89th Phoenix Battle

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

What does Tapology know about Masayoshi that I'm not seeing? 

Hashizume vs. Tanaka
Kosei Tanaka, DEC
I think what Casual008 is possibly missing is Tanaka has so far struggled at 115 with a KO loss and a split decision victory, Tanaka should still be a favourite in this IMO, especially with Masayoshi not having been tested at this level; but Masayoshi is still an unbeaten fighter, and many Tap users have noted their choices accordingly.

A KO loss... against the now WBO Champion, 4 division champion, formally on the Ring's pound-for-Pound list Kazuto Ioka. And that spilt decision win really shouldn't have been, but Sho Ishida is much more proven world class fighter than someone like Masayoshi. I was just curious if there's any positive reinforcement for why your picking Masaysohi, but so far I guess it's just the '0' and Kosei lost once. 

Yeah *** is Tapology smoking? At the time of that loss Tanaka was on the fringe of the P4P top 10. He's the fastest Japanese fighter ever to win a world title and he's tied with Lomachenko for fastest fighter to win a world title in three weight classes. Not saying he should be the Tap favorite but the picks percentages should be way closer imo.

Agree the doubts above, Kosei is a world class fighter who only lost to another world class fighter in Ioka, and, yes, Hashizume is undefeated, but all of his wins have come against borderline talent, this is a big step up for him. He has some things going for him though, Tanaka is pushing his weight limit at super fw while Hashizume is a pretty big 115er, does like to take the iniciative and is quite solid all around. Having said that, he's not very good defensively, is considerably slower than Tanaka and easily worse technically, my guess is that those deficiencies + Tanaka's experience and very quick hands will get him KOd around the 8th round, or, in the best case scenario, drop a definitive dec. 

Hashizume vs. Tanaka
I crave Kosei Tanaka at -400. He has a brackish counter left. Tanaka is gonna vandalize the natural order. I know it!

Easiest Tapology underdog pick I've ever made. Like I said *** is Tapology smoking.