into the Nagahama fight which as you said both of the fighters in this upcoming fight are 12-2-1 and which isn't too far off of and arguably worse, than Tamayama's record. Nagahama beat Tamayama via a decision so if he can beat a fighter with that sort of record once then I don't see why he can't beat another.

In short, Nagahama has beaten some good looking prospects (with the exception of Shohei Kanemoto (12-14-1) who I will concede seems like a bum) and has gone the distance and won in a 12 rounder before. I feel that these experiences will prove to be extremely valuable in this fight. I'm not saying that Nagahama will dominate it and it should still be a very close fight. I just feel that it's a close fight where Nagahama has a slight edge over Toyoshima.

I apologise if I've spelt any names wrong as I'm typing this at about 1:30am (my sleep schedule is ****** due to a mixture of odd working hours and all night UFC cards).

* Edited at 01.12.2021, 8:34 PM ET *

Haha, fair enough bud. That's some breakdown.  

Have you ever actually watched either of these 2 fighters??? For me that is the best way to evaluate a fight. Of course, looking at records is a good way too. But sometimes records are misleading and you know that old saying "fights aren't fought on paper!".
I have watched both fighters, but admittedly I have only been following Japanese boxing for the past year or so, I kinda love it! So it's not like I have HUGE insight. Just a little, including watching that win over Kaneko, Nagashimas best win, I thought Kaneko should've won so maybe that's clouding my judgement. If I witness a fighter win a dodgy decision I tend to hold that against them. 
Another thing I like about Toyoshima, he has been training and sparring with Jorge Linares, Linares is based in Tokyo, that has to be a good thing.

Anyway, I'll shut up about it now! It's not up to me to try and convince anyone, you make your own choices bud. Good luck 

@Mikey1903

I'll admit all I've seen of Riku Nagahama is some clips of him but it was more of a montage that was featured in a news article rather than a highlight reel. I'm not as familiar with the Japanese boxers simply because Asian boxing just isn't broadcast that much over in the western world. I'm sure I could find streams to Japanese cards but it's much easier to find streams for British and American cards simply because they are advertised more and I'm often more inclined to watch them as I'm more likely to know who the fighters are. Most of the time the Japanese have better quality cards but the promotion for those cards isn't as prevalent as the western cards.

Yeah mate, it is hard to follow and it is barely mentioned in our part of the world. But I really do rate the Japanese boxing scene highly. I love the matchmaking, the fights, the fighters. I have really dove into the scene. 
Asian Boxing is a great website to start if you want to find out more 
https://www.asianboxing.info/

He has a great Twitter account too and a free monthly newsletter.
There is also A Sign boxing that show fights on their YouTube channel

@Mikey1903

Cool, I'll definitely check those out! Thanks! The trouble was I didn't really know where to start with it. So far I've mostly relied on Tapology to follow Japanese boxing.

* Edited at 01.13.2021, 12:59 PM ET *

Definetly check out Asian Boxing. He is THE no.1 guy when it comes to Asian Boxing.  Also, on Twitter my man TimBoxeo is a great follow. The man is like the Caposa of Boxing Twitter. If there's a fight in a small shed in Tijuana he's on it, a fight in an Igloo in the Artic, he's on it!!!  A Russian fishing boat, yup! He's on it!!

Dan Rafael is 1 of the best boxing journalists too!  He has also just launched a free monthly newsletter. You can find and subscribe to it on his Facebook page.
Boxing Scene, FightNews and Bad Left Hook are the best sites.    There are others out there but those are the sites I visit most often

@Mikey1903

That's the thing with boxing, there are so many obscure fights taking place all over the world that it's hard to keep track off. Thanks again!

Also, this paragraph from https://www.asianboxing.info/ sums the situation up perfectly:

"Sadly for a sport with such a wide range in participants and audience it does have it's issues and one of those is the lack of coverage the English language media shows in covering the best fighters from outside the Western hemisphere. As a result of this many fight fans are left unaware of many top class fighters from a range of divisions and in fact are forced to miss out on some of the best fights and best fighters on the planet."

* Edited at 01.13.2021, 1:12 PM ET *

Yup, couldn't agree with that statement more. 

I could name tonnes of boxers from that region who would wipe the floor with nearly all of the competition. But because they aren't on US/UK TV nobody has heard of them. Also most are lighter weight and the little guys get no love!!

If you want to check out some of the best fighters from Asia look up Kazuto Ioka, Kosei Tanaka (they both just fought each other at New Year) Junto Nakatani, Kenshiro Teraji, Hiroto Kyoguchi,, Ryota Murata, Jon Riel Casimero, Pedro Taduran, Jerwin Ancajas,,, I could go on.
Also if you include Central Asian countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan my list would be HUGE!!!! I would say Central Asia is the no. 1 region producing boxers at this time. I reckon in a couple of years you'll see a tonne of World Champions from that part of the world 

@Mikey1903

I didn't know that. When I think of Central Asian fighters, the first thing that comes to mind are the amount of MMA promotions and fighters there but I don't really associate that region with boxing. Is there any reason why Central Asian countries are producing a lot of boxing talent at the moment or is it just sort of random like the sudden burst of good Georgian fighters in MMA at the moment? 

Not sure why bud??? I do know that those countries governments pay boxers well to represent the country in the Olympics, World Amateurs.
Just look at the amount of Olympic and World Amateur Championships Boxing medals come from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan since 2016.  It is a tonne, especially for countries of that size. 
There's 4 or 5 Uzbek boxers with less than 8 fights who I can pretty much guarantee will win World titles very soon.IIn fact 1 guy already has 2 World titles in 8 fights!! (murodjon akhmadaliev) Add Ismail Madrimov, Bektimir Melikuziev, Hasanbay Dusmatov, Bakhodur Jalolov and Shakram Giyasov to that list, all less than 8 fights, all on the verge of World titles.
From Kazakhstan, MTK Global went and signed a tonne of talent. Look for the MTK Kazakhstan shows or sometimes a Kazakh will fight on 1 of the MTK UK shows if you want to spot some talent 

Anyway, boxing lesson over for today bud. Haha
I need some sleep 

@Mikey1903

Thanks for the lesion! Goodnight Sir!

@stephen sorry to hear you have a lesion, I hope it goes away soon!

@FistyMcKickerChoke

I should've paid more attention in my English Lesson's lol!

Iimura vs. Yamada
Daisuke Yamada, DEC
Wild card

A little bit of advice for this card. All the guys with 0 fights are some of Japan's top amateurs making their pro debuts