If you think the lack of big fights in April is scary, put things in perspective. Look at Lindsay Lohan’s face. Truly terrifying. There’s no healthy way to ruin your face, but boxing has to be better than whatever she’s done. At least Daniel Zaragoza had great cardio fitness. But yeah, the schedule ain’t great.
The most important shows are in Japan on Wednesday and Friday, so it might be worth trying to track down a stream of them. Everything else is a somewhat embarassing mix of up and comers fighting no-hopers, good fighters staying busy against bad competition and boxers who should be retired. Meh.
- Vic Darchinyan vs. Shinsuke Yamanaka, Friday, Tokyo Japan. There are few boxers that have consistently faced the quality of competition that Australia’s bantamweight villain, Vic Darchinyan, has over the last half a decade. He’s at it again, facing The Ring’s number nine in the division, Shinsuke Yamanaka, fresh off a loss to slickster Anselmo Moreno. Darchinyan (37-4-1) was badly outclassed by the Panamanian southpaw who some are now pointing to as a pound for pound level talent. Yamanaka (15-0-2) isn’t that, but he’s another awkward southpaw who fights in a typically Japanese upright, bouncy style. He’s got two inches on Vic in height and three in reach, so if he can stay away and bomb “The Raging Bull” with his overhand left, he may have some success. On the other hand, Darchinyan is far and away the best opponent Yamanaka has ever faced and despite the loss to Moreno, looked great against Yohnny Perez and gave Abner Mares all he could handle. I think the nasty old midget has at least one more left in the tank. On the undercard, The Ring’s number five junior lightweight, Takahiro Ao (22-2-1) takes on unfortunately named Thai veteran Terdsak Kokietgym (46-3-1) and former pound for pounder Hozumi Hasegawa (29-4) continues his featherweight campaign against Mexico’s Felipe Carlos Felix (18-0).
- The Rest. Junior lightweight Ronny Rios (17-0) faces Guillermo Sanchez (13-5-1) on TeleFutura Saturday night… James Toney (73-7-3) fights former cruiserweight/bare knuckle boxer Bobby Gunn (21-4-1) at heavyweight in Mississippi on Saturday. Please retire, James… Junior welterweight Humberto Soto (57-7-2) fights Claudinei Lacerda (14-2) in Cancun on Saturday on Fox Deportes as a warm up for his exciting sounding fight with Lucas Matthyse in June. Hopefully he doesn’t fall victim to the same fate as Jorge Linares: THE CANCUN CURSE… Popular Japanese bantamweight Koki Kameda (27-1) faces Nouldy Manakane (24-10-1) to headline that other Japanese show on Wednesday. The Ring’s Number three and number five bantamweights, Tomonobu Shimizu (19-3-1) and Tepparith Singwancha (19-2), respectively, do battle on the undercard… Russian cruiserweight Denis Lebedev takes a break from beating up old men to beat up soft touch Shawn Cox (16-1), a Barbadian with a padded record on Wednesday.
