Eric Morel can't enter Japan, Hozumi Hasegawa finds new opponent

by SC on Oct 26, 2009 7:52 PM EDT in News Comment 8 comments

In a change of plans, Hozumi Hasegawa will face Alvaro Perez on December 18. (Photo via news.bbc.co.uk)

As Eric Morel is unable to enter Japan due to his criminal record in the United States, Hozumi Hasegawa has found a new opponent for his December 18 bantamweight title defense in Kobe. Nicaraguan Alvaro Perez (18-1-1, 12 KO) will be the challenger for Hasegawa's WBC title.

I didn't think Morel had much of a chance with Hasegawa, and I know for sure that Perez doesn't. The 26-year old Perez has fought just once outside of his home country, and that came in 2005 in Panama. His loss came to William Gonzalez, who knocked him out in the fifth. You may remember Gonzalez from a tough 2008 fight with Joseph Agbeko.

Agbeko, by the way, recently commented on Hasegawa in a press release leading up to his October 31 fight with Yonnhy Perez on Showtime. Said Agbeko of Hasegawa, "After I beat Yonnhy, there's this coward in Japan named Hozumi I want to beat."

Hasegawa-Agbeko would almost certainly have to happen in Japan, but it'd be great if Hasegawa would take the leap and come to the States. His promoters might not allow for that, but one thing I'm hoping that Chris John's long overdue arrival in the U.S. this year will do is influence other fighters of that stature to make their way over. I'm not saying Hasegawa or anyone else needs to fight in the States to be considered good or even great fighters, but it helps.

Agbeko also better be focused entirely on Perez, who's a 100% legitimate challenger. Perez is one of those fighters with zero fear, plus he's got real power, and we know what Agbeko can do. That's a great looking fight for Saturday.

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Coward in Japan?

Funny, especially Hasegawa has a drastically better resume and is a better fighter. Would be a nice fight though.

by gunranger on Oct 26, 2009 8:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

*especially since

by gunranger on Oct 26, 2009 8:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agbeko likes to talk. It’s just Agbeko talkin’.

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by SC on Oct 26, 2009 8:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hopefully he acts as well

But it would be a damn tough fight to make. Agbeko’s IBF strap isn’t recognized as a belt in Japan, so it’s not like they could even sell it as a unification fight, even though it really would be one.

Not sure that Hasegawa’s resume is THAT much better than Agbeko’s. Sure, he’s beaten a bunch of guys who were in the back half of the top 10 at the time, but the only ‘name’ on his resume is Sahaprom. Agbeko’s got three wins that are all better than the next best name on Hasegawa’s resume, and depending on how you want to value his win over Darchinyan, might have the best win overall. Just right now, I think there’s a bigger gap between #8 and #9 on my P4P list than there is between #9 and #30.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Oct 26, 2009 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nonsense. The 2nd best win on Agbeko’s record is Perez and his best win at BW is Garcia, who Hozumi beat. His record is littered with poor records. Sahaprom didn’t lose for 9 years when Hasegawa beat him. Maligna, Valdez, (both Ring ranked at the time I believe) and Malodrattu is tough. I also don’t consider Vic better than Sahaprom

Please tell me Agbeko’s 3 wins that are better than the following?

by gunranger on Oct 26, 2009 11:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think the order of their top 6 wins combined would go like this:

Sahaprom 1
Darchinyan
Sahaprom 2 (By this time, he was 38 years old and had something taken out of him from the first fight)
Perez
Gonzalez
Malinga

Then the next 6 or so best wins would all belong to Hasegawa. But Sahaprom wasn’t necessarily as great as you make him out to be (sure, he was undefeated for 9 years, but in that stretch, the best name on his resume was Nishioka, who he was 2-0-2 against, and the only other decent name was Dianzo); even if he has an edge over Darchinyan, it’s a small one.

Perez might be the crappiest two-time titlist in the history of boxing, but he’s still a two-time titlist with a few good wins. If you’re going by Ring ratings, he was rated higher than anyone Hasegawa’s beaten other than Sahaprom.

Not to mention that Agbeko’s loss was a controversial one to a top fighter on his home turf.

I rate Hasegawa highly myself (he’s just outside my top 10), but he doesn’t have many marquee wins, just a long string of victories over solid but not great fighters. Still, in my mind, there’s less of a difference in the resume of Agbeko (who I’d probably rate in the 30 range, if I went that far) and Hasegawa than there is in the resume of Dawson (who I rank at 8) and Hasegawa.

And yeah, Dawson’s probably a bad choice to show my point, because I know a lot of people think I overrate him.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Oct 27, 2009 2:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m not going to join in the resume argument, but I’ve got to chime in and just say in terms of elite level talent, I place Hozumi in league with ANYONE not named Pacquiao or Mayweather. I wouldn’t expect Agbeko to be even competitive with him.

by jcarr71 on Oct 27, 2009 8:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would. Agbeko is like Clottey, he’s not going to get truly smoked by anyone except maybe, like, a Floyd Mayweather type. (Jesus, Mayweather-Clottey would be a horrible fight…)

Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes

by SC on Oct 27, 2009 11:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs