The conversation as to who the best Bantamweight on the planet is is a conversation that has two answers. One may say the technically excellent and defensively amazing Anselmo Moreno of Panama, the other answer however is the hard hitting Japanese fighter Shinsuke Yamanaka (18-0-2, 13) who has been thoroughly impressive over the past few years.
Yamanaka jumped into the boxing consciousness back in 2011. First by defeating domestic rival Ryosuke Iwasa in a thrilling contest, then stopping Christian Esquivel in a hard fought contest for the WBC world title.
The following year Yamanaka added notable victories over Vic Darchninyan and a KO of the year contender over Tomas Rojas. Both of those men were former world champions and victories over both men helped to inflate the reputation of Yamanaka as a genuine top tier champion.
Earlier this year Yamanaka added his 3rd world title defense stopping former Flyweight champion Malcolm Tunacao in a hard fought bout that saw Tunacao being dropped several times.
In the ring Yamanaka combines a southpaw stance with solid boxing fundamentals. He can box off the jab if he so desires or he can wage war. He can use his jab to create space and control the tempo of the bout, or he can use his power, especially from his left hand, to render an opponent unconscious.
There are very few flaws that Yamanaka has. He's not unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination but he'll always be difficult to beat because of everything he has, the power, the skills, the toughness, the fact he has several game plans and the fact that when the going gets tough he refuses to quit, as seen against Tunacao.
Yamanaka's challenger this time around is Puerto Rican Jose Nieves (22-2-3, 11), a man who is highly ranked by the WBC and WBO, despite the fact many won't really have seen too much of him.
Nieves is a 32 year old who has been a pro for more than 12 years. He started his career excellently with an 18 fight unbeaten run, 16-0-2, including victories over Angel Antonio Priolo and Tomas Rojas. Since then however Nieves has suffered defeats to Victor Fonseca and Chris Avalos, arguably his 2 most notable bouts.
Whilst Nieves has ran up a string of 5 victories, including 2 over Cuauhtemoc Vargas, he's not looked like a world champion in the making. In fact if anything he's looked fortunate and limited. He was very lucky to beat Vargas, both times and was dropped by Danny Flores in his most recent contest.
The knockdown by Nieves is really the biggest issue with him. It's not the first time he's been stopped and it won't be the last. So far he has been down in the bouts with Rojas, Fonseca, Avalos and Flores. None of those are feather-fisted but none hit like Yamanaka. If they can drop Nieves then Yamanaka can, and will.
For the first time in his career Nieves is fighting in the East and and for the first time he's facing a genuinely top fighter who can really bang. Those facts don't bode well for a man with a suspect chin and it's very hard to imagine Nieves seeing out more than 8 rounds with Yamanaka, in fact it's hard to see Nieves standing up to more than just a handful of straights from the Japanese fighter.
Prediction-Yamanaka TKO6
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