Naoko Fujioka vs. Naoko Yamaguchi

This week is a little slow, so I'd like to take the opportunity to go back and talk about a fantastic, if obscure, fight: The 2014 super flyweight bout between Naoko Fujioka and Naoko Yamaguchi for the WBA women's world title in that division.

Sadly, I find that a lot of boxing fans aren't familiar with this fight, or even Naoko Fujioka, for the twin reasons of divisional (super flyweight?!) and gender (women's boxing?!) prejudices. This is sort of sad not for an abstract liberal reason, but because you guys are missing some fantastic fights! So, let's make an introduction!

Naoko Fujioka:
Currently 13-1-0 due to a controversial decision loss to the aggressive Susi "Killer Queen" Kentikan, Naoko Fujioka is among the best active female boxers (BoxRec ranks her 7th pound for pound), having held titles in the minimumweight, flyweight, and super flyweight divisions. She's moving up in weight a third time to fight for the WBO bantamweight title next month against Hee Jung Yuh, which is bound to be a really good bout. When Fujioka fought against Yamaguchi (then 22-3-3), she had held the world female minimumweight title for two years, and then vacated it in order to move up to flyweight, citing a lack of competition. There really was one. At the time, she had had only eleven fights and was holding a world title! As a minimumweight, she was known as a versatile, exceptionally hard puncher: fully 55% of her fights in that division ended by knockout (technical or otherwise) or retirement, which is a patently ridiculous number for lower women's weight classes. To compare, Kentikan is also considered a bit of a knockout artist, and she's only knocked out 46% of her competitors.

However, this advantage would not be in play against Yamaguchi. Having spent her entire career at super flyweight, Yamaguchi was incredibly strong (formerly a javelin thrower) and was similarly known as a knockout artist, brutally downing Chuthaporn Pradissan in the first round with a succession of body shots, and handing Kandy Sandoval (now a reasonably successful bantamweight contender) similar treatment, culminating in a TKO.

So, how'd it go?
It was a fantastic boxing clinic, and it made Fujioka's career. Fujioka opened up by displaying her ability to slip and throw simultaneously: Yamaguchi's sloppier lefts were met by fantastic cross-counters over the top, as Fujioka threw straight punches to the body while her head was off-center with seeming impunity. Through rounds two and three, she grew more aggressive, coming in low to the inside of Yamaguchi's jab, squaring up long enough to throw two or three punches, and then moving off to the side to prevent retaliation and scored a knockdown. Round eight, though, is where Fujioka actually showed her true skill. After being knocked down, Yamaguchi seemed to figure it out. Rather than trying to rain straight punches down on a bent-over Fujioka, she began to bait out Fujioka's inside slip, and then throw a succession of uppercuts while on the retreat. Fujioka started losing rounds. Then, she adapted in turn, backing off and countering the baited jabs with straight punches. When an exasperated Yamaguchi would move in close, Fujioka would just brawl, using her seemingly inexhaustible stamina to throw thirty-second-long flurries which only grew more violent whenever Yamaguchi would try to back off. It's said by some people that a fair amount of ring generalship is the management of fear. One is said to 'establish' a punch, so that one's opponent is weary of getting hit with it, and then the fear of that punch is used to generate opportunities for more punches, to get yourself space to move, and to cut the ring off on the opponent. (cf: Gennady Golovkin's murderous jab) Fujioka just didn't seem to have any fear of Yamaguchi. She'd get hit, but seemed completely confident that it wouldn't knock her down, winning by UD.

Also, I just have no option other than to respect a fighter that, having won a majority of the preceding rounds, goes toe-to-toe for the last one!