Japanese Boxing Odds – The New Year’s Eve holiday has traditionally been greeted with big-time fight shows in Japan, and this year the boxing calendar is packed with world title fights all weekend in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Friday sees the fighting start off at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo as WBO 115-pound world champion Naoya Inoue defends his belt against the challenge of veteran Kohei Kono. Inoue is 11-0 in his career, and the 23-year-old is considered by many to be the brightest star in Japanese boxing. In this bout, he is facing the 36-year-old veteran Kono, who is 32-9-1 overall.
Kono has held world titles at super flyweight on two occasions throughout his career, and his last reign made him a bit of a reputation in Japan. He won a vacant belt in March of 2014 and then defended the belt in October of 2015 against Koki Kameda in Chicago. Kameda was 33-1 at the time and he and his family left Japan to live in the United States and fight for the Premier Boxing Champions. Kameda entered the fight a wide favorite, but Kono won a strong unanimous decision to keep the belt. The win over the controversial exile in Kameda gave Kono’s reputation a big bump. He since lost the title to Luis Concepcion, and this fight with Inoue is a chance for the veteran to pull off a major upset once again. At the very least, Kono will be going out on his shield.
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Shifting to Saturday, all eyes will be on the Ota City Gym as former WBA world super featherweight champion Takashi Uchiyama returns to the ring to face Jezreel Corrales of Panama. Uchiyma held the WBA world title at super featherweight for more than six years before losing it to Corrales in a furious fight that saw Uchiyama hit the canvas three times in less than two rounds.
Uchiyama entered the first meeting a four figure favorite, but that is not the case this time around, as he will be the underdog when he steps into the ring this Saturday. Uchiyama, though a long time and well respected champion, is now 37 years old. Corrales is 12 years younger at 25, and though Corrales does not have a high knock out ratio, he has found strength as he matured and he has finished his last six fights by knock out.
The question for Corrales will be what happens if the knock out doesn’t come. Known as “el invisible” for his unorthodox style of fighting, Corrales would be wise to avoid going to the judges in the opponent’s home town. Some may see value in Uchiyama going the distance.
Japanese Boxing Odds
The rest of the odds for all seven of the world title fights scheduled for Japan this New Year’s weekend.
Friday, December 30th Ariake Colosseum – Tokyo, Japan
Super Flyweight 12 rounds – WBO
Kohei Kono +1250
Naoya Inoue -2000
Light Flyweight 12 rounds
Wittawas Basapean +530
Akira Yaegashi -990
Saturday, December 31st Ota City General Gymnasium – Tokyo, Japan
Super Featherweight 12 rounds – WBA Super World
Jezreel Corrales -225
Takashi Uchiyama +185
Light Flyweight 12 rounds – WBA
Carlos Cenizales +385
Ryoichi Taguchi -485
Shimazu Arena – Kyoto, Japan
Super Bantamweight 12 rounds – IBF
Yukinori Oguni +900
Jonathan Guzman -1375
Flyweight 12 rounds – WBA
Yutthana Kaensa +1300
Kazuto Ioka -2150
Memorial Center – Gifu, Japan
Light Flyweight 12 rounds – WBO
Moises Fuentes +100
Kosei Tanaka -120
Japanese Boxing Odds / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science.
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