The Shigeoka brothers, Ginjiro Shigeoka and Yudai Shigeoka, both headlined a Teiken Promotions card at the International Conference Hall in Nagoya, Aichi [Japan], but were faced with contrasting results as they defended their IBF and WBC titles, respectively, on the same night. The event was held on March 31st.
Younger sibling of the two brothers, 24-year old Japanese champion Ginjiro Shigeoka (11-0, 9 KO’s), stormed to a second-round knockout (KO) win over Filipino opponent Jake Amparo (14-6-1, 3 KO’s) as he defended his IBF minimumweight title for the second time of his career.
The knockout win is the latest in a trend of dominating victories that Ginjiro Shigeoka has overcome, making him squarely one of the most dangerous fighters in the division and again helping Shigeoka build his name and record as he completed a confident win over Amparo by after a well-timed left hand to the body [from the southpaw stance] dropped Amparo and left him unable to continue onward.
Though Ginjiro Shigeoka’s future plans are unknown, three other world champions remain in the division that he could face; but one he might be keen on facing is IBF minimumweight champion Melvin Jerusalem (22-3, 12 KO’s) who overcame Yudai Shigeoka (8-1, 5 KO’s) on the same night.
The title bout between former WBC champion Yudai Shigeoka and Melvin Jerusalem was held over the standard twelve rounds and went the full distance, but it was Jerusalem who was announced the winner by split-decision after a tough and close contest that appeared to have been decided by the two knockdowns that Shigeoka suffered.
Overall, the two seemed evenly-matched, but Yudai Shigeoka suffered a knockdown in the third and sixth round to change the course of the match entirely, and allow Jerusalem to battle towards victory in a hard-won but deserved split-decision victory that saw him be crowned the new WBC minimumweight champion.
A rematch might not be on the cards between Yudai Shigeoka and Melvin Jerusalem, as the latter recently expressed interest in fighting IBF champion and Yudai’s younger brother, Ginjiro Shigeoka instead.
“If I’m given the chance, I want a unification fight right away,” Melvin Jerusalem told Philipine-based media outlet Inquirer on Tuesday, April 2nd. “It’s every boxer’s dream to unify all the belts.“
While there are currently three other champions in the division, a rematch with Oscar Collazo―who defeated Jerusalem to become the WBO minimumweight champion last year―will be of high interest to Jerusalem, as well as a match against Ginjiro Shigeoka.
Either way, Yudai Shigeoka will be recuperating from his recent loss while younger brother Ginjiro Shigeoka remains a world champion. Ginjiro Shigeoka might even revenge his older sibling’s loss to Melvin Jerusalem now that the Filipino champion has openly expressed interest towards a unification fight.
The rest of the Teiken Promotions undercard notably saw Japanese featherweight contender Tomoki Kameda (41-4, 23 KO’s) glide to a technical knockout (TKO) win as he defeated Mexican opponent Kevin Villanueva (22-5-3, 15 KO’s).
