Akui to defend Japanese title against Kogawa in February!
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Earlier today news broke from Japan that Japanese Flyweight champion Seigo Yuri Akui (16-2-1, 11) [阿久井政悟] would be returning on February 27th to make his third defense of the Japanese title, as he takes on popular veteran Takuya Kogawa (32-6-1, 14) [粉川拓也].
The bout will take place at the Suntopia, in Soja, Okayama, a venue that Akui will see as his boxing home, having fought 5 times in the venue. Notably however this will be his first defense in the venue, and his first bout there since blasting Yoshiki Minato back in 2019. The hard hitting champion won the title just 6 months later, and since then has notched defenses against Seiya Fujikita and Taku Kuwahara, whilst moving towards a potential world title fight.
As for Kogawa, the 36 year old is a proper veteran of the sport, and someone who has been around at the top level numerous times, but someone who is looking like father time, and a hard career, is catching up with him. In his prime he was a definite top 10 in the Flyweight division, but that prime was around a decade ago. Now a days he looks like a man who is only a single clean shot away from being taken out, as we saw in 2019 when he faced Jayr Raquinel. At his best he would have been a handful for Akui, but the Kogawa of the last few years hasn't looked the same, and in fact he's been on a bit of a downfall since suffering a 2016, which was a huge year for him, but one that certainly seemed to take it's toll.
A win for Akui is expected to move him to within touching distance of a world title fight, and potentially end Kogawa's career. As for Kogawa, a win would be massive at this point of his career and potentially give him one last run on top of the domestic scene.
The bout will take place at the Suntopia, in Soja, Okayama, a venue that Akui will see as his boxing home, having fought 5 times in the venue. Notably however this will be his first defense in the venue, and his first bout there since blasting Yoshiki Minato back in 2019. The hard hitting champion won the title just 6 months later, and since then has notched defenses against Seiya Fujikita and Taku Kuwahara, whilst moving towards a potential world title fight.
As for Kogawa, the 36 year old is a proper veteran of the sport, and someone who has been around at the top level numerous times, but someone who is looking like father time, and a hard career, is catching up with him. In his prime he was a definite top 10 in the Flyweight division, but that prime was around a decade ago. Now a days he looks like a man who is only a single clean shot away from being taken out, as we saw in 2019 when he faced Jayr Raquinel. At his best he would have been a handful for Akui, but the Kogawa of the last few years hasn't looked the same, and in fact he's been on a bit of a downfall since suffering a 2016, which was a huge year for him, but one that certainly seemed to take it's toll.
A win for Akui is expected to move him to within touching distance of a world title fight, and potentially end Kogawa's career. As for Kogawa, a win would be massive at this point of his career and potentially give him one last run on top of the domestic scene.