Ishii vacates Japanese Youth title
Earlier this month the talented Toshiya Ishii (4-1, 3) [石井渡士也] scored a 5th round TKO win against Jin Minamide (4-2, 3) [南出仁], in what was a fantastic performance from the youngster. Going into that bout Ishii was the Japanese Youth Bantamweight champion, though wasn't defending his title in that bout.
Earlier this week Ishii announced that that would be his final bout as the Japanese Youth champion, vacating the title.
Ishii has revealed that his future plans are to permanently fight at Super Bantamweight, the weight that he beat Minamide in, and it seems likely that his focus will be on getting a Japanese title fight at the new weight. That seems something that could happen sooner rather than later, given he was ranked by the JBC before the Minamide bout, and Minamide was himself highly ranked by the JBC.
Although not a major name outside of Japan Ishii, aged 20, is widely regarded as one of the best prospects in the country by fans who follow Japanese boxing. He's a short fighter at Super Bantamweight but a very talented and explosive one and it'll be great to see how he comes with taking on some of the top Japanese fighters at 122lbs going forward.
Earlier this week Ishii announced that that would be his final bout as the Japanese Youth champion, vacating the title.
Ishii has revealed that his future plans are to permanently fight at Super Bantamweight, the weight that he beat Minamide in, and it seems likely that his focus will be on getting a Japanese title fight at the new weight. That seems something that could happen sooner rather than later, given he was ranked by the JBC before the Minamide bout, and Minamide was himself highly ranked by the JBC.
Although not a major name outside of Japan Ishii, aged 20, is widely regarded as one of the best prospects in the country by fans who follow Japanese boxing. He's a short fighter at Super Bantamweight but a very talented and explosive one and it'll be great to see how he comes with taking on some of the top Japanese fighters at 122lbs going forward.