Friday, July 12, 2019

Boxing Challenge: Murata rolls over Brant

I've written before that some times you can feel that a prediction is wrong thirty seconds into a fight and I had that feeling with the Rob Brant-Ryota Murata rematch.

I had given Murata a better chance in the rematch than it seemed many did, but despite not being a true believer in Rob Brant against elite middleweights, he had swarmed Murata in the first fight with the sheer accumulation of punches thrown and Murata just seemed so slow.
I picked Brant, but I noted Murata was the bigger puncher and would have his moments in a better and closer fight in the rematch.

Those thirty seconds into the first round, I knew who was winning this fight.
Brant fired plenty of punches and looked like the same fighter as before, but it was Murata that looked different.
Murata looked like a hunter, moving aggressively forward and didn't look slow and lumbering, instead Murata moved like a cat in a first round that was extremely entertaining with both fighters landing often in exchanges.
The fight wouldn't see the end of another round as Murata landed a right hand that stunned Brant and he would never recover or avoid another right as Murata handed it again and again, although it was a left that sent Brant to the floor for the only knockdown.
Brant rose but was unable to clinch or make Murata miss with his right and eventually referee Luis Pabon had no choice other than to end the fight.

Murata notches the biggest win of his career and suddenly becomes a viable future opponent for one of the top middleweights with the addition of the minor belt involved, could be an interesting opponent for any of them- especially if Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin would be interested in traveling to Japan, where they might have a chance of selling the Tokyo Dome out for such an encounter.
Perhaps Murata had simply figured out what to do against Brant, but it will be very interesting to see if the Murata that won this fight can be maintained and if so, how he matches up with the top of the division.
As for Brant, this is the type of fight that may have set his true level as a top 15/Gatekeeper type that will make interesting fights with his high punch output, but with a lack of power and now with questions about his chin, Brant's next fight or two could see him re-establish himself as a contender or become the first name victim on a promising young fighter's record.

The co-feature saw another title defense for WBC light flyweight champion Ken Shiro as Shiro dominated Jonathan Taconing for three rounds before a right-left combination knocked down Taconing in the fourth round and with leg-weary Taconing unable to steady himself upon rising saw the fight stopped.
For Shiro, it was his sixth title defense and the undefeated champion has two lucrative options against fellow Japanese fighters as he could attempt to unify his title against the also undefeated WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi, who holds the Ring Magazine title as well in what would match the top two fighters at light flyweight or Shiro could move to flyweight and challenge talent Kosei Tanaka for Tanaka's WBO title.
Both would be interesting fights and either would be highly anticipated fights in Japan.

In the boxing challenge, I added two points for Shiro's KO win with Ramon Malpica adding one for Shiro's win.
I moved my lead to 165-148.
I may briefly update this post later with the Saudi Arabian fights that are not being televised in the United States.

Editors Note; Amir Khan stopped Billy Dib in four, while Hughie Fury stopped Samuel Peter in seven.
I added four and Ramon picked up two to move the challenge to 169-150



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