Talented Japanese Bantamweight Shinsuke Yamanaka (16-0-2, 11) will make the second defense of his WBC Bantamweight title in just a few days as he faces Mexican veteran Tomas Rojas (39-13-1-1, 26) in what promises to be a genuinely difficult bout.
Yamanaka turned professional in 2006 and has swiftly risen up the rankings despite not being the most active of fighters. Rather than fighting numerous time wasting bouts, Yamanaka has been pushed and forces to either climb the rankings quickly or find another career, thankfully he's climbed and climbed well.
The Japanese warrior claimed his first professional title in 2010 when he claimed the Japanese Bantamweight title via a 7th round TKO over Mikio Yasuda and after defending that belt once (stopping the highly touted Ryosuke Iwasa in 10 rounds) he moved swiftly on to the world scene. In his first world title bout Yamanaka defeated the highly regarded Mexican Christian Esquivel in a thrilling battle for the WBC title.
Since becoming the WBC Bantamweight champion Yamanaka has defended his title once, defeating the always fun to watch Vic Darchinyan. Despite not looking great early on against Darchinyan, Yamanaka eventually found his rhythm and started to out box the much less refined Darchinyan and seemed to think that he could go out and stop Vic in the final round if it was needed. Whilst it's fair to say that Vic isn't the fighter he was at 115lb he has since gone on to defeat the very highly regarded Luis Orlando Del Valle.
Despite not having a record of an out-and-out puncher Yamanaka had stopped 9 straight before the Darchinyan fight. Whilst he's certainly a thunderous 1-punch KO artist he's generally able to mix controlled aggression with hurtful shots eventually breaking opponents down bit by bit. In fact interestingly 5 of Yamanaka's stoppage wins have come in (or after) the 7th round. Whilst he certainly can take out lesser opponents early on (having taken out 6 opponents in the opening 3 rounds) against the high caliber opponents we expect him to just break opponents down.
As well as being a hard hitter Yamanaka is a very skilled boxer who can use his jab and straight to keep opponents at a comfortable range when he wants. Despite his ability to box however his most memorable bout so far was the 10 round war with Iwasa which suggests that Yamanaka is happy for a tear up when he has one, even though he was dropped by Esquivel.
Whilst the champion will be the favourite, the challenger, the freakishly tall Tomas Rojas is a very live under-dog and with good reason.
Despite having numerous losses on his record Rojas has one of the most misleading records in the sport. Sadly this is what happens when you regularly face top quality fighters. Rojas has suffered losses to a relative who's who of the boxing world including Rosendo Alvarez, Cristian Mijares, Gerry Penalosa, Luis Maldonado, Anselmo Moreno, Jorge Arce, Vic Darchinyan and Suriyan Sor Rungvisai.
Having been a professional since 1996, the 32 year old Rojas has really seen everything in the ring and should really be considered a bit of an old school fighter in that he's been willing to not only fight hard fights but use them as his development. He's never avoided a tough fight to keep his record pretty and likewise he's never been one to refuse to travel having fought around in Mexico, Nicaragua, USA, Philippines, Panama, Japan and Thailand. In fact going to Yamanaka's backyard may well be a good thing for Rojas who has never lost in Japan (having beaten both Kohei Kono and Nobuo Nashiro in the land of the rising sun).
Early in his career Rojas was too willing to give away his height for a fight and the 5'8" Banatamweight (who was once making Flyweight!) suffered a number of losses as a result of not boxing clever. He's not only tall, but rangy and more importantly a southpaw making life for all of his opponents a nightmare. When he finally started to use his freakish physical features however Rojas started to have real success and became the WBC Super Flyweight champion as a result, a title that he defended twice before losing to Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in Thailand.
Whilst Rojas is a bit of a physical anomaly his advantages won't be as telling here as Yamanaka is also a taller, rangier fighter and will be almost able to match Rojas for both height and reach (likewise Yamanaka is also a southpaw). Though an advantage that Rojas does have is experience and genuine toughness. In a career spanning 16 years the Mexican has only been stopped twice, most recently by Darchinyan in 2009 with the other coming in 2007 at the hands of Jorge Arce.
Whilst I imagine a hard fight here for both men, I also imagine it'll start as a technical fight with two talented, rangy southpaws cautious of each other. The bout however will warm up and by the middle rounds I can see both men trading a bit more freely with Yamanaka slowly but surely grinding down Rojas and probably even dropping him late on but maybe not quite forcing a stoppage.
Prediction: Yamanaka UD
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