BoxRec

Was a close fight for sure. Was a risk reward fight and wasnt suprised the Japanese fighter won it.

Fairly wide UD for the home fighter seemed un-Japanese ?
NO probs with the result - "what you like" fighting or boxing ? - but wasn't a wide UD for anybody.

4 really good fights and a great format.

Sport should be FOR something - and this format really helps that. Stoppage bonus good 2 - 3 early finishes and they seemed to be taking a few risks to get it.
Will defo watch again.

Conway looked good even getting a rare KO, McKenna fight should've been stopped much earlier, Takesako/Dickinson was a pure war, could've went either way and the Kunimoto/Kani rematch was good as well albeit one sided


Enjoyable card

Glass Joe wrote: ↑15 Jul 2024, 09:44 https://x.com/kintrekin/status/18128352 ... 72/photo/1

There was SOOOO many promotional issues with the whole event that this wasn't REALLY a surprise. There was no advertising, no Japanese broadcast (Abema were meant to show it back in March but they weren't involved this time), seems no one actually promoted the event, ticket prices were BAT SHIT insane, there was another 2 shows (the West Japan Rookie of the Year semi-finals) just down the road, the main event was a do-over of a mismatch from March, Takesako had just been outboxed in Korea by a 37 year old, there was no local draw (Kunimoto is from Osaka but not a draw, Takesako was born in Osaka but has fought mostly in Tokyo), and the tournament seemed to be set up for the Westerners to shine in a division where Japan has had limited success...

...really need to wonder how much this lost as an event, as they can't possible have broken even giving the bonuses and stuff

Wonder if it's sobering for Matchroom to know you can't just put on a show in the week in Japan and sell tickets, even on a national holiday like Marine Day

middleweight a weird division to have a tournament in japan. although i do like it, would've been even better with ngamissengue

mckenna should pound kunimoto. the other semfinal looks more interesting, i suspect conway will outbox takesako.

should get mckenna-conway

Good performance from McKenna. That Estela chap looked to have some very good skills in some of his fights but got bullied in there and didn't know what to do. McKenna has a very youthful face and looks like a young teenager. It can't be easy taking a good hiding off a lad who looks like that on a big stage.

Asian Boxing wrote: ↑15 Jul 2024, 15:49 and the tournament seemed to be set up for the Westerners to shine in a division where Japan has had limited success...

LOL what a nonsense comment. Because Japan/Asias middleweights are all poor and not good enough, there shouldn't be a tournament there wtf.

If it was 'set up for westerners to shine' then it wouldn't be set in Japan, with biased home favouring judges, and there'd be better 'western' middleweights than that there than fornicating Conway and Dickinson, and some unknown puerto rican.

Where did you want the tournament to be, at fornicating Minimumweight where there is zero 'western' boxers

Aaron Mckenna is probably gonna win this whole thing. And Japan have double the amount of middleweights that Ireland have. There's no excuses for Japans failures at middleweight, they simply aren't good enough!

Looking more into this
The Japanese Prizefighter twitter (TWITTER) has 99 followers since creating their account in May
The only companies listed on the poster are Matchroom, Rakuten (the ticket seller), DAZN (with the poster stating "Worldwide (Excluding Asia)") and NSN...

NSN Appear to be the interesting ones here, as they appear to have lead the work and been the organiser of note. They are a sports company co-founded by football legend Andreas Iniesta, back in 2018. They have VERY little footprint, about 12,000 Instagram followers (Iniesta has something like 42,000,000), they seem to. Their own website has a single article on the event (nothing about the results of the fights), they don't have boxers among their "talent" (some footballers and some Tennis players mostly).

They have a Tokyo office, but held this at a university campus arena in Osaka.

The more I dig into this... the more it feels like Iniesta's being taken for a ride

Just watched the dickinson fight, no robbery, but he should have got the nod there. Classier/heavier work, although did look a bit knackered once or twice. Good fight tbf.

Missed this! Going to watch it tonight, sounds like it was exciting. So random too!

Press Release

Prizefighter returned with a bang in Osaka, Japan, as four fighters took a huge stride closer to a $ 1 million winners’ cheque.

Kieron Conway, Aaron McKenna, Kazuto Takesako and Riku Kunimoto all secured their place in the Semi-Finals with victories at the Yamato Arena as the Middleweight competition got underway earlier today – live on DAZN. - If you use these WBN quotes, please link back to the source: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2024/07 ... zefighter/

Britain’s Mark Dickinson (6-1, 2 KOs) suffered disappointment in his Quarter-Final contest, however, with the North-East native losing out to Japan’s Takesako (17-2-1, 15 KOs) in what was the fight of the tournament so far.

In a thrilling 10-round encounter, it was Takesako who had his hand raised with a unanimous points victory as the judges scored the hard-fought bout 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92.

Triumphant Takesako can now look forward to an intriguing last four rematch with fellow countryman Kunimoto, who celebrated back-to-back wins over Eiki Kani in front of his home fans in Osaka by stopping his compatriot in the fifth round.

Northampton puncher Conway (21-3-1, 6 KOs), meanwhile, opened the tournament with an impressive stoppage of his own over China’s Ainiwaer Yilixiati (19-2-0, 14 KOs) when the referee stepped in to halt the proceedings in the seventh.

Conway later went face-to-face in the ring with his next opponent Aaron McKenna, as the undefeated Northern Irishman (19-0,10 KOs) silenced America rival Jeovanny Estela (14-1, 5 KOs) with just 58 seconds left on the clock in the final round to earn his share of the $100,000 knockout bonus spoils.

- If you use these WBN quotes, please link back to the source: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2024/07 ... zefighter/



Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith saluted the winning fighters as he hailed the return of the popular series.

“It has been a special week here in Japan and tonight showed us why we’re in for a tremendous tournament,” said Smith.

“With three stoppages, the fighters are already reaping the Prizefighter rewards with a share of the knockout bonus and four of them are now another step closer to taking home the $1m winners’ cheque.

“Young Mark Dickinson rolled the dice and he’ll no doubt come again after his defeat. But for the likes of Kieron Conway, Aaron McKenna, Kazuto Takesako and Riku Kunimoto everything is up for grabs.

“We are incredibly grateful to our partners Rakuten Ticket Inc., and NSN (Never Say Never) as we now look ahead to the Semi-Finals.”

Details of when the Semi-Finals will take place are set to be announced in due course. - If you use these WBN quotes, please link back to the source: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2024/07 ... zefighter/

1675571 wrote: ↑16 Jul 2024, 15:21

Asian Boxing wrote: ↑15 Jul 2024, 15:49 and the tournament seemed to be set up for the Westerners to shine in a division where Japan has had limited success...

LOL what a nonsense comment. Because Japan/Asias middleweights are all poor and not good enough, there shouldn't be a tournament there wtf.

If it was 'set up for westerners to shine' then it wouldn't be set in Japan, with biased home favouring judges, and there'd be better 'western' middleweights than that there than fornicating Conway and Dickinson, and some unknown puerto rican.

Where did you want the tournament to be, at fornicating Minimumweight where there is zero 'western' boxers

Aaron Mckenna is probably gonna win this whole thing. And Japan have double the amount of middleweights that Ireland have. There's no excuses for Japans failures at middleweight, they simply aren't good enough!

If it was set up for the locals to shine it wouldn't have been unbroadcast in Japan. It would have had media to promote the show in Japan (. It would have have had someone better than Kani (especially given his loss to Kunimoto in their first bout just a few months ago), and it wouldn't have had a guy who just got out boxed by a 37 year old as the replacement opponent.

Personally I think it would have been better suited at Feather, Super Feather or Lightweight, where there's a decent enough array of local fighters and international fighters.

Japan's fighters are the weight are historically terrible, there is next to no real interest in the country (Murata aside), as can be seen from the 3 involved here having almost no profile.

Fair play to Dickinson for taking a fight this hard early on

Asian Boxing wrote: ↑17 Jul 2024, 11:20

1675571 wrote: ↑16 Jul 2024, 15:21

Asian Boxing wrote: ↑15 Jul 2024, 15:49 and the tournament seemed to be set up for the Westerners to shine in a division where Japan has had limited success...

LOL what a nonsense comment. Because Japan/Asias middleweights are all poor and not good enough, there shouldn't be a tournament there wtf.

If it was 'set up for westerners to shine' then it wouldn't be set in Japan, with biased home favouring judges, and there'd be better 'western' middleweights than that there than fornicating Conway and Dickinson, and some unknown puerto rican.

Where did you want the tournament to be, at fornicating Minimumweight where there is zero 'western' boxers

Aaron Mckenna is probably gonna win this whole thing. And Japan have double the amount of middleweights that Ireland have. There's no excuses for Japans failures at middleweight, they simply aren't good enough!

If it was set up for the locals to shine it wouldn't have been unbroadcast in Japan. It would have had media to promote the show in Japan (. It would have have had someone better than Kani (especially given his loss to Kunimoto in their first bout just a few months ago), and it wouldn't have had a guy who just got out boxed by a 37 year old as the replacement opponent.

Personally I think it would have been better suited at Feather, Super Feather or Lightweight, where there's a decent enough array of local fighters and international fighters.

Japan's fighters are the weight are historically terrible, there is next to no real interest in the country (Murata aside), as can be seen from the 3 involved here having almost no profile.

Yilixiati is China's number 1 middleweight
Kunimoto is Japans number 1 middleweight
Takesako is Japans number 2 middleweight

It's basically Japan and China's best middleweights going against some Euro level/mid level 'westerners'.

Dickinson should have got the decision in his fight. Thst was a home country decision.

If what your're saying is right about the promotion. Then hopefully it picks up in the semis amd finals. But it's not exactly being promoted good anywhere. No one even knew this was on anywhere, on some ramdom monday. Most hardcores boxing fans don't even know about it.

Japan/Asia have plenty of middleweights, more than enough. They just aren't good enough.

dickinson was 3-1 fave to win, takesako was brought in as a replacement, not as a guy to shine

mw would never have been chosen if this was about big upping japanese talent, plenty of other divisions much more favourable to japanese boxers. how many are picking a japanese boxer to win this?

those crowd pics , certainly not a lot of interest locally

1675571 wrote: ↑17 Jul 2024, 23:26

Asian Boxing wrote: ↑17 Jul 2024, 11:20

1675571 wrote: ↑16 Jul 2024, 15:21

LOL what a nonsense comment. Because Japan/Asias middleweights are all poor and not good enough, there shouldn't be a tournament there wtf.

If it was 'set up for westerners to shine' then it wouldn't be set in Japan, with biased home favouring judges, and there'd be better 'western' middleweights than that there than fornicating Conway and Dickinson, and some unknown puerto rican.

Where did you want the tournament to be, at fornicating Minimumweight where there is zero 'western' boxers

Aaron Mckenna is probably gonna win this whole thing. And Japan have double the amount of middleweights that Ireland have. There's no excuses for Japans failures at middleweight, they simply aren't good enough!

If it was set up for the locals to shine it wouldn't have been unbroadcast in Japan. It would have had media to promote the show in Japan (. It would have have had someone better than Kani (especially given his loss to Kunimoto in their first bout just a few months ago), and it wouldn't have had a guy who just got out boxed by a 37 year old as the replacement opponent.

Personally I think it would have been better suited at Feather, Super Feather or Lightweight, where there's a decent enough array of local fighters and international fighters.

Japan's fighters are the weight are historically terrible, there is next to no real interest in the country (Murata aside), as can be seen from the 3 involved here having almost no profile.

Yilixiati is China's number 1 middleweight
Kunimoto is Japans number 1 middleweight
Takesako is Japans number 2 middleweight

It's basically Japan and China's best middleweights going against some Euro level/mid level 'westerners'.

Dickinson should have got the decision in his fight. Thst was a home country decision.

If what your're saying is right about the promotion. Then hopefully it picks up in the semis amd finals. But it's not exactly being promoted good anywhere. No one even knew this was on anywhere, on some ramdom monday. Most hardcores boxing fans don't even know about it.

Japan/Asia have plenty of middleweights, more than enough. They just aren't good enough.

Kunimoto is Japan's #2 (lets be honest, and not just trust Boxrec's rankings) behind Takesako - who himself lost to a 37 year old Indian/Australian guy just 10 weeks ago, was a late replacement for the show when Anauel Ngamissengue. That's from 32 Middleweights in the country. The UK talent pool is over 100 Middleweights.

Yilixiati is #1 of 18, so be better than him, in all fairness isn't much of a claim. It's a division with a lack of regional talent, much like anything above 140

Image of the crowd
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSh8FUta4AA ... me=900x900

A conversation from the "director of the show"
https://www.asianboxing.info/uploads/7/ ... 419480.png

Apparently things won't pick up as the co-organiser with Matchroom (NSN - Never Say Never) have pissed off other promoters (some declined to use their license to promote the event due to the mess left in March) and broadcasters (include Abema who were going to air it in March, and Satellite channels turned it down likely also on the worries it was being cancelled at the last minute)

The event was held at a venue on a uni campus that had never held boxing before
with these ticket priced:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSodbW6XEAA ... me=900x900

This is the next boxing at the same venue
https://x.com/asianboxing/status/181329 ... 96/photo/4

This was the original March show's ticket prices when it was on a Kameda joint promoted card
https://x.com/asianboxing/status/181329 ... 96/photo/3

The layout of the venue (set up for around 3,000 rather than the full 4,800)
https://tsimg.azureedge.net/img/2024/07 ... R-seat.png (to put the prices into perspective of view)

The venue cost about $5K to rent for the day (likely why it was chosen) - but with those prices it's unclear who it was appealing to, and why there was seemingly (given the low turn out) - no attempt to give tickets away to students to paper the crowd (maybe Fukamachi would have thought that was too good for his - if you build it, they will come approach), though even that might have been impossible with the NFT nature of some of the tickets for the event. A series of calamities.

Agree with the random Monday thing, it was almost as if this was promoted for no one. DAZN worldwide except Asia on a random Monday, with no broadcast in the country it's staged in (don't know about China but I was told it wasn't aired in Korea), on a Japanese holiday, at a university complex (rather than a regular boxing venue) with insane ticketing prices, after destroying a relationship with a major national promoter (Kameda) and a national streaming service (Abema - who were on the original poster but not the new one). Even Rakuten, the ticketing partner, didn't pick up the show to stream to a domestic audience. Absolute shocking mess

Boxing Prospect wrote: ↑18 Jul 2024, 03:31 Kunimoto is Japan's #2 (lets be honest, and not just trust Boxrec's rankings) behind Takesako - who himself lost to a 37 year old Indian/Australian guy just 10 weeks ago, was a late replacement for the show when Anauel Ngamissengue. That's from 32 Middleweights in the country. The UK talent pool is over 100 Middleweights.

And Ireland have just 17 middleweights, half less than Japan! and Aaron Mckenna will probably win this tournament

Japan have more than enough middleweights. 32 is plenty. They just don't have hardly any good ones. I'm just not into excuses.

Tournament "effectively cancelled"
Matchroom suing Rakuten Ticket
Takashi Edagawa apologising to Kunimoto for getting him involved in the mess (though Kunimoto Vs Takesako still expected to go ahead likely on a Muto show)
Shinji Fukamachi apologising - and explaining that Matchroom are accusing Rakuten of breach of contract (no specifics given)

Edagawa stated
"I was worried about holding the tournament, but the president of Rakuten Ticket, the representative of Matchroom, and the representative of NSN (Never Say Never), which manages the event, attended the press conference announcing the tournament, and it was widely reported in the newspapers, so I trusted them and let him (Kunimoto) participate,"

Edgawa also "I'm really sorry about what happened to Kunimoto. I want you to guarantee Kunimoto's fight money for the semi-finals. I want an answer within a week. Athletes are risking their lives to prepare for the match and fight. I don't want boxing to be turned into an adult's toy,"

Get the feeling Muto won't be sending fighters to Riyadh season events
Matchroom can sue Rakuten but need to take responsibility as the "boxing" people behind the event (NSN is Andreas Iniesta's events business, Rakuten Tickets are a ticket seller who sold over-priced NFT tickets for an event that really wasn't catered or promoted to a Japanese market)

Complete cluster fornicate all round, but at least we now know it's dead and buried,

Well that's the end of that then....

Legal mahttps://lc.cx/lEhbaUtter delaying Matchroom’s Japanese Prizefighter tournament

A legal matter is the reason behind the delay of Matchroom Boxing’s Prizefighter tournament, according to Frank Smith, the company’s CEO.

Matchroom relaunched Prizefighter in Japan last year. The original concept brought success to the promotional outfit, with the first tournament taking place in 2008 and the last in 2015. Matchroom switched things up for the Japanese relaunch, increasing the prize money to $1 million and guaranteeing the winner a shot at a world championship.

Things looked like they were going smoothly, with the quarterfinals taking place in Osaka, Japan, on July 15. Kieron Conway, Aaron McKenna, Kazuto Takesako and Riku Kunimoto all came out victorious in their bouts and were due to face each other – but no announcement on a date has been made since. Conway also recently competed against Ryan Kelly in November, winning the Commonwealth title.

“We are currently going through a legal matter,” Smith told BS. “In regards to the situation, I can’t speak too much on it. It’s unfortunate; we don’t want to be in the position, but we’ll see how things play out.

“I’m always hopeful [that the tournament will continue], but I can’t speak too much on the matter. Hopefully we can see the other side of it. We invested to make the tournament happen. The Prizefighter tournament is something that’s important to us as a business, and hopefully we can see the final.

“I hope [we can see Prizefighter back in Britain] and around the world as well,” he continued. “It’s a format I believe we can keep and keep building the brand. It’s something we want to get back up and running.”

He didn't mention one semi took place without them?