Jiro Watanabe

I think he deserved his own thread independent of the underrated one.

Of the all time great super flyweights. A brilliant southpaw technician with power.

 

Bad little muthafucker. Brilliant skills and quite possibly the best 115 pounder ever. I think Roman always beats him, though.

Unbelievable skills for a southpaw pressure fighter though.

 

I think of Khaosai as the head-to-head GOAT at 115, but Watanabe is definitely up there.

 

TBH, I'd probably pick three guys to beat Khaosai. Maybe four or five on a good day. It depends on how I'm feeling about Donaire and Inoue.

Haven't actually seen as much as I'd like from Galaxy though. Seen about as much Khaokar as there is worth watching, but Khaosai is a bit of blindspot to me compared to some others. Which may explain why I rate him lower. I just can't get up to watch him due to his dire level of competition.

 

Ah, an opportunity for me to post the rare Watanabe - Tatsuyoshi sparring session and someone will actually care!

 

Khaosai is a weird one IMO. I used to think pretty lowly of him, but he just had a way, with his massive power and will, of getting the result he wanted. He also had an underrated fight sense and rhythm. His level of opposition makes judjing him in mythic match ups awkward, since you know he is a H2H beast, but not by how much. I would personally pick him to KO Gilberto Roman (if he starts faster like Payakaroon did). Moon is a 50/50 war IMO, and I would pick Watanabe to beat him.

 

I would add to that Khaosai had underrated defense.

For such an aggressive and unorthodox guy, he didn't get cleanly all that reguarly.

What you say is the number one best Watanabe performance? Ballas?

 

Despite being a lazy mofo, I've always thought Watanabe was consistently impressive, even if he didn't live up to his best all the time. Ballas was impressive, but Poontarat is a very underrated win x2, though maybe not the most dominant and aesthetic compared to the others. I also thought his footwork specifically in the Kim fight was brilliant to watch.

 

Best Khaosai performances to check out, aside from Kim and Contreras?

Sorry to derail, X.

 

I think Khaosai's best performance was his destruction of Rafael Orono.

 

There is also a clip of him against Payakaroon.

 

Marcellus Johnson would shut out Galaxy

 

I think Galaxy would blast Too Sharp.

Johnson liked to trade too much, and he's not winning a slugfest with Galaxy.

 

88Chris05 is coming over from Eastside. He's always been excellent.

 

This is the highest quality version of the 1st Poon fight that I know of. 60fps. Check this guys channel for all types of goodies. He has lots of Asian boxing.

 

I'll definitely subscribe to his page!

 

Watanabe when he was on point was brilliant at times, especially his offensive skills. Fun fighter, if not frustrating to watch at times. Really like watching his fights with Ballas.
Would have been interesting to see how he would have done against someone like Mark Too Sharp Johnson.

 

Too Sharp vs Watanabe would have been extremely fun!

 

Here is an article on Jiro (which you will need translate to read, so is a little choppy) delving into his personal life and associations. 渡辺二郎の現在は山口組のヤクザだけど度々表舞台に登場している。清原をビビらし、紳助を助けた男。

Also, any of you ever heard of the Watanabe urban internet myth? OfficeHancho made a video on it a few years back.