Check out Potshot Boxing’s Fight of the Month for July 2013!! It was a great fight!!
Omar Figueroa vs. Nihito Arakawa
From shades of Corrales/Castillo to Gatti/Ward, this fight was just another reminder of how the sport of boxing will never die because boxing fans, whether novice or hardcore, are always in search of what the boxing world witness on July 27, 2013, a straight up knockdown drag out fight.
Omar Figueroa vs. Nihito Arakawa was a non-stop war from start to finish. Though a lop-sided war, Arakawa won a lot of fans in the process after his heroic showing a couple of Saturdays ago.
Going into the fight, Omar Figueroa was definitely the odds-on favorite as the undefeated lightweight looked to continue his rise to the top of the lightweight division and gain a vacant interim WBC lightweight world title in the process, while I, Myself, personally did not really know too much about the Japanese lightweight contender Nihito Arakawa.
This fight was one part of the Knockout Kings II series that was put together by Golden Boy Promotions and the fight card aired on the Showtime Network.
There was a lot on the line for these two fighters because not only was the vacant interim WBC lightweight title at stake, but Golden Boy Promotions was throwing in an extra incentive to only one of the fighters on the fight card that night who they felt deserved it based on which fighter scored the best knockout of the night…. a ten-thousand-dollar incentive to be exact.
So given this little nugget going into the fight, Figueroa and all of the fighters on this Knockout Kings II card was eager to get the added gravy that was put into the pot, and again not knowing too much about Nihito Arakawa, Figueroa should be a shoe-in to win that extra gravy right?
Let’s see. In the first round of the Figueroa/Arakawa fight, both fighters came out swinging for the fences and both of these fighters forgot to pack their defense with them the whole night and I will tell you why. Though Figueroa was clearly winning this fight because of his good counter-punching on a straight-forward offensive type of fighter like Arakawa, he left himself open to a number of shots that he did not necessarily have to take against Arakawa.
Arakawa could have easily tried to look for a way out of the fight after being knocked down twice, once in the second round and once in the sixth round, but he did not, and Arakawa stood his ground enough to even bloody Figueroa.
This fight between Figueroa and Arakawa was your typical phone booth fight, again, shades of Corrales/Castillo and Gatti/Ward. Just like both of the fights I just mentioned, there were times in the Figueroa/Arakawa fight were you cringed at the sheer punishment that both of these guys were taken because believe me, these guys were throwin’ some leather, in fact, Figueroa was lying so much leather on Arakawa that Figueroa’s hands began to hurt later in the fight.
Arakawa got his share of fireworks in on Figueroa as well, but Figueroa was landing the harder, crisper shots that the judges could clearly see. In saying this, though, Arakawa made this a tough fight for Figueroa as he took advantage of Figueroa’s suspect defense and landed some hard shots of his own which actually kept Arakawa alive in the fight.
I still wonder how in the world Arakawa was standing after so much punishment, though. He took a real beating and took it like a Man. I have to give Arakawa credit for showing the heart of a champion and never giving up when he clearly could have said “aw….forget it.”
In the end, Arakawa lost the fight by a landslide unanimous decision to Figueroa, but his courageous efforts in the ring did cost Figueroa the extra ten thousand dollars because Figueroa did not knock him out so………a small victory for Arakawa.
Conclusion
To chalk this all-time gritty fight up, it was a great one-sided fight. Figueroa captured his first form of a championship, and Arakawa won a lot of boxing fans because of his courage.
The American Omar Figueroa is definitely on the rise in the sport of boxing, but his style of boxing concerns me. Even though he won handily, Arakawa was able to land some great shots on him. In the future I hope his trainer Joel Diaz put in a little overtime on Figueroa’s defense, otherwise, I do not predict that Figueroa will be undefeated for long.
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